章節 90: Chapter 90: Me, Myself, and I
That morning Minato and Kushina woke up in a similar fashion. Minato had begun the habit of waking up far earlier than his wife in order to start his work. That way, when she woke up, he would have some time with her, work free. Unfortunately, he also had the habit of waking Kushina up when he awoke, thus making the point somewhat moot.
But likewise to Kannin, this morning Minato was consumed by his thoughts. He hadn't even got out of bed, he was just staring at the ceiling, under the covers next to Kushina. Once he had gotten over the initial joy of being a father, a profound dread crept on him. With all the chaos and tumult in the world right now, being a father was beginning to feel more like a liability than a gift.
Most ordinary people in Konoha believed that the war was over--kaput--but in reality it had really only gone cold. Konoha had defeated or stalemated its enemies to the point where they could no longer reasonably fight, but it was in no position to act. The other villages weren't so weak that they would just allow any of the others be destroyed, except for maybe Kumo, which was still reeling from the loss of the Third Raikage at the treachery of Iwa--they'd probably laugh if Konoha tried to eliminate Iwa, but the other villages, not so much.
So in reality, Konoha had only managed to incapacitate its enemies, but no one was signing treaties, other than Iwagakure. Technically, Konoha was still at war, with Kumogakure especially, and it was something of an open secret with the higher brass: while much of the danger had dissipated, Konoha was still in conflict--conflict which could fizzle out into peace, or ignite again into full blown war.
All of this, plus the issues with Danzo, the clans, and the economic issues the war brought on, made fatherhood seem rather dangerous as the Hokage, especially given his own personal enemies. But still, it filled his stomach with butterflies when he thought about it--himself, a father, with a real family. If he could avoid some of the pitfalls, it seemed perfect the way he envisaged it.
But he would cross that bridge when he got to it. For the time being, himself and the Sannin were enough of a threat to keep their enemies at bay. What he really wanted right now was some breakfast.
-
The weeks eventually did roll around, and Kannin found himself in a field near town, waiting for three young children to arrive. It was 9:30am, and the arranged meeting time was 9:35am, so he expected to hear the leaves rustling soon, or at least what was left of the leaves, as Fall had descended upon Konoha, and once lush and bushy green trees were looking more cragged and spindly by the day, and the air caught a deep chill in the mornings and evenings.
As he was contemplating the seasons, his first hint at his team reached his ears. By infusing his sensory organs with chakra, he could drastically increase their sensitivity and range, though he was by no means the best at this, but a moderate enhancement was enough.
Through his enhanced ears, he heard a squeaky voice enthusiastically chattering with a much less animated voice
"They say he's one of the youngest instructors in the history of Konoha!" the voice said in a focused and almost inaudible whisper to Kannin's ears.
An even less audible voice responded, "Ok. That probably means he'll suck, right?"
"Oh I wouldn't dream of it!" the high-pitched voice quickly said, "I heard he's best friends with the Hokage!'
Kannin was getting a little embarrassed listening in on them. They were right, of course, Kannin was rather young for an instructor of academy graduates, but his achievements in the war and Minato's personal esteem basically got rid of any question of his capabilities. He had a guess as two which two kids were talking right now.
Looking down at the dossiers Minato gave him a few days ago, he examined the two he was guessing were on the way. The first was a young lad by the name of Shimotsuki Araki, a seemingly excitable kid with rust-red hair, glasses, and an overbite. His specialties were supposed to be medical jutsu and earth release. Altogether he wasn't half bad; his scores on the graduation exam were commendable and his overall scoring in the Academy was near the top of his class, though he was docked points for slacking on taijutsu and shurikenjutsu.
The second went by the name of Yukio Miura. They sported grey hair, the hue of which reminded Kannin more of stormclouds--those dark and moody greys that blanketed the skies when rain and lightning poured--than Kannin's own grey hair, which was akin to the light grey of Kakashi, nearing a white. They seemed to wear their forehead protector around their neck as well, which was a nice change of pace--Kannin himself sported a rather uncommon headband. Yukio specialized in Ninjutsu and some shurikenjutsu, and had affinities in fire and water release.
'I think I'll be expecting a lot from him,' He thought to himself, 'after all I'm also a ninjutsu specialist on paper.'
Reading on, he saw that while Shimotsuki was near top of his class, Yukio actually was top of the class based on test scores and performance in the exam.
Lastly, Kannin flipped to the genin he hadn't sensed yet, Akira Ozu. Her appearance reminded Kannin of Obito a little bit--she had medium length navy blue hair which sprouted behind her headband, which itself rested on a set of goggles with a number of scratches and tears both on the glass and leather. Akira specialized in genjutsu and taijutsu, perhaps explaining the goggles, and had a wind affinity. Other than that, there didn't seem to be anything especially notable about her, so Kannin began to wonder why Minato would assign her to Kannin's team.
-
By the time he had gone over the files, Araki and Miura had arrived in the clearing. As they did, both of them saw, sitting cross-legged on the ground in the middle of the field and looking at sheets of paper, Uzumaki Kannin. He was young looking--no older than 17--with a bit of a baby-face. His clothing was odd. Most shinobi in Konoha opted for greens, tans, and blacks, with some red and navy highlights, but Kannin was sporting a silvery cream cloak, light grey hair which erupted out of his scalp behind the strange happuri-headband with the Konoha leaf engraved in it. Beneath his cloak he wore a deep, almost ocean blue set of armor, and a the bone-white handle of a blade was visible at his hip.
When Araki got close enough to really take in Kannin's appearance, he almost lost his composure. Being at the academy during the war was much different than during peacetime. The teachers did everything they could to encourage the students to graduate early and improve their skills so that they could go fight for Konoha and defend their home and win glory and whatnot. They would have bi-monthly readings of reports from the front of all the heroic deeds of the academy's graduates.
Shin's team had taken a special place in a lot of the students' minds since they were seen as much more approachable in terms of skill, and they were recent graduates of the academy as well. They weren't so far off as Minato, or even more so the Sannin, who might as well have been mythical beings to them.
At least that was for Araki. Miura was of different mind. In fact just his demeanor and body language reminded Kannin of Sasuke early in the series--far too calculating and overconfident for his own good. Miura looked at Kannin and saw a wildly unqualified teacher who would squander his chances at really making a name for himself, let alone improve as a shinobi. As all of them sized each other up, something suddenly drew their attention to the edge of the clearing.
From far off, the echoing call of "I'M NOT LATE YET, AM I?" resounded across the plain, as the figure of the third member of their team emerged from the foliage.
In a low, but not inaudible chuckle, Kannin said, "Ah, that must be Ozu." He turned to Miura and Araki and said to them, "Well we better get started, shouldn't we?"
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