Hearing Reina declare the end of the sparring match, Seimei smiled at Hyuga Natsumi and said, "That was a good battle. You did really well."
Hearing this, despite her noble and strict upbringing, Natsumi almost rolled her eyes.
Did well? Did well, my foot. I didn't even get to land a proper hit on this guy.
Natsumi glumbled inwardly.
But on second thought, having such a powerful ally as a teammate was actually good.
A ninja's life was unpredictable. And the missions? Even more so.
Who could say that a simple bandit extermination mission wouldn't turn into a dangerous chakra beast extermination mission all of a sudden?
Not to mention, rogue ninjas and shinobi from other elemental nations were popping up left and right nowadays. At least, that was what her clan elders mentioned.
It was genuinely possible that she would end up facing off against some entity that completely countered her abilities.
Although it was unlikely to happen, if it did end up happening, she wouldn't have anywhere to cry. She would probably die.
To avoid such pitfalls and survive until she became strong enough to make enemies fear her name, she needed powerful, reliable teammates.
From this perspective, having Senju Seimei and Uchiha Reina as her teammates was indeed fortunate.
One was the son of the current Hokage, a genius from the prestigious Senju clan, who played her like a seasoned Jonin amusing an inexperienced Genin.
The other was a prodigy of the Uchiha clan, who was rumored to be as formidable as Senju Seimei.
With two such powerful teammates, her survivability would skyrocket drastically.
She truly hit the jackpot.
While she was busy pondering her future, Reina had already moved beside Seimei, watched Natsumi with interest, and nodded.
She agreed with Seimei's statement. "Indeed. It was an interesting battle. Now that our team is complete and we have become official ninjas, the future missions will also be…interesting."
Hearing this, Seimei's lips couldn't help but twitch.
His head snapped back to Reina as he asked, "Interesting? You still want your missions to be interesting after our last encounter?"
Reina's smile widened even more. "What's wrong with hoping for a little fun? We are no longer academy students, but real ninjas now. And as active ninjas, we will spend half of our lives traveling, fighting, and completing various missions."
"Without a bit of fun and interesting things, wouldn't life be incredibly boring?"
"Anyway, you can't deny that we need more experience to deal with all kinds of unexpected situations. Only by completing various kinds of missions and accumulating enough battle, survival, and tactical experience can we improve our combat power faster."
Reina blurted all of that in one breath while secretly thinking…
And more importantly, Seimei, you need more experience as a ninja to survive not only the upcoming upheaval of the First Shinobi War, but also the future Otsutsuki invasion. I don't want you or this new teammate of mine to die because of a lack of experience.
The ninja world is ruthless, incredibly tricky, and unpredictable. Before achieving a certain level of strength, even a shuriken, a surprise attack from a D-rank chakra beast, or a well-placed trap can take your life.
Meanwhile, hearing Reina's response, Seimei couldn't find a word to refute her.
He simply gave up and said, "Fine. You have a point. You manage the missions then."
Becoming a team leader is such a hassle—extra work but no reward.
Letting the hyperactive Reina serve as team leader was a good choice. Let her pick missions, create plans, and rack her brain to come up with time-consuming strategies.
This way, he could relax and focus more on grinding.
Despite her knack for causing trouble, Reiina was actually a very responsible and capable individual.
She had an inexplicable charisma of a natural team leader, as if she had been doing the job for decades.
Seimei assumed it was her inherent talent.
So, he didn't think about it too much.
Anyway, capable people should do more work. Otherwise, how could he slack off and focus on grinding and becoming stronger?
And if the need arose, he could always save the day.
Well, if we face a formidable enemy that we can't defeat, I can always grab Reina and Natsumi, activate the Flying Thunder God Technique, and teleport tens, if not hundreds, of kilometers away.
If we can't beat it, we can always run away…ahem…I mean, retreat strategically.
Seimei silently mused.
Then he looked at Natsumi and asked, "Uchiha Reina will be the team leader of our squad. You have no problem, right?"
Natsumi shook her head and replied firmly, "I can't beat you. And since you judge her to be a better team leader, naturally, I have no problem, either."
Besides, Reina was a prodigy on whom the Uchiha clan must have poured countless resources, including guidance from Uchiha elders who survived the wars of the Warring States Era.
Natsumi, as a prodigy from the main family of the Hyuga clan, had access to crucial intelligence. She knew that Uchiha Reina had often led her clan members on missions, especially after she entered the third year of the Ninja Academy.
Clearly, this was the Uchiha clan's way to make their juniors develop leadership qualities.
From those pieces of intel alone, Hyuga Natsumi could guess that Uchiha Reina's leadership qualities were indeed decent at the very least.
Otherwise, no clan would bother investing so many resources, especially not a clan as large as the Uchiha.
"Alright. Reina, you will be the team leader."
Since Natsumi had agreed, Seimei wasted no time and decisively dumped the team leader duty to Reina.
Although a bit amused, Reina accepted the role.
For her, leading a small team of three ninjas was no trouble at all. Did Seimei think such a small responsibility would stump her?
What a joke! She had led teams thousands of times larger on countless missions more complicated and dangerous than mere B-, A-, and S-rank missions issued by ninja villages in her past life before regression.
At this moment, Natsumi chimed in, "Our first mission will be assigned by Hokage-sama, right?"
Seimei felt a bit strange about having to call his father "Lord Hokage" in the official settings, but he quickly shoved the thought away and said:
"Indeed. It has become a tradition now. Once the academy students form a team after their graduation, the Hokage will assign them their first mission."
"It's the same for the Genin squads. And it will be the same for the S-class graduates like us."
"Since we are a Chunin squad, our first mission will likely be a B-rank one, except for special circumstances, such as joint team missions."
"After that, except for the times when the Hokage Office picks our squad to perform any specific mission, we will have full autonomy regarding the missions we pick."
Reina nodded and added, "And although there aren't any hard rules about completing a specific number of missions in a fixed amount of time, a squad of our strength is still expected to complete at least four C or higher-ranked missions, ideally four B-ranked ones."
"Or two A-rank missions a month."
"That is, unless we are involved in a mission that takes a long time to complete, such as escort or bodyguard missions."
"But well, you can expect most missions, at least half of them, to be chakra beast extermination missions, which are usually pretty quick and pay quite a lot as well."
Hyuga Natsumi nodded in understanding.
Her eyes sparkled as she said, "I specialized in Anti-Personnel and Anti-Monster combat. I have no problem with the majority of missions being chakra beast extermination either. In fact, I prefer it that way."
Seimei chuckled, "That's good. But we will still rely on you for reconnaissance duty."
Natsumi nodded seriously, "No problem. Leave it to me."
Meanwhile, Reina glanced at Seimei with a strange expression.
You are the wielder of the legendary Tenseigan, and you say you want to rely on someone else for the reconnaissance duty? Do you even believe your own words?
Reina grumbled inwardly but said nothing.
Seimei sensed Reina's strange expression and was puzzled.
He asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Reina sighed and shook her head. Her raven-black ponytail shook with her head as well.
"Nothing."
Since she said it was nothing, what else could Seimei do? He dropped the matter.
He swiftly changed the topic. "By the way, we should go to the Hokage Office and pick up our Chunin flak jackets and ninja essentials distributed to the new graduates."
At this, Reina and Natsumi both agreed.
They should indeed grab their essentials and get some rest today. After all, they would have to visit the Hokage Office early tomorrow morning and receive their mission content.
After that, they would probably have to set off for the mission within an hour or two.
Thinking about their first mission, Natsumi couldn't help but ask, "By the way, what do you think our first mission will be?"
Reina paused for a bit before saying, "No one knows. Konoha has many kinds of missions, including reconnaissance, assassination, chakra beast extermination, rogue ninja extermination, protection, caravan escort, intel gathering, and many more."
"There's really no way to ascertain what mission will be assigned to us."
"But whatever it is, for the very first official mission, the difficulty shouldn't exceed B-rank."
Hearing this, Seimei's thoughts couldn't help but shift to the recent battle against the S-rank ninja, Echo.
No one could have predicted that participating in a simple practical academy evaluation would lead to a forced confrontation with a ninja like Echo, a wielder of Swift Release Kekkei Genkai.
In the end, Seimei said, "I just hope there aren't any surprises this time."
Reina chuckled and said, "We will deal with it if it comes to that. But for now, let's go pick up our things."
With that, Reina, Seimei, and Natsumi moved toward the Hokage Office.
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A/N: If you like my story and want to read ahead, you can check out my P@treon page and get access to the 14 Advanced chapters!
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