Chapter 2: Team Placements?

'Maybe I should go to a training ground after I get home. I should have a few hours to practice before I need to head to bed,' Isshin thinks to himself as he walks home from Ichiraku's.

As he nears home, he sees a tall blond man with a ponytail wearing a long black overcoat over a jonin jacket coming out of another street.

"Hey Dad! How was your day?" Isshin asks as he runs up next to his father Inochi.

Inochi looks to his side and greets his son, "Hello Isshin, my day was alright. How was the academy?"

"Pretty boring if I'm being honest," Isshin says as he kicks a rock that's on the street.

"Well, at least tomorrow is the exam, right?" Inochi asks as he opens the door to their house.

"Yeah, I have a question about that," Isshin says as he walks in and sits down on a sofa in the living room.

"Hm, what is it?" Inochi asks while taking off his overcoat. After he hangs it on a coat rack next to the door, he walks over to the sofa and sits next to Isshin.

"So, if I somehow managed to fail, would you be disappointed in me?" Isshin asks as he looks down at the ground.

Inochi looks surprised at the question, then asks, "How would you manage to fail? You can do the Academy 3 perfectly fine."

Isshin glares at the ground while he starts clenching his fist and continues, "Well, no one seems to like Naruto. I've heard multiple parents telling their kids to stay away from him. Only a handful of people, including me, don't understand why." He stops to take a breath before continuing, "Sure, he does pranks, but that's no reason for everyone to glare and ignore him, let alone call him a lot of names. It's stupid. I don't want him to be all by himself, so I was thinking about throwing the exams."

Inochi looks over and smiles at Isshin, with pride showing in his eyes. He puts a hand on his shoulder and says, "How could I be disappointed in you for that? If anything, I would be proud. So, don't worry, son."

Isshin looks up at Inochi and smiles at him before hugging him and saying, "Thanks for talking with me about this." He hops up and starts walking to his room.

As he makes it to the stairs, he sees Ino. "Yo," he says as he gives a lazy wave.

Ino looks at Isshin with a puzzled look before asking, "Are you really going to fail for Naruto?"

Isshin looks at Ino and replies, "Of course, after all, he's my best friend." He states and walks up the stairs and enters his room. He grabs a katana in a white sheath and a red obi. He puts the obi on, then puts his katana through it. After that, he leaves his house to try and find a training ground that's not being used.

After looking around for 30 minutes, he finally found an empty and secluded training ground. Isshin looks around for a minute, observing the area. He sees three wooden posts, a stone monument of some kind, trees almost surrounding the area, and a river. 'Dang, I was hoping that I could find a training ground with training dummies. I wonder if anyone would be mad if I cut up the posts,' he ponders for a moment. 'Probably shouldn't start hacking at them,' Isshin shrugs. 'I guess I'll just practice my attacks then.'

He then takes his katana, unsheathes it, and starts chopping the air with it. After chopping for a few hours, he starts practicing his draw speed for a couple more.

Meanwhile, since he started training, there has been a man watching from the forest. 'Hm, he's pretty good for an academy student. He seems to have all the basics down. I wonder how good he is in a fight.'

Isshin stops training after a while. He then sheathes his katana and looks at the sky. "Ah, dang, I'm super late. Mom is going to kill me!" he shouts and starts crying anime tears. He then shrugs. 'Since I'm already late, might as well hang around for a bit. I've been wondering about that stone for a while. I'll go check it out,' he thinks to himself and makes his way over there to the stone. Then he starts reading it. 'Why are there so many names on it?' he ponders before walking over to the wooden posts and sitting down, propping his back on one, and pulling a black ocarina out of his pocket. He pulls down his bandages and starts playing it.

While Isshin was playing a song, he pocketed his ocarina and pulled his bandages up. He then gets up off the ground and starts walking away. As Isshin was walking away, the man in the forest started coughing. He stops in his tracks, then he unsheathes his katana, getting into a defensive stance. He closes his eyes, kneading chakra, trying to sense a chakra signature. "I know you're there. You can come out now," he states as he senses someone in the forest.

The man comes out of the forest with his hands up.

Isshin looks up at the man. He is wearing a bandana-style hitiate with a leaf plate on it. So he gets out of his stance and sheathes his katana. He then takes a closer look at the man. He has brown hair poking out from underneath his bandana, dark eyes with bags under them. He is wearing the standard Konoha shinobi outfit and a flak jacket with some kind of weapon tied to his back.

"Hello, shinobi-san," Isshin says.

"Hey kid, what is your name?" the shinobi asks as he walks over near Isshin with his hands in his pockets.

Isshin looked up at the shinobi and said, "Shouldn't I be asking that? After all, you have probably been watching for a bit." Isshin then frowns.

The shinobi then chuckles before he starts coughing again.

"Are you alright?" Isshin asks with a worried face while freaking out.

The shinobi then stops coughing and replies, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just an old illness."

"Ah, well, to answer your question, my name is Isshin Yamanaka. A pleasure to meet you," Isshin says as he bows dramatically.

The shinobi stares at Isshin and sweat drops. "Well, Isshin, I have a question for you."

"Another one?" Isshin asks while looking confused, then says, "Alright, I'll answer your question if you answer one of mine."

"Okay, so I was wondering why you train so hard. You aren't even a genin yet, so what pushes you?" the shinobi asks as he looks over at the stone.

Isshin ponders on the question for a moment. "Hm, I'd say the reason is because I don't want to see any of my friends, family, or comrades die in front of me. And if I give my all training, then at least if they do, then I won't be stuck wallowing in grief, thinking I could have done something to save them. After all, I gave it my all," he replies with a solemn look in his eyes.

The shinobi just stares at Isshin. He ponders for a moment before replying to Isshin, "That's a good mindset to have. I've seen a lot of shinobi fall into grief, not being able to get out of it." He thinks of a certain silver-haired Jonin before asking, "So what did you want to ask me?"

"What's that stone over there?" he asks. "I've been curious about it since I got here. All I know is that it has a bunch of names on it," Isshin says.

The shinobi walks over to the stone and kneels in front of it. Then he replies, "The names engraved on this stone are the heroes of the village."

"We have something like that in Konoha?" Isshin asks with a puzzled look.

"Yes, but they aren't just normal heroes. They are the ones who never came back to the village," the shinobi states with a sad look.

"What do you mean?" Isshin asks.

"What I mean is all the names on this stone were killed in action. They never made it back to the village to their loved ones again," the shinobi says. "You are training in hopes that no one you know gets their name engraved here. Would you be fine if you managed to accomplish that, even if you end up on this stone yourself?" He looks back at Isshin questioningly.

Isshin had some tears coming out of his eyes, but the shinobi could see a determined glint in his eyes. "Of course, but I won't end up on there!" he declares with determination. He then looks back up at the sky. "Uh, I got to get going, shinobi-san. See ya around!" he shouts while running away.

The shinobi chuckles a little before flickering away towards the village.

After thirty minutes, Isshin finally makes it home and walks up to the doors about to open it. But then he thinks to himself, 'Nah, I'm not in the mood to get yelled at.' He walks over to the wall, walks up it, and then opens his window as he climbs through. He sees something he should have expected: his mom holding a frying pan with tick marks on her head. 'Ah, troublesome.'

Meanwhile, at the Hokage tower, we can see an old man wearing a red and white conical hat with the kanji for fire on the front, with white and red robes. He has a grey goatee and wrinkles on his face with a few liver spots. He currently is smoking a tobacco pipe. This man is the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. What is he doing, you might ask? Well, he and some of his top shinobi are currently discussing team formations for the upcoming graduating class.

In the room, there are a few Jonin present. One was a tall man with a broad build, with short spiky black hair, and a beard. He is wearing a black hitiate on his forehead, a green flak jacket, a black long-sleeve shirt with the sleeve rolled up a little bit, black pants, and he had a white sash on his waist. He was currently smoking a cigarette.

Beside that man, there was a lady with long black messy hair and red eyes. She was currently scowling at the man smoking a cigarette. She is wearing a black hitiate on her forehead. She is wearing a red blouse that looks like bandages with a long white sleeve on her right arm, and no sleeve on her left.

A man enters the office; this man was the one who was just with Isshin not that long ago. Everyone turns to look at who it is.

The man greets the Hokage, "Lord Third."

"Oh, hey, Hayate. It's not like you to be late," the bearded man greets.

"Hey, Asuma," Hayate greets.

"What kept you for so long? Are you not feeling well?" the lady with black hair asks with a concerned look.

"I'm alright, Kurenai. I just met an interesting kid earlier," Hayate states before turning back to the Hokage.

Hiruzen raises his eyebrows and asks, "So who was the kid?"

"Isshin Yamanaka," Hayate replies.

"Inochi's boy?" Asuma asks.

Hayate just shrugs. "I wouldn't know," Hayate replies.

"He is Inochi's kid," Asuma replies. "I would also agree that he's an interesting little fellow, Hayate," Hiruzen says as he blows some smoke out of his mouth.

"You know him, Pops?" Asuma asks while bringing out a zippo to light his cigarette.

Kurenai takes the lighter out of Asuma's hand.

"Of course. He has been hanging around Naruto for years now," Hiruzen replies, smiling fondly, thinking about his adopted grandson.

"Isn't he almost tied for dead last?" Kurenai asks with a puzzled look on her face.

Hiruzen chuckles and shakes his head and chuckles before replying, "Earlier, Naruto ran in here and talked to me about some." He pauses and takes another puff of his pipe before continuing. "Isshin has been helping Naruto with chakra exercises, yet he still can't perform the clone jutsu and told Naruto that he probably has too much chakra and is overloading the jutsu with chakra, which is probably true with what he contains. The fact he came up with that and not the teachers at the academy baffles me," Hiruzen says as he blows a smoke ring.

"Well, he is a sensor. He detected me earlier, given I wasn't actually trying to hide that hard, but still," Hayate states.

"That wasn't in the files, was it?" Kurenai asks.

"No, it wasn't," Hiruzen says with a hint of amusement.

"So, one of the dead last is smart and a sensor? Could it be that he's already trying to use deception?" Asuma asks.

Hiruzen shakes his head. "Knowing him, he probably just thinks everything is pointless."

"What do you mean by that? He seemed pretty eager to train when I met him earlier," Hayate asks.

"I think what he means is that the little brown-haired Yamanaka thinks that there is no point in trying in classes and tests when the only thing that matters is passing the exams," a certain cyclopean silver-haired man says as he walks into the room reading an orange book.

"Oh, so you finally decided to show up, Kakashi. What was keeping you this time?" Hiruzen asks.

Kakashi closes the book and then puts it away. "Well, you see, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around," Kakashi says as he scratches the back of his neck.

"Well, since everyone is finally here, we can start the meeting now," Hiruzen says while he puts his pipe down.

Asuma steps up, stating, "I would like to form the Ino-Shika-Cho formation with Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi," then steps back.

Kurenai steps up and states, "I would like to form a team with Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame," then steps back.

Kakashi steps up and states, "I would like to form a team with Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Isshin Yamanaka," then steps back.

Hiruzen looks at Kakashi and asks, "You're trying to get a four-man squad? That's quite unorthodox, no?"

"What can I say? I have a feeling that they have a good chance to pass," Kakashi eye smiles then pulls out his Icha Icha.

Hayate then steps up and says, "Actually, Lord Third, I was going to ask if I could get Isshin to be apprenticed under me." When he finished speaking, the Jonin in the room were looking at him with their eyebrows raised.

Hiruzen picks up his pipe and lights it. He takes a puff and then says, "Another unorthodox option. Any particular reason why you want him, Hayate?"

"Even though I have only met him once, I quite like him and would like to pass my techniques down to him. After all, he's a budding swordsman," Hayate says with a smile on his face.

"Is that all?" Hiruzen asks.

"He told me why he trains earlier, and I want to give him my all and get him to where he wants to be," Hayate states with a solemn glint in his eyes.

"I see. Care to elaborate?" Hiruzen asks.

Hayate elaborates, telling the Hokage about the short meeting he had with Isshin near the memorial stone. After he finished talking, everyone in the room seemed a little down. The Hokage had a sad look while looking at the pictures of the Hokage on the wall. Kakashi had a hand on his covered eye while looking at the ground. Asuma and Kurenai just looked at the ground.

"Seems like Isshin has the will of fire in him, and it's burning brightly," Hiruzen states with a smile and continues, "Alright, so Asuma, you'll get Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji. Kurenai, you'll get Hinata, Kiba, and Shino." He then pauses and takes a hit off of his pipe, scratching his chin.

"Kakashi, you will get..."