On the way to Training Ground No. 8, Uchiha Yue had tried many times to guess who his jōnin instructor would be. He just hadn't expected the person standing before him to be his instructor.
After all, Uchiha Yue and Hatake Kakashi were both famous prodigies at the Ninja Academy, so Konoha's higher-ups would naturally assign them an excellent jōnin instructor. The ninja in front of Yue was certainly strong, but Yue couldn't say the same for her teaching abilities. Because the ninja standing before him and Kakashi at that very moment was Kushina Uzumaki!
The very Kushina Uzumaki who had once disguised herself as an Anbu member so she could beat Uchiha Yue to a pulp!
"Uh..."
Seeing that Kushina Uzumaki was going to be his jōnin instructor, Uchiha Yue felt as if the whole world had gone dark. He and Kushina had already had a bit of a history, and he certainly didn't believe she was the forgiving sort. Otherwise, why would she have disguised herself as an Anbu member just to cause trouble for him?
So when Uchiha Yue saw Kushina Uzumaki, he was speechless. He could no longer even feel the exhaustion weighing on him.
Kushina, on the other hand, saw Yue and smiled faintly. "Uchiha Yue, you didn't expect me to be your jōnin instructor, did you?"
"I didn't."
As soon as Kushina finished speaking, Yue gave a wry smile and shook his head.
Beside Yue, Hatake Kakashi noticed that Yue knew their new jōnin instructor, and a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. However, Kakashi didn't know what Kushina was like. He stepped in front of Yue and approached her. "Genin Hatake Kakashi, reporting for duty!"
"Hmph!"
Kushina gave Kakashi a brief glance, then walked straight up to Yue, ignoring Kakashi completely. Her behavior naturally angered him. Kakashi was a proud person, and he had gone out of his way to greet her—yet she hadn't even bothered to respond.
Seeing the anger on Kakashi's face and the amused look on Kushina's, Yue felt that there was no way he could stay on this team. He didn't even know who the other member of their Genin team was, but with Kushina and Kakashi here, he already felt that his life as a Genin would have no bright spots.
But...
Just as Kushina was about to tease Yue, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him, brightening his eyes.
The newcomer looked at Kushina, then at Yue and Kakashi, and smiled. "All right, Kushina. Don't tease Yue anymore. Yue and I have always been good friends, and now we'll be on the same team, so we need to get along, okay?"
Then he turned to Yue and continued, "Yue, you didn't expect me to be your jōnin instructor, did you?"
"Minato!"
Once Yue recognized the figure before him, even his voice trembled. At last, he had found a beacon in the darkness!
It was only then that Yue learned how their Genin team was to be formed.
During wartime, ninja teams were different from the ones in the original story. This was especially true for prodigies like Yue and Kakashi. If they were placed in a team with one jōnin and three Genin, enemy ninja might target the team and kill two of Konoha's prodigies. To protect the village's next generation, Konoha's leadership had specifically established teams with two jōnin and two Genin. That was why both Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki could serve as Yue and Kakashi's instructors.
With Minato there to keep Kushina in check, Yue didn't have to worry about her causing him trouble.
Besides, after Minato joined them, Kushina shifted her glare of resentment and fixed it squarely on Kakashi instead. She disliked him purely because his personality was so infuriating.
Yue, however, stuck to the basic principle of letting a friend take the fall rather than himself. He didn't bother warning Kakashi.
Minato, meanwhile, was an excellent choice for team leader. Seeing that the atmosphere had grown somewhat awkward, he quickly stepped in to ease the tension. Kushina could hardly refuse Minato, since she was his girlfriend. She couldn't exactly let her man lose face.
Kakashi had also gotten a good first impression of Minato, so he didn't give him any trouble. As for Yue, there was no need to say much. He had already been on good terms with Minato, and now that he had joined Minato's team, they would be both instructor and friend. The atmosphere between them was quite harmonious.
Unbeknownst to the others, once Minato saw that his team members had finally stopped treating one another with hostility, even an elite ninja like him quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Kushina had always been quick-tempered, and Yue and Kakashi were both prodigies from the Ninja Academy, so they were bound to be a little arrogant. Before they arrived at Training Ground No. 8, Minato had expected them to have trouble getting along. He had spent a long time thinking of a way to smooth things over.
Now that the team had finally come together, Minato breathed another quiet sigh of relief and said to Yue and Kakashi, "Yue, Kakashi, you've only just graduated from the Ninja Academy and become Genin, but I'm sure you already have the skills of seasoned Genin. Besides, our team has just been formed, so we need to build some teamwork. I'm thinking we should start taking missions today. What do you think?"
Hearing Minato say that, neither Yue nor Kakashi objected. In fact, both of them had probably been eager to train through missions.
There was no need to ask Yue. He naturally wanted to start taking missions as soon as possible and improve through actual combat.
Kakashi was even more eager to defeat Yue in battle, so when Minato brought up taking missions, he nearly raised both hands in approval.
But just as Kushina watched Yue and Kakashi agree with Minato and prepare to take a mission, an amusing idea came to her. Before Minato could say anything, she walked up to Yue and Kakashi. "Uchiha Yue, Hatake Kakashi, since you're both prodigies from the Ninja Academy, our first mission shouldn't be some ordinary D-rank job, should it?"
"How about this?"
"I just saw a few C-rank missions today that looked pretty interesting. Why don't we take all of them?"
"What do you think?"
Before you continue