That meant that no matter what happened yesterday between Rikuya Hayashi and Kakashi, from now on they were to be considered one team.
"Yes, Teacher Minato!"
Rikuya gave a slight nod, making his stance clear.
He knew perfectly well that what happened yesterday was entirely Danzō's doing and had nothing to do with Kakashi. At this stage, Kakashi was simply an emotionless mission machine.
"Yes, Teacher Minato!" ×2
Yamanaka Kōji and Kakashi echoed the same reply.
"Once we finish this barbecue, we'll head to the training grounds. I want to first get a sense of your current progress."
Namikaze Minato was quite satisfied with this first meeting.
Before long, twenty plates of grilled meat were brought out.
Each plate weighed roughly a pound, the portions generous.
Does that sound like too much?
In reality, for them, it was nothing at all.
They were shinobi!
For someone trained in chakra, eating that much posed no problem whatsoever. In fact, if it were the future princess of a certain clan, she could probably eat dozens of pounds with ease. As for the Akimichi clan… ten pounds was just a warm-up.
On normal days, the only reason they ate less was simply because there wasn't enough food available.
"I'll dig in." ×4
The four of them began eating.
The fragrant, sizzling meat was so irresistible that they didn't stop until all twenty plates were cleared away.
When the meal was done, Minato reluctantly pulled over ten thousand ryō from his wallet to pay the bill.
Good thing he hadn't told them, "Eat as much as you want," or they might have had to stay behind to wash dishes to cover the cost.
People often assumed ninja earned a lot, but their expenses were even higher — food, ninja tools, training, medical care… it all added up.
Even an S-rank mission paid at most a little over a million ryō, and that still had to be split with the village. No wonder they only came to barbecue places for celebrations.
If they came here regularly… what kind of wealthy family would they need to be?
The four of them slowly made their way toward the training grounds.
"Alright, let's start with self-introductions."
"My name is Namikaze Minato. I'll be your team leader. I like eating ramen, and my dream is to become Hokage. How about you?"
After speaking, Minato looked toward Kakashi — clearly signaling that he should go first.
Wearing his mask and exuding a cold aura, Kakashi turned his head away from the "sunshine-like" smile and said,
"Hatake Kakashi. I like dogs. As for my dream… to wash away the shame of the Hatake clan."
As he spoke, his fist clenched slightly — remembering his father, so strong and gentle, who had taken his own life after a failed mission…
Still hasn't let it go, has he?
Minato noted the gesture, understanding it without a word.
"I'm Yamanaka Kōji. I like powerful ninjutsu. My dream is to restore the Yamanaka clan to greatness!"
Normally expressionless, Kōji's face showed rare emotion when speaking of his clan.
"A fine dream," Minato said with a smile before turning to Rikuya Hayashi, curious about what his dream might be.
In truth, he had an additional mission — to observe Rikuya.
The assignment had come directly from the Third Hokage.
Having Minato as Rikuya's team leader was the result of negotiations between the village and the Uchiha clan.
Neither the village nor the Uchiha wanted to see someone with such potential for research and innovation meet an untimely end.
What Minato hadn't expected… was that Rikuya's dream would be something so completely unexpected.
(End of Chapter)