Chapter – 68: Team 9's first fight

[Rei POV]

"Let's introduce ourselves first. Say who you are, what you are good at, your likes and dislikes, etc."

"I will go first. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi and I am a Jonin of Konohagakure. As for my proficiencies, I am a sensor ninja and what I am good at the most are my clan's hidden jutsus. Before I was asked to lead a team of genins, I was part of this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho formation. Due to some pressing circumstances, one of my teammates had to be re-assigned to a different role for now, so here I am. What I like the most is spending time meditating in our garden. As for what I hate, I hate people who harm nature; especially flowers and my dream is to set up the best flower shop in the world!"

"You go next…" he points to Kazuma,

"My name is Yashiro Kazuma. I am good at close combat. I like spending time with my brother and what I hate is the arrogance of people from major clans," he looks at me when he says this and adds, "Recently, I have found that not all of them are like that though. For my goal, I want to defeat a certain someone using only Taijutsu!"

Inoichi looks at him pensively for a few seconds before sighing, "I have heard about what happened to your brother, honestly I will support you fully as long as your motive is only to defeat that person. But if at any point I feel you are going to harm another Konoha shinobi, I will stop you; at any cost!"

To which Kazuma nods. Next, Inoichi points to Yuri.

"I am Moriyama Yuri. I like many things like eating all kinds of sweets, hanging out with my friends, watching movies, etc. Oh, I also like pets; especially cats. For I don't like… mmm… I don't have anything for now sensei… I will tell you when I have one. As for my dream, I want to be a super-strong Kunoichi…" says Yuri in a single breath.

Inoichi just nods and all of them turn towards me. 'Interesting teammates I got, I wonder what happened to Kazuma's brother… now I am really curious…' I think.

"I am Uchiha Rei. I am good at Fire Ninjutsu and also know a little bit of Genjutsu. Also, I started learning medical ninjutsu from Takuma-sensei two years ago. Although I still have a lot to learn, I can heal most wounds now. What I like is reading books and learning new stuff. As for what I don't like, I hate seeing people get injured… As for my dream, I want to become the best field medic like Tsunade-sama!"

"Good!" says Inoichi, "Although I have passed all of you, only Rei's performance was slightly satisfactory. However, don't worry it's never too late to start learning. Now, let me see what you guys have learned during your time at the academy. I have rented the training ground for the entire day, your task is to try and defeat me by evening; meaning you have five hours to defeat a Jonin.. a hint, come at me with the intent to kill otherwise you will never be able to defeat me… good luck…"

We haven't even heard the last part, he disappears in a flash.

"Dammit!" curses Kazuma and was about to start pursuing Inoichi when he hears a shout from behind him.

"Wait!" I shout, "Don't chase after him…"

"Why not?" he asks with confusion.

"What do you think you will do once you find him? or rather when he finds you? do you think can you defeat him by yourself?" I ask, "In fact, if we split up, we will be making it easy for sensei as he will just take us out one by one… I am not saying we can defeat him if we are together, but at least we can make it slightly more difficult for him to defeat us… why don't we calm down and try to come up with a plan?"

"I don't have any tracking skills, what about you guys?" I ask.

"No" "I don't know any too…" they both shake their heads.

"That's troublesome…" I murmur, "It will be risky, but we don't have any other choice, how about we have sensei come to us?"

"How should we do that?" asks Kazuma.

"Of course, with one of us acting as a decoy… right?" asks Yuri.

"Yes," I nod, "We will do it like this, one of us has to attack head-on, another will distract sensei with ranged attacks, and finally when sensei is distracted, we have to sneak attack! This is the only way for us to even get close to him…"

"I will distract sensei with Fire Ninjutsu, Shuriken jutsu, and Genjutsu, Kazuma you will be charging in and attacking sensei directly… and finally, we will leave the most important sneak attack to Yuri… what do you say?"

"Me?" she asks pointing to herself.

"Ya, we only have one chance, whether we win or not will depend on you…"

"Seriously, me?"

…

A few minutes later, with me and Yuri hiding nearby, Kazuma starts to rush towards where we sensed Inoichi's presence; no, that's not correct, to where Inoichi showed himself.

Seeing Inoichi, he rushes in and delivers a swift kick which sensei easily blocks with just one hand. After that he tries exchanging a few blows, but seeing his attacks being easily neutralized, he quickly retreats.

Just when Inoichi was about to lunge forward and intercept him, he feels two shurikens approaching him at a very fast speed from both his left and right sandwiching him, and with Kazuma in front, he can only move backward to evade them. There is also an option of using ninja tools to defend himself, but being a Jonin, he has his pride, how can he let a few brats force him to use weapons?

Of course, given his speed, how can Rei's shuriken harm him, it can't even touch his shadow! However, just when he was about to use substitution to escape the trap, he sees a strange scene, Kazuma in front of him suddenly ducks! and from behind Kazuma comes a huge Fireball!

At the same time, he feels a stage chakra fluctuation in his chakra pathways, understanding the situation, he praises internally, 'these kids are good, they devised a three-pronged attack, shuriken from left and right, a fireball from the front, and a genjutsu to stop me from using any jutsu to escape… oh sorry make it four.. four-pronged attack…'

They already know, even with this, it is impossible to truly defeat Inoichi, so, there is one more member of the team who is still hidden and would attack from behind at the best possible moment.

'However, …' when Yuri rushes in from behind Inoichi with a kunai pointing to his heart, although she is fast, how can she compare to experienced jonin like Inoichi? before she could even get close, she realizes someone has already snatched her kunai! And the next thing she knows is the same kunai being placed against her neck.

"You lose!" says Inoichi.