Chapter 62 Wine Table Sharing Session

Naruto watched silently from the side, waiting for Sasuke's moment of enlightenment.

After a while, Sasuke's frown gradually relaxed, and the lines at the corners of his eyes softened. He opened his eyes, and there was no longer frustration in his eyes, but instead a hint of surprise.

"Do you understand?" Naruto asked with his head tilted, a sly smile on his face because he knew what the answer was.

Sasuke snorted lightly, but the corners of his mouth raised slightly, revealing an expression between a smile and a mockery.

“Yeah, idiot, I get it.”

***

Kakashi had intended to intentionally arrive at least an hour late before his first training session with Team Seven.

He felt it was necessary to teach these little brats what patience was. Of course, this was also to avenge what happened yesterday, although doing so might be a little petty.

He had thought he would just wander aimlessly through the market as usual, completing his daily routine of staring at the monument, but in retrospect, he should have sensed that something more interesting was going to happen.

Because when he turned the corner, he was ambushed by three twelve-year-old kids.

This time, however, he had learned his lesson and memorized the chakra characteristics and action patterns of each of them, so he not only predicted their ambush, but also fought back.

Naruto brushed past him, with the distance between them only a few centimeters, and finally, Naruto landed steadily on the balcony of the bakery.

"You're late!" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth, as if Kakashi was standing a few blocks away and couldn't hear him.

"Really?" Kakashi said in mock surprise. "I must have lost track of time."

So they started a chase in the city.

At first, Kakashi found it annoying, and he did try to shake them off, even succeeding a few times, but he didn't run away, instead he lingered nearby, observing the three genin gathering together to discuss tactics and make plans.

Observe, evaluate. Iruka's voice echoed in his mind. Find out their strengths and areas that need improvement.

So, Kakashi began to seriously evaluate the three children. He predicted their speed, tacit understanding, strength, agility, reaction ability and reaction time.

He found that Sakura Haruno had the greatest strength, but the worst physical strength; Sasuke had the fastest speed, but his strength needed to be improved; Naruto had the most amazing endurance, but his movements needed to be more concise and efficient.

Then he found himself actually beginning to enjoy the game of chase.

He found that the group of ghosts were more likely to talk when they were moving, although in most cases the opposite was true.

He discovered that the reason why Naruto and Sasuke could cooperate so well was because they lived in the same shabby apartment and they saw each other every day. If they didn't cooperate well, they would probably bump into each other every day.

He discovered that Haruno Sakura would study medical ninjutsu and anatomy every morning with one of the grumpiest ninjas he knew.

He had to admire the courage and wisdom of this little girl - even Kakashi in his prime did not dare to provoke Iruka easily.

He noticed that the three boys would train together most mornings, eat together most nights, and the place they hung out most often was actually Naruto's tiny, run-down apartment, even though out of the three of them, Naruto's place was definitely the most shabby.

He felt like he was taking over a family in the making, and the three children were like siblings who were tricked by fate and forced to live in different families.

Each of them had been isolated and rejected, but in the end, they found comfort and acceptance in each other.

Kakashi could see that they would become very powerful ninjas in the future.

"Make your choice, Kakashi." Iruka's voice sounded in his mind again.

In fact, Kakashi had no choice. Deep down, he wondered if Iruka had expected all this from the beginning.

Maybe, Kakashi thought. Based on his experience over the years, there was almost nothing that Iruka didn't know.

It was almost dark when he was caught by the three little devils.

Kakashi could have ended this game earlier, but to be honest, he was a little reluctant.

He decided to treat his new students to ramen, which was the only thing he could do.

In the evening, Kakashi was dragged out by Genma to drink, and he couldn't help but complain to him.

Xuanjian said that the newly appointed teachers needed to relax through traditional sake parties.

Kakashi would bet that Genma had dragged him along purely to spite Lei Tong - this particular instructor jonin had a sullen face the entire evening and looked like he had just swallowed a whole lemon.

Kakashi figured there must be some family dispute going on between them, because the two had been arguing for weeks about Genma moving in, though Kakashi would never admit that he knew about it.

He knew that if he dared to spread the gossip, Iruka would never tell him anything again.

They met in a dark corner of the izakaya that only ninjas could enter.

Genma, Red Bean and Hayate Kurenai sat on one side so that they could get together to laugh and play; while Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma sat on the other side, calling it "unity".

Kakashi had attended similar gatherings before.

He thought that what awaited him would be endless complaints, grumblings and grumblings. After all, this was the class with the largest number of graduates in more than a decade, and it also involved the heirs of various major ninja clans. He felt that this gathering would definitely turn into a large-scale complaining conference.

But... the situation was completely different from what he had imagined.

Everyone almost immediately entered into the mode of exchanging teaching experiences.

Hong was the first person to ask Kakashi questions. She asked Kakashi for tips on how to train physical skills students - her team included both the Inuzuka clan and the Hyuga clan, both of which were masters of physical skills, but Hong was good at illusion.

Hong also shared some basic illusion training techniques with Kakashi, and emphasized that his students needed to understand theoretical knowledge such as "reality split".

Kakashi took note of these points carefully. She also gave Asuma some advice on how to guide the new generation of the "Ino-Shika-Cho" combination.

Apparently, Asuma was having a lot of trouble with Nara Shikamaru, which wasn't surprising since the kid would rather stare into space all day than train properly.

Yuhi Shinku was the first person to mention that "When playing chess, Aburame Shino becomes very focused," and then everyone's topic went completely off topic.

That night, Kakashi only drank a small amount of alcohol and did not get drunk like usual.

He left the izakaya with a head full of ideas for training students: from Asuma, he got inspiration for some non-traditional ninjutsu; from Yuhi Shinku, he learned some swordsmanship and taijutsu techniques; from Genma, he got a list of agility and speed training; and Hongdou shared with him some stealth and infiltration techniques.

He even began to consider whether he should go to Might Guy for advice.

He must be crazy.

Maybe this is not a bad thing.