Today, Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu came to the 9th Training Ground at 5 in the morning. Takeru wore the steel mesh armor underneath his shirt today. He had already prepared enough supplies and also told his two teammates to prepare them if a situation comes where they would have to fight their sensei. Of the three of them only Takeru had any sort of sensory prowess so after discussing a bit with Biwako and Shikatsu, he mapped the whole training ground. After mapping, the three friends set various traps around the training ground. After that they just waited for their sensei to arrive. In the meantime, Takeru was reading the fuinjutsu book, Biwako was practicing chakra control and Shikatsu just laid on the ground.At exactly 6 in the morning, Shunsui arrived in front of them. Seeing their sensei arrive Takeru closed the book and stood up, Biwako stopped practicing and paid attention. Shunsui looked at them and sighed, "What about him?". Takeru and Biwako face-palmed and woke Shikatsu up. Shunsui looked at them and said, - "Alright, before we do anything else. I have a test for you three. To pa.s.s this test all you have to do is to defeat me. Understood? Now you sleepy head, you are up first". Takeru and Biwako wished him good luck. Shikatsu went in front of Shunsui and took a stance. "Remember, you have to come at me with the intent to kill. Now come for me then" - Shunsui also took a stance. Shikatsu threw a few shurikens at him and started making hand-seals. Shunsui dodged the projectiles easily and ran at Shikatsu. He just approached Shikatsu, when Shikatsu jumped away from him and threw a kunai attached with a wire. Shunsui deflected the kunai with his own. They engaged in a taijutsu fight for a brief moment. Shikatsu"s fighting style was to use precise strikes to disrupt his opponents concentration. Shunsui fought him with exemplary reaction speeds. Shikatsu suddenly disengaged from the the fight and backed away. Shunsui wanted to engage in a confrontation once more but he found that he could not move. He looked around to see the shurikens and kunais thrown earlier by Shikatsu were all around him and shadows came out of them and bound his own shadow. He looked at Shikatsu and praised, - "Good use of kunai and wire. You distracted me with the fight and captured me using the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Impressive". Shunsui simply overpowered the jutsu and broke free. "Alright, you can go rest. You brown hair, your turn", - Shunsui spoke to Biwako. Takeru and Shikatsu wished her luck as they sat on the ground and watched the fight. Biwako came in front of Shunsui and took a stance. Soon, the fight started. Biwako threw a hail of shurikens at Shunsui while she rushed at him doing some hand-seals. Shunsui dodged or deflected the projectiles and engaged Biwako in a taijutsu fight. Biwako suddenly seperated into two and attacked Shunsui from both sides. Shunsui recognised that one of the two Biwako was an illusory clone. But Biwako executed her clone and taijutsu with such expertise that it would disorient other regular shin.o.bis. Shunsui was not a regular shin.o.bi. He grasped the her timing of using the clone as a distraction perfectly and in a couple of moves subjugated her. "Using the simple clone jutsu with such a skill to disorient you opponent, a simple but clever move. You can go now. You, brown eyes, it is your turn now". Shunsui released her and Biwako went away and sat on the ground beside Shikatsu.
At last it was Takeru"s turn. Shikatsu and Biwako wished him luck. Takeru stood in front of their sensei and said, - "Sensei, I will go all out with you, please do not take offense on my words but you should also go all out too". Shunsui smirked after hearing Takeru, - "Alright kid, I will go all out". Takeru turned the setting of his training seal all the way to level 0 and "BOOM", a mini shockwave of chakra came out of him. Shunsui was stunned seeing this. He read all of their files and Takeru although was a genius did not exhibit such chakra before, "This kid was holding back his power all along. He chakra is far too dense", Shunsui thought and finally became serious and activated his fully matured 3-tomoe sharingan. Takeru rushed at Shunsui in blinding speeds and engaged in a taijutsu fight. "He is fast", thought Shunsui as he dodged and weaved through Takeru"s attacks. They were fighting each other with full concentration when Takeru kicked Shunsui"s right leg, flipped upside down, caught Shunsui"s neck by locking his legs, put his hands on the ground and used chakra grab from both his hands and feet to grab hold of Shunsui and the ground. Shunsui had just started to weave hand-seals when sensing something he jumped a bit putting his legs up in the air. A pair of hands came out of the ground to catch his feet, "A clone? But when did he do it?", thought Shunsui as he completed weaving hand-seals and fire came out of his mouth towards Takeru. Takeru let go of Shunsui and flickered to the side a bit to avoid the fireball, he took a big gulp of air and a stream of flames came shooting out of his mouth towards Shunsui. Shunsui in that moment took out a kunai and stabbed the clone in the ground which disappeared in a puff of smoke. "A shadow clone? How does he know Tobirama"s jutsu?", Shunsui thought as he formed another set of hand-seals and a wall of earth came out of the ground when the stream of fire came crashing on the earthen wall and nearly destroyed it. Shunsui thought grimly, "A mere graduate can never perform such jutsus. This kid is as powerful, no, he is more powerful than even a jounin". The place was filled with dust and smoke. Takeru could not see anything but he could sense. Takeru sensed that Shunsui made 2 clones of himself, an earth clone which went underground and a lightning clone which came out of the smoke to engage Takeru while the real Shunsui stayed inside the smoke. Takeru took out a kunai attached to a steel wire and used it in the fight with the lightning clone of Shunsui. Takeru used his chakra strings to bind the clone with steel strings during the fight and pretended to lose the kunai"s grip in such a way that it stabbed the ground. The bound clone suddenly turned into lightning but it failed to shock Takeru as he used chakra throw to get out of the clone"s grasp and the lightning was fully channelled through the steel wire to the ground. Takeru did not even had time to breath as the real Shunsui was already attacking him. Shunsui and Takeru again had an intense taijutsu fight in which Shunsui beat the s.h.i.t out of Takeru and kicked him in the guts. Takeru flew away and crashed on the ground only to make the ram hand-seal. Shunsui suddenly found an explosive tag stuck on the ground under him. He hurriedly flickered away from there as an explosion covered the area. Shunsui just landed on the ground when Takeru came near him and He and Takeru once again got locked in combat. Shunsui thought as continued the fight, "This kid is a f.u.c.king genius, no even geniuses have their limits. This kid is a monster". Shunsui tried to use sharingan genjutsu on Takeru but screamed inwardly when he saw that it somehow did not work. As they were fighting the earth clone of Shunsui suddenly came out of the ground to catch Takeru but Takeru sensed it and used his searing strings to cut and burn the clone the instant it came out. Suddenly, Shunsui told Takeru that it was enough so, he and Takeru seperated at the same time and the fight stopped. Shunsui was amazed at this kid"s prowess. He smiled and thought, "This kid is just 11 years old now and he has already fought on par with me. In a few years he will definitely surpa.s.s me and maybe all other elite jounins of this village. Truly the new generation will always surpa.s.s the old. Now I just have to nurture him to further his growth and I am sure that he will shine only brighter in the future. The leaves of the tree will burn brighter with the eternal fire".
Shunsui told Takeru to sit with his teammates who were watching Takeru with widened eyes and slack-jawed expressions. Biwako was dumbstruck seeing the spectacle, even Shikatsu was awake. Takeru sat down beside them and turned the training seal up to level 3. Biwako was the first one who spoke, - "What the h.e.l.l Takeru! How did you do those things?". Takeru replied, - "Well, I trained since when I was a child and a family friend taught me those jutsus". Shikatsu suddenly spoke, - "I knew you were powerful and were hiding your powers but I did not think it was to this extent. Why did you join the Inst.i.tution then? Do not tell me that you could not do those things before joining the Inst.i.tution". Takeru replied honestly, - "I could perform the jutsus and the techniques before but I could not do it like this in the past. Before joining the Inst.i.tution, I would have just used jutsus continuously hoping that I would win the fight. I seriously did not have any idea about how to use strategies and tactics. The Inst.i.tution taught me many things, you know, things about fighting and the way of the shin.o.bi". "Still it does not explain how the h.e.l.l are you so powerful" - Biwako huffed and pouted as she had the most underwhelming result in their team.
Shunsui came in front of them and sat down on the ground. He watched all three of them and said, - "Alright, I have all your strengths and weaknesses now. Shikatsu, your planning and tactics are superb and effective as is your mastery with your clan jutsu. Your speed and precision is good but you lack strength. You need to practice on your taijutsu and clan jutsus more, and I will add a few strength training and a new weapon training in those too. Overall, I would put your prowess in between a high-genin to a low-chuunin. Biwako, your chakra control is high-chuunin level but you need to expand your jutsu repertoire. I know you are focusing on becoming a medical-nin but sometimes medical-nin would have to fight too. I would also add a weapon in you training. Overall, I would put you as a high-genin. Now, Takeru, you have ridiculous levels of chakra and extremely powerful chakra control. Your strategies and tactics are very good. Your ninjutsu prowess is something I have never seen before. Your taijutsu needs some work and so does your genjutsu. I would add a few more different jutsus in your jutsus repertoire. Overall, I would place your prowess firmly on the level of a jounin. Now, I have some questions for you, Takeru. First, in the whole fight why did not you use any genjutsu on me?". Takeru sighed and replied, - "I can use genjutsu but whenever I try to place someone in a genjutsu, the genjutsu becomes too real to be true. I experimented with my shadow clones. I found that in the genjutsu I could easily spot the mistakes as it was too perfect and I could then just as easily break free from it". Shunsui thought about it a bit and said, - "Okay, then you could focus on the extreme ones like those sensory deprivation genjutsus. I could teach you maybe one or two of them as they are very rare. Next question, do you have any sensory capabilities because I have one and it is not inherent". Takeru answered, - "Yes, I do have some kind of sensory ability and as far as I know it is inherent. I can sense objects and chakra from at most 50 meters away bypa.s.sing anything". "So, it is like the byakugan but sensory. Alright, I have technique you can practice to increase your sensory range and precision. Next question, I saw you perform jutsus without any hand-seals and even saw you not get affected by my sharingan genjutsu. Can you explain that?". " Well, I have really good chakra control, so I practiced a lot and brought the hand-seals required to perform a jutsu down to zero. And I constantly vibrate the chakra in my body so I do not get caught in a genjutsu", - replied Takeru. Shunsui thought and said, "Excellent! Now I will not ask you the final question as to how you got the hold of Shadow Clone Jutsu as I can somewhat guess the reason". Shunsui stood up and smiled at them, - "Alright listen you three, I will be training you guys today and from tomorrow we will start taking missions. But from now at this moment you are all proud genins of this village. Team 9 of the Hidden Leaf Village is formed. Let us go and celebrate". Takeru, Biwako and Shikatsu all cheered happily and laughed in joy. Shunsui smiled seeing their reactions. He thought that he would get an average team of whiny kids who could not do anything. But instead he got a guy who can think and react perfectly on the move with frightening intelligence, a girl who is smart and clever, who someday will surely become an excellent medical-nin and finally a jounin in the form of an 11 year old boy. Shunsui could not be happier. "Hah! Now Tobirama has got nothing on me.", Shunsui thought as he took his three new students to the Hokage Office to register as the Team 9. Soon, the registrations were done and they all went to take a group photo. The cameraman told them to stay still and they did. After a click and flash the photo was taken. Shunsui was in the back smiling as he put his hands on both of Takeru"s and Shikatsu"s shoulders. Takeru was on the right and Shikatsu was on the left while Biwako was in the middle. They were all smiling. The cameraman gave each of them a copy of the photo. Takeru saw the photo and smiled. It would be one of the most memorable day in his life. The newly formed Team 9 then went out to the Akimichi Restaurant to celebrate with a table full of barbecue. After much celebration and fun they all returned to the training ground.
Shunsui created 2 earth clones of himself and trained Takeru , Shikatsu and Biwako for the rest of the day. He trained Shikatsu and Biwako in taijutsu and chakra control. He trained Takeru taijutsu only as his taijutsu skills needed polishing. Shunsui got to know that Takeru did physical training daily so he created a daily training routine for Shikatsu and Biwako focusing on physical training, chakra control and ninjutsu. He tested their chakra nature affinities and found that Shikatsu had wind affinity and Biwako had water affinity. Shunsui checked and found that Takeru had extremely high fire nature affinity. Shunsui taught them three new jutsus for now. He taught Shikatsu Wind Release: Breakthrough, he taught Biwako the Water Release: Water Bullet Jutsu and he taught Takeru the Fire Release: Searing Migraine. He told them that he would only teach them more jutsus if they master this jutsu first. Shunsui taught Takeru the his sensing technique but could not teach him any sensory deprivation type genjutsu as he neither did know them nor he had them. But he promised that he would ask Lord Hokage to give him a technique so he could teach Takeru. Shunsui then talked with them a couple of things, their hobbies, dreams, things they like. Takeru found that their sensei was a pretty chill guy. He was strong and he did not have a stick up his a.s.s, and for an Uchiha this was rare. Takeru told his sensei that he practiced kenjutsu and he learned it from his father. Shunsui told him that he should spar with Shikatsu and Biwako as they need some kind of weapon training to which all of them agreed. He told that he also knew kenjutsu and he could teach them. They then discussed about team formations and how they should operate so all of them could operate perfectly together.
It was nearly night when Takeru returned home after training with his team for the first time. It was a novel experience for him. He knew that today in the fight between him and Shunsui-sensei he could have kept going but he knew that he could never show all of his cards. Information was priceless and only in the case of an emergency he would tell them about his full capabilities. Takeru greeted his parents and told them that he and his team were formed. Toru and Akane were happy but worried. They congratulated their son for this achievement. Takeru had a nice dinner that night and went to his room on the first floor. Takeru freshened up and changed his clothes. He then studied the sensing technique his sensei had given him today. The sensing technique worked by infusing your chakra in the atmosphere to feel other chakra signatures. The technique could be used in two ways. Either one could remember chakra signatures and track them using this technique from really far away as user could have ridiculously large range depending on his chakra reserve and chakra control, or, one could release chakra from his body in a pulse like wave to trace individuals by their chakra signatures in close range. Both the efficiency and expertise of these two types of sensing is dependent on the user. Takeru practiced that night and found out that his inherent sensing ability had increased. The active sensing range of his ability was 300 meters last year and he could use it for 6 hours at most. He practiced his ability daily and today morning he checked that he could at most sense 345 meters actively. But now the range had increased to over 500 meters. He came to a conclusion that it must be because of the sensing technique he learned today. Although his pa.s.sive sensing ability had not increased as its range was still 10 meters. Takeru could feel that his active sensing range would only increase faster from now on. Happy with the pleasant discovery, Takeru slept soundly on his bed.