"Very good. It seems Kurenai will be taking over your father's position in the future. I'm very happy Konoha has fresh blood like you."
Receiving Torifu's encouragement naturally made Kurenai very happy, while Iruka, in the corner, silently lowered his head.
He was older than Kurenai, but he had only recently been promoted to Chunin. Among the children of these uncles and elders, he was the oldest—and also the weakest.
"Iruka, I hear you're thinking of becoming a teacher?"
When Iruka heard Torifu call his name, he immediately stood up and answered, "Yes, Uncle Torifu."
He scratched his head, looking a little awkward. "My talent isn't especially good. I'll probably only reach Jonin at best in my lifetime, and I don't have any real strengths in combat."
"But I'm pretty good at studying, so..."
When Torifu heard this, he immediately offered encouragement. "That's a wonderful thing. Who says you have to become a ninja to be outstanding? As long as you find the career you want to pursue and work hard at it, then you're outstanding."
As soon as those words were spoken, Iruka, Kosuke, and the others were all somewhat surprised.
Konoha had always believed in strength above all else. Powerful people received respect, while weaker people received far less attention.
After all, Konoha had produced two Gods of Shinobi. Under the influence of that spirit, the villagers would consciously or unconsciously compete with one another.
Strength naturally became an important part of that competition, so Konoha's ninja revered strength to an extremely high degree.
Even Kurenai didn't really think much of Iruka. She only maintained basic politeness toward him because of the relationship between their fathers' generation.
After all, their paths in life would likely have very little overlap in the future.
With a ninja of Iruka's strength,