"Very good. It seems Kurenai will be taking over your father's position in the future. I'm very pleased that Konoha has fresh blood like you."
Naturally, Kurenai was delighted to receive Torikaze's encouragement, while Iruka in the corner silently lowered his head.
He was older than Kurenai, yet had only recently been promoted to Chunin. Among the children of these uncles, he was the oldest—and the weakest.
"Iruka, I heard you're planning to become a teacher?"
When Iruka heard Torikaze call his name, he immediately stood and answered, "Yes, Uncle Torikaze."
He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly. "My talent isn't particularly good. I'll probably only ever make it to Jonin at most, and I don't have any strengths in combat."
"But I'm pretty good at studying, so..."
Torikaze immediately encouraged him. "That's a very good thing. Who says you have to become a ninja to be outstanding? As long as you find a career you want to pursue and work hard at it, you're outstanding."
His words surprised not only Iruka, but Kosuke and the others as well.
Konoha had always believed that strength was paramount. The strong were respected, while the weak received less attention.
After all, Konoha had produced two Gods of Shinobi. Under the influence of that spirit, the villagers consciously or unconsciously competed with one another.
Strength naturally became an important part of that competition, and Konoha's ninjas revered it to an exceptionally high degree.
Even Kurenai did not think much of Iruka. She was only maintaining basic politeness toward him because of their fathers' generation.
After all, their paths in life would not overlap much in the future.
A ninja with Iruka's strength would likely spend his entire life hovering around the Chunin or Jonin rank, unable to enter Konoha's core ninja circles.
That was