Teaching at the Ninja Academy

"This really is a headache." Yuun could only rub his forehead with a bitter smile. "He has teammates now too. We can't exactly force them to split up."

The two of them tracked down Hayate's address, only to find no one home. After discussing it several times, they decided they had no choice but to look for a teammate through the information Shibi Aburame had provided. Anything was better than having a random teammate assigned to them.

After discussing it with Hana for an entire afternoon, they ultimately decided to choose Mitaraishi Anko as their teammate. For one thing, there were simply too few Chunin close to Yuun and Hana's age. Finding a teammate in their twenties or thirties would feel strange no matter how they thought about it. Anko was the closest match, though she was still about six years older than them. The other reason was that Anko herself was quite capable. As Orochimaru's former disciple, she might not have been among the very strongest Chunin, but she was still one of the powerful ones.

The next day, Yuun and Hana informed Shibi Aburame that they had chosen Anko. Shibi Aburame then spoke with her and invited her to join Team 1. After roughly hearing about Yuun and Hana's situation, the easygoing Anko agreed to join. However, she refused to have Shibi Aburame as her teacher. Fortunately, once all of Team 1 had advanced to Chunin, Shibi Aburame's duties as their instructor had been completed. Helping Yuun and Hana find a teammate this time was merely a favor before he left.

After Shibi Aburame stepped down as Team 1's instructor, Yuun and Hana took the initiative to treat him to a lavish meal, using the rewards from the two missions they had completed independently. As Team 1's fourth member, Anko was invited as well. Wanting to get to know her teammates properly, she gladly accepted.

It had to be said that Anko's carefree personality was quite likable. Since both Anko and Hana liked dango, they quickly found common ground. Though Yuun was rather curious—one of them liked plain dango, while the other preferred meatballs. How did they even have anything in common?

Before long, though, Yuun found common ground with Anko as well. Neither of them liked spicy food, and they both felt as though they had found one of their own kind.

With Anko, who excelled at Fire Release and the Summoning Technique, joining them, the three-person team's strength had basically returned to the level it had been when Itachi was still around. In the blink of an eye, four years passed. Although Hana sometimes still clamored about going to the Uchiha clan to drag Itachi out, whenever the three of them occasionally ran into each other, they only nodded at one another from afar.

Over those four years, rumor had it that Itachi had already been promoted to Anbu squad captain, though no one knew exactly how strong he was. Yuun, meanwhile, was promoted to Jonin due to his exceptionally high mission completion rate and support from his clan. Hana's strength had improved as well, but she remained a Chunin. Recently, however, she had begun studying medical ninjutsu. Whether she intended to pursue the medical field was anyone's guess. Anko's Fire Release and Summoning Technique grew increasingly proficient. Based on those two achievements alone, granting her the rank of Special Jonin would not have been excessive, but for some reason, the village never replied despite several applications.

Lastly, there was Hayate, whom they had been unable to find before. During several missions after Anko joined, they occasionally ran into him. After talking, they learned that he had actually advanced to Chunin in the same year as Yuun and the others. Unfortunately, held back by his health, his strength had never improved much.

Under Yuun's leadership as a Jonin, Team 1 had completed more than sixty A-rank Missions and nearly two hundred B-rank Missions over the years, only declining S-rank Missions. No matter how dangerous the situation, Team 1 had always emerged unscathed. But today, Yuun faced an enormous problem.

"Even if you ask me, I can't tell." Looking at the two large dogs beside Hana gave Yuun a splitting headache. As Hana had grown older, she had become increasingly reckless. Now she had brought two female dogs over and asked him which one was better for breeding. Yuun was not from the Inuzuka Clan. How was he supposed to know what made for a better dog?

"Sigh, this is so hard to decide." Hana had not really expected an answer from Yuun. Sitting on the ground, she reached out to tease the two large dogs. Ever since the Grey Maru Brothers, who had grown up with her, retired two years ago, she had been depressed and unable to muster enthusiasm for anything. Yuun did not know how to comfort her.

"Why did you suddenly start thinking about this?" Yuun walked over and stroked the two docile dogs. Their sleek fur felt noticeably better to the touch than the Grey Maru Brothers' had.

"Because Kiba started at the Ninja Academy." Hana rubbed the dogs' heads. "It's time to prepare a ninja hound partner for him."

"You mean the descendants these two dogs will have?" Yuun asked curiously.

"No. The Inuzuka Clan's ninja hounds are specially bred, which is why they can cooperate with us in battle and maintain their combat ability for such a long time." At this point, Hana's expression became somewhat downcast. "The Grey Maru Brothers should have been able to keep fighting for much longer, but it's all because I took them into battle too many times over the past few years. They had to retire early."

"If they can't keep fighting, retirement is a good choice too." Yuun tried to comfort her and handed her a handkerchief.

"Hmph, I don't need your sympathy." Hana took the handkerchief and pulled a face before continuing, "Those two were specially selected two years ago. I couldn't decide which one was better at the time, so I simply chose both. Now I need to breed them. Later, they'll have a puppy that's already close to the standard of a ninja hound. Then that dog will have another puppy, and that one will be the ninja hound prepared for Kiba."

"That's so complicated..." Yuun shook his head speechlessly. It seemed he had overestimated the Inuzuka Clan's ability to breed ninja hounds. Raising combat-capable ninja hounds was so troublesome; training people directly would be much easier.

"It's not troublesome at all. A dog's best breeding age is between one and a half and three years old. We usually consider one and a half to two years old the ideal..." Before Hana could finish her lecture on dog knowledge, Anko, who had been quietly eating dango nearby, finally could not take it anymore. She picked up a skewer and stuffed a dango into Hana's mouth.

"Yuun, what does the Ninja Academy mean by this? Why do they want us to take turns teaching classes?" Anko was depressed beyond measure. Just a few days ago, she and Hana had received notice telling them to fill in at the Ninja Academy. It was only temporary, and they would be paid, but having been a troublesome child herself, she naturally understood how destructive troublesome children could be. From the bottom of her heart, she did not want to go.

"Maybe it's because the Ninja Academy's teachers have been retiring one after another these past two years, and no one has applied for the positions. If they weren't truly out of options, the school wouldn't ask people like you, who have absolutely no teaching experience, to fill in." Yuun explained with a smile.

"Mm, I wonder what the school will have us teach?" After finishing the dango Anko had stuffed into her mouth, Hana asked curiously.

"Heh, probably taijutsu or ninja theory or something like that." Yuun thought for a moment before answering.