Takuma could hear his breathing inside his head as he observed his team in various states of exertion. On the first day, the rookie genins had been appointed into teams of five each. Any group activity was to be done with the team.

His new team... was interesting, to say the least.

"You... You're a monster, Masaaki," said the girl with the bob cut and a lock of hair braided a violet ribbon just in front of the ear. She was huffing heavily with her hands on her knees as she looked up at Masaaki.

She wasn't wrong. After sprinting for the better part of half an hour, Masaaki looked like he could do it for another hour without breaking a sweat.

Masaaki's laugh was boisterous. "You don't train enough, Ai," he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I train enough! You're the deviant one!"

Masaaki laughed more.

"Ai's right, Masaaki. You're just something else," said the guy standing beside Ai with his hands resting on his waist as he caught his breathing.

Takuma could confidently say that he hadn't seen a more handsome eleven year old in both of his lives. Nenro, Masaaki's classmate from the academy, was strikingly good-looking with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and tall stature. Takuma had noticed many interested eyes from girls in the rookies lingering on Nenro, and many had even come over to talk to him—the number would've been higher if Ai hadn't staked her claim in public. Takuma wondered if it was a coincidence or deliberate that Masaaki, Ai, and Nenro were placed together on the team.

That left the last member of his team. Takuma turned to look at the ground behind him, where Taro wheezed on the ground as if there wasn't enough oxygen in the world.

"... I never noticed you have such low stamina," Takuma said to Taro.

Taro stared up at him and looked like he wanted to say something but closed his eyes.

"Takuma, you also seem to be doing well," Nenro's voice made Takuma turn towards the handsome blonde and chuckle.

"... I run a lot," he smiled wryly.

"I'm sorry, should I've not asked?" Nenro asked with a worried look on his face.

"Eh? Ah, no, no, it's nothing," Takuma waved him off— it was more like he was forced to run by Maruboshi during the Leaf/Coin Concentration Practice. He wasn't as sunny as Masaaki, but he had already caught his breath and could go again. "How's the search for the apartment going?" he asked.

Ai perked up as a starry look appeared in her eyes. "We found the perfect place! It's only a couple streets away from the main road. The market and bathhouse are like five minutes away. And you won't believe how nice the apartment is— it's better than my home back in Kiwanishi!" she said in glowing praise.

"We're going to finalize the lease today," Nenro smiled softly.

"Well, congratulations on finding someplace you like."

"We're going to have a housewarming party or something when we get some time. Come visit us then," said Masaaki.

Takuma nodded. He still lived in the same place. The state previously rented the place, and the rent was paid directly by them without Takuma needing to do it himself. But after Takuma graduated, that stopped like the allowance. The landlord had come asking the very first day if Takuma wanted to rent, and he had agreed. Even though his house was nowhere near the main streets or the market— the apartment was excellent in shape and had twenty-four hours of electricity and water, and even though the neighborhood didn't house great characters, it was quiet, something Takuma appreciated. Plus, he was comfortable with his place, and that's what mattered most. And it wasn't like he could afford a place in a nicer area like the trio— even they could only afford it because they were splitting the rent three ways. The landlord had drawn a new lease after a long round of negotiation in which Takuma dragged the price down as much as he could. On the downside, he had to give three months' rent in advance, which had put a dent in his savings.

"Though, I'm surprised that we found the place so quickly. The landlord didn't even try to negotiate the price much and looked happy to rent the place to us," said Nenro with concern, "I fear that there must be something wrong with the place."

"Don't jinx it, Nenro," Ai lightly kicked Nenro on his leg.

"Shinobi make great tenants..." Everyone turned to Taro, who had now sat on the ground. "... or to be precise, genin makes for great tenants. Shinobi are paid more handsomely than most professions out there, and genin are only assigned D- and C-rank missions where the risk of dying is lower than the higher-grade missions that aren't assigned to genins. There's rarely any downside to renting out to genins. Chunin and Jonin, on the other hand, are a completely different story. B-rank missions anticipate combat with other shinobi, and the risk of casualty spikes up like a mountain; I don't even need to speak about A-rank assignments. And owners don't really prefer tenants who can die one random day, leaving them responsible for cleaning out the place, contacting the next of kin, and doing additional paperwork— thus making chunin and jonin terrible tenants. My dad said that he and mum were forced to take out a loan to buy our house because they couldn't find a good place to rent."

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That made sense. Takuma didn't know how much his status as genin contributed to his landlord from keeping the apartment for the ever-reliable state to renting out his property to an eleven-year-old. The landlord had visited the apartment for regular check-ups and had never complained about anything as Takuma kept his place clean, and he never had any complaints from his neighbors as he wasn't at home for most of the day. Maybe that contributed as well, he thought.

"Gather up!"

Yoshio's voice boomed on the field. No one wasted a single moment and hurried to gather in front of the instructor as if the last one would be strung up dead. In less than half a minute, twenty-five genins had placed themselves in a neat five-by-five grid that they had learned to form in the past two weeks. The ninety-seven genins had been quartered into three groups of twenty-five(one of twenty-two) made up of teams of five(or four). Takuma's group had the fortune(or ill fortune, as Taro put it) to be taught by Yoshio, while some other chunins took the other groups.

"To be tired after only running a few strides. Pathetic," said Yoshio as he walked the ample space between each genin. He had a baton in his hand to strike them whenever someone did something he didn't appreciate. Yoshio walked behind Taro and smacked him on his back to make him stand in rod-like attention— or whenever he found even the slightest of mistakes.

"As you losers are right now, you're going to be mauled by drunkards and filthy bandits, and while I don't mind that happening, the higher-ups don't want to see the money spent stitching your uniforms go to waste— I warned them not to pay you little shits, but they didn't listen— so I have to make sure you don't die in some random ditch while on missions."

Takuma felt insulted at the remark. He didn't know about a bandit, as he hadn't met one, but he could wipe the floor with the drunkards he had met in his neighborhood. He glanced at his taijutsu-proficient classmates, and they looked more displeased than him.

"We're going to remedy that, but before that, I need a volunteer." A mocking smirk surfaced on his face, "Which one of you sorry doormats think they can take me on? Anyone who thinks they're better than me?"

A hand was immediately raised, and Takuma recognized it was one of his classmates, one with higher taijutsu proficiency. "Sir! I think I can do that, sir!" he said loudly.

Yoshio grinned and threw the baton away. He beckoned the guy forward. The genin walked out of the grid with an angry look on his face and immediately darted toward Yoshio without warning. The chunin instructor's grin widened as he effortlessly caught a kick from the genin. Yoshio's muscles bulged under his vest as he used the caught leg to swing the genin and thrash him into the ground face first. There was a sickening "gah" from Takuma's classmate.

Yoshio raised his foot and stomped it down on the guy's calf. Even though it wasn't audible, Takuma could hear the bone crack in his mind. His breath caught for a second.

"Are you alright, genin?" Yoshio asked, unbothered by what he had just done.

Takuma's classmate was holding his leg and shaking. His body had shrunk slightly into a fetal position. He said in a croaky voice, "Sir! Yes... sir! H-However, I-I think I broke my foot, s-sir!"

"Nothing serious then," smiled Yoshio. He then yelled, "Medic!"

In the middle of the large field shared by all five groups, the shady guy with dark glasses, who had accompanied Yoshio on the first day, sat on a foldable chair under a beach umbrella. He put down whatever book he was reading and teleported from there to beside Yoshio using Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu).

He knelt down beside the cowering genin. He pulled aside the pant sleeve and observed the injury while the genin hissed, groaned, and yelled in pain when he was poked or his leg was moved. The shady guy weaved hand seals before holding the leg with one hand and placing his other hand over the point of breakage for an iridescent green glow of Iryo-jutsu to appear.

"You see, I was pissed when they forced me to teach you lot that I decided. I couldn't do anything as they were my orders, but I decided to make it a little fun. So, I proposed a harmless bet to the instructors. All four of us train our groups, and at the end of the basic training, one team from each group will participate in a tournament to decide a winner," said Yoshio.

Takuma narrowed his eyes. The shitty instructor was using them for fun and games. This was definitely some sort of new rookie hazing— pitting them against each other like animals in a fight club and enjoying as they beat each other up.

"Of course, we understand the need for some motivation for you lazy lot," Yoshio continued. "The four teams that participate in the tournament will not be participating as teams; they will participate as individuals, meaning there will be one winner," the chunin instructor raised one finger. "As a reward, the winner will get a C-rank jutsu scroll."

Takuma's eyes widened as he heard gasps around him. The academy three were E-rank jutsu. Rookie genins like them were allowed access to a library of D-rank jutsu. C-rank jutsu was beyond that. Takuma didn't know if genins were allowed access to C-rank jutsu, but from the gasps around him, he could infer that even if they were, he wasn't going to get his hands on one for a long time.

"For my group, that's you guys; there will be a leaderboard that will be updated every week. Every week, the team on the top will be exempted from some punishment everyone else will have to face," Yoshio's face was the perfect expression of evil.

"The team on the top of the leaderboard at the end of the basic training will participate in the final tournament."

Takuma clenched his grip on his other wrist behind his back. He could feel his pulse through the skin on his wrist. A C-rank jutsu. For an orphan like him who wasn't part of a jonin-led three-man cell, or from a shinobi clan, or had close relatives in the shinobi organization, a C-rank jutsu was more precious than gold.

He had to get it.

He was going to get it...

... No matter what it took.