Naruto: Master of Yin chakra

Konoha.

"This surge of energy won't last more than a few days, will it? They'll soon realise that the Will of Fire is an illusion, right?"

Satoru stood on the rooftop, watching the trio searching for the cat.

The three of them had their fighting spirit ignited by the Will of Fire, but he could guarantee that after a few more days of these D-rank missions, they would become impatient, just like Naruto and his generation later on.

It wasn't that he didn't want to do other, more advanced missions.

Since the Fourth Hokage's death, other countries, including the Land of Fire, had indeed reduced the mission resources provided. It was only in the past year, with the Third Hokage's governance, that things had eased up a bit.

There weren't as many missions as imagined, and even fewer suitable for their rookie team.

"Hmm, I'll just be more serious and teach them more, so they don't get bored."

As their captain, he could receive 30% of the team's mission bonus, so he couldn't let them stop.

So, once the three little ones got tired, he planned to give them some rewards to keep them going.

It wasn't for that 30% bonus.

However, this job was really easy. As long as he supervised the three of them well, he could earn money like collecting rent, hehe.

Meanwhile, below.

"Damn it, where did that cat run off to?" Mibu Shinobi lifted a wooden barrel and peered inside.

Nothing.

"Hey, how could there be a cat in there? Be serious!" Iruka was a bit speechless seeing him flip the barrel.

Their mission this time was to find a cat, a noblewoman's cat, which was said to have been with her for decades.

They had been searching for half a day already, only occasionally seeing its cat droppings on the rooftops.

He even doubted if the cat existed at all.

"Hey, Captain, are you sure that cat exists?" Iruka shouted up to Satoru on the rooftop.

Satoru pointed to his head: "You need to use your brains. Where are the tracking skills you learned in school? Don't tell me you forgot them as soon as you left school?

If you can't even find a cat, what will you do when you have to do more difficult missions? The outside world is full of cunning and insidious Ninja."

The captain's sarcasm was truly on point, and the three of them were honour students; how could they tolerate it?

The three of them were unconvinced, and then racked their brains, bringing out all the knowledge from their Ninja intelligence classes.

All just to prove the captain wrong.

Satoru shook his head.

He had originally had some expectations for them after the test in the training ground. After all, from the combat situation, their team combat was much stronger than Naruto's generation.

Now it seemed that in terms of being a Ninja, only the combat aspect was practically applied; other more crucial things were far off.

Satoru took out a paper and a pen from his bag and wrote these down.

These were all the trio's strengths and weaknesses, as well as some thoughts on how to cultivate them.

Since he became a squad leader, he naturally had to be dutiful and responsible, unlike Kakashi, who was so perfunctory in training Naruto and Sakura.

Even Sasuke, in his opinion, was only taught Chidori, and even the basic things were only taught years later.

So he had to learn from that lesson.

As an excellent employee, one should not let the boss realise you are too excellent, but also not be unknown; one should be moderate.

In the afternoon.

The three of them finally found the cat, relying on Iruka's knowledge base and using the cat's habits, as well as information provided by the cat's owner, to complete the tracking.

But they were also covered in dirt.

However, they were very happy.

They stood straight in front of Satoru, waiting for his praise.

"Alas!"

Satoru suddenly sighed. He wanted to try 'pulling up seedlings to help them grow,' to instil memories into them and have them learn from those, but he ultimately resisted.

Not everyone had his ability to process memories; for ordinary people, it was just a burden. Only what one learned through effort and time truly belonged to oneself.

Iruka and the other two saw him sigh, and the smiles on their faces suddenly vanished.

"Captain, did we do too poorly?" Iruka looked at the sun in the sky and then thought about what they had done today, feeling embarrassed.

It seemed they were a bit lacking.

The other two were the same; they had been expecting praise.

"No, you did great." Satoru didn't discourage them.

"Really?"

This made the three of them feel even worse. They were honour students, and once they came to their senses and analysed themselves, they had some awareness of whether they were good or not.

"Of course. Although this cat-finding mission started poorly, you gradually applied the knowledge you learned in school later on, which was very good.

Mibu Shinobi's keen perception, Iruka's intelligence analysis, and Iron Wire's powerful action ability were all excellent."

Satoru gave a thumbs-up.

But his words couldn't make the three of them happy; they were still a bit disheartened.

"What's wrong?"

"But it took us so long to grasp it. Is that too bad?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Just as the captain said, it takes so long to find a cat. How could we possibly find those cunning enemy Ninja!"

Crack!

Satoru slapped their head. "You brats, this is only your first day on a mission. What, do you want to fly already?

Do you know Copy Ninja Kakashi?"

"You mean Kakashi-senpai, who graduated early at six years old?" the three little ones asked.

Satoru: "That's right, him. When he first graduated, he did the same things as you."

The three of them's eyes lit up. Was that true?

"And he also searched for a cat. He also took most of the day, which means what? It means he's pretty similar to you."

The three of them's eyes lit up even more.

"And there's one thing he can't compare to you in." Satoru paused here.

He didn't know if Kakashi had done it, but it didn't stop him from boasting. And recognising lies was also a necessary lesson for Ninja. If he were exposed, he'd have an excuse, so he had to keep boasting.

Iruka quickly asked: "What is it?"

"The Will of Fire. Why did it take him half a day to find it? It's because he lacked teamwork. He didn't value his teammates' abilities at all; he searched for it all by himself.

So his Will of Fire is not as good as yours, far from it.

Remember, working together with your comrades is the best."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Hearing that Kakashi-senpai, who had already become a Jonin, was inferior to them in terms of the Will of Fire, the three of them's eyes immediately burned with fierce fighting spirit.

It was as if their previous discouragement had vanished without a trace.

"Then Captain, how do you know so much?" Ibara Keisen asked curiously.

"Because he and I were classmates, I know a bit more," Satoru said.

"Eh, then how old are you, Captain?" Mibu Shinobi suddenly asked.

The other two also reacted, looking closely at Satoru, sizing him up.

They had previously felt that the captain was quite old, as he was tall and slender, and his self-introduction about his dream made them forget to ask. Now they were suspicious.

"Haha, about two and a half years older than you."

"Eh? Then should we call you big brother?"

"Be serious. Please call me Captain."

"Then Captain, did you also do these missions when you first graduated?"

"No, no, Captain is much more awesome than Kakashi. I joined the Third Shinobi World War battlefield right after graduation and made great contributions within half a year."

Satoru shook his index finger.

"So amazing."

The three of them's eyes showed admiration.