Impatience

"Captain?"

Hearing that voice, Xia Yan instinctively gave a gentle smile, then turned to greet its owner.

He had already recognized the voice. Even if he had not, he would still have maintained that same courtesy. It was a habit he had developed over many years.

Yet the moment he turned around, his body stiffened slightly. He had suddenly remembered that he was very clearly on leave right now.

Why was Kakashi still calling him captain while he was on leave?

Xia Yan was a little bewildered, and Uchiha Sora, who had been watching him train the whole time, was equally puzzled.

Naturally, she had recognized the newcomer immediately. This was Kakashi Hatake!

Uchiha Sora and Xia Yan had been in the same class, and they had even shared a desk back then. As the class celebrity and an undeniable genius, Kakashi was someone practically everyone knew.

There had actually been quite a few students in Xia Yan's class back then. Or rather, every class had plenty of students; it was just that very few left their names in Konoha's history.

As he remembered it, Iruka's class during the original story had been quite a lively bunch. Besides the nine young standouts, there had been a whole crowd of nameless students.

In fact, those students had also graduated and been assigned to teams. They simply had not received the same treatment as those nine.

Xia Yan had actually noticed long ago that Konoha still used an elite selection system for its shinobi. While students were studying at the Ninja Academy, various tests were already being used to determine their talents.

Of course, their family circumstances also had to be considered, such as whether they came from a major clan.

Once everything had been settled, these students whom the higher-ups valued and intended to cultivate would face a new trial-an additional round of testing from their Jonin team leaders.

However, that round of testing did not focus on strength, because those children from major clans who had caught the higher-ups' attention were already far stronger than their fellow graduates.

Their strength had long since met the standard for Genin, so what needed testing was their temperament and character.

Only after passing this round of testing would they become seeds valued by the village and receive focused training.

Barring anything unexpected, these children would become Konoha's core strength once they grew up.

The higher-ups would even select some of them for special training, preparing them to inherit their positions in Konoha's center of power.

As for the children whose performance was unremarkable, or who came from civilian shinobi backgrounds, their circumstances were rather grim.

It was not that they had no opportunities. They would also have team leaders, but Jonin were a scarce resource, after all.

And these team leaders would not give them the same detailed guidance those children selected for focused training received.

These team leaders' task was to help newly graduated Genin quickly become familiar with the shinobi way of life and learn the various work procedures.

Along the way, they would also carefully check for any overlooked talents. If they found any, they would report them for proper training. If not, they would no longer concern themselves with them.

It could be said that ninety-nine percent of civilian shinobi were eliminated at this stage.

Especially during wartime, when the fighting was at its most desperate, civilian shinobi might not even get a chance to be assessed before being sent onto the battlefield.

As Xia Yan remembered it, his class back then seemed to have had more than fifty students, yet he knew the names of only a handful.

As for where the others had ended up, he was not too sure either.

Perhaps they had died, or perhaps they had simply never become famous, their existence eclipsed by Naruto and the others.

Except for Uchiha Sora, whose future he could more or less guess...

"Captain?"

Uchiha Sora looked at Kakashi in confusion. His appearance had surprised her as well, because she had heard a little about what had happened to him.

After something so terrible had happened, Kakashi must have been suffering terribly inside.

Apparently, Kakashi was now like solid ice, unbelievably cold and distant. No one could easily get close to him, not even his former friends.

But now Uchiha Sora found it rather strange. Judging by how Kakashi looked, he did not seem as cold as she had imagined.

And had he just called Xia Yan captain?

Wasn't Kakashi a genius? He had graduated and gone to the battlefield at five or six, and had become a Jonin long ago.

Why would someone so proud do that?

Besides, even if Kakashi were to call someone captain, surely it would only be his own team's leader-the current Fourth Hokage!

What on earth was going on?

Kakashi himself seemed to realize something was wrong. He truly had not anticipated this situation, and for a moment, he fell silent as well.

"Morning, Kakashi." Xia Yan felt a little helpless, but he still asked with a faint smile, "This is my first time seeing you at the training ground. That's a rare sight."

"Cap... Xia Yan, morning." Kakashi still seemed a little unused to addressing Xia Yan by name, but he quickly explained why he had come. "It's Lord Hokage. He wants to see you."

"Lord Hokage?" Xia Yan froze for a moment, and Uchiha Sora did too.

Lord Hokage wanted to see Xia Yan?

Uchiha Sora's expression grew even stranger. She truly could not understand what was going on.

Could Xia Yan be no ordinary shinobi at all, but someone who had earned such distinguished merits on the battlefield that even a genius like Kakashi had to acknowledge him?

While Uchiha Sora's thoughts ran wild, a smile soon appeared on Xia Yan's face.

It seemed that much of what he had done, especially what he had done with Kakashi, really had produced considerable results.

Although he still did not know exactly what the Fourth Hokage would say or do upon meeting him, Xia Yan knew this would definitely not be a bad thing.

At that thought, Xia Yan nodded seriously. "Understood. Shall we go now?"

Hearing this, Kakashi immediately shook his head. "No. Sensei meant for you to go in two days."

"In two days?" Xia Yan considered it for a moment and immediately understood Minato Namikaze's intent.

His leave ended in two days. As Hokage, Minato naturally could not deprive a subordinate of his leave, especially since leave was all the more precious for the Anbu.

Once he understood all this, Xia Yan also reined in his somewhat impulsive urge.

He had only just run into Root members last night. If he rushed off to see the Hokage now, that could create all sorts of troublesome issues.

Xia Yan silently reflected on himself. He felt that he might really have let the Flying Thunder God go to his head.

The power Xia Yan currently possessed was already quite decent by ordinary shinobi standards.

But compared with high-end power, he really did not measure up. Especially with his shortcomings in chakra, he hoped all the more to obtain superior ninjutsu that could also keep him alive.

Clearly, the Flying Thunder God was the ninjutsu best suited to him at this stage!

It was only natural that his mindset had shifted somewhat...