Ch290. Teams 3: Ino-Shika-Cho

"Next we have the Ino-Shika-Cho trio." Shikaku stated with open fondness as he mentioned the team his kid would be joining, making even Yoshino break her professional demeanor and smile a bit. "If it was previously, I would have protested but now..." Shikaku trailed off.

He still remembered how lazy his own son was when he was a kid. Since Shikamaru was six, Shikaku could see that putting him, Ino, and Choji together would not improve them as a unit as it happened for him, Inoichi, and Choza. The personalities of their kids were simply far too... alike.

Shikamaru was lazy, resulting in the lack of motivation to even attempt to get better at the necessary things. Choji didn't want to hurt a fly, resulting in the very same thing as Shikamaru, and Ino...

Ino might have seemed to be an exuberant and active girl that loved to tackle problems head-on and could motivate both Choji and Shikamaru into doing their best but Shikaku met the girl almost every other week during the Ino-Shika-Cho clan gatherings.

The girl had no interest in being a kunoichi whatsoever. She simply wasn't raised to want to be a kunoichi. Inoichi spoiled her far too much. The girl also didn't have a reality check that is usually delivered to clan children. Shikamaru was putting down old and sick deers since he was six and Shikaku knew that Choza also had Choji kill pigs since that age to start teaching him about the importance of life and prepare him for the harsh realities of ninja life.

Ino didn't have that. But... Shikaku couldn't really fault him much. He also spoiled Ino quite a lot, not wanting to see these innocent blue eyes to peer at the cruel side of the world. Shikaku, however, knew that he couldn't shield the girl from it forever. Then again, she was not his daughter, therefore, not his problem.

It was exactly this upbringing that destroyed any synergy between Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji. Ino, who was supposed to be the glue and motivator of the team, simply lacked motivation herself, therefore was unable to properly motivate Shikamaru and Choji. When she tried to get them to do something, she mostly irritated them with her high-pitched voice and bossy attitude rather than using her Yamanaka subtle emotional bullying to manipulate them like the previous Yamanaka's in the Ino-Shika-Cho trio did.

This resulted in the three children kinda drifting apart during their younger years. Ino became Sasuke's fangirl, befriending other girls in the academy while Shikamaru hanged out mostly with Choji, separating themselves from their classmates.

When their kids were nine, Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza were already prepared to break the tradition and not make the Ino-Shika-Cho team out of them.

Fortunately, Tsunade's reforms in the academy straightened the kids out, much to the pleasure of their parents. Shikaku couldn't help but be immensely grateful for that. Raising a ninja was hard. Moreso for the parent rather than for the child. Children had a miraculous ability to adapt but no parent liked to see their child suffer the adaptation process. Or so, Shikaku would like to believe, despite knowing he was wrong.

Neither Choza, Inoichi, or him, had the necessary predisposition to push their children hard enough to make them excel. Shikaku didn't want to see Shikamaru crying tears of blood due to their special clan training for kids. Not when he knew how it felt since his own father put him through it.

At that time, Shikaku resented his father for quite a bit of time but when he grew up, he realized it was precisely that training that helped him to survive the Third Ninja War. But that was a different time. A time of unease and war. Now that peace was here, Shikaku was hesitant to make Shikamaru go through the same experience.

Choza was much the same. Shikaku could still remember how Choza was walking with his body constantly riddled with black and blue bruises, getting new ones every day. Shikaku doubted Choza wanted to make Choji go through that training. The Akimichi clan's early training was pure physical hell.

As for Inoichi... he was blessed and cursed at the same time. He had a girl. Shikaku couldn't even imagine how hard it was on Inoichi. How could he make his princess go through the necessary suffering?

All three of them were in a bind and in the end, they decided to not make their kids go through their own experiences.

But then, Tsunade reformed the academy, doing their job for them when it came to training the kids. Shikaku doubted that most of the kids even noticed that their exercises were getting more and more demanding as the learning curve was not all that steep. The fast pace of exercises made up for that and so, the graduating class was actually already at least genin-level according to the previous standards while the kids got the necessary habits for ninjas. Habits like the need for self-improvement.

Hence, Team Ino-Shika-Cho was a go.

Shikaku's lips suddenly turned into a frown, "I actually received a request from Asuma Sarutobi for the Ino-Shika-Cho team but I refused. That guy is lazy as heck and I am afraid the kids could relapse back into their old habits under his watch."

It was a shame too, in Shikaku's opinion. Asuma was one of the Elite Jonins of the village and was a very talented man. The problem was he simply didn't want to put in more effort than strictly necessary. Shikaku could already deduce what would have happened with his and his friends' kids under Asuma's tutelage. They would simply get lazy again, noticing Asuma's habit of taking things easy.

The problem with that was... Asuma already achieved the necessary strength threshold and only had to maintain his body fit. The kids, however, needed a lot of work to get to that point, and being lazy now could prevent them from reaching their potential later on.

Hearing about Asuma, Tsunade inwardly groaned. Asuma and Shizune married a year ago... not a happy occasion for Tsunade as she still didn't like the young Sarutobi. But... she relented and blessed their union as Shizune's mentor.

What else could she have done?

It was either grit her teeth and let her young apprentice do whatever foolish thing she wanted or distancing herself from Shizune even more than they already were. Tsunade simply chose to let Shizune make her own choices.

Surprisingly, Asuma was shaping up to be quite a good husband, much to Tsunade's ire.

She still didn't like him though...

At least her newest apprentice, Kurenai, was averted from the dark side and persuaded that Asuma was not as 'cool' as she always thought. But damn if that didn't take a lot of subtle manipulations.

"Who is getting this team?" Tsunade asked in an attempt to change the topic and distract herself from thinking about Asuma.

"Yugao Uzuki. I pulled her out of ANBU just for this." Shikaku answered with a tired sigh. It took him quite a lot of persuasion to make Yugao accept. That meant Ino-Shika-Cho will still get their genin test from their Jonin teacher but unknown to them, they would pass no matter what, and then... welcome to hell. "They might not focus on kenjutsu but I think a watered-down ANBU style training would do them good considering the Ino-Shika-Cho specialty."

"I see... Yugao must have been happy. Training the Hokage's son is quite an honor." Tsunade offhandedly remarked, doing it more to annoy Shikaku because she knew that the woman would vehemently protest being separated from her lover, Hayate.

Shikaku didn't deem that remark with a reply, knowing it was smarter to be quiet as he remembered the passive anger seeping out of Yugao as he gave her her new orders.

"You want me to train some spoiled lazy gits?" ... Was her cold reaction.

To be fair, Shikamaru was not... that spoiled. At least Shikaku would like to believe that but then he remembered how other clan kids were trained during their youth...

"Anyway, let's move on..."