"Hm?"
Hatake Satoru pointed at his own face in confusion. The person behind the corner nodded over and over.
"Why would Anbu be looking for you now?"
Shisui gave the figure hiding around the corner a puzzled look.
"No idea, but since Anbu now reports directly to Hozuki Mangetsu, it probably isn't anything serious."
"Let the students hang out with those two. If it's just them alone, this place might start to look like a horror movie set."
Hatake Satoru gave a student next to him a light push on the shoulder and started walking toward the corner.
"So cool!!!"
"Even with the eyepatch on, he's super handsome!!"
Hatake Satoru watched as several heads suddenly popped out from around the corner.
Aside from the first one who talked to him wearing a mask, the other girls were only wearing forehead protectors.
Hatake Satoru blinked innocently, and almost like he was reacting to the screams, he hooked a finger on his eyepatch and pulled it down.
His short hair, lifted slightly by the eyepatch, fell down. He gave the girls in front of him a small, fox-like smile with his lips pressed together.
"AHHHHH!!!"
"He took off the eyepatch! He really did!!"
"He's suuuuper handsome?!"
Everyone around the corner froze for a moment—then a wave of ear-piercing screams filled the air.
?!
Shisui and the students nearby quickly turned their heads toward the noise.
The group of kunoichi at the hallway corner looked completely stunned, hearts practically popping out of their eyes, and the air was instantly filled with pink bubbles.
Hatake Satoru calmly pulled his eyepatch back on and gave the strap behind his head a quick tug.
If people call him handsome, of course he's gonna show off a bit.
It's not like he's Kakashi, who had one beauty mark and decided to wear a mask for life.
Hatake Satoru lowered his head to look at the Anbu who had just called out to him. The long brown wavy hair made it pretty easy to tell who she was.
"Did Hozuki Mangetsu send you guys to find me?"
"Ah, huh? No?!"
Terumi Mei froze for a moment, then quickly moved the mask off her face. Her cheeks turned red with embarrassment.
"It's just… um… about the former Mizukage…"
"Thank you so much, so we brought a few gifts…"
Terumi Mei stammered shyly, unable to speak clearly. After all, she was still a young girl, far from the mature and confident woman she'd become later.
Before Hatake Satoru could say anything, a bunch of people rushed forward and shoved all kinds of pink gift bags into his arms, then hurried off like they were running away.
Shy, huh…?
Hatake Satoru tilted his head slightly, thinking. His arms were now full of large and small bags.
He hadn't even said a word yet, and everyone had already vanished using Body Flicker.
Well, whatever.
Hatake Satoru walked toward the classroom, arms full of stuff. Letters kept falling from his pile as he moved.
"Why won't you ever take off your eye patch and show us?"
"I thought maybe your eyes were hiding some kind of secret."
Shisui was at the podium, sorting the gifts from the love letters. Besides all the sweets, there was also some chocolate.
Seems like those kunoichi had done their homework on what Hatake Satoru liked.
Hatake Satoru's eye patch, like Kakashi's mask, always made people curious. Anyone who spent time around them wanted to know what they really looked like.
But among all the crazy theories, not a single one guessed that Hatake Satoru would just casually take off his eye patch like that!?
"Well, it's not like you ever asked me~"
"And the mood felt right at the time, so I just did it."
Hatake Satoru said while handing out sweets to Suigetsu and Kimimaro.
The two kids were at the table, faces covered in sugar and chocolate.
"My bad for never asking then."
Shisui was speechless. Even Itachi, who'd known Hatake Satoru for ages, had never seen his real face.
Shisui had always put Satoru's eye patch and Kakashi's mask in the same category.
Who would've thought this guy was so casual about taking it off!?
…
After a few months, the situation in Kirigakure had mostly settled down.
The Kaguya clan had all been sent out on missions. The old advisor's comeback plans had completely failed. These days, he was behaving himself and helping Hozuki Mangetsu with all sorts of tasks.
The rule that required ninja students to kill all their classmates to graduate had been scrapped. Now, they just had to pass a written test and perform well in combat.
This new system didn't seem like a big deal now, but in a year or two, it would clearly boost the number of Anbu and Jonin.
Graduating by killing your entire class was just insane.
Hatake Satoru figured that kind of rule must've been made by some Mizukage who was half-asleep.
Only a few people could even graduate in a whole year under that system. There was no way to replace lost talent quickly enough.
Compared to that, the new graduation rules sounded pretty easy.
The written test wasn't much of a problem because almost all the questions were made by Hatake Satoru during his daily lessons.
The exam wasn't really hard—in fact, it was often pretty easy. Basically, no one ever got stuck on the written part.
"Heh, so what if the written test isn't a problem?"
"No one walks out of the final practical test with a clear mind."
"I'd rather kill a classmate, or be killed by one, than keep retaking that test under Genjutsu."
These kinds of comments were the most common from students who took the test back then.
Even the Fifth Mizukage, Hozuki Mangetsu, had to retake the test five times that month just to barely pass.
Everyone else's retake numbers weren't even worth counting.
The teacher for the final test was Shisui. Even without using his Sharingan, he could leave all these kids completely confused.
On top of that, there had been an incident where the Mizukage had been controlled by someone.
Because of that, the ninja school in Kirigakure started putting a huge focus on cramming Genjutsu skills.
"Am I bullying kids a little too much? But seriously, their resistance to Genjutsu is just too weak."
Shisui once looked at the twelfth retake list and started wondering if he was even a good teacher.
It's not like he was trying to be hard on them—he hadn't even used his Sharingan.
The students weren't bad in real combat, but compared to Shisui, they were way behind.
Hatake Satoru, who had finished the written exams long ago and was already on break, spoke seriously.
"Really? I think it's just right!"
"They're just not good at this stuff. A good teacher should match the lesson to the student's needs."
Shisui got pretty fired up by those two lines and immediately made the retake tests harder.
The more they retook the test, the worse they did. It nearly made some of them give up on being ninjas and consider going back to farming.
While things were settling down in Kirigakure, Hatake Satoru suddenly remembered the people from Konohagakure and Itachi, who had already joined the Akatsuki.
Well, who knows what those guys are up to these days.
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