The only people present inside the Pokemon Intelligence Division this time were Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, Taeho Kushiki, and Anita Ryota. By process of elimination, Okami already guessed who his teammates were.
"Why am I not surprise..." Okami muttered to himself as he followed behind Kakashi.
When everyone saw them entering the office, all of them waved their hands to greet them.
Okami sized up Anita. She was quite mature to look at despite being a ten-year-old. With a bamboo-like body, flat chest, glasses on her eyes and black hair bunned in a ponytail, she looked like the class president of his class when he was still on his junior years.
He noticed that Taeho was also wearing his glasses today. If he had one as well, their team could be called Team Glasses.
"Eh?! You're our third teammate, Okami-kun?!" Taeho exclaimed as if he was facing a very unbelievable truth. "That's great! Now that we're always together, I can easily ask you everything I want to know regarding pokemon. Hah! The truth is - "
Shikaku coughed lightly. "Taeho..."
"Oh! Yeah, right!" Taeho calmed down and bowed his head before Kakashi. "Hello, Kakashi-san. Good morning."
"Oh, so it's Bro Okami!" Anita cheered when she realized who her new teammate was. "I can't believe it!"
Inoichi grinned. "I guess there's no need for an introduction, huh? As you can see, the three of you belong to a team. Are you excited to know who's your Jonin-sensei?"
Taeho and Anita shook their head at the same time.
Okami chortled when he saw how they reacted. He did not want the men to be embarrassed and raised his right hand. "I am excited."
Inoichi gave him a thankful look. "Anyway, he is also one of the longest members of the Pokemon Intelligence Division. A Tokubetsu Jonin who specializes in espionage and research, Deira Nochi."
"Oh, it's Deira-san?!" Taeho almost wanted to jump in joy when he heard about his new Sensei. "A pokemaniac like me deserves a Jonin who is a pokemaniac as well!"
"I agree!" Anita exclaimed as she clapped her hands. "I could never ask for anyone better than him as our Jonin-sensei. Of course, except you, Inoichi-Sensei."
"What's a pokemaniac?" Kakashi asked when he heard this new term.
"As the name suggests, pokemaniacs are those who love pokemon to the extreme. Like I do!" Taeho explained passionately. "It's the new word we made up to call those pokemon lovers out there."
"And I am proud to be a pokemaniac," Anita added.
Before the situation could escalate, the door behind them opened and a blue-haired, middle-aged man entered the room. He was only wearing black pants, glasses on his eyes and nothing else. More on the lean side, Okami would suspect him to be a swimmer if he was back on Earth. Even then, his looks seemed ordinary with no special features to look at.
"Oh, you're done with the experiment, Deira?" Shikaku gave him the shirt that was lying on his table. "Don't forget to wear this again. And stop leaving your clothes here."
Deira smiled and sized up the three kids. "So these are my cute Genins."
Shikaku massaged his head. "This is too troublesome. Anyway, I still have to do something else. Please take care of them, Deira-san."
"We will leave them in your capable hands," Inoichi added.
Both Shikaku and Inoichi talked to their respective students and left several minutes later.
Deira's eyes were fixated on Okami like how a Pidgey eyes his worm.
Okami waved his hand. "Hello, Deira-sensei."
"So this is the famous Okami Okaya." Deira approached him and patted his shoulders. "Thank you for introducing pokemon to us. They're such a treasure. And you should wear glasses to complement us all."
"I don't need to repair something that is not broken, Deira-sensei."
"Then I'll create one just for you."
Okami was scared that his joke would come true and their team would be known as Team Glasses. "Uh...hey, I can show you new pokemon species, Deira-sensei. If you want, we can visit them later at the Pokemon Safari."
Deira's expression changed. "What's a Pokemon Safari?"
Okami was successful in changing the flow of their conversation and hurriedly explained to him the beauty of the Pokemon Safari and the services it offered. "We can visit it right now if you want to."
Deira was about to agree when he noticed Kakashi glaring at him. He coughed lightly, "We'll save that for later after we are done with our first meeting as a team. Even though you already know each other, it is still imperative that we introduce ourselves for formality sake. To make it more lively, let's include what you want to be in the future, your pokemon starter, the pokemon that you have caught so far, the pokemon that you want to have, and the favorite Pokemon Jutsu that you want to use."
Aside from the first part of including what they wanted to be in the future, the rest of them were all related to pokemon stuff. Okami underestimated his love for pokemon and he knew that if he learned about his current pokemon lists, he would go gaga.
Deira looked at Taeho. "You first. Don't forget to tell your complete name."
Taeho nodded. "Ooh! Where should I start?! Heh! I'm Taeho Kushiki of the Kushiki clan who are known experts in Bukijutsu. I'm proud to say that I'm the odd one because I love sealing stuff and I have the greatest knowledge in Fuinjutsu within our age bracket." He then proceeded to summon his pokemon, carried him, and continued, "my starter is the lovable Cuter, once a Caterpie, now a Metapod. I have caught none so far because Shikaku-sensei told me to not be in a hurry. As for the pokemon that I want to catch, no contest, it's an Abra! I'll show Shikaku-Sensei that I can catch one before him. The Pokemon Jutsu that I love to use is String Shot. Saves a lot of time every time I want to grab something far away from me."
Deira clapped his hands. "But you've forgotten to tell what you want to be in the future."
Taeho unsummoned his Metapod and took off his glasses. "I want to be the first ninja to fuse Fuinjutsu with Pokemon Jutsu! And maybe Bukijutsu with Pokemon Jutsu to appease my father."
"A good dream. Very well spoken, Taeho-kun." Deira complimented him. He then shifted his attention to Anita. "It's your turn this time, Anita-chan."
Anita smiled. "I'm Anita Ryota, the daughter of Baki Ryota, the only Pokemon Center Receptionist in the whole continent according to Bro Okami. Even though I come from a civilian family, all I wanted is to prove to everyone that anyone can get stronger as long as one wants to. My pokemon starter is Zubee, a cute Zubat just like Inoichi-sensei's starter. My wish is to evolve it to a godly Zubat and defeat all the enemies that try to harm the people I cared for. I want to catch a Charmander because I am intrigued about the tail. I want to see people getting confused, so I love using Supersonic and Confuse Ray to annoy my enemies. As for the future, I want to travel the continent to search for the rarest pokemon."
"Good stuff! Well done, Anita-chan." Deira tilted his head slightly and said, "It's your turn this time, Okami-kun."
Okami sighed. "Anyway, I'm Okami Okaya of the Ketchum clan. Because of my unique Kekkei Genkai, I have no starter pokemon. Every pokemon I own do not affect me the way it affects an ordinary Pokemon Trainer. I don't need to catch ordinary and rare pokemon because I have direct access of them through the means of our clan's secrets. I'm very lazy so I love to use Teleport skill. Saves time and effort, no hassle. As for the pokemon I want to catch, they are the three legendary birds. If possible, I also want to have the legendary Mewtwo and the mythical Mew."
"Okami said a lot of new things that I want to investigate but we should proceed to the next step." Deira turned around and faced Kakashi. "Are you ready, Kakashi-san?"
Kakashi gave a thumbs-up. "Ready when you are."
"Let's go inside," Deira said as he ushered them inside the room where he was earlier.
It was a spacious and empty circular room with concrete floorings and walls.
Deira felt good when he saw their curious gazes. "This is the Training Room where we test the integration of Pokemon Jutsu and Elemental Release as well as Non-elemental Techniques. "
Deira stomped his foot on the floor with all his strength but the floor was not dented nor cracked. "Solid floors!"
He then flickered several meters away from them, doing several hand seals and targeted the right wall as he shouted, "Katon: Karyu Endan!"
The flames on his mouth transformed into the shape of a dragon, zooming forward as it hit multiple corners of the walls. The heat inside the room went several degrees higher as clouds of black smoke resulted from the collision.
Okami absorbed Vulpix to become immune against the heat and flame through Flash Fire. He looked at his side and realized that Taeho and Anita were coping well with the situation.
When the smoke dissipated, Deira walked towards them as if nothing happened. "See! The place is strong enough to handle even my strongest Fire Release."
Kakashi gave a knowing smile. "So you've learned something from your great uncle..."
Deira ignored Kakashi and approached the three Genins. "Do not be afraid when you have to execute a Pokemon Jutsu inside this room. Show me what you can do. That is the next part of our meeting, a little test as you may call it."
Anita raised her hand. When Deira acknowledged her, she asked, "Are we going to take this 'little' test as a team?"
"Correct."
Taeho was the one who lifted his hand this time. "What's Kakashi-sensei doing here? Will he be involved in this 'little' test of yours?"
Deira cackled. "Good question. To answer your question, yes, he will be greatly involved in this. What I want to test is your ability to fight against a ninja using your guts, skill, and most of all, teamwork. Luckily, someone volunteered to be your sparring partner since he knew that all of you are geniuses in your own rights."
Taeho was wide-eyed. "You expect us to fight against a Jonin?!"
Deira's countenance became serious at once. "Deira Lesson number one - you should always remember that you can't choose who your enemy is going to be in the future. May it be the greatest assassin or a Kage-level powerhouse, once you faced your enemy, what matters is survival. For this training, I'll give you ample time to know each other and become familiar with how your teammate attacks. Fifteen minutes start now."
Okami turned around and snapped his fingers. "First things, first. We need to know who's the leader in this mission. It's hard when we do our own thing without proper collaboration."
Anita nodded. "I'm just new on this thing so I can't be the leader. Whoever wants to lead, I'll follow his words."
Taeho rubbed his chin. "The leader should be the one who's familiar with our target. I know nothing about him and I'm not good at giving commands because I'm too noisy and talkative and - "
"I get it, Taeho-kun. I will lead," Okami confirmed as he took out several pieces of paper, wrote something on them, and gave it to Taeho and Anita. "Read it and you will understand."
Both of them complied with his command and had perplexed looks after finding out what Okami wrote.
Taeho moved his face closer to Okami and whispered, "Is this true?"
"Yes."
"Then, he's pretty good. How can we fight against him, then?" Anita frowned and was about to ask something when she noticed that Okami was not freaking out. "You have a plan already?"
Okami nodded. "Here is the plan..."