Chapter 1

Nervously swallowing, Kanade took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. A young Hyuga from a branch family, who had only received the title of tokubetsu jonin a year ago, was very anxious because in a couple of minutes she would have to enter the academy classroom and receive her first team of students.

The survival of the entire team, as well as the chance for young shinobi to have a successful career, depended on her actions as a teacher. Quickly glancing around, the kunoichi made sure she wasn't the only one feeling nervous, as among the future leaders of the triads, more than half were precisely tokubetsu jonin – out of the six people in the room, only two had the rank of full jonin.

A quite obvious result of the ongoing war. Most of the strong shinobi are on the front lines or busy guarding the borders, and instead of them, they assign any suitable candidate with at least some leadership experience to train the newly graduated genin.

Drumming her fingers on the armrest of the chair, Kanade lowered her gaze to the folder lying on her lap, containing the files of future shinobi and kunoichi. There was no doubt that they would all become genin, as by the order of the ANBU commander, all graduates were enrolled in the village's active forces without additional scrutiny from the teacher.

However, considering the quality of education, this was not necessary – the Senju took the education of the younger generation very seriously. Opening the folder, the young Hyuga quickly glanced over the files of the trio, although she had practically memorized them by heart.

Inuzuka Tsume – the heir of the Inuzuka clan head.

Ishi Rotaro – a ward of the orphanage.

Nara Ryo – the second heir of the ruling family of the Nara clan.

Two out of three were very significant figures for the future, capable of becoming excellent allies for the Hyuga clan, and perhaps even more. The head had to strain all her connections to ensure that she was appointed as the mentor of such a promising trio.

Considering that there were simply no other suitable candidates from the Hyuga, even the owner of the weakest Byakugan came in handy. Remembering a private conversation with Hokage-sama, reinforced by several unpleasant promises, Kanade shook her head – political games bring only troubles to ordinary people.

And becoming a stepping stone for some supposedly brilliant teenager, for the sake of a small chance to gain him for the clan or just as a puppet, is even less pleasant. However, the alternative to such a scenario, in case of failure, is also not optimistic.

Shaking her head, the kunoichi pushed aside gloomy thoughts and focused on the papers in her hands. More precisely, on the brief description of the abilities of the trio. And if Tsume and Rotaro did not go beyond the expected list of abilities, showing a very impressive result for a fresh genin, which, however, became the norm over the last few years at the academy under the patronage of the Senju, then the third member of the team stood out significantly among his peers and caused some puzzlement, if not distrust, to what was written on the paper.

And the reason for such feelings was quite simple – Nara Ryo, with some of his abilities, far surpassed his classmates, and indeed almost all the graduates who had left the academy walls over the past three years, including those who currently held the rank of chunin.

And who can believe that a twelve-year-old boy in taijutsu can compete with a full-fledged jonin, easily defeat most chunin, and casually knock all his classmates off their feet?! Nara. Yeah, and sheep can fly! Add to this the title of third-degree genin(!), excellent mastery of clan taijutsu, knowledge of fuinjutsu, and a huge reserve on top of that. Not every jonin can boast such a list, and it's even harder to believe in it when such a dossier belongs to a boy who hasn't even finished the shinobi academy!

Of course, Hyuga had heard about a couple of geniuses from the Nara clan, but after meeting the apathetic slacker Shikaku a couple of months ago, she began to be skeptical about such rumors. Of course, the fresh chunin had brains, as well as potential with the ability to think strategically, but natural laziness successfully suppressed all this in most cases.

And the existing photo of Ryo did not inspire much confidence – dark glasses, a mask covering half of his face, and a cloak, identical to Aburame's, didn't even allow to see his face, not to mention everything else. Which clan does he even belong to?

The kunoichi's internal reflections were interrupted by a chunin peeking into the teacher's lounge temporarily occupied by future mentors.

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