Though everyone had expected Yuki to pass the exam, when he actually returned home with the ninja forehead protector, his mother still prepared a lavish meal to celebrate her son's success.
"Father, can our clan's influence reach inside the Ninja Academy?"
But at the dinner table, Yuki seemed to ask the question casually.
"For matters that aren't too complicated, the Ninja Academy will still give me some face. Do you have any requests regarding team assignments?"
Hiashi was, after all, an old hand in Konoha and a Ninja Academy graduate himself. The moment Yuki opened his mouth, he understood what his son was getting at.
Graduating from the Ninja Academy wasn't the end—it was merely the beginning of a ninja's career. There was actually quite a lot to consider afterward.
Konoha's training system for ninja typically followed a "three-genin, one-chūnin/jōnin" model, where one senior ninja led three student ninja on missions together. In this setup, team selection was actually a bit of a gamble.
From any perspective, the greatest influence on a fledgling genin was undoubtedly their team leader. Therefore, the instructor played an extremely vital role.
A good team leader could fully explore a student's potential, teaching according to their aptitude and thereby cultivating outstanding ninja.
A bad team leader, on the other hand, provided almost no help. To put it nicely, it was "letting students develop freely." To put it bluntly, it was simply abandoning them.
So when Yuki brought up the matter, Hiashi's first thought was which jōnin team would be best for his son.
Thanks to the Hyūga clan's intelligence network within Konoha, as the clan head, Hiashi immediately accessed information about the potential jōnin team leaders: Hatake Kakashi, Sarutobi Asuma, and Yūhi Kurenai.
Though all three were jōnin, from Hiashi's perspective, Asuma was undoubtedly the best choice. The other two weren't ideal.
After all, Asuma was the son of the "Professor," Sarutobi Hiruzen. Not to mention his strength, he had to be the top choice for training disciples among the jōnin. Kakashi was notorious for being late, and Yūhi Kurenai had only recently been promoted to jōnin, lacking experience. So, there really wasn't a good alternative.
"Yes, Father. Actually, I do—"
"Then join Sarutobi Asuma's team. That can still be arranged."
Huh? Hearing Hiashi's confident words, Yuki couldn't help but feel a cascade of black lines running down his forehead.
Who wants to join Asuma's team? What's the benefit of following an old-fashioned guy like him? Yuki quickly added, "No, Father, you might have misunderstood. Actually, I want to ask you to help assign me to Yūhi Kurenai's team."
What?! Hearing Yuki's incomprehensible request, Hiashi couldn't help but feel his own cascade of black lines.
"What are you trying to do now? You should know that Yūhi Kurenai is the least experienced and weakest among the jōnin leading teams this time. Why would you, the top scorer, want to join the bottom-ranked team?"
"What does that have to do with strength or experience? Anyway, I just want to go to her team. Let's just say I'm interested in genjutsu, okay?"
You—a guy who lives by punching things every day—interested in genjutsu? Isn't that bullshit? Though Hiashi didn't speak, that sentiment was clear in his eyes.
After a while, Hiashi sighed helplessly. "Fine. I'll put in a request to the higher-ups for you."
"Thank you, Father."
Only after Hiashi finally agreed did Yuki breathe a sigh of relief.
Truth be told, this matter had occurred to him suddenly after the exam today—it was about the team assignments for this year's genin.
Though there were only nine genin this time, the division into teams actually followed a very regular pattern and definitely wasn't random.
First, due to the special relationship among the Ino–Shika–Chō trio, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chōji, and Yamanaka Ino had to be assigned together. So no matter who the jōnin leader was, they would form one team.
Then, among the remaining six, the highest scorer would be taken first, followed by a middle scorer, and finally the lowest scorer. This formed the second team. Once the second team was set, the remaining three became the third team. It was that simple.
In the original story, Sasuke had the highest test score, and Naruto had the lowest. The two had to be on the same team, plus a middle-scoring Sakura, forming the original Team 7.
But now, the lowest scorer remained unchanged, while the highest scorer had been replaced by Yuki.
In other words, if he didn't ask his father to pull some strings, the members of "Team 7" would be Yuki, Naruto, and Sakura—a combination that could be described as "hair-raising."
Regardless of whether Naruto and Sakura grew up to become new Sannin or saviors later on, right now, Naruto was just a clueless idiot, and Sakura was a lovesick fangirl. Teaming up with those two? Please. Yuki might as well just wander off on his own—that would be easier.
Huff… I hope Father can pull this off. Seeing Hiashi leave immediately after dinner to handle the matter, Yuki could only pray silently at home.
Three days later, all the newly minted genin who had passed the exams gathered once more at the Ninja Academy for the team announcements.
"Hahaha! Yuki, look what this is!"
However, the moment Yuki entered the classroom, a blond boy bounced up and down in front of him, proudly displaying a forehead protector still slightly stained with blood.
"Oh, loot dropped from beating the silver-haired monkey. Not bad."
"Huh? What? And what's a 'silver-haired monkey'?"
Having long known this guy couldn't be kept down, Yuki wasn't surprised to see Naruto here—which left the latter feeling somewhat disappointed.
Not long after, their familiar teacher Iruka appeared again, holding a score sheet as he stood at the podium to explain the arrangements to the students below.
"In the future, the village will assign you missions. You will work in teams of three under the guidance of an appointed teacher and complete missions under your teacher's leadership."
At this point, Iruka glanced at the report card and continued, "To balance the strength of each team, I will decide the specific team allocations."
But even as he said this, when Iruka looked at the transcript again, a huge question mark appeared in his mind.
*Why? Why did the higher-ups instruct me to assign Yuki to Team 8? He has the best grades, yet the jōnin teacher he's assigned to is the least experienced?*
When Iruka received these instructions not long ago, his mind couldn't quite wrap around it.
If it were up to Iruka's own wishes, he had originally planned to assign Yuki and Naruto together. On one hand, the excellent Yuki could help the idiot grow faster; on the other hand, Yuki was already Naruto's friend. This allocation was actually quite reasonable.
But if Yuki was going to Team 8, then Uchiha Sasuke, the second-highest scorer, would have to be transferred to Team 7 instead. But that wasn't a bad arrangement either.
"Team 8 members: Hyūga Yuki, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino."
What? When Iruka-sensei on the podium announced the names, Kiba—who had been fidgeting and scratching—and Shino—who wore sunglasses even indoors—both turned their heads simultaneously toward the figure sitting in the corner.
My teammates are actually them? One's a chatterbox with ADHD and an inflated ego, the other's a mysterious top student who disappears for ages. What kind of combo is this?
With tacit understanding, Kiba and Shino exchanged a glance, then looked at Yuki at the same time.
Seeing his two future teammates looking at him, Yuki also smiled and waved in greeting.
Though over the past few years at the academy, Yuki hadn't had many opportunities to interact with Kiba and Shino—they'd probably exchanged fewer than ten sentences—they would be teammates for at least the next six months or so. It was still best to maintain a good relationship.
As for why "at least six months," it was because the next Chūnin Exams would begin in half a year. With Yuki's wandering nature, once he earned the title of chūnin, he wouldn't be staying in Konoha for long.
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