Team 7 and Team 8

Toru kept a smile on his face throughout, which Nara Shikaku found incredibly mocking, as if Toru were saying that even as a jonin, Shikaku had been outsmarted by a mere genin.

The more Shikaku thought about it, the more annoyed he became. He shifted his tone and began, "Although your mission was a success, that doesn't mean your performance was perfect."

"First, your formation was unstable. It was broken by nothing more than a simple kunai trap of mine. If I had chosen to kill your client at that moment, the mission would have ended right there."

"Second, your power wasn't concentrated. The offensive duties were rotated between Asuma and Toru, while Yuhi Kurenai was the only one guarding. If the enemy had been more numerous or stronger, you could have easily been picked off one by one."

"Finally, Uchiha Toru's battle plan wasn't sound. For starters, the mountains on either side weren't necessarily unstable enough to be collapsed by explosive tags."

"Furthermore, even if the collapse had succeeded, your enemies wouldn't necessarily have been wiped out. For example, I could have used the Shadow Touch Jutsu to wrap myself in my own shadow. Other ninjas skilled in defensive jutsu could also have survived a mountain collapse."

The flaws Shikaku pointed out might have seemed like nitpicking, but they were grounded in reality and not just empty criticism.

Therefore, Toru nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Shikaku was satisfied. "Alright, you've worked hard on your assessment. I'll take you out to eat. What do you want?"

Asuma said in a low voice, "I have no preference."

Shikaku turned to Toru and Kurenai. Kurenai smiled and pointed at Toru, saying, "He definitely wants to have BBQ again."

Toru admitted it frankly, "I actually do want some."

Nara Shikaku pulled out his wallet, checked it carefully, and said, "BBQ... alright, then let's have BBQ."

Toru caught the hint of reluctance in Shikaku's tone and teased, "So even jonin get strapped for cash?"

Shikaku touched his chin, embarrassed, and said, "Ah, it's just that my wife handles all my salary. But I should be able to afford one meal of BBQ."

Perhaps this was the tragedy and stubbornness of a middle-aged man.

BBQ Q had been open in Konoha for a few years now, and it had grown quite popular.

Fortunately, the four of them arrived early, so there were still empty tables.

Shikaku walked into the restaurant, and a waiter greeted them enthusiastically, "Welcome, is it for four?"

Shikaku nodded. Just as the waiter was about to lead them to a seat, Shikaku pointed in a certain direction. "No need, we'll just sit over there."

Yuhi Kurenai looked in the direction Shikaku pointed and saw a familiar head of yellow hair.

Kurenai looked at Toru, unsure, and asked, "Toru, is that...?"

Toru smiled and nodded. "You aren't seeing things. That is Jonin Minato."

"Namikaze Minato?" Asuma looked up upon hearing the name. He often heard his father mention it, and his father held him in high regard.

It was precisely because Shikaku saw Minato that he chose to sit there.

Shikaku led Toru and the others over. Minato naturally noticed Shikaku and greeted him with a bright smile, "Long time no see, Jonin Shikaku. Oh? Are these your students?"

Minato greeted the three of them, looking somewhat surprised to see Toru and Kurenai among them.

Shikaku said, "Yes, none of these three are easy to handle."

Namikaze Minato laughed and invited Shikaku's group to sit at the table right next to theirs.

Toru noticed that the three people with Minato were Kakashi, Obito, and Rin. He sighed inwardly, So the team assignments were arranged long ago. Nothing is ever just a coincidence.

Although Kakashi was a chunin, he had been called back due to his age, experience, and various other reasons to form Team 7 with Obito and Rin.

Kakashi and the others greeted Toru and Kurenai as well.

Both tables were filled with colleagues and classmates, and since today happened to be the first team-building day for both groups, the atmosphere was lively.

However, Toru wasn't concerned with the atmosphere; he only cared about whether they had ordered the meat and if there was white sugar for dipping.

"Did you run an exercise today too?" Minato asked curiously.

He was a jonin instructor for the first time and lacked experience, so he wanted to understand how other jonin handled it.

Shikaku glanced at Minato, thinking the man was a bit of a natural airhead; of course, the first day of forming a team was for drills to build synergy.

Still, Shikaku detailed the day's exercise. "That's right. We did a simulated escort mission, and I played the enemy."

Minato was instantly interested. "Oh? How did you manage that? I only know the bell test, which I learned from Master Jiraiya."

"Hah, it was nothing much. I just used a scarecrow as the client and had them escort it. But the performance of this kid, Uchiha Toru, was quite interesting." Shikaku recounted the escort drill exactly as it had happened.

Minato found it fascinating and praised Shikaku's idea as well as the performance of the three students.

Nearby, Obito heard about the escort mission and sighed with envy, "An escort exercise sounds fun. Not like our team—the three of us have to grab bells, but we can't even touch Master Minato."

Minato scratched his cheek in embarrassment and let out a few awkward laughs.

Rin silently agreed with Obito's sentiment; after all, the three of them were still too green to fight Minato, so the bell test was inevitably a grueling experience.

Kakashi didn't care about that; his focus was on Toru's performance as described by Shikaku.

Hearing that Toru had received high praise from both Shikaku and Minato, Kakashi's competitive spirit flared once more.

I'm still only a chunin, he thought, but Toru has already been recognized by Jonin Shikaku and Master Minato as having the level of a Special Jonin. It seems I've fallen behind again.

Kakashi, carrying his father's White Fang Short Sword, wore a look of stubbornness that was painful to watch.

As Asuma watched Kakashi sitting at the far end of the table, he felt a strange sense of comfort. "Even Kakashi can't beat Uchiha Toru..."

Perhaps in Asuma's heart, in a certain sense, it was a tragedy to be born in the same era as Toru.

The culprit, Uchiha Toru, was currently at the back of the kitchen asking for a jar of white sugar. When he returned, he noticed the unusually low spirits of Asuma and Kakashi, leaving him baffled.

But soon, the aroma of the BBQ made Toru push the matter to the back of his mind.

BBQ dipped in white sugar was a unique way of eating that Toru was particularly fond of.

After a pleasant meal, Shikaku's wallet was visibly thinner, and he headed home, worried.

Asuma went home alone, and Toru walked Kurenai home before returning to his own place.

At dusk, Toru arrived in his courtyard.

A jet-black crow was perched before the gate, turning its head to look at Toru curiously.

Toru used his Six Eyes to confirm that the crow was just an ordinary bird, not a ninja animal of any kind.

He formed a special hand seal, and a black line instantly extended from his own shadow, merging into the shadow of the crow.

The crow's body was instantly immobilized.

"Success."

Toru's Six Eyes had finished analyzing the shadow secret technique. He discovered that the chakra used for this technique wasn't one of the five standard elemental natures, but a special type of chakra containing pure spiritual energy.

For anyone else, even knowing the principle, it would take years to potentially master it.

But Toru was different.

After all, Cursed Energy was a form of pure spiritual energy.

That's right—the Shadow Possession Jutsu Toru was using wasn't the genuine article.

Toru wasn't yet proficient in the principles of Yin Release, so this was just a "magic-modified" version of the Shadow Possession Jutsu achieved by using Cursed Energy as a shortcut.

"Shadow... Cursed Technique..."

"Why do I feel an inexplicable rejection toward combining these two things?"

A strange feeling welled up in Toru's heart, seemingly related to his past life.

"Forget it, let me name it first."

"I'll call it... Shadow Cursed Technique."

In this world, Toru had created his very first cursed technique.