Naruto: Starting by Reading Minds in Naruto

”Good prospects, all three. Do you have the confidence to make capable shinobi of them?” Hiruzen asked, watching Tonbo tuck the files away.

”Absolutely.”

Even as he said it, Tonbo could read between the lines of the question well enough. This year’s graduating class was thin on talent, thinner than he’d expected. His own year had produced Guy, Kakashi, Obito, Shirakumo Hayama, Shiranui Genma, Kurenai, Asuma — a small crowd of future jōnin. Against that measure, calling Iruka excellent was generous. The boy would make a fine teacher one day, by all accounts, but as a student right now, the word felt like a stretch.

”Good. Go on, then — they’ll be waiting,” Hiruzen said.

”Yes, Hokage-sama.”

Tonbo let himself out. Behind him, the secretary at the Hokage’s side leaned in.

”Hokage-sama, isn’t Tonbo rather young to lead a squad?”

”Only shinobi capable of leading a team make chūnin here. That’s always been Konoha’s way. He’s a jōnin now — don’t doubt him.”

”Yes, Hokage-sama.”

At the Academy, the three genin-to-be waited restlessly.

”Wonder who our captain’s going to be,” Mibu Shinobu said, head wrapped in its usual bandages, only a little hair escaping at the crown.

”Would be something if it were Lord Mitokado,” Tessen Togekei said, spinning a shuriken idly between his fingers. Homura Mitokado, Konoha’s foremost tool master, had been something like a hero to him for years, and he’d long hoped to learn proper tool-craft under him someday.

Iruka sat apart from the other two, quiet, staring at nothing in particular. If his father hadn’t died, he thought, it might have been him leading a team like this one. He only surfaced from the thought when his teammates elbowed him back to the present.

”As long as I learn something, I won’t complain,” he said, managing a small laugh.

The Third’s words had pulled him out of the worst of his grief a year ago, and in the time since he’d found a new dream worth chasing — to teach, eventually, rather than simply fight. But the Third had also told him plainly that no one taught the shinobi path well without walking it first, and that was the part still ahead of him.

Footsteps sounded outside. All three looked toward the door.

The young man who stepped through wore a Ninja vest, hands loose in his pockets, his head wound entirely in bandages beneath a forehead protector pulled low over his eyes.

”Iruka Umino. Tessen Togekei. Mibu Shinobu.”

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”Present!” the three answered together.

”I’m your captain, Tobitake Tonbo, and I’ll remain so until the Hokage says otherwise. Ready to become shinobi?”

”Yes!”

”Good. Training Ground 98, tomorrow morning. Don’t eat too much beforehand — I’ll treat you to something after. Rest well tonight. There won’t be much of it once we start.”

He formed a hand seal and was simply gone before the last word had finished leaving his mouth.

”He just — vanished!” Mibu Shinobu said, wide-eyed.

”Body Flicker?” Tessen Togekei guessed.

”No,” Iruka said slowly, working through it. ”That looked more like the Shadow Clone Technique. Only jōnin learn that one.”

”So we’ve got a jōnin for a captain?” Mibu Shinobu brightened at once.

”Did either of you notice how young he looked, though?” Tessen Togekei added. With most of Tonbo’s face wrapped, it was hard to be sure of anything.

”Guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” Iruka said.

Out on the main street, Tonbo stretched and let out a slow breath. Somehow, without quite meaning to, he’d ended up a captain. All those years buried in the Analysis Team, and this was the first team of his own he’d ever properly led.

He had no interest in the sort of tricks the Third or Kakashi liked to play on new students — no bell tests, nothing cute. He’d rather see what the three of them could actually do before deciding how to teach them, and as their captain he’d need to earn at least a little of their trust first, with something more convincing than words.

Ebisu crossed his mind, unbidden — barely three and a half months a chūnin, and already turning into a fine teacher in his own right at the Academy. It was satisfying, in its way, watching Konoha’s next generation take shape one graduate at a time.

His feet carried him, without much conscious decision, back to Ichiraku. A rose woven from palm leaf sat ready in his hand, and he walked in wearing an easy smile.

”Ayame, look what your favorite customer brought you this time.”

Two pairs of eyes turned toward him before Ayame could answer, and his smile faltered.

”Yosh! How youthful — Tonbo’s found himself true love!” Guy gave him a blinding grin and a thumbs-up.

”Impressive,” Kakashi said, not looking up.

Ayame only laughed from behind the counter, took the rose, and set it among the other woven flowers already collecting in her vase.

”What are you two doing here?” Tonbo asked, settling onto a stool. Guy held Special jōnin rank now, and Kakashi full jōnin, and with Konoha stretched as thin as it was these days, free time for either of them was rare enough to be worth remarking on.

”Kakashi just got back from a job in the Land of Snow. I finished mine around the same time, so — dinner,” Guy said. Kakashi gave a short nod.

”Land of Snow. That’s a long way out. Ice and snow year-round, I hear, and supposed to be beautiful. Bring anything back?” Tonbo asked, filing the name away. If the Land of Snow was already connected to events here, there was no telling whether Naruto would end up there again someday, or what that place’s chakra-amplifying machinery might mean if it did.

”The daimyō’s changed hands there, and I nearly didn’t make it back myself. Forget souvenirs — I almost became one,” Kakashi said dryly.

”That’s a small country to nearly finish off a jōnin.”

”Don’t underestimate them. They’ve got devices that boost a shinobi’s strength considerably, and every one of their ninja can use Ice Release. Not a place to walk into carelessly.”

”Enough about me — still buried in the Analysis Team?” Kakashi asked.

”Just got pulled out of it, actually. Starting tomorrow I’m leading a squad — fresh graduates, straight out of the Academy.” Tonbo accepted the bowl Ayame set in front of him and pulled noodles up with his chopsticks.

”A baby squad! Perfect way to put it,” Guy said, laughing. ”Though we all came from one of those ourselves, once. Gets me a little fired up just thinking about it.”

Kakashi said nothing, though something in his face suggested he remembered his own graduating day rather less fondly than Guy did.