A Reliable Adult

A sudden flash of inspiration unleashed his inborn imagination!

Soji could hardly wait to start testing how the new conversion method would enhance his spells!

However, the limitations of his circumstances ultimately forced the boy to give up on his impractical idea...

The positive cycle of accepting missions and completing assignments was the foundation that kept the shinobi order running smoothly. Its seriousness and legitimacy were beyond question.

Even the famed White Fang of Konoha would later find himself trapped by this narrative system, which placed collective interests above all else, and end up committing seppuku. Soji was only a fresh graduate of the Ninja Academy; naturally, he didn't dare challenge the rules on a whim.

So he used his superhuman willpower to suppress his urges, set aside his lofty ideals before Motochika-sensei ordered them to march, and refocused on the petty concerns before him, carefully rationing every step he took as a shinobi.

Even after the main force arrived safely at the checkpoint at dusk and set up camp, Soji still didn't act rashly.

He attended the evening briefing with Todo, Erina, and the other two Genin squads.

He coordinated the night watch schedule with his colleagues at the temporary base.

They changed shifts, had a late-night snack, and recovered their energy.

Only after all his duties were taken care of did the boy seek out Motochika-sensei to explain his idea and ask for half an hour to work on it.

"I see. I understand the general idea. I'm impressed you managed to hold back until now." Nara Motochika stopped playing with the candle flame and studied the boy's outline in the lamplight. "As your teacher, giving timely guidance to the students on my team is part of my job. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"The construction of Jingu Forest Field Hospital is an important task that affects the security of the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. My idea is only a personal pursuit of negligible importance. From a rational standpoint, naturally, the mission should come first." Soji answered honestly, for once without trying to be clever.

That was not only what he truly believed, but also what best aligned with the prevailing values of the shinobi world.

And his actions up to this point made his words all the more convincing!

But seeing such lofty ideals in an eleven- or twelve-year-old boy only made Nara Motochika worry.

"I'm glad you can think that way, but, Soji... getting used to a life as a tool too early isn't a good thing, either. I don't want you to become a heartless executioner."

Nara Motochika leaned forward, making a token effort to correct his casual posture. "Let me put it this way. Do you know why, since the Third Hokage took office, graduates of the Ninja Academy have usually been divided into teams of three, with two boys and one girl?"

"Of course."

Soji refused to play along!

With his opening words, he turned Motochika-sensei's rhetorical question into a literal one, choking off the answer that had been right on the tip of his teacher's tongue!

"For one thing, the extreme profession of shinobi, who serve in the shadows, naturally has far more men than women.

"On the other hand, when boys and girls are reaching the age at which their secondary sexual characteristics develop, pairing them with members of the opposite sex can often improve their efficiency. It can even use the tender stirrings of adolescence to encourage healthy competition, foster teamwork, and create favorable conditions for passing down the Will of Fire."

"..."

Nara Motochika was speechless...

The boy's answer had been far too direct. He hadn't avoided the subject of boys and girls at all, as Motochika had imagined, leaving him no room to elaborate!

Where was the bashfulness?

Where was the blushing?

Where was the coy hesitation?

Faced with this oddity, who seemed not to know the meaning of embarrassment, Motochika-sensei's whole rhythm had been thrown off. For a moment, he grew despondent, and his words gradually took on the listless tone of a middle-aged man.

"Fine... Since you've analyzed it so thoroughly, what do you think of Erina? She's not only the Third Hokage's great-niece, but also an excellent student who excels in both academics and combat. If she were the one making the request, would you still handle it strictly as business?"

"Sensei, we're discussing the new chakra conversion method. That has nothing to do with my private life, does it?" Soji sighed.

"Oh? Are you deliberately avoiding the question?" Nara Motochika's eyes lit up.

"I have nothing to hide." Soji looked perfectly at ease, then countered, "As a boy her age, of course I'd be attracted to an outstanding and beautiful classmate like Erina.

"But don't you think that, as the jōnin in charge of Team Five, you'd get called into Sarutobi-sama's office for a talk if you openly encouraged us to start dating?"

"..."

"Even if I did have feelings for someone... don't you think that if you truly liked someone, protecting her safety would be a more important responsibility than chatting about everything under the sun and discussing life?"

Soji adjusted his approach to match the other man's train of thought and continued, "Team Five is in danger right now. To avoid holding my teammates back, I think fixing my weaknesses and strengthening our combat capabilities should come first.

"In other words, I'm asking you to help me with a difficult problem so I can protect my companions. But if I can't even do my own job properly, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?"

"Enough, enough. No more..." Having witnessed the power of Soji's verbal therapy, Nara Motochika gave up entirely on the first half of his mission to "teach by example." "Come on. Let's go a little farther from camp so we don't make too much noise and disturb everyone's rest."

After seeing Soji's debating skills, Motochika had given up entirely on the "teach by example" part of his responsibilities.

Still, when he noticed the slight upward curve of his student's lips after the debate was over, Motochika pushed down his unease for the moment...

He realized that Soji wasn't naturally emotionally detached, cold-blooded, or some inborn anomaly. He simply expressed himself differently from most people.

Of course, from Yamada-kun's own perspective, whether that smile was a spontaneous display of genuine feeling or a carefully planned finishing touch was entirely open to interpretation...

On the one hand, after transmigrating, Soji really had been handed a character setup in which both his parents were dead.

But the soul from another world was not, at its core, like Kakashi, Itachi, or Uchiha Sasuke, their hearts filled with all sorts of obsessions that kept them from finding peace.

The calm detachment he showed most of the time was due more to his age and the urgency he felt from knowing the story in advance than to any personal feelings of bitterness or hatred.

So his fundamental disagreement with Nara Motochika wasn't about whether shinobi were tools.

It was that he couldn't tell the other man that he had already lived through all those rich and varied experiences of growing up once before, in his previous life...

Fortunately, neither teacher nor student was the sort to let emotions rule them.

As soon as they entered teaching mode, Motochika-sensei's professionalism came straight to the fore!

After Soji poured out all the ideas he'd been holding in for a day, Nara Motochika needed only a little thought to reach a conclusion.

"I understand the basic principles. The idea of changing the order of chakra conversion is interesting, too.

"But I have to warn you: neither the Second Hokage, Torifu Akimichi, nor I have an overtly expressed Kekkei Genkai. So it's hard to say whether this method will work on the secret techniques of your Kekkei Genkai."

"That's all right." Soji shook his head without hesitation. "Experiments always come with failures. I'm prepared for setbacks."

"If you put it that way... All right. We'll start small and begin with the palm, the most familiar point from which to release chakra."

"Sorry for the trouble!"