"All of you have passed" Shikaku announced seeing the dejected looks on his teams' faces.
Hiroto's face brightened same is the matter with his other teammates.
"Let's have a celebratory lunch at Yakinaku Q for team 3's formation. I assume anyone doesn't have a problem with it" Shikaku invited his team.
Hiroto looked pretty uncomfortable but agreed nonetheless, he saw Itachi want to say something to him agreeing but he silenced his childhood friend with a look.
Shikaku isn't oblivious to his red-haired student's uncomfortable expression and the black-haired student's hesitance to say something.
"Must be his dislike because of Minato's kid suffering at the hands of the villagers" Shikaku thought and sighed.
"I already had eaten there yesterday, my wife will be angry at me if I repeated the same today. What a drag, why don't we have lunch at my house" Shikaku said as if he is disappointed he can't eat at Yakinaku Q.
Hiroto and everyone nodded as they had no problem with their sensei's decision but all of them had a small suspicion he saw through Hiroto's expression.
...
...
Nara clan
"I'm home" Shikaku announced his arrival opening his house's door.
"Oh, Shikaku you arrived early. How did your test with the new team go? Did you even conduct a test or slept watching clouds somewhere?" Yoshino asked making her way from the kitchen.
Yoshino stopped in her tracks seeing three new heads behind her husband.
"What a drag, this is my genin team" Shikaku said and entered his house to wash up.
"Hello, I'm Uchiha Itachi"
"Hi I'm Uzumaki Hiroto"
"Hello my name is Mitarashi Anko"
the three genin introduced themselves to their sensei's wife.
Their meeting is cut short by a new childish voice "What a drag, can't you let a person sleep peacefully woman??!!".
All the heads turned to see a mini-Shikaku rising from the sofa. "SHIKAMARU!!!" Yoshino roared.
Shikaku who made his return silently turned and left not to be included in his son's scoldings.
Shikakmaru's punishment was cut short when his mother heard a peal of full-blown laughter to see three new people in his house with Konoha's headbands, he felt grateful for his father's genin team not knowing the violence he is gonna suffer at the hands of a violet haired kunoichi.
Shikakmaru's happiness is short-lived as he was suddenly ambushed by the girl who he thought was his savior, his cheeks are being violated he looked at his father who stood in a corner quietly refusing to meet his eyes 'Women, what a drag' he said mentally afraid of the consequences he will suffer if he said it out loud.
'Anko is refusing to let sensei's kid leave her clutches, I can only imagine what she will do when she meets the cutest kid there is. I must do everything to keep her away from my brother' Hiroto and Itachi thought simultaneously. They looked at each other and a light bulb went off in their heads 'Sorry Itachi/Hiroto I have to sacrifice Sasuke/Naruto to save Naruto/Sasuke from Anko. I will make it up to you' they made a plan and gave a small smile to their childhood friend.
Shikaku hosted the celebratory lunch at his house and all of them had a good time well with Shikakmaru as an exception, he felt it is the best moment in his life when he is finally free from the demoness.
Shikaku left for the Hokage office to give a report about how the test went and took his leave.
"I think Minato only taught Hiroto the first level of FTG jutsu and to think Fugaku kept his Uchiha pride away not announcing Itachi's three tomoe sharingan. Interesting times are ahead" Hizuren thought and said "I will be victorious today" looking at the stacks of paperwork.
...
...
Next day
Training ground 3
"I need to know each of your elemental chakra natures, along with your specialties" Shikaku said facing his students.
"Fire is my natural element, I am good at tracking, genjutsu, summoning jutsu, and combination attacks with snakes and attacking with senbons" Anko went first.
"My natural element is also fire, I am good at genjutsu, shirukenjutsu, kenjutsu, and I can hold my ground with taijutsu" Itachi said his part.
"With three tomoe sharingan, Anko you don't have any kekkai genkai right?" Shikaku asked to which Anko shook her head in refusal.
"I have wind,water and lightning chakra natures, I am good at fūinjutsu, taijutsu and kenjutsu. I am also a chakra sensor, I have Swift release and Adamantine chains as my kekkai genkai. I don't have techniques on these kekkai genkai so I can only experiment with them" Hiroto finished.
Shikaku took a few minutes to process the information. " All of you need to master D-rank jutsus of all elemental chakra natures and a B-rank jutsu of your respective natural elements. If you don't have that jutsus come to me" he said and the last part for Itachi and Hiroto.
"Anko, I know of your situation when you are comfortable you can share it with us. Don't worry you are not the only one with baggage here" Shikaku said to his traumatized student and Anko got supporting looks from her other teammates.
"Try to work on poison and I will request Lord Hokage for some books on them, work on taijutsu so you can hold your own" Shikaku said his opinion.
"Itachi, you've unlocked your sharingan and I've reported it to Hokage. I need you to work on how long you can keep your sharingan active and train on mastering all elemental chakra natures to C-rank as your sharingan helps make the progress faster, also spar with Kakashi with him using sharingan" Shikaku advised.
Itachi etched these words into his mind and thanked his sensei.
"Hiroto how many shadow clones can you use?" Shikaku asked and continued after getting four as the response "You also need to master shadow clone jutsu as it shortens your time. How do you use shadow clones now?" he asked.
"I will assign a task to my clones. Repeat the process till it's done" Hiroto answered.
"It's good but try this method, learn chakra control to a very good level and make the clones with only enough chakra to sustain them for two hours, the clones dispel naturally and you can think of those clones' memories for sometime and repeat the process. You can shorten the time required exponentially " Shikaku advised.
"If you need any books on fūinjutsu come to me, I will request Lord Hokage, and I will also consult him for your support. In some cases mastering your kekkai genkai requires you to be proficient in mastering elemental chakra natures so try and see if there is any progress if you follow this method. Creating your techniques requires you to expirementing a lot which leads to very serious injuries in some cases so run those ideas by me or I can arrange a meeting with Lord Hokage as he is known as 'The Professor ' because of his knowledge" Shikaku advised his last student.
'Battlefield experience is their main shortcoming. I need to arrange C-rank missions and a few B-rank missions before they give their chunin exams. Let's help them train and complete D-rank missions for a few weeks. What a drag' Shikaku thought and looked at his team.