Yamada Jumoku asked curiously,
"Even Asuma-sensei doesn't know? Could it be that our teacher is completely unknown?"
He looked a little disappointed.
After all, he felt that Kimoto Tōichi seemed to be very strong — surely someone of such strength must be a remarkable ninja.
Asuma noticed Yamada Jumoku's mood and quickly added,
"That shouldn't be the case. As far as I know, every instructor who leads a new team of students is at least a jōnin."
"Your teacher must be one as well. It's just that… even I don't know every ninja in Konoha Village."
Hearing that, Yamada Jumoku felt a bit better.
Although he had been terrified of Kimoto Tōichi during their initial assessment, he was also relieved — it meant their teacher was a powerful ninja.
To follow a powerful teacher meant one could become strong faster.
That was Yamada Jumoku's belief.
At that moment, Shikamaru asked curiously,
"You said earlier that your instructor's test almost got you killed? What happened?"
He couldn't believe it — it was just a team assessment, right? No way it could be that harsh.
Asuma also turned to Yamada Jumoku, frowning slightly.
He didn't approve of instructors using overly cruel methods on their students.
Even Kakashi wouldn't put his students in real danger.
Asuma began to worry that Kimoto Tōichi might have used brutal means in his test.
It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened — though such things were strictly forbidden in Konoha.
Yamada Jumoku glanced at Yoruha before speaking,
"It wasn't really anything special… it's just that our teacher used some kind of mental jutsu on us. It nearly broke our minds."
"If it hadn't been for Yoruha, Toko and I might've actually died."
Now that he thought back to Kimoto Tōichi's oppressive aura, Yamada Jumoku realized that the pressure had probably been directed at Yoruha.
Otherwise, Kimoto wouldn't have looked at him that way.
Most likely, the brunt of that overwhelming presence had been focused entirely on Yoruha — while he and Toko had only suffered a fraction of it.
Yoruha was in the middle of putting a piece of grilled meat into his mouth when suddenly Asuma, Shikamaru, and Ino all turned to stare at him in unison.
He blinked in confusion.
"What? What's wrong?"
He hadn't been listening to their earlier conversation — the array of grilled meats on the table was far more interesting to him.
Yoruha had lived in this world for twelve years and had never made many friends.
Other than training, food was his only real joy.
Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Yoruha tilted his head, puzzled.
Asuma, however, was even more puzzled.
He had read Yoruha's file before — the boy had shown nothing special at the Ninja Academy.
So why did Yamada Jumoku speak of him as if he were some kind of prodigy?
After a moment of thought, Asuma asked,
"When your teacher used that mental jutsu on you, what did it feel like?"
Yamada Jumoku thought for a while, then replied,
"It felt like I was standing on a mountain of corpses, surrounded by a sea of blood… countless ninjas were rushing at me. I felt myself being stabbed dozens of times, over and over, unable to escape that nightmare."
When he finished, Motonoya Toko shuddered at the memory, still terrified.
Kimoto Tōichi's oppressive presence had left a lasting shadow in her heart — one she would probably never forget.
From Yamada Jumoku's description, Asuma began to guess what kind of technique Kimoto had used… and roughly inferred his background.
"No wonder I've never heard his name," Asuma murmured.
"He's probably someone who came out of the Anbu."
"Anbu?"
Everyone except Yoruha looked at him in confusion.
Asuma took a slow drag on his cigarette and explained,
"Yeah. The Anbu — they're a special division in Konoha Village. They protect the village from the shadows, an organization made up of extremely powerful ninjas."
It was the first time most of them had heard of such a group.
Even Shikamaru, despite being from a prestigious family, didn't know much about it — or perhaps had simply never paid attention to such things.
Shikamaru gave Yoruha a long, thoughtful look.
From the way Asuma described it, he could sense how dangerous and elite the Anbu were.
Yet Yoruha had endured the mental pressure of a ninja like that.
Asuma was thinking the same thing. He glanced at Yoruha again — the boy was still calmly eating his grilled meat, completely absorbed in his food while everyone else had stopped eating.
The dishes on the table seemed to hold far more of Yoruha's attention than their conversation.
Asuma knew very well what kind of power an Anbu jōnin possessed.
And since every team instructor this year was a jōnin, that meant Yoruha's teacher must be one too.
An Anbu-level jōnin — Asuma understood all too well how terrifyingly strong that was.
For Yoruha to withstand that kind of mental assault and still sit there as if nothing had happened… it said a lot about him.
But Yamada Jumoku, oblivious to the looks exchanged between Asuma and Shikamaru, was completely stunned by what Asuma had just said.
"Anbu… so that means Kimoto-sensei is really powerful!"
"As expected of our teacher!"
Yamada Jumoku only cared whether Kimoto Tōichi could teach him powerful ninjutsu and make him a strong ninja.
To achieve those things, his teacher's strength had to be real.
Shikamaru looked at Asuma.
Asuma shook his head slightly — a silent signal not to press further.
Shikamaru had wanted to ask Yoruha for more details, but seeing Asuma's expression, he dropped the idea.
After that, Asuma didn't ask any more about their team's test.
Still, he made a mental note of it, planning to discuss it later with Kakashi.
A freshly graduated genin who could endure an Anbu jōnin's genjutsu?
That was far too strange.
And during his Academy years, Yoruha had been completely unremarkable.
How could he suddenly possess such resilience?
Was it just a matter of unusually strong mental energy?
All of it, Asuma decided, would need further investigation.
Yoruha, meanwhile, had no idea what Asuma was thinking.
Even if he did, he wouldn't have cared.
He didn't believe he had done anything extraordinary — his spiritual power was simply a bit stronger than average, that was all.
When the barbecue was over, Yoruha and the "Ino–Shika–Cho" trio, along with Yamada Jumoku and Motonoya Toko, had all grown a little closer.
That evening, as they were heading home, Yamada Jumoku said to Yoruha,
"Yoruha, my place isn't on the same route as Toko's. You should walk her home."
Before Yoruha could protest, Jumoku ran off.
Yoruha was left standing there, confused.
Meanwhile, Motonoya Toko's fair cheeks turned crimson.
Yoruha frowned.
"What's with that guy? Does he have something urgent to do?"
He really thought Jumoku had just remembered something important.
Toko kept her head down in embarrassment, her toes lightly kicking at the ground without saying a word.
Yoruha turned to look at her and smiled faintly.
"All right, I'll walk you home then."
After all, it was late. Even if she had already graduated from the Academy and was technically a ninja now, she was still a girl — and from a wealthy family at that.
Who knew if someone might try to kidnap her?
Toko nodded shyly.
She had admired Yoruha ever since that day at the training ground, when he'd faced Kimoto Tōichi's crushing aura without flinching.
And Yoruha was quite handsome, too.
At their age, it was only natural to start feeling attraction toward the opposite sex.
Yoruha, however, didn't really see her as a peer — more like a kid.
His mental age was that of an adult, after all.
Even though he thought Toko was very pretty for a moment, it was purely in a fond, older-brother sort of way.
He simply thought, "Having such a cute little sister wouldn't be bad."
As the two of them walked side by side down the brightly lit streets, they looked, to passersby, like a perfect pair of young lovers — a handsome boy and a beautiful girl.
Several people even turned to look back at them.
Both of them were good-looking, after all.
Some pedestrians even assumed they were a couple.
In this world, after all, people tended to mature early — it wasn't rare to see kids their age already dating.
And with Toko's shy expression and the faint blush on her cheeks, it was almost impossible not to misunderstand.
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Advance chapters at Ko-Fi (currently at Chapter 110)
https:// ko-fi.com/sami27