Takeshi watched these Genin speak to their sensei about the new mission they were going on. It sounded like the mission might be high ranked, maybe a B rank. From what Takeshi could tell, it wasn't their first mission together, due to how well they got along with each other. They still seemed fresh faced, so they probably haven't been on any dangerous missions yet. That was a good thing, they didn't need to be exposed to that type of stuff yet. It was funny to watch them, they seemed so energetic, one was really loud. He seemed to be the most excited about the mission. The girl just laughed while the other boy in the squad read a book. Their sensei was getting clearance to leave the village, and that's who Takeshi was basically waiting on. His forehead protector dangled on his neck like a necklace as he continued to practice his "warm-ups" for his katon training. He continued this as the sensei waited to get approval for the mission they were about to do. The sensei turned to Takeshi and stuck up a conversation with him. "So, what's your business here? You look a little young to be leaving the village alone." Takeshi turned to the man, and opened his mouth to answer his question. As he opened his mouth, he almost forgot that he was concentrating chakra in his throat and lungs. Takeshi wasn't sure what would have happened if he spoke with all that concentrated chakra in body. He didn't weave any hand signs to do a katon jutsu, but it was still a close call.
Takeshi held up his index finger to show that he needed a second. He managed to release his chakra and sort his chakra back up into his body. Then he turned back to the man and got ready to speak. "Actually, I'm an Special Jounin, not quite a Jounin, but you get the point right? As for my business, I'm going out to the nearby forest to train." The man seemed to be surprised by Takeshi's statement. The man looked as if he was in his mid thirties. He had a slight tan, with a medium sized beard. He was bold, and wore his forehead protector at the appropriate place, which was on his forehead. Other than that, he looked like most of the other ninja in the village. He wore a Konoha flak jacket, with the standard shinobi pants and shoes. The man looked at Takeshi and looked as if he wanted to say something negative, but then his expression completely changed. He started to laugh, which made the Genin that was nearby to stop and see what was going on out of curiosity. Takeshi himself was confused, he didn't know what part of what he said was funny. Then the man turned to Takeshi after laughing for what seemed like hours. "That's pretty funny, I can't believe that kid has a higher rank than me! Here I am, a thirty four year old and still a Chuunin. You make me look bad kid, but I have to say, you brightened my day. My name is Yamato, what's yours?
Takeshi looked at the man, still slightly confused at what just happened, though he tried not to think about it too much. Takeshi thought for a brief moment before answering the man. "My name is Takeshi, Takeshi Uzumaki." The man looked at Takeshi, and then looked slightly up to see his read hair. For an instant, it looked like it was the first time he saw the red hair. Then he made eye contact with Takeshi once more and began to start the conversation again. "An Uzumaki eh? I've never actually met one of your clansmen before. Its an honor to meet you." Takeshi looked down at the ground for a moment as he started to think about his clan. Yamato saw Takeshi's distress, and just as he was ready to say something he was interrupted by the person behind the counter. Takeshi was knew the people who worked at the village gate quite well. Most of them were Jounin rank, but some of them were Chuunin rank as well. Takeshi had never seen the woman that was behind the counter. She looked as if she was nervous, though she tried not to show it as much. Then the woman swallowed her spit before saying something. "I'm sorry sir, but there has been reports of mercenaries that have wandered too close to the village. So with that, until some people go there to get rid of the problem, we're going to have stop people from walking out for now." Yamato looked at the woman, he had a neutral expression on his face, like he couldn't decide if he wanted to be mad.
After a short staring contest with the woman behind the counter who looked like she was ready to cry, Yamato finally took a couple of steps back. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and took one out. He put it in his mouth, and lit it up. Taking a deep breath, he blew the smoke out of his lungs. He turned to his squad of Genin, who upon hearing the news, was extremely disappointed. Takeshi looked at the woman, and then up at the sky. It was just past high noon and Takeshi wasn't able to go to his training spot. As he was getting lost in his own thoughts, he heard somebody call his name. It was Yamato who was gesturing for Takeshi to come over to his position. Takeshi walked over as Yamato released another puff of smoke. Yamato looked at Takeshi, took the cigarette out of his mouth and shook the ash onto the ground. Before he put the cigarette back in his mouth, he opened his mouth to say something to Takeshi. "Look, since we can't go outside the gate for whatever reason, I thought we could go to a BBQ place, my treat." Takeshi got ready to argue with Yamato about the bill, but Yamato shook his head, and waved his hand down. "Don't worry about it, I got it, besides. You're my superior after all, it would be rude of me to make you pay for something like that." Without too much of a argument, Takeshi followed Yamato and his squad to an BBQ place that was just a block away.
They walked into the BBQ place, and the smell of the place filled Takeshi's lungs. They all sat down at a booth like table that had a grill in the middle of it. Yamato ordered up some meat, and it arrived shortly. They had to cook up the meat themselves, which was something that Takeshi never done. Yamato was manning the grill, so his squad just sat there. Takeshi saw them stare at him a couple of times, but when ever he looked in their direction, they would turn around. Yamato, still smoking his cigarette, turned his attention to his students and began to speak. "Hey! This man here is your superior, so show him some respect. Introduce yourselves, then we can eat." His students looked slightly intimidated, but they knew what they had to do. The kids introduced themselves, and in turn, Takeshi introduced himself as well. After which, Yamato let them eat. He and Takeshi got their plates first, and then the kids got theirs. The kids seemed to be interested in how Takeshi was able to achieve such a high rank so early. Takeshi didn't want to tell them the things he had to do, and Yamato was also hoping he wouldn't divulge too much information about the subject. So after Takeshi thought about what he was going to say, he finally thought of a sufficient answer. "I ate all of my vegetables!" Takeshi said with a corny smile on his face. After a brief pause, they all laughed at the statement. After the kids ate all food and got full, Yamato told them to head on home, they would start some training tomorrow. Takeshi hadn't noticed that it was the evening. The kids left the restaurant, and then there was only Yamato and Takeshi.
Yamato turned to Takeshi while lighting up another cigarette and taking a puff. "So what were you going to train? Obviously it something too dangerous to do inside the village." Takeshi looked at Yamato, and took a sip of his water that he ordered. "I was going to train in katon, I felt that it was lacking." Yamato raised an eyebrow at Takeshi's statement. "Really? Interesting, I'm in the Sarutobi clan myself, so I can give you some pointers on that if you want." Takeshi found this surprising, he thought this could have been destiny that led him to Yamato. Takeshi quickly discarded that thought due to how silly it was. Takeshi took up Yamato on his offer, and Yamato started to explain the properties of the katon element. "When it comes to the fire release, you gotta almost exaggerate the amount of chakra you focus in your lungs. You do this because when you first use a jutsu that uses fire release, its at its weakest when you first start the jutsu. So by adding a little chakra than normal, you can make up for that. That's how it was explained to me at least. Takeshi made note of everything Yamato said. When Takeshi was about ask a question, he was interrupted by a cluster of people who decided to walk into the restaurant all at once. Takeshi made it known that he was annoyed by this with a stern expression, Yamato saw this, so they decided to leave. They walked outside the restaurant, and as they did this Yamato took another puff of his cigarette. They started walking in a random direction and began to talk about the fire release.
They continued to talk about this until Takeshi was felt like he learned all he could, and it was time to try most of it out. So Takeshi thought it was time to change topics. "So Yamato, mind if I ask you something?" Yamato took another puff of his cigarette before answering. "Yeah sure, what ya wanna know?" Takeshi paused for a second, and then opened his mouth to ask the question. "Why are you still a Chuunin? I mean, people in your clan are famed to be geniuses." Takeshi looked at Yamato, and for the first time, he noticed the height difference between him and Yamato. Yamato was at least three or four inches taller than Takeshi, if not more. Yamato took out the cigarette to shake off the ash and put it in his mouth. "Simple, I chose to stay a Chuunin. Chuunin is the earliest when you're able to teach at the academy, and you're even able to be a replacement sensei." That last sentence confused Takeshi, he never heard of a replacement sensei. "Those kid's sensei has had a history of being ill, so they end up being stuck with me until he can get better. Though, I'm not really qualified to take them on high ranking missions, I can still train with them." Takeshi found this interesting, he had never heard of that before. Yamato shook the ash off one more time before he threw the cigarette on the ground. "So now its your turn, how did you manage to become as high ranking as you are?" Takeshi looked up at the night sky, amazed at how fast it came around. " I had to do some dangerous stuff, and since I have some skills that the higher ups see high ranking. I have this special rank, hence the special before Jounin." Yamato shook his head in agreement, he seemed to understand right away.
Yamato and Takeshi walked through the village, exchanging stories about their missions. They walked past the night life of Konoha, Takeshi wasn't too familiar with this setting. The bright lights, all the people that went out at this time. He saw some people that were clearly on a date. He saw the many bars that blended in during the day was now bright with life. On multiple occasions he saw drunks fall over on their own two feet. He saw some of the more high ranking ninja that used this time to meet up with their friends. Then out of nowhere, a couple of people walked up to Yamato and Takeshi. They looked as if they had an evil intent, but Yamato put his hand in front of Takeshi. Takeshi was ready fight, but Yamato simply said watch. Indeed, the two men had a complete change of facial expression. It changed into more of a derpy look as they stumbled over each other. "This is why I told the kids to go home, all these drunks out here could be dangerous." Takeshi nodded in agreement, and after they walked for a little longer, Takeshi thought it was time for him to go home. At around that time, some friends of Yamato's came and snatched him up to go drinking. Takeshi just waved bye and went on his way back to the house. Takeshi ducked and dodged all the drunks, and people who were in his way. It had always got on his nerves how people always seemed to find their way in front of Takeshi.
Takeshi made it home without any problems with the local drunks. Even though he really didn't train physically, he sure enough trained mentally. With the advice he got from a master of the fire release in his own right, he would surely use is the next time he felt it was time to train it. He used the house key he kept in the void of the Uzumaki sealing technique. Out of all the jutsu he had, he found that sealing technique the most useful. It was basically the safest safe in mankind that he could open and close at will. He used the key to open the front door, which he quickly closed and locked behind him. He walked through the house quietly knowing his mother would be asleep by now. He walked past the kitchen and the out of nowhere he saw a light turn on. It was his father, and he was sitting in the living room. His father told him to sit down on the couch. Takeshi did as he told, and they had a short conversation about his training, and how it worried his mother. Takeshi understood this concern, he was gone for the whole day. He would have to make it up to her somehow, but for now, he would go to sleep. His father appreciated the fact of how he was able to understood what he said. After a quick hug, Takeshi walked to his room.
573+2476=3049 B-A Training Complete