Although Kamishiro Kirito said he had the list containing details of every squad and its members, he still chose to be a dick and didn't share anything with the students, leaving them with a stomach-full of burning curiosity that was almost painful (mentally).
Still, each graduating student of the Class 1-S was a genuinely competent ninja.
So, even though they cursed Kirito in their minds, they stayed calm and waited for the next instruction.
Fortunately for them, Kirito didn't toy with them for long.
Kirito smiled slyly and said, "Okay. It's time to meet your team members and form squads."
"But before that, you will follow me to the academy training ground. After all, apart from this one, there are three more S-grade classes. And some of your teammates may very well be from those classes."
Clap…
Kirito clapped his hands and reminded, "Now, follow me."
With that, Kirito stepped down from the podium and walked toward the exit of the classroom, signaling the students, to be more precise, the newly minted official Konoha ninjas, to follow his lead.
The young boys and girls looked at each other, doubt, curiosity, nervousness, excitement, all kinds of emotions flashed in their eyes.
Soon, the students set aside their thoughts and simply followed Kamishiro Kirito to the training ground, eager to learn who they would team up with.
----------------------
Soon, Kamishiro Kirito led the young ninjas to the largest academy training ground.
As Seimei and others entered the training ground, they saw two other S-class teachers leading their students there.
As for the other S-class students and their teacher…they were already there, waiting for the others to arrive.
The teacher looked at the other three classes approaching and snorted.
His name was Asakura Ren, a veteran Elite Jonin of Konoha and the homeroom teacher and main instructor for the graduating 2-S class.
The same 2-S class that lost to Seimei and his 1-S team three years ago in the inter-class tournament hosted by the Central Ninja Academy, featuring the top seven students from each of the four second-year S-grade classes.
Noticing Asakura Ren's signature gloomy face from a distance, Kamishiro Kirito grinned and waved his hand enthusiastically.
"Yo, Ren. Why the long face?"
Hearing that, Ren scoffed at Kirito and the other two teachers. "Took you guys long enough."
Kirito smiled, "Now, now…don't give me that face. We arrived at the right time. It was you who arrived too early."
Ren retorted, "I never imagined distributing ninja registration IDs and forehead protectors could take this long. As responsible ninjas, how could you waste so much time?"
Before Kirito could reply, the female teacher from class 3-S snapped at them. "Enough, you two. We don't have all day to watch your fruitless, useless bickering. Let's get back to the job in front of us already."
The male teacher of class 4-S adjusted his glasses by pinching the frame, making them glint for a brief moment. "Yes, it's time to form the squads. Then, we will have to report to Hokage-sama as well."
Hearing this, Kirito and Ren looked at each other before saying at the same time.
"Very well."
"Got it."
Meanwhile, Seimei watched all this with a deadpan face.
Can you guys move it already? He inwardly complained.
Soon, the teachers whispered a few things before declaring a few more important things.
For example, the graduating students could go to the Hokage Office and select three jutsu, whether it's ninjutsu, genjutsu, kenjutsu, or special taijutsu. Of course, the techniques they could choose were capped at B-rank.
This was one of the privileges of graduating as a Chunin-ranked ninja from the highly competitive S-grade classes.
Hearing this, most students were indeed thrilled, especially the ninjas who came from civilian lineages and small to medium-sized ninja clans.
Even kids from some first-tier clans were interested. After all, who could reject the allure of the unknown ninja arts? Sure, the first-tier clans like Aburame, Hino, Nara, and Sarutobi had a rich library of jutsu.
But it still wouldn't hold a candle against the resources of the top-tier clans with at least thousands of years of history, such as the Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, and Uzumaki.
So, to the young ninjas from the top-tier clans, this particular privilege was nothing exciting.
They had unique secret techniques, special training methods, and thousands of jutsu, whether related or unrelated to their Kekkei Genkai or special circumstances, as a result of their thousands of years of accumulation.
Most of them had already developed a complete combat system with a host of ninja arts that complemented and strengthened each other under the supervision and guidance of their clan elders.
Their main goal for joining the S-grade class was to get access to the rare training resources, medicines, knowledge, and combat experiences, which they had thoroughly acquired in the last five years of their ninja academy life.
Second, since each graduating S-class student had the rank of Chunin, they were entitled to receive a whole set of necessary ninja tools and potions, including two Chunin-grade ninja flak jackets.
The ninja tools included a set of twenty kunai, two hundred shuriken, fifty senbon, twenty explosive tags, a standard number of smoke bombs, a spindle of ninja wire, and two storage scrolls, each with one cubic meter of internal space.
As for the other types of ninja tools, such as fuma shuriken, ninja swords, and other ninja tools…Konoha wouldn't provide them for free since most ninjas never really used them.
Most ninjas would rather stab their opponents with a kunai than swing a sword around.
As for supplies, they included a set of minor healing potions, blood replenishing pills, soldier pills, ration pills, stamina potions, and a basic first aid kit.
Last but not least, the Chunin-grade flak jacket.
Each graduating student would get two for free, adjusted according to their own measurements.
Although wearing the Konoha ninja flak jacket wasn't mandatory, most Chunin and above-ranked ninja still chose to wear them on their missions.
It had nothing to do with pride or identity. For that, the Konoha forehead protector and their registration IDs were enough.
The main reason was the defensive power of the Chunin-grade and Jonin-grade flak jackets.
Unlike the ninja flak jackets in the original Naruto universe, which were merely a convenient piece of clothing with multiple pockets and hidden compartments, the Konoha ninja flak jackets in this world had proper defensive power and utility.
Forget about the Jonin-level flak jackets, the Chunin-grade flak jackets alone had multiple special, highly encrypted fuinjutsu seals that:
✅Could cushion blunt blows, allowing the wearer to reduce a significant portion of blunt damage as powerful as an average D-rank chakra beast's physical blow. Of course, it was only effective if the attack hit the flak jacket. Otherwise, if someone targeted the hands or neck of the wearer, which the jacket didn't cover, the jacket was useless.
✅Could resist fire generated without chakra.
✅Was water-resistant, dust-resistant, and had an automatic temperature regulation function.
✅Was tear-resistant as well. However, a normal sharp knife, kunai, or shuriken could still pierce its fabric easily.
From the points above, the graduating students could easily understand how miraculous and convenient the standard Konoha ninja vests were for the ninjas participating in numerous missions and combat.
Everyone would want them, unless they had something even better, for instance, Seimei's chakra inner armor, made of bones of specific chakra beasts and chakra metal, which he usually wore under his upper garments.
"Alright, we are going to reveal the squads now, something you all have been waiting for. Well, once I call out your names, please join your teammates and get to know each other better. You will be working with them in the imminent future for quite some time, after all."
Kamishiro Kirito said while holding a notepad in his right hand.
He looked at the gathering of young ninjas for a moment before calling out the names.
"Team One: Sobu Kanichi (Class 3-S)—registration number 006397, Kasukabe Tanjai (Class 3-S)—registration number 006102, and Yuhi Yashiro (Class 2-S)—registration number 006215. Please meet up and stand in the back. You can talk, but don't cause any disturbance."
Kirito announced the names of the first ninja squad's members. Hearing this, the three responded enthusiastically, gathered together, and went to the back of the training ground to get to know each other better.
Seeing that, Kirito shifted his gaze back to his notepad and spoke up again.
"Team Two: Hanamura…"
"Team Three: Agawa…"
Kirito kept announcing the details of a few more squads before uttering the info containing Seimei's friends' names for the first time.
"Team Six: Nara Shikamo (Class 1-S)—registration number 006007, Ishimori Haneda (Class 1-S)—registration number 006018, and Sarutobi Yuto (Class 1-S)—registration number 006043. Gather up and stand in the back."
Hearing the squad details, Yuto laughed heartily and said to his friends, "It seems fortune favors us. We are actually together."
Shikamo felt as if his world was falling apart. He rubbed his forehead in exasperation and muttered, "What a drag! They really stuffed two troublemakers into my team, huh? Will I even get time to relax from now on?"
"It's over. My peaceful days are over."
Watching Nara Shikamo mutter those lines in utter despair, Seimei almost laughed out loud.
He patted Shikamo's shoulder and said, "Look at the bright side. You three have always been together. Your teamwork won't need any adjustment period. Max-level performance from the start."
Shikamo gave Seimei a sideways glance before complaining inwardly, No, you are wrong. I never wanted to act together with them. It's just that they always dragged me out to forcefully take part in their shenanigans.
Soon, Shikamo joined Yuto and Haneda and moved to the back of the training ground.
After a few minutes, another team containing Seimei's friends was also confirmed.
Uchiha Touma and Uzumaki Keiko teamed up with a boy from class 3-S, who specialized in trap-setting, Earth Release crowd control, and medical ninjutsu.
Keiko was so happy to team up with Touma that she literally grinned like a fool, making Touma almost slap his own face in embarrassment.
In the end, he could only drag Keiko to meet his new teammate.
Finally, it was time to announce Seimei's team.
"Team Thirteen: Senju Seimei (Class 1-S)—registration number 006004, Uchiha Reina (Class 1-S)—registration number 006005, and…"
Kirito paused for a bit, looked at the names strangely, and continued.
"...And Hyuga Natsumi (Class 2-S)—registration number 006117."
"Gather up, go to the back of the training ground, and get to know each other."
----------------------------------------------------------
A/N: If you like my story and want to read ahead, you can check out my P@treon page and get access to the 14 Advanced chapters!
patreon.com/Seigan
You can also help me by sharing the story around. Thank you for reading!