3 years passed, and with the war's end, the three youngsters' bond grew closer, and after a long and painful year of sparring, and Kannin actually became quite the fighter. He could now implement competent shuriken work into his fighting, and his taijutsu was getting better by the week.
In fact, his whole squad was ahead of the game. They were regularly at the top of their class at, well, just about everything. Kannin was like a ninjutsu sponge, Warai kept the Uchiha tradition of having excellent test scores and shurikenjutsu, and Tetsu was regularly the best at taijutsu and even kenjutsu.
However, one day when the three of them were walking through the halls, now the equivalent of upperclassmen, Kannin spied a little boy with spiky grey hair and a mask covering the lower half of his face walking in the opposite direction.
'That must be Kakashi!" He thought to himself. 'That means Obito and Rin should be coming some time soon also.'
Though seeing him reminded Kannin of Sakumo, who in the manga took his life after failing a mission, he thought Kakashi's life was quite sad. He jokingly told Sasuke that everyone he cared about was dead, but he meant it.
It also reminded Kannin that maybe he should graduate from the Academy. Even thought there wasn't a war going on anymore, and he wanted to help protect his new home.
When he got home he asked his mom: "Mom, can I graduate from the academy early?"
She put on a sincere expression, furrowed her brows, and said "No. No arguing."
Kannin complained "But Mom! I'm not learning anything there anymore. You know that! I just go to hang out with my friends."
"You mean those miscreants that get you disciplined every other week?"
"You know those are misunderstandings. We don't have anything better to do anymore. Plus, my instructors keep telling us that if we stopped goofing off we'd be as good as Minato at his age."
Usagi paused, and responded "As good as Minato, huh?" She looked down and sighed, "I know you're smart honey, but I can't let you go. You're not even 10 yet, and I can't let them send you to Amegakure or God knows where just to die needlessly at the hands of some foreign shinobi. You're my only son."
Kannin took a moment to understand that war meant something quite different here than on Earth. Back on earth, wars were something that either happened in the past, or at the very least in some far distant country. But here, war was death. He had been purposefully trying to avoid the doom and gloom which infected the whole village for the last few years. In fact, he thought that was one of the reasons he, Warai, and Tetsu got into so much trouble--to distract them from the horrors that were whispered behind closed doors.
"Mom, I promise that I'll survive whatever they throw at me! My friends and I are going to be unstoppable!" He gave his mom a big smile, hoping to cheer her up. He added, "Mom, I have to. You know that, right? All my other friends have already gone off. Plus, they never send us into any real danger yet. We should get a few smaller missions at first."
His mother realized there was no changing Kannin's resolve, and finally retracted, "Okay, but you are to play everything by the book, understand? You have to come home."
Kannin nodded, and went to hug his mom. That was the end of that conversation, and the both of them purposefully avoided the topic for the rest of the evening. His mom made him steak for dinner, which made Kannin quite happy.
-
When the three amigos were hanging out at the training field that day, he gave them a serious look and told them
"Tetsu, Warai, I think I'm going to graduate soon. I've learned everything I can from the academy. I need to help protect Konoha."
Warai and Tetsu smiled back at him, and shouted
"Well so are we! We can't let the little runt of the litter get ahead of us, now can we Tetsu?"
"No we can't! We'll show those Iwa shinobi who's boss!"
Kannin grinned and said, "You know we aren't at war anymore, right?"
Their enthusiasm put a smile back on Kannin's face, and they spent the rest of the night trying to figure out who their team leader would be. Warai hoped one of the Sannin would come back to be their team leader, Tetsu didn't really care. Kannin didn't know what to think. Minato was too young to take on a team, Jiraiya was already a team leader. He couldn't think of anyone he knew from the manga to be their team leader.
-
Two months later, the three of them graduated from the academy, with Warai edging out them both to get top of the class, though Kannin did get second. Hiruzen awarded them their headbands and on the back of each one was a little card with a number on it corresponding to their team assignments. Kannin's read 4.
"I got Four!" Warai yelled.
"Me too!" Tetsu shouted
"Well it looks like we're all together again. I can't wait to go on our first mission together." Kannin said with a big smile
-
Four days later, they received a summon to meet a in a clearing in the forest north of the village, where they were to meet their team leader--without having breakfast.
They met up one by one, Kannin first, then Warai, and last, as usual, Tetsu. They all sat down and began chatting about who they thought their team leader was, why he was late, and what they were going to eat for dinner that night.