Even the usually gentle Nanoyu Yakushi couldn't keep her brow from twitching.
"Then, teacher, can you tell me what rank this Folken-sensei is supposed to be?"
The chunin instructor drew a deep breath, his expression turning solemn as he used every praiseworthy adjective he could muster.
"That young man is incredibly capable. At only eighteen, he has completed every assigned mission with a flawless one hundred percent success rate. The only other person with such a record was the ANBU's White Fang."
"I see. So he's a prodigy-level jonin. That, I can accept."
Mikoto Uchiha finally let out a breath of relief, a smile spreading across her face. But then a sudden doubt struck her. If the village truly had such a talented jonin, why had her clan, especially her grandfather, never once mentioned his existence?
Her smile froze. She opened her mouth to ask further, but the chunin instructor answered before she could speak.
"He isn't a jonin. He's… still a genin."
The moment the words left his mouth, the teacher felt the heavy weight in his chest lift. When he had first seen the assignment list, he nearly stormed straight to the ANBU headquarters for answers. But the list carried the Hokage's signature and official seal. Anything with that on it had unquestionably passed through the Hokage's own hands.
Within seconds, stifled laughter spread through the classroom. Even the always-avoids-trouble Nara U had to cover his face as he burst out laughing. Only two people weren't laughing; both were glaring at the teacher with the kind of murderous eyes that made him question his career choices.
The chunin could only give a helpless smile. He was just the messenger. Even if those two had top grades Mikoto Uchiha ranking first overall, and Nanoyu Yakushi ranking in the upper middle there was nothing he could say to fix this.
"I will report this to my clan," Mikoto said coldly. She believed the Hokage was deliberately suppressing the Uchiha, and the warning in her tone was clear. The chunin instructor could only nod in acknowledgment and instruct the class to wait patiently for their team leader to arrive.
In the Hokage's office, a crystal ball replayed everything that had just happened in the classroom.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, wearing the Hokage's hat, sighed as he watched young Mikoto fume in indignation.
"Other jonin will never accept Guy in their team. And even if they did, they couldn't properly guide someone like Mikoto, who already has the strength of a chunin right at graduation."
"Whichever way I look at it, Folken is the only one who fits."
Hiruzen knew perfectly well how tirelessly Guy trained. Even as Hokage, he had personally witnessed it. But raw physical talent alone couldn't qualify someone as a chunin.
To make matters worse, Guy's wife was pregnant. As a genin, he couldn't accept C-rank missions, and the money from D-rank missions wasn't enough to support a family. Many D-rank tasks also required basic ninjutsu, which Guy lacked, and failing a mission meant paying heavy fines. Other teams rejected him because they saw him as dead weight, thinking he was only there to split the rewards.
So the Hokage had been racking his brains to form a genin squad specifically to support Guy.
"I hope you can handle this, Folken. Use your looks to win those two girls over if you have to."
His backup plan was simple. Folken was handsome. With a good first impression, at least the girls' hostility might soften, making team formation smoother.
"Why isn't he here yet?"
Only Mikoto Uchiha and Nanoyu Yakushi remained in the 5th-year A-class classroom. The others had already left after laughing at them first. Mikoto would never forget today's humiliation. She swore she would crush this genin sensei with her strength, then report everything to her clan so her grandfather could personally march into the Hokage's office.
Nanoyu Yakushi, meanwhile, sat in quiet misery. Her parents had died on missions. Her grades weren't exceptional, but she excelled at chakra control and memory, which was the only reason she made it into the A-class.
Now she had to accept a genin teacher.
"My shinobi career might end here," she thought bleakly.
The classroom door creaked open.
Mikoto immediately clenched her fists and prepared to charge, only to freeze when she saw a young man with thick eyebrows and a tight green jumpsuit anxiously waving his hands.
"H-hello! I'm Guy Might. I'm here to report in!"
Seeing Mikoto's murderous glare, Guy nervously scratched his cheek.
"This is 5th-year A-class, right?"
"Hmph."
Realizing he wasn't the hated team leader but rather another victim, Mikoto's attitude softened ever so slightly. She sat back down with a cold snort.
"You're in the right place. But you don't know who our team leader is, do you?"
"It's a genin."
"And according to the class gossip, he failed the chunin exams six years in a row!"
Just thinking about how even the worst graduates were guided by tokubetsu jonin while her team got a genin supervisor made Mikoto feel like fainting.
"T-the Hokage told me about it." Guy forced a smile as he walked into the room, nostalgia flickering in his eyes.
He remembered his own graduation. He had graduated with several famous names though they graduated early while he graduated right on schedule.
"And you still came? Are you out of your mind? Are you sure nothing's wrong with your brain?"
Mikoto stared at him like he was a medical case. Even Nanoyu looked horrified.
What department would the hospital even send this kind of patient to?
Guy only gave a stiff, embarrassed smile. He didn't explain. How could he? Who would believe that a long-time genin was on the verge of losing his livelihood simply because he could only use taijutsu?
Seeing Guy go quiet, both girls exchanged glances. They could sense there was more to his story, but they stayed silent. All they could do was wait wait for that ridiculous, weak, hopelessly late genin teacher.
At eleven-thirty, almost lunchtime, Folken finally finished a D-rank mission helping an old woman till several plots of farmland.
Most taijutsu-only ninjas would've broken her tools.
Second floor, Mission Office.
The administrative chunin was still lost in the dullness of his routine and the grief of yesterday's losses another team missing, possibly dead. When Folken handed in the mission paperwork, the chunin barely looked up.
But then he saw Folken's face and suddenly remembered.
"Folken… genin…"
"Yeah. The pay looks right. Three thousand ryo." Folken counted the money without paying attention.
"No, I meant… aren't you supposed to be meeting your team today? Isn't this the graduation assignment day?"
"Oh."
Folken blinked and nodded as if he had just remembered something. The chunin wiped sweat from his forehead, relieved Folken hadn't actually finished already.
"I forgot. It's fine if I go now, right?"
The chunin fell off his chair in pure disbelief.
Folken calmly pocketed his 3,000 ryo and mentally estimated his total savings. More than four million ryo. Enough to buy a small house. No more rent, no more cramped single room. And Konoha wasn't going to be destroyed by Pain or the Nine-Tails these days… probably.
"What are you waiting for?! Get going!"
"Oh, okay. I'm going."
The chunin stood up, forehead scraped red from the fall, and yelled. Folken gave a serious nod, as if he had been thinking about this matter the whole time.