Yugao returned from the chunin exam with a broken wrist. She looked displeased; she didn’t get promoted. It was an immense disappointment for her. She had been training all this time for the exam, only to be eliminated by a Genjutsu user. She was angry. Jun wasn’t sure his friend had failed at anything before. Well, it was good for her to have a little reminder that the world was a vast place with many talents. She should be more humble about her skills.

Yugao couldn’t go on missions until her fracture healed. So, she hung out more with her friends. The explosive trio reformed. But Jun was the busiest among them as his team took on many missions. He still found time to wander the streets with his friends talking about life. Iruka still complained about his teammates. Madoka Hyuga was going out with a member of her clan. She liked her boyfriend but her teammates disliked the guy. Their attitude toward her relationship offended Madoka.

Mizuki had tried befriending Iruka, but the latter maintained his distance since Mizuki had made some offensive comments about Jun’s mother. Iruka mentioned to them his desire to teach. Jun wasn’t surprised. He had known from the beginning Iruka would end up at the Academy. It was from his memories.

Jun invited Yugao over to his place. He hadn’t had the opportunity to do so since his friend had previously been so busy. Izumi was delighted to see a familiar face. Their mom now spent the majority of her time at home. The baby was growing nicely. Their mother’s belly was proof of that. Her slender figure contrasted with her pregnant stomach. She was bored the majority of the time; therefore, Yugao started visiting her regularly to keep her company while her wrist was healing. Hazuki had some background in Kenjutsu, so they had something in common to talk about.

Jun’s jutsu repertoire was expanding. He found some interesting techniques in books and also harassed their sensei to teach them Futon techniques. Shiba agreed to show the team a technique that could deal massive damage at close and mid-range. It was called Futon, Air Bullets.

It allowed the user to spit out compressed air projectiles. The farther they traveled, the more time they had to decompress, losing power. Jun and Susumu took a few days the learn the jutsu. Neither of them possessed an affinity with the wind element. Natsumi took almost a month to accomplish the same feat. She didn’t lie when she had declared Ninjutsu was her weakness.

Jun was happy with the team's progress. He liked they had a jutsu in common. Moreover, with that technique acquired, he possessed Raiton, Suiton, Katon, and Futon jutsus in his arsenal. He only lacked a Doton technique for all five elements.

The end of the year was coming. There was the anniversary of the Nine-Tails attack on the village. It was a day of mourning for most. The cemetery wasn’t crowded as Jun expected. The teenager had avoided going there so far. He didn’t feel like going to his father’s grave to remember him. His Sharingan had recorded what happened that day. However, he accompanied Iruka who needed company.

Jun recognized someone there. It was a lanky teenager with silver hair in black and gray ANBU attire. He didn’t need to see his masked face to realize it was Kakashi. Jun was a bit surprised. He had barely encountered any major characters from the story in the past years. He hadn’t even thought about them.

Today was also Naruto’s birthday. He briefly wondered who was taking care of him, but he didn’t feel much toward the infant orphan. For him, the young Uzumaki was the host of the Nine-Tails. He didn’t care about Naruto right now. He wasn’t his problem. Iruka would likely have his hands full dealing with Naruto in the future before Jun would interact with the youth.

He quickly tried to recall the characters he encountered in the past. Kushina and her husband were dead. So was Rin. Obito was officially declared dead, but Jun knew he still lived. Kakashi was dealing with the guilt of losing his teammates. Hence, overworking himself in the ANBU.

Jun found it curious he didn't see more characters in the past couple of years. Some of them, like Kakashi, were quite recognizable. Was it because he was living in the Uchiha district? Was he that isolated from the village? Even now, he didn’t have much social life. He didn’t know many people.

His circle of friends was quite small. He didn’t wander the streets seeking people. He tended to go towards his destination as quickly as he could. The teenager wanted to change that. It was paramount for him to maintain cordial relations with other people. He didn’t need to be close with everyone, but they should know him.

A thought crossed his mind. If his family were to be the only survivors of the massacre, Danzo made be tempted to make them disappear or force them to join the Root. Sasuke was off the table, but his family may not get that privilege. Therefore, he had to make sure people know him and would notice his disappearance in case something happened. He cursed himself for not thinking about it sooner. As fate had a funny way of making things happen, an opportunity presented itself days later.

“We have a mission. We are escorting some people to a small town in the Land of Grass. Our relationship is still tense with the Land of Grass. But Kusagakure will not openly provoke us. To be cautious though, we are doing the mission with another team. It’s a B-rank mission.” Shiba explained.

“Really? A team of genins like us?” Natsumi asked with interest.

Their sensei shook his head.

“Just two chunins.”

“Who are we escorting?” Jun asked.

“Entertainers. A small group of six people. They have been hired by a noble from the Land of Grass who is organizing a party.”

Entertainers were often spies. They could easily get close to nobles and their circle. They were a valuable source of intelligence. Therefore, getting shinobis to protect them wasn’t hard. They probably paid for the mission by providing some information to the village. The entertainers were women wearing very light clothing. They were ideal targets for bandits or other mercenaries.

To make their clients feel more comfortable, the two chunins the village chose were also women. Jun recognized them. It was Anko and Kurenai. The former was around fourteen or fifteen years old while the latter was probably a year older. They all met at the gates of the village where a wagon harnessed by two sluggish horses was waiting for them. The entertainers were standing nearby.

“I’m Kurenai. Nice to meet you all.”

“My name is Anko. I’m the best chunin in the village.”

“I’m Shiba Arata, a Konoha jonin and the one in charge of this mission. These are my genins, Jun, Natsumi, and Susumu.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. My daughters and I thank you for your help. I am Ms. Kawano. The girls are Mitsuru, Gina, Yasu, Atsuko and Kiku. I hope we have a pleasant trip.”

“You have nothing to fear with us,” Anko replied.

Shiba looked vaguely annoyed by her words but didn’t comment. He gave the signal to leave.

The mission wasn’t interesting on paper. The wagon was slow. The shinobis surrounded it and moved at its pace while surveilling their surroundings. Anko was entertaining. She was loud and exuberant. Kurenai seemed to deal with her comrade’s attitude pretty well. One could tell she was used to it. On the other hand, Shiba was dry and snappy with Anko, which only made the kunoichi provoke him further.

Jun realized that the jonin didn’t trust Anko. Was it because of her past connection to Orochimaru? The Sannin had been gone for months now. But his wrongdoings were still fresh in people’s minds. Everyone knew she had been his student. One that he had experimented on. Jun understood why some people were wary of her. It also made sense why she acted like she had something to prove. Shiba’s mistrust and disdain were probably hurting the young Anko.

“Hey, How long have you been a chunin?” Jun asked Anko.

She turned to him, a huge smile on her face.

“Two years! Why are you asking? Do you want me to give you advice on how to become a chunin? You looked kind of young, though.”

“I’m eleven. How old were you when you took the exam?”

“Older than you…”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll probably take part in the exam next year. What does it feel like to be a chunin?”

Anko’s face lit up in excitement. She started giving him details about her chunin exam in Konoha. She gave him the names of the people she defeated and how she did it. She laughed the entire time she was talking. Jun was amused by her personality. She liked to make people uncomfortable to see their reactions. She enjoyed it.

After about an hour of conversation, Anko quit trying to make Jun uncomfortable. She seemed satisfied with the teenager as if he had passed a test. She acted normally with him, but that didn’t stop her from whining with laughter an inch from his face after telling a good joke. The chunin loved dirty jokes and absurd stories. Jun didn’t know if she had indeed experienced all the hilarious and surreal anecdotes she shared, or if she had made them up. Either way, Anko wasn’t a boring person.