Konoha.
Hokage Office.
"You must have remembered these words of Lord Second by now, right Kagami? What is this? Your fifth try with a genin squad?"
Spoke the man who looked in his early twenties, brown hair and clean-shaven. His eyes black and facial features sharp and youthful. He wore a standard Konoha-ninja outfit, a high-collared dark green flak jacket over a simple, black long-sleeved shirt, with matching black pants.
At the man's words Kagami showed a slightly annoyed look but didn't say anything in response, Tobirama speaking up for him.
"At least he is trying to guide the young ones, Saru," Said Tobirama and gave the man who had teased Kagami a side-eye, on whose face appearing a slightly embarrassed look.
"Hiruzen probably just has high standards Lord Second. He won't just take anyone under his tutelage." Said the other man in response to Tobirama's words, a neutral look on the sharp handsome face.
The man had short, dark hair where were neatly combed back and was clean-shaven, a serious look on his face and "x" mark on his chin.
"Rare of you to speak up for me, Danzo. You are not under a genjutsu right?" Joked Sarutobi with a surprised face, mostly Danzo would just disagree with him in anything and argue non-stop.
Danzo maintained the cold look on his face at his words and turned his eyes towards Kagami.
"You better get over with this mission quickly, you know what's happening and your presence is necessary" Said Danzo in a serious tone, Kagami's face changing at his words and nodding heavily. "I will"
Danzo's words seem to alarm Kagami of some matter as realizing the importance of time he didn't stay anymore and left the hokage office with Inosuke and other two.
"Now that's surprising…
The moment Kagami stepped out of the office Tobirama muttered out loud with an interesting look on his face.
"What, Lord Second?"
The interest of both Sarutobi and Danzo was piqued by his words, questioning curiously.
"That was some chakra for a Yamanaka… Kagami might not have to try sixth time after all…" His words fell and the face of the blonde kind who had just left appeared in the head of two, their eyes gleaming as well.
---------------------------------
Following Kagami out of the office, the three arrived at the forest behind the hokage mountains which seemed to be a training spot for kagami as well, most of the area around showing signs of ninjutsu training.
Not wasting anytime Kagami rolled open the mission scroll he got from Tobirama and began to explain the mission to the three before him.
"The mission is fairly simple, tomorrow morning we'll gather at the entrance gate and safely escort back a group of merchants back to the capital of land of fire. They don't want the capital they earned here to be robbed on the way by some bandits or rogue shinobi."
"This is a C-Rank mission and mostly these kinds of mission go through without any danger. There is like a one in a million chance for us to be attacked on the way back which is why this mission is categorized as C-Rank"
"Do you have any questions that you want to ask? Otherwise you guys can go back and prepare for tomorrow morning."
Saying that Kagami rolled back the scroll and looked at the three before him but none of them seemed to have any questions, shaking their heads to express they have no questions.
"Good! see you tomorrow then, don't be late."
Saying that Kagami no longer paid attention to the other three and began to stretch and move around, about to train again.
"How many days would it take for us to reach the capital? I've never been there before and need an accurate estimate to pack my snacks" On their way back Choko with a serious look on her face turned to question Shikato and Inosuke, both of them nearly tripping at her words.
"I don't think we should take this mission easily," Ignoring Choko, Inosuke decided to alert his squad. "Because if you remember at the office Lord Sarutobi said that this is Lord Kagami's fifth try with a genin squad. Don't you think it's odd?"
"It is," Agreed Shikato, a thoughtful look on his face. "There is no way every genin squad under Lord Kagami failed to complete a C-Rank mission. There must be some hidden criteria that we will have to achieve to get his approval."
Shikato who was from Nara Clan didn't need many clues to figure out what Inosuke was implying.
"Let's train today and improve our chemistry together as whatever that criteria is, teamwork definitely is a part of it." Suggested Inosuke and waited for their response.
"Although it's a drag but can't be helped… lets train…" Agreed Shikato with his suggestion, a helpless look on his face.
Deciding to train Inosuke and Shikato didn't wait for Choko's decision and simply tried to drag her to the training grounds, who resisted but agreed immediately when Inosuke promised to cook for her.