The Teacher's Family Had a Not-So-Cute Junior

"That guy has never done a D-Rank Mission!"

A child of about four or five walked onto the training field and bluntly shattered Yahiko's admiration for Qi Luna.

The child looked only four or five years old. His short, silver-white hair stood out, and a small mask covered the lower half of his face, leaving only a pair of dark, lazy, dead-fish eyes visible.

His whole demeanor was utterly at odds with his age—calm, even... cold.

He wore a slightly casual set of training clothes, with a matcha-colored scarf patterned in dark green around his neck. He hadn't become a ninja yet, and hadn't even enrolled in the Ninja Academy, but his composed air made him stand out among the noisy children.

Ignoring the commotion around him, he walked straight toward an empty balance beam.

Chunin instructor Yamada, who was in charge of observing and recording the students' performance, immediately went over.

"Kakashi? Why are you here again? Didn't I tell you? You're still too young to enroll, aren't you?"

Kakashi looked up and answered calmly. His voice was very young, but utterly even.

"I'm just doing some regular Taijutsu training. I thought I'd get familiar with the place while I was here."

Yamada didn't say anything. The training field was semi-open to the public, after all, so it wasn't unusual for people from outside the Ninja Academy to come train.

Just as Kakashi was about to use spins, leaps, and fancy flips to cross the balance beam, an "evil" little hand grabbed his collar and hoisted him into the air.

"What did you mean by that just now? You seem to know a lot about Qi Luna!"

Kakashi didn't resist. He simply let Yahiko hold him up.

"Hey, you bastard, aren't you going to rein in your idiot subordinate?"

"Well, you're as unlikable as ever."

"Teacher Sakumo is always busy, but this kind of training doesn't need anyone supervising you, does it? I doubt your family doesn't have the equipment for this kind of practice..."

"Come on, what are you doing here?"

"None of your business."

Kakashi shot back.

Looking at this not-so-cute junior from his teacher's family, Qi Luna couldn't bring himself to like the future "Sixth," the "Copy Ninja," one bit.

"What did you mean when you said Qi Luna hadn't done any D-Rank Missions?"

Yahiko turned the questioning back to Qi Luna's mission history. If he couldn't get an answer from Qi Luna himself, he'd ask someone else who might know.

Qi Luna's first instinct was to stop the information from getting out. But then he remembered that he'd already left Anbu, and there wasn't much need to conceal his old records, so he said nothing.

Kakashi thought for a moment, then recalled the exact figures.

"After that bastard became a ninja, he only completed one C-Rank Mission. Then he went to the front lines with Konoha's reinforcements, sent to the Amegakure front during the Second Ninja World War. His wartime record: thirty-seven B-Rank Missions, eleven A-Rank Missions..."

As he spoke, he turned toward Qi Luna. For the first time, a hint of real seriousness showed in his dead-fish eyes.

"And one classified mission rated above S-Rank!"

"And that bastard's mission completion rate was... one hundred percent!"

At those words, it was as if the air itself had frozen.

Yahiko's mouth fell open, and even his orange hair seemed to stiffen. His jaw nearly hit the ground.

"Above... above S-Rank?! And his completion rate was an unbelievable one hundred percent?! That's ridiculous!"

Konan stopped folding her paper. Her amber eyes were full of shock.

Even Nagato, who had been silent all this time, widened his Rinnegan slightly. He stared at Qi Luna in disbelief.

They all knew their teacher was strong, but he'd completed nearly fifty high-level missions as a Genin, with an unbelievable one hundred percent success rate...

And when they heard that Qi Luna had completed a mission rated above S-Rank, Nagato and Konan couldn't help remembering the first time they'd met him: the famous battle in which the "Konoha Sannin" made their names—the battle that had given rise to the title "Konoha Red Peak"!

Qi Luna rubbed his forehead helplessly and looked at Kakashi's dead-fish eyes.

"Kakashi, those records from before I joined Anbu..."

But before Qi Luna could say anything else, Yahiko exploded. He hoisted Kakashi a little higher, bringing him level with his own eyes, and demanded again:

"Hey, silver-haired brat, how do you know all that? You even remember the exact number of missions! Who are you, anyway? And why do you call Qi Luna 'that guy' or 'bastard' instead of something else?"

Dangling in midair, Kakashi kept his vacant dead-fish stare. He wasn't the least bit flustered. Instead, he shot Yahiko a look that said he thought him an idiot, then answered in an utterly flat voice.

"Didn't that bastard just tell you? I'm a kid from his teacher's family. All his mission records have copies in Anbu's archives. Father sometimes mentions that bastard's 'achievements'! Especially how, whenever he visits our house, he tries to hang me up with his Adamantine Chains and makes Father watch to ensure I don't start molding chakra early!"

His voice turned a little resentful at the end. After a pause, he added one more devastating remark.

"And, Senior Yahiko, please put me down. Also, your intelligence gathering, analysis, and ability to avoid exposing yourself could all use improvement..."

"Do you really want the enemy to learn that bastard's old mission history? Even if it's outdated, there's still plenty of useful information in it! Idiot!"

"I-Idiot?!"

Being called an idiot to his face by a kid who looked only four or five, Yahiko's face instantly flushed bright red. He was embarrassed and furious, but when he looked into those listless dead-fish eyes, his retort caught in his throat. He couldn't get a single word out...

All he could do was reluctantly put Kakashi back on the ground.

Konan couldn't help covering her mouth as she laughed, and a helpless smile flickered across Nagato's eyes.

Qi Luna stepped forward, gently ruffled Kakashi's soft silver hair with one large hand, and smiled warmly.

"Come on, Kakashi. Yahiko's just... a little simple-minded."

"And stop calling me 'bastard' all the time. I'm not letting you mold chakra yet because doing it too early can drain your body's potential, stunt your growth, and lower your ultimate chakra capacity."

"Besides, you don't need to go to the battlefield right now, so there's no need to rush to get stronger. It's better to take things slowly, one step at a time."

Ignoring Kakashi's eye roll, Qi Luna then looked at Yahiko and the others, who had finished processing what they'd heard and seemed to realize that Qi Luna had fooled them.

"Don't put too much stock in mission ranks. There's no hierarchy of worth among missions, only differences in importance and urgency. What matters is the attitude you bring to a mission and the value of carrying it out!"

"If the village didn't have a large number of D-Rank Missions for its Genin to practice on, the Genin wouldn't get familiar with the mission process, ease their financial burdens, or learn from experience and mistakes along the way. It would be many times harder for them to grow!"

"Take the mission to catch Tora, for example. Whether it's gathering intelligence, setting traps, ambushing, or chasing down and surrounding the target, you can get excellent practice without putting yourselves in danger."

"And the client's smile after the mission is done—that's part of what makes the mission meaningful, too."

Additional note:

Madam Shijimi should still be a beauty at this point in time; otherwise, the daimyo probably wouldn't have married her. Of course, it's also possible that she wasn't slender and that they were together only because of a political marriage.