A New Team Is Formed

On the way to Training Ground No. 8, Uchiha Yue had speculated many times about who his jonin instructor might be, but he never expected the person standing before him to be the one.

It was common knowledge that both Uchiha Yue and Hatake Kakashi were renowned geniuses at the Ninja Academy, so the higher-ups in Konoha would naturally arrange for an elite jonin to mentor them. However, while the ninja standing before Uchiha Yue was undeniably powerful, Uchiha Yue dared not compliment her teaching ability in the slightest—because the ninja currently standing before him and Hatake Kakashi was none other than Kushina Uzumaki!

The very same Kushina Uzumaki who had once disguised herself as an Anbu operative just to give Uchiha Yue a sound beating!

"Uh..."

Seeing that Kushina Uzumaki was to be his jonin instructor, Uchiha Yue felt his entire world turn dim and colorless. He and Kushina had some history, and he didn't believe for a second that she was the magnanimous type; otherwise, would she have gone to the trouble of dressing up as an Anbu just to cause him grief?

Therefore, when Uchiha Yue caught sight of Kushina, he was left speechless, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten.

Kushina, on the other hand, caught sight of Uchiha Yue and a faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Uchiha Yue, you didn't expect me to be your jonin instructor, did you?"

"I certainly didn't."

Almost the instant Kushina finished speaking, Uchiha Yue shook his head with a bitter smile and replied.

Beside him, Hatake Kakashi noticed that Uchiha Yue seemed to know their new instructor, and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes. However, unaware of Kushina's personality, Kakashi stepped in front of Uchiha Yue and approached her, saying, "Genin Hatake Kakashi, reporting for duty!"

"Hmph!"

Glancing at Kakashi with a slight tilt of her head, Kushina walked straight past him toward Uchiha Yue, completely ignoring his presence. This action, however, undoubtedly annoyed Kakashi. After all, Kakashi was a proud individual; he had taken the initiative to greet her, only to be met with total indifference.

Watching the look of irritation surface on Kakashi's face and observing the playful expression on Kushina's, Uchiha Yue felt that this team was going to be impossible to endure. Setting aside who the third member of this genin squad might be, just having Kushina and Kakashi here made Uchiha Yue feel that his life as a genin would never see the light of day.

But...

Just as Kushina was preparing to tease Uchiha Yue further, a figure suddenly appeared before him, which made his eyes light up.

The figure looked at Kushina, then at Uchiha Yue and Kakashi, before smiling and saying, "Alright, Kushina, stop teasing Yue-kun. Yue-kun and I have always been great friends, and since we'll be on the same team from now on, we must all get along!"

As he spoke, the man shifted his gaze to Uchiha Yue and continued, "Yue-kun, you didn't expect your jonin instructor to be me, did you?"

"Minato-kun!"

Seeing the face of the person before him, Uchiha Yue's voice trembled slightly; he had finally found a beacon of light in the darkness!

It was also at this moment that Uchiha Yue finally understood the composition of his genin squad.

As it turned out, ninja squads during the war era were different from those in the original timeline. Specifically, for genius ninjas like Uchiha Yue and Hatake Kakashi, placing them in a standard squad of one jonin and three genin would risk them being targeted and killed by enemy forces, causing Konoha to lose two talents. To protect the new generation, the higher-ups had specifically implemented a structure of two jonin and two genin. Thus, both Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were to serve as jonin instructors for Uchiha Yue and Hatake Kakashi.

With Minato there to keep Kushina in check, Uchiha Yue no longer feared that she would cause him any trouble.

Furthermore, once Minato arrived, Kushina shifted her hostility, casting a disgruntled look directly at Kakashi. The reason she found Kakashi so unpleasant was entirely due to his infuriating personality.

Uchiha Yue, adhering to the basic principle of "better you than me," had absolutely no intention of warning Kakashi.

Minato, however, was an excellent team leader. Seeing the slightly awkward atmosphere, he immediately stepped in to smooth things over. Kushina was never going to disrespect Minato; after all, she was his girlfriend, and she wouldn't want to make her man look bad.

As for Kakashi, he had a good first impression of Minato and didn't give him any attitude. As for Uchiha Yue, it went without saying—he already had a great relationship with Minato, and now that he was on his team, their bond was that of both mentor and friend, making the atmosphere quite harmonious.

Little did they know, seeing his team members finally stop glaring at each other, even an elite ninja like Minato breathed a secret sigh of relief. Kushina had a fiery temper, and both Uchiha Yue and Kakashi were geniuses from the Academy, inevitably prone to arrogance. Before arriving at Training Ground No. 8, Minato had anticipated that they wouldn't get along well and had spent a long time thinking of ways to ease the tension between them.

Now, seeing the team successfully assembled, Minato exhaled and said to Uchiha Yue and Kakashi, "Yue, Kakashi, you are both genin who have just graduated from the Academy, but I believe you already possess the strength of seasoned genin. Since our team has just been formed, we need to build some rapport, so I plan to start taking missions from today. What do you think?"

Hearing Minato say this, neither Uchiha Yue nor Kakashi had any objections; in fact, both had been eager to take on missions to train.

Uchiha Yue, needless to say, hoped to take missions early to improve through real combat.

Kakashi, meanwhile, was eager to surpass Uchiha Yue in the field, and seeing Minato bring up missions, he nearly raised both hands in agreement.

However, just as Kushina watched Uchiha Yue and Kakashi agree to Minato's proposal, an interesting idea popped into her head. Before Minato could speak again, Kushina stepped in front of Uchiha Yue and Kakashi and said, "Uchiha Yue, Hatake Kakashi, since you're both geniuses from the Academy, our first mission shouldn't be some ordinary D-rank task, right?"

"How about this!"

"I just saw a few C-rank missions today that look quite interesting. Why don't we take those instead?"

"What do you think?"