'Does she dislike me, or does she like me...?'
Staring at Kurenai's delicate face, Shishou wondered uncertainly.
Feeling Shishou's gaze, Kurenai became embarrassed and stopped crying, finding herself in a dilemma.
She feared that if she let go, Shishou would leave and never come back to see her again.
However, if she didn't let go, she didn't know how to explain her action of grabbing his clothes.
As time passed, Kurenai's face turned even redder.
Finally, she mustered great courage and whispered so softly it was almost inaudible, "I... I don't dislike you..."
Then, as if afraid Shishou didn't hear her, she repeated, "I don't dislike you. Give me some time."
These words were enough to reveal her feelings.
After speaking, Kurenai let go of Shishou's clothes and ran away.
Watching Kurenai run off, Shishou smiled.
Although he wasn't sure what was bothering Kurenai, her actions just now showed that she did have feelings for him.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have bothered to explain.
As long as he confirmed this, things would be much easier moving forward.
Thinking this, Shishou picked up the scroll on the ground and approached the fleeing Kurenai, placing the scroll in her hands.
"Don't drink, focus on your training."
With that, Shishou disappeared from sight.
Hearing Shishou's advice, Kurenai opened her mouth but said nothing, leaning against the corridor wall and collapsing weakly to the floor.
After a period of silence, Kurenai got up, carefully storing the two scrolls close to her heart.
Then she hurried to her training and sleeping area, picking up all the empty sake bottles and throwing them in the trash.
"I can't believe I drank so much this month..."
Seeing the two large boxes filled with sake bottles, Kurenai murmured to herself, embarrassed.
Next, she took out a small sake flask from her pocket and took a sip.
"Hmm, why does this sake taste so awful all of a sudden?"
Wrinkling her nose, Kurenai tossed the flask into the trash as well.
Having done all this, she headed to the bathroom to wash up and rest.
...
The next morning,
Kurenai woke up early and headed to the Third Hokage's office, determined to resign from her position as a Jonin instructor.
Now that Shishou knew her feelings and had advised her to focus on her Senjutsu training,
Kurenai was even more eager to quit her job as a Jonin instructor.
Moreover, since she could now practice Senjutsu, she needed to devote more time to it.
As the head of the Yuhi clan, Kurenai had heard of the Senjutsu training from the three great sacred places in the ninja world.
Of course, the main reason was that she knew Lady Tsunade had been training in Shikkotsu Forest for the past few years, and Kurenai didn't want to fall too far behind her in strength.
This time,
Kurenai still couldn't see the Third Hokage in his office.
She then went directly to the Third Hokage's residence to find him.
"I'm sorry, Lady Yuhi Kurenai, but the Third Hokage is not at home."
"Please go back."
The servants at the Third Hokage's house said these two sentences to Kurenai and then shut the door.
Hearing this, Kurenai's forehead veins throbbed with anger.
She knew the Third Hokage was determined to avoid seeing her.
"You old geezer, let's see how long you can avoid me."
Muttering angrily, Kurenai left, heading to meet her three students.
Despite her anger, she still had duties to fulfill.
As long as she was a Jonin instructor, she would perform her responsibilities.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to her three students.
Of course, while she remained responsible, she wouldn't show her students any kindness.
So, that day, Kiba and Sakura were beaten up again by Kurenai's clones, leaving Shishou feeling a bit sorry for them.
And for the next week, Kiba and Sakura spent their days being beaten by Kurenai's clones and healed by Shishou, living a miserable life.
Kiba's plight was so severe that word reached his sister, Inuzuka Hana.
However, knowing that Shishou was unharmed and could use medical ninjutsu, she left things alone, even encouraging Kurenai to be harsher.
After all, only through such training would Kiba strive to improve and not lose his life on future missions.
Being a ninja required the resolve to endure beatings and face death.
Compared to death, beatings were more tolerable.
Although Kiba and Sakura had a tough time, their evasion and stealth abilities significantly improved, and their overall strength increased substantially.
Eventually, they could escape Kurenai's clone's pursuit, just like Shishou.
Seeing this, Kurenai stopped the chase training.
Since they could escape her clone's pursuit, they could likely evade most enemies in the future.
After that, Kurenai began taking Shishou, Kiba, and Sakura to the mission assignment center for missions.
Missions were ranked from highest to lowest: Super S, S, A, B, C, and D.
Since Shishou, Kiba, and Sakura were newly minted genin, they mainly took on D-rank missions.
D-rank missions had meager rewards and usually involved mundane tasks like finding lost pets, carrying items, weeding, or helping with chores.
Moreover, the mission rewards were divided among the village, the supervising Jonin, and the team members, leaving them with little money.
'No wonder Yugao was so easily bought off by Mikoto for five million ryo and a few ninjutsu scrolls.'
Looking at the paltry reward in his hand, Shishou thought to himself.
Though ninja mission rewards were higher than those of civilians, after the village took its cut and deducting mission expenses, not much was left.
For instance, a highly dangerous S-rank mission had a reward of one million ryo.
After Konoha took a two hundred thousand ryo cut, the remaining eight hundred thousand ryo was split among the team, leaving about two hundred thousand ryo each.
S-rank missions were not only dangerous but also time-consuming, typically taking about a month.
Moreover, S-rank missions were not available to anyone; only those of Jonin rank or higher could undertake them.
Yugao, with only Chunin-level strength, could only take on B-rank missions, which paid between fifty thousand and one hundred fifty thousand ryo, split among three people.
So, to Yugao at the time, five million ryo was indeed very tempting.
If you add the option to choose ninjutsu scrolls to study, it was even more enticing.
As Shishou pondered this, his genin life officially began.
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This fanfiction is complete on my P@treon. If you want to read it, you can find it at p@treon.com/Betek. change @ to a