Shin'un had no choice but to take the initiative and approach his two teammates standing on the other side.
"Yūichi, now that we're teammates, let's get along from now on."
Looking at Shin'un's outstretched right hand, Yūichi took it without much hesitation.
"Fine. It's annoying that I can't beat you, but you're a reassuring teammate to have."
Shin'un smiled slightly at Yūichi's words.
Uchiha Yūichi had the Uchiha Clan's traditional cold-faced disposition, commonly known as a poker face. He looked unapproachable, but his personality was actually quite good, and his strength also put Shin'un at ease.
Shin'un didn't need to worry about Uchiha Yūichi causing problems with their three-man team's coordination in the future.
But the other one...
"Shiina Kō, let's get along from now on."
Just as he had with Uchiha Yūichi, Shin'un held out his hand to Shiina Kō.
"Of course, Shin'un."
Blushing, Shiina Kō reached out and took Shin'un's hand, gripping it firmly and shaking it up and down.
Looking at Shiina Kō before him, Shin'un felt a headache coming on.
It wasn't because he was worried about Shiina Kō's strength or her ability to work with the team.
The main reason was that Shin'un felt a little awkward having a girl on the team who had designs on him.
"Sigh..."
With a deep sigh, Shin'un accepted reality.
After all, aside from that one drawback, Shin'un was fairly satisfied with his two teammates.
Uchiha Yūichi came from the Uchiha Clan, so his strength and talent naturally spoke for themselves.
Although Shiina Kō came from an ordinary family, she had still advanced to the elite class through her own efforts. Aside from the talent that necessarily required, Shin'un knew very well how much effort it took.
Both had good potential for the future.
But what Shin'un valued most was that they were already fairly familiar with one another, saving them the process of getting to know each other and spending time developing their coordination.
They were much luckier than those assigned to a team with unfamiliar people, or even people from other classes.
After talking among themselves, they began waiting where they were for their team's leader.
Unfortunately.
In wartime, time was life.
In less than ten minutes, most of the dense crowd around the Konoha Gate had disappeared, with the majority already led away by their team leaders.
This left the few who remained feeling somewhat irritated.
Could we really be this unlucky? Our very first team leader has no sense of punctuality?
Shin'un frowned, his gaze roaming over their surroundings.
He had only been looking around out of boredom, but unexpectedly spotted someone familiar.
"Minato? Why are you still here?"
With his two teammates in tow, Shin'un approached Minato Namikaze's team.
"Hm? Shin'un."
Minato Namikaze had been bonding with his two teammates when he suddenly heard Shin'un's voice behind him and immediately turned around.
"Why haven't you left yet?" Shin'un was a little puzzled that Minato Namikaze was still here.
"Nothing we can do." Minato Namikaze frowned as he said,
"No team leader has come to take us away yet."
Frowning, Shin'un felt that something was strange.
After ten years, some details from the original Naruto story had long since blurred, but Shin'un couldn't possibly forget information about such an important character as Minato Namikaze.
Shin'un remembered very clearly that Minato Namikaze's team leader upon graduation was Jiraiya, one of the Sannin.
Jiraiya?
Shin'un suddenly remembered that this was wartime. As a student of the current Hokage, Jiraiya had gone to the battlefield early on. How could he possibly appear here?
"If that's the case, it makes much more sense for Minato Namikaze to still be here. He might be heading to the Land of Rain front with some team later."
Having vaguely worked out why Minato Namikaze was still here, Shin'un sighed in relief.
"Then why are we still here?"
Turning to survey his surroundings, Shin'un found that only his own team and Minato's were left.
If Minato's team was here because Jiraiya was on the front lines, then what was the reason for his own team?
Shin'un couldn't quite understand. Surely Jiraiya couldn't be the leader of both their teams.
Just then, a convoy suddenly approached along Konoha's distant streets.
Judging by the bulging loads of supplies, it was probably a convoy delivering supplies to the Land of Rain front.
Seeing that they were standing directly in the convoy's path, Shin'un hurriedly led the others aside.
As the convoy gradually approached, passed them, and headed out through the Konoha Gate, Shin'un put it out of his mind.
But suddenly, Shin'un saw a captain in the convoy who was clearly in charge finish the departure procedures with the gate guards, then walk straight toward them.
He turned to look to either side. Aside from Shin'un's and Minato Namikaze's teams, there was no one else around.
Clearly, this Jonin in a dark green Jonin vest had come specifically for Shin'un and the others standing there.
"Are you Teams Six and Seven, assigned from this year's graduating elite class at the Ninja Academy?"
Shin'un and Minato Namikaze exchanged a glance, then turned to the Jonin before them and nodded together.
Seeing the two nod, the Konoha Jonin smiled.
"Sorry for the wait. Moving the supplies at the warehouse took up some time."
"Come with me."
With that, he turned and headed straight toward the supply convoy outside the Konoha Gate without giving anyone a chance to speak, leaving Shin'un and the others standing there in bewilderment.
"What's going on? Is this our team leader?"
Uchiha Yūichi's puzzled voice sounded beside Shin'un.
"That can't be right. This Jonin just called both our teams over."
"I've never heard of two teams sharing the same team leader."
Even Minato Namikaze looked confused by this situation.
The members of the two teams stared at one another. Watching the unfamiliar Jonin move farther away, they finally decided to follow him first.
Quickly catching up with the Jonin ahead, Shin'un looked up at his face and confirmed that it was completely unfamiliar. He had no recollection of it whatsoever, which meant this person had never appeared in the original Naruto story.
"Excuse me, are you the team leader for both our teams?"
Wanting to find out, Shin'un asked.
Yūichi and the others following alongside them quickly pricked up their ears when they heard Shin'un's question.
"Me? Your team leader?"
"Of course not."
The Jonin replied with a puzzled expression.
"Then why are we following you to deliver supplies?"
"Strange. Didn't anyone tell you?"
The Jonin stopped and looked at the children behind him, speaking with a puzzled frown.
"Although you're not my students, I need to take you to the Land of Rain."
"Because your teachers are waiting for you on the Land of Rain front."
Hearing this, Shin'un felt a little puzzled.
Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, was in the Land of Rain, so Minato Namikaze naturally had to go there with them. But what were the three members of Shin'un's team going there for?
Could their team leader also be one of the Sannin?
A faint excitement stirred within Shin'un at the thought, and he asked directly,
"Then who are our teachers?"
The Jonin turned back around and continued walking as he replied,
"Jiraiya and Orochimaru."