Next day, some time before the predetermined time, team-two gathered and waited for their Jonin-sensei. Koichi appeared before them when it was exactly 5am.

“Everyone here, good” Koichi said with his usual cold voice, “Today we will train to overcome your shortcomings from the yesterday. But first answer the question that I asked you back then, what mistakes did you made yesterday during the fight?” Koichi asked looking at Hikari first.

“I was just not strong enough to beat you.” Hikari replied with slight annoyance, “I didn’t do anything wrong in particular.”

“Sigh, what about you Yuta?” Koichi sighed, clearly being not happy with Hikari attitude.

“I was distracted and dropped my guard after the big explosion.” Yuta replied, “If not that, I might be able to detect you sensei, and properly defend myself until my teammate’s arrival.”

“Good, what about you Itachi?” Koichi nods and looks at Itachi.

“I should have anticipated the upcoming fight and discussed our strategy and come up with a better plan before the test started.”

“Good” Koichi said with a nod. “There were no major problems with your performance Itachi, only a few minor mistakes that come out of your lack of experience. As for you two, Hikari and Yuta, there are some major mistakes that you need to work on.

For you Hikari, your major mistake was that you didn’t properly cooperate with your team, we will focus our training on squad formations and teamwork with you.”

“What?!” Hikari exclaimed in denial, “Itachi was taken the leadership suddenly, I didn’t agree with that, what if I had a better plan in mind for the fight?! But even then, I assisted him and acted with keeping his actions in mind, my teamwork was good enough!”

“That is not it” Koichi said with a sigh, “You found yourself in a situation, when your squad engaged in combat with an enemy. You didn’t discuss the leadership of your group beforehand that’s true, but when Itachi taken the leadership and give orders to Yuta, at that situation you as a shinobi should had accepted Itachi as a team leader, there is simply no time for a discussion, and when Itachi decided to take the leadership he should had his reasons to do so. And if you ask me, that was a right decision and a good thinking on Itachi’s part.

Itachi’s and Yuta’s level of cooperation is very good, and Itachi also should know what are you capable of, Hikari, as both of you is from the same class, while you and Yuta didn’t know each other much, so Itachi’s leadership in that situation is only natural, you should understand that.

As for your cooperation during the fight, your strength and skills with a sword is good, there is no doubt about it, but your actions were too rushed and risky, you clearly tried to take the lead during the fight and didn’t assist Itachi on a proper level.”

While Hikari looked a little angry after Koichi’s scolding, it seems that she understood her mistakes and accepted it.

“Fine, now you Yuta”, Koichi said and looked at Yuta, “As you said already, your problem was when you lost your awareness after explosion, you should never drop your guard during the fight, even if you think that your enemy is dead. Shinobi often use tricks and deception during combat, and what you may believe is an enemy dead body its can turn out to be just a decoy or a trap, you should always be on guard!”

“Yes, sensei” Yuta replied.

‘Looks like I have a long way to go to turn myself into a proper shinobi. I learned and mastered some cool techniques and trained my body, but my mind is still not in the right place…’

“There are other things,” Koichi continued, “Your Fuinjutsu trap while it had a proper firepower, the design of the layout of the trap was not efficient, later I will teach you how to prepare a different kinds of traps properly. Also, your concealment of the seals is off, while it’s conceals tags visually and even remove the scent of paper and ink, the chakra fluctuations of the seals is still there, any sensor or Fuinjutsu expert will spot it easily, as I did.”

“I know about it, sensei” Yuta replied, “But there are no materials on this topic in the academy library. I tried to design a seal that will conceal the chakra fluctuations, but the thing I managed to come up with does more harm than good.”

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“What did you come up with?” Koichi asked curiously, “I’m practicing Fuinjutsu myself, so you can discuss it with me, probably I will be able to give you a good advice on the matter.”

“When I tried to create a proper chakra concealment seal, I created a barrier that cuts off all chakra.” Yuta replied and sighed, “But this barrier while doing its job of concealing the chakra inside, it’s emanates chakra itself and it’s even easier to sense this barrier than the seals without it, so I’m currently stuck on this stage.”

“I see” Koichi said with a nod, “There are two methods to create a chakra concealment seals as I know about it. The more advanced one is something that we will discuss sometime in the future, but the simpler one, is actually is something that you trying to implement, it’s a barrier that cuts off chakra, and that much you already done, the final part is to cut off its own chakra fluctuations as well, I will give you a scroll with the detailed descriptions and examples of this method.”

“Thanks sensei!” Yuta said enthusiastically, “What about the other advanced Fuinjutsu materials?”

“Um” Koichi nods, “I will guide you on Fuinjutsu and give you the scrolls to help you master the art. There is a shortage of Fuinjutsu practitioners in the village and it will be great if you will able to master the art, you will be a valuable asset for the village.”

“That would be great!” Yuta replied with a smile.

‘Great! With this cleared, I will be able to learn advanced Fuinjutsu from Koichi, and I will be able to learn Genjutsu and Ninjutsu from Itachi. And later on, when Itachi awakens his Sharingan, he will be able to copy a lot of jutsu, and I will be able to learn them as well. Looks like I’m on a right path here.’

‘With this my main problem of low background with no backing is resolved, as now I have a stable supply of jutsu to learn and master that most shinobi with civilian background can only dream about.’

While Yuta being deep in his thoughts and with a happy smile on his face, Hikari on the contrast to him are angry and annoyed instead.

“As for you Itachi” Koichi turns to Itachi, “You did well during the test. I will not talk about small mistakes you made as it’s not important. Also, as you said earlier, you should have discussed the leadership and possible strategies beforehand, but it’s hard to blame you about it in that situation. Just try to keep in mind the possible situations that may arise in the future and stay prepared accordingly.”

“Yes, sensei” Itachi responded keeping serious expression.

“Well, now that this is cleared, I will teach you formations and we will try to improve your teamwork, which is the most important part right now.” Koichi said.

And with that the training for team-two begins. It was mostly the squad formations, as Koichi said before, but in the process, he also taught the team how to respond to different kinds of situations on the field, which formations to use in which situation, what actions to take and when.

While the training day was not that hard physically, it was very information-heavy and mentally exhausting for Yuta and Hikari, while Itachi seems just fine with everything.

Only with a short lunch break Koichi trained the team up until 8pm, and then he stopped the training and said, “That’s enough for today, I really hope that you remembered all that I taught you, I don’t like to repeat the same thing twice, so you better get it first time! Tomorrow, I expect you at the same place and time as today. We will continue training at morning but then we will go on your first mission.

As you may know, it’s mandatory for a fresh Genin team to complete 20 D-rank missions and spend at least two months training with your Jonin-sensei inside the village, before you will be allowed to take C-rank missions outside the village, so we will do just that, we will train and complete a mission once in a two to three days. Dismissed.”

After saying that Koichi puffed with a small cloud of smoke.

“A shadow clone, huh…” Yuta said surprised.

“What? He even didn’t come and taught us by himself but send his shadow clone to do the job?” Hikari exclaimed in annoyance.

“There is no difference for us if it was original Koichi-sensei or his clone.” Itachi said trying to reason with Hikari.

“Humph!” Hikari replied with annoyance, “And what is your problem you two? I definitely saw yesterday that Yuta used the shadow clone jutsu, how did he learn it? It’s you, Itachi, who taught it to Yuta?”

‘Hmm, how Hikari knows about the shadow clone jutsu? Well, she might have seen how it works yesterday and now when I mentioned it on Koichi disappearance, she might pick things up, but what if not? This jutsu is somewhat a secret that usually only Jonins know about, there is not a single mention of it in the entire academy library…’

“And what if I did?” Itachi replied, keeping his calm demeanor while looking at Hikari.

“I want to learn it too!” Hikari exclaimed demanding it.

“And what if I refuse?” Itachi calmly asked, probing Hikari to see how far she willing to go for it.

“I will ask you again and again until you eventually agree to teach me the Shadow Clone jutsu!” Hikari stated with resolve in her eyes.

‘Well, at least she has some common sense to not threaten Itachi with the information that he taught high rank jutsu to an outsider…’ Yuta thought to himself while observing the scene that unfolds in front of him.

“Let’s discuss this later, Hikari” Itachi said and flickered away.

Seeing that Itachi is leaving, Yuta flickered away in the same moment, obviously he doesn’t want to be left alone with Hikari and end up in an awkward situation.