"Let me introduce myself. My name is Hatake Shinichi, and I'll be your jonin instructor for Team 7."
Shinichi gave a bored yawn, maintaining his usual lazy demeanor.
As for Naruto, who had tried to pull a prank, Shinichi had already tied him up and left him dangling in midair, enduring his teacher's loving punishment.
"As is customary, the three of you should introduce yourselves too."
Shinichi waved a hand and said casually, "Just consider it a formality. Help a certain shameless author pad his word count a little."
"Huh? That's your entire introduction, Shinichi-sensei?"
Sakura looked astonished.
"What else did you expect? Introductions are utterly useless. I've known Naruto and Sasuke for ages anyway. We already know each other very well."
Shinichi spoke as though it were obvious. "Besides, we'll be spending plenty of time together from now on. You can get to know us gradually, Sakura. Isn't that more useful than a couple of throwaway introductory lines?"
"Uh... I guess that makes sense."
Faced with Shinichi's formidable logic, Sakura was speechless, yet she couldn't find any reason to argue.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and my dream is to become a Hokage everyone acknowledges!"
The same familiar Naruto, with the same familiar dream.
"Sasuke Uchiha. My dream is to get stronger-stronger than my teacher."
Sasuke spoke with a cool expression.
Having never lived through the night of the clan massacre, his dream had now become catching up to Shinichi.
Shinichi wasn't particularly surprised by that. After all, the boy was a fiercely competitive little tsundere who only set his sights on catching up to people he respected.
Looking at it that way, Shinichi was actually rather pleased.
Apparently, he carried quite a bit of weight as a teacher in Uchiha Sasuke's heart!
"I'm Sakura Haruno. Rather than a dream... it's