The first day of Genin Corp had arrived and all the rookie genin, dressed their best, had gathered in a large hall to start their journey as shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.
Takuma glanced to his right at his friend, wondering how he should start. He felt awkward— he didn't want it to be, but after what had happened, he couldn't blame the vibe between them to be such. He decided to keep it simple,
"Healed?" he asked. Taro and Ai had visited him during the recovery period, even Masaaki had visited after he had somewhat healed from his less serious injuries (he got a yelling from Ai for it). Nenro, like Takuma, was on bedrest— neither could visit the other as they recovered.
Nenro, who was gazing around the complex, looked at Takuma. "For the most part. Did some training with Masaaki yesterday, there was some sluggishness here and there, other than nothing much. What about you?"
"A little stiff in the shoulder," said Takuma. Was it just him who felt awkward? Nenro didn't seem to be any different from usual. It made him feel awkward for other reasons, but he also felt better that nothing had changed in their relationship. Instead, Takuma even felt closer to Nenro after exchanging serious blows. He lightly chuckled, "Training with Masaaki? What did you do; chase around butterflies?"
Masaaki was as eccentric as he was strong. One moment he trained as if his life depended on it, but then the next moment he would stare at the clouds with a listless stare or get distracted by the simplest of things.
"He wanted to spar," Nenro sighed. "He came on so hard I was sweating in seconds. If he had used his bukijutsu, I would've been sure that he was treating the spar as a rematch."
Speaking of Masaaki, the guy was standing among the group of girls, Ai's kunoichi friends, with his arms crossed as he towered over them, listening to their conversation with a serious expression while they laughed and giggled. It was a chuckle-worthy sight.
Takuma looked to his other side at his other friend and asked, "So… what's going to happen today?"
Squatting on the ground was Taro, who looked up at Takuma. "… Listen, I appreciate you all thinking that I'm some sort of know-it-all— but it's not good. You're building up this unrealistic image of me— one day one of you will ask me something that I won't know, and that high-high pedestal that you've put me on will crumble. I'll be fine because I know I don't know anything, but you guys will suffer— come face-to-face with the fact that the image of me that you perceived as reality was all a lie that you yourself wove. It touches me that you think of me so highly, but it also breaks my heart thinking of the inevitable bitter future to come."
"So… do you know?" Nenro asked.
Taro hung his head for a moment. He sighed, "It's nothing special. We will be shown the mission desks, given a tour of the facilities, and told what we have to do every day until the day we die. I don't know, mom didn't tell me much about it. She did yap a lot about working hard and making the best of my time."
Takuma leaned towards Nenro and whispered, "We should visit Taro's mom with gifts and offerings. If we get into her good graces, we won't need Taro anymore. We can just ride her coattails to an easy life."
Nenro imitated a great serious nod which would've looked real if his lips weren't twitching up.
"It's not whispering if I can hear it," said Taro.
Takuma smiled. Team-5 was no longer a team, but he was glad they could still hang around like this and joke around. A part of him was afraid that he would be left alone with Masaaki, Nenro, and Ai going their own way and Taro returning to his academy friends. He was glad that didn't happen.
"Attention!"
A loud voice cut through the chatter in the large hall. Everyone turned to the speaker and saw a girl in her mid-teens dressed in the shinobi gear. The little identification strap on her uniform told she was a genin. She was accompanied by a guy of similar age to the girl.
"I'm Saki and this is Nobuo," she pointed to the guy. "We will be giving you a rundown of the general rules that you'll have to follow while in the Genin Corps. We will be starting immediately. Chunin Yoshio and Chinatsu's group will follow me, the rest will follow Nobuo. We will not be waiting for those who're not here yet. It's their loss. Let's begin."
The crowd of rookie genin separated into two and they began to follow their 'guides'.
The hall they had gathered at was part of a sprawling complex built for the Genin Corps. The complex had multiple buildings and facilities to be used by the genin. It wasn't flashy like a commercial corporation's campus, but from the obsessive cleanliness and people dressed in uniform running around, it was definitely a military establishment.
They were first led to the Mission Desk Central with multiple desks. To Takuma, it reminded him of an 'Isekai' adventuring guild building with tellers/ receptionists working behind counters assigning jobs to the adventures— just in this case, both the receptionists and the adventurers were shinobi of the Leaf.
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"As you guys are still rookies, the resource command doesn't trust you with choosing your own missions," the girl named Saki was blunt, "which is why until they think you're able to handle yourself, the command will assign you the missions. For a year, you'll have to participate in missions assigned to you— whatever and whenever those missions maybe. After the year ends, you will go through a performance review. If the command thinks you're capable, you'll be allowed the choice of missions. But that's in the future, so all you need to care about is to properly complete the missions assigned to you.
Everybody understands?" she didn't wait for a reply. "Good, let's move on."
They exited the mission desk central and were led to another building, larger than the mission desk central— though from the looks of it, this new building was deserted compared to the bustling Mission Desk Central.
"This is the Learning Resource Center, LRC for short," said Saki as they walked through the building. There were tons of classrooms inside, most of them empty, but once in a while they could see shinobi teaching other shinobi. Though it did seem strange that in the considerably sized classroom, the 'student' strength didn't once go over five heads.
They arrived at yet another big hall. Like the Mission Desk Central, there was a long row of reception desks, but unlike the Mission Desk Central, only one of them was occupied behind the glass with a bored looking shinobi who seemed to be flipping through a magazine behind her counter.
Saki pointed at the large wall across the empty row. In the middle of the wall, covering half of the wall's length was a railway/airport style information board stating various details like course subject, instructor name, code, price, and level. It was an analog type board with painted slates inserted into rails to make rows of information.
"By paying mission points, you can take courses from your fellow genin, chunin… and in rare situations, even jonin if they decide to hold a course," there was a light of longing in her eyes as she talked about the jonin. "The codes there can be used to get a course outline for more details at the receptionist."
Takuma looked at the board to see what type of courses the Learning Resource Center offered. Foraging, Personal Finance, Traps, Water Walking Practice, 10 Ways to Improve Patron Impression, Catch a Chunin's Attention in 100 Days….
Takuma couldn't help but wonder if those courses belonged better on social media ads. For him who hadn't been on social media for more than a year, the clickbait was almost tantalizing.
"Let's move on!" Saki commanded and they continued onwards.
She led them towards the training facilities available to the Genin Corps. Moving target practice with complex movements, indoor arenas that would shoot kunai towards you for dodging practice, durable dummies for various use, indoor arenas, outdoor fields, places specializing for practicing ninjutsu(for example, an entire area of sand to practice Katon(Fire) jutsu).
"Any and all of these facilities are available to you," said Saki before adding. "Friendly advice, the training facilities are almost always occupied. If you want it, book them in advance— the waiting line usually extends a week or two. If you don't book them, you won't ever get to use them."
The rest of the tour was filled with rules, the unofficial dos and don'ts, and hotspots in the Genin Corps complex. Takuma appreciated Saki clueing them with the unofficial side of things.
As the tour wound to its end, the group ended up stumbling into someone Takuma actually recognized.
"Are these the new batch of genin?" said the man wearing black sunglasses and the bandanna forehead protector covering his entire head. It reminded Takuma of Shady Guy, who dressed the same, but unlike the sarcastic Iryo-nin's lanky and wiry build, the man has an average build and his smile wasn't shady.
"Yes, sir," said Saki. She turned to the group and introduced the man. "This is Chunin Ebisu. He works as a counselor. If you—"
Ebisu interrupted her, "May I?" He continued when Saki nodded, "As introduced, I'm Chunin Ebisu. I'm a counselor currently working with both genin and chunin. What is counseling and why do I need it— you might think. All of you have just recently become shinobi, so many of you might not know but there are all types of shinobi, all important to the village. When you spend more time being a shinobi, you'll encounter these types of shinobi. But you might have already noticed how some people are better at certain things and you yourself are good at certain skills. As you grow as a shinobi, there will come a time for you to decide what type of shinobi you want to be. In what area do you wish to develop?
"That's where counseling can help you. Such decisions can be at times overwhelming. However, a simple helping hand to help you make sense of these decisions and help you logically guide you through the decision and progression process can be a boon. We can sit down and discuss your strengths and weaknesses and learn how to leverage them for your best future. If you have a goal, I can help you understand what needs to be done to reach it. So, if you're ever in doubt regarding your growth as a shinobi, visit me. My doors are always open to people willing to work hard to achieve their goals," he finished with a smile.
This Ebisu was different from the one Takuma knew. The Ebisu he remembered from the manga was grumpy— but if he remembered that was because every time he appeared it was with Naruto, and at that time the prejudice against Naruto stood strong. This Ebisu smiled and seemed like a likable person.
Takuma also didn't know that Ebisu worked as a counselor. But it somehow made sense. He was the Third Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru's teacher. To be given that job must've meant that Ebisu was skilled in teaching. Counseling made sense when Takuma thought like that.
One of the genin in the group raised their hand and asked a question, "What if we don't have anything we're good at."
If he was the Takuma of before, he would've asked that question. But not now. He was really good at Bunshin no Jutsu(Clone Jutsu). Still, Takuma was interested in hearing that question because him being good at making illusory clones didn't mean jack shit when looking at either the small or big picture.
Ebisu replied, "It's not that you aren't good at anything. Instead, you simply haven't found the skill you're going to be good at yet. There's no need to worry. I can help you with that. We can work together to find your strengths and build on them."
That was a banger answer, thought Takuma. If he didn't have Maruboshi to advise him, he would've gone to Ebisu for counseling. Who knows, maybe he would give it a try in the future.
And with that, the first day at Genin Corp came to an end.