58 Report

Reminiscent of the scene back when the gathered elites were observing the Academy's graduation exam, once more did they assemble in the Sandaime Hokage's office. This time, however, the jounin squad leaders were here for the purpose of reporting whether or not their team had passed the 'real' graduation exam.

"Is everyone here yet?" Someone asked, and the various shinobi looked around before another blankly replied, "One's missing… you know who."

Hiruzen shrugged, "Then we shall begin first."

"Hokage-sama! How long will you entertain that impudent man's disrespectful behavior?" One of the jounin asked, trying her best to keep her tone respectful while still calling attention to her frustration.

The Sandaime turned to the kunoichi who had spoken, "Hmm, I will give him a stern talking to when he arrives."

"But still-!"

Hiruzen frowned, "Jounin Akane. You forget yourself."

The pressure directed at Akane forced the kunoichi to blanch and fall to one knee, "M-my apologies, Hokage-sama! I meant no disrespect!" A drop of cold sweat creeped down the side of her forehead. One often forgot the sheer power the old man still contained due to his often grandfatherly disposition.

"Kakashi is a good shinobi, despite his bad habits. I know the two of you have some… history. But do not let your personal grievances take over your senses. Am I clear?"

Akane bit her bottom lip, nearly drawing blood. Her face flushed from the embarrassing mention of her past dalliance with that one eyed bastard. Neither of them was expecting anything beyond a casual fling, sure, but when he had pretended to not recognize her the very next day, saying shit like, 'huh, do I know you?', that infuriated her like nothing else. What's more, somehow the entire village seemed to have found out about it and rumors had spread.

Casual relationships between shinobi who lived on a knives edge between life and death were not uncommon but hearing people talk about how Kakashi had a one night stand with someone who he forgot about right after was just humiliating.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Forgive my impudence." She conceded, though the grudge she had against the jounin amplified manifolds.

The Sandaime was aware of Kakashi's bad reputation as being a tardy shinobi. However, after Hiruzen pulled the jounin out from ANBU, against the man's own wishes, to take on the role of jounin squad leader to a genins, the least he could do as the man responsible was to show some leniency towards his bad habits. Those habits were, after all, likely the man acting out after being dismissed as ANBU commander.

Hiruzen nodded, "Good. I shall forget your outburst. Now, let's start. Team One?"

"Team One fails, no redeeming qualities at all. My suggestion would be to send them back to the academy. They aren't even at the standard of the genin corp." One jounin stepped forward and reported as the other squad leaders of the various genin teams followed soon after.

"Team Eight passes." Kurenai reported when it was her turn. "They almost failed, but at the end they managed to pull through."

The Hokage leaned forward, interested in how three heirs of Konoha's most prominent clans nearly failed what should have been an ease for them, "Oh? Please elaborate."

All eyes landed on Kurenai and the newly promoted jounin confidently proceeded, "Of course, Hokage-sama. In the first place, the team dynamics was greatly disrupted because of a clash of personalities. Yamanaka Ino and Inuzuka Kiba both sought to take the lead which led to numerous arguments when neither refused to back down. The third member, Akimichi Choji, was content with being led around by the two, but there was little effort to mediate the conflict on his part."

"My test for them was simple; it was a scavenger hunt where they had to locate a few items which would reveal clues for the subsequent ones. Honestly, their biggest obstacle were themselves. Between the incessant arguments and lack of thought put into deciphering the clues, they only narrowly managed to find the last of the items. Had it not been for the Inuzuka's excellent tracking ability, they would have missed the cut off point altogether."

Hiruzen chuckled, "Ah yes, putting two opinionated and young, passionate shinobi together is often cause for dispute. Many a squad leaders have had to face such an issue, you are not the first and definitely not the last, Kurenai. I trust you will be able to handle them without issue." He fondly remembered the arguments between his own students - the hot-headed Jiraiya and the analytical but sarcastic Orochimaru, before his face fell as he recalled the latter.

Kurenai smiled at his comment. "That puts me at ease, Hokage-sama. Your confidence is much appreciated." she replied before stepping back to indicate the end of her report.

The Hokage nodded before turning to his wayward and only living son. "Asuma, report."

The younger Sarutobi looked irked at being the only one his father had called out by name, though he shouldn't have been surprised at such an attitude from him. It had always been this way.

His older brother, Katsuro, bless his soul, had always been the apple of his father's eye when he was still alive. The son who he had been the most proud of and his attempts at hiding this favour was poor, almost as if the old man were hinting to Asuma to work harder to gain his acknowledgement.

Being born in the Sarutobi clan, or rather, being born as the son of the legendary Shinobi no Kami, meant there was extreme pressure from all sides for Asuma to excel. Naturally, everyone around Katsuro and himself expected the both of them to live up to their father's sterling reputation. However, it wasn't the expectations from the village that pressured him, but his father's that eventually pushed him away. Although, his brother thrived under that pressure.

Katsuro was the obedient one, while he was the rebel. Katsuro graduated at 10, made chuunin at 14 and then ANBU commander at 20. Whereas Asuma only became jounin when he turned 18 before leaving to join the Twelve Guardian Shinobi. Their brotherly relationship was… fraught. He never hated Katsuro, not at all. But he couldn't stand that his only brother was often on his father's side whenever there was an argument when the two of them should have been standing together.

Asuma was distraught when he heard both Katsuro and his wife had died during a mission just a couple years back and sometimes, even till today, he wondered if his absence from Konoha was to blame. If only he had been around, would they still be alive to be there for their son, his nephew?

It was not his proudest moment when, out of cowardice, shame and guilt, he remained in the Capital city instead of returning to take care of Konohamaru. He even teared up upon receiving news that he was going to become an uncle back when Katsuro and his wife were still living. But he couldn't face Konohamaru, not after abandoning the village to join the Twelve Guardian Shinobi because of a petty argument with his father which he could hardly even remember what it was about.

But after some time had passed, he resolved himself to throw away his pride and swallow his guilt to return to Konoha. Largely for the purpose of being there for Konohamaru when he was growing up. Initially, he had been nervous. Anxious at the possible reactions the child would have upon learning of his uncle. But Konohamaru held no malice towards him at all. It seemed like the old man was not poisoning the child's mind with any accusations like he had been worried about.

Rather than the tense face off he had been expecting with his father when he returned, it was a lot more amiable than he thought it would be. His father looked to be glad he returned at the very least and welcomed him back. For a few days, Asuma was pleased to have been received warmly, even more so when he met Konohamaru and began spending time with him. But his relationship with his father quickly strained again.

Asuma worked hard to receive his father's acknowledgement, but to no avail. He had thought that after working 8 years tirelessly to protect the Land of Fire's Daimyo, there would be some form of an admission of pride from the stubborn old man. He was wrong.

Their confrontation started off again when his father, one day questioned who were the people he should have been protecting instead of the Daimyo. Implying that the 8 years he spent had been a complete waste of time in his father's eyes, and it would have been better spent serving the village and its people. Or even worse, that there might have been an undertones of an accusation for not being present to prevent his brother's death. What hypocrisy, he had thought, when the old man spouted off about the will of fire.

Although, if Asuma was being honest, for a moment he finally understood what his father was talking about. When he faced off against his new genin team and watched with such pride at the new generation of the village's protectors, he could understand what the will of fire truly meant to the Hokage. Not that it would repair their already seemingly irreparable relationship.

"Team Ten passed." He brusquely answered and stepped back, not wanting to converse with the man any longer than he needed to.

A snide comment came from one of the jounins that sounded something like, 'pfft, duh, you got like the best team'.

The Hokage shared no such thoughts however and pressed for more information, "Elaborate, Asuma."

Groaning, Asuma continued, ignoring the glare sent his way by the Hokage for the show of disrespect, "What more can I say? They succeeded with flying colours. They tracked me down in under two hours from the little clues I sprinkled during an hour long conversation before I even told them about the details of the test, demonstrating excellent situational awareness and attention to detail. Then they worked together to give even myself some trouble when attempting to retrieve their mission objective. Or rather, they actually succeeded in retrieving it."

At that revelation, several of the gathered jounin audibly reacted while one spoke up, "Genins got the drop on you, Asuma? Man, your time at the Capital must have made you rusty huh?"

The Sarutobi glanced in annoyance at the speaker, "Tsk, don't go running your mouth off if you don't know what happened, Kenji."

The now identified Kenji raised both his hands in mock surrender, "Alright, chill man, I was just teasing. So what did happen?"

Now that his reputation was on the line, as well as his team's, Asuma looked to be more serious in reporting the circumstances that led to his team's passing.

"All three of them are talented shinobi, above the average genin in most aspects. Hyuuga Hinata displayed excellent proficiency in her clan's Gentle Fist, even managing to close two of my tenketsu at one point. Although I'm not a Hyuuga so I can't be too sure about the specifics, I can tell Hiashi has trained her well."

"Aburame Shino has a tactical mind beyond his years and possesses the cold, rational disposition that is characteristic of his clan. Again, like Hinata, I can't make an accurate judgement of his expertise with his clan's techniques, but from I had observed, he has little to prove in that regard."

"And Shinji Ikari, well," Asuma paused and pondered on how much to share without spilling too much of his disciple's secrets. A successful shinobi was one that could the tricks up his sleeves concealed. Too much publicity was contradictory to the purposes of said tricks. "He is the obvious leader of the trio, taking charge and strategizing their approach. He well deserves his title as Rookie of the Year and has shown that he is well versed in many aspects of the Shinobi Arts. I'm sure many of you have already heard the rumors of how he had been hiding his true skills in the Academy. Let me just say those rumors were not unfounded."

Just as the other jounin wanted to ask for Asuma to share more, the door opened and in walked the tardy Kakashi, calmly reading his copy of Icha Icha Violence.

The Hokage lazily glanced at the jounin, "You're late, Kakashi."

The one eyed jounin scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, "Ah my bad, I got lost on the road of life."

Hiruzen looked unamused at the answer and sternly replied, "Keep a map on yourself, so you won't be late next time."

"Roger." He sloppily saluted before stepping in to the line with the rest of the jounins.

"Since you're here, you can report on your team's status." The Sandaime ordered.

Akane gritted her teeth while glaring at the man. How in the world was that a stern talking to!?

"Hmm? Is it my turn already? Sure." The jounin replied, acting as if he had been here the whole time waiting for his turn while the rest just deadpan scowled at the cheek.

"Team Seven… passes." Kakashi began recounting what happened in his test.

*Flashback*

Team Seven was able to look underneath the underneath and discover the true purpose of the bell test.

*Flashback end*

"…that's about it. End report." Kakashi concluded, going back to reading his book.

"What the hell do you mean end report, you barely said anything!" Everyone in the room chorused, screaming at the lazy jounin for his less than descriptive account of the test.

"Really? I thought that was pretty detailed." With one pinky scratching his ear, Kakashi lazily responded.

The Sandaime's eyebrow twitched, "Last chance, Kakashi. Do it properly."

Sensing the seriousness in his tone, the one eyed jounin put away his book and prepared to give a long, detailed, and needlessly protracted recounting of what actually happened.