[Ino Yamanaka. Stamped. 26.
Choji Akimichi. Stamped. 16.
Asuma Sarutobi. Stamped. 16.]
Asuma Sarutobi was no slouch, but he had picked his first team as the generational squad because he knew that they had their formations and exercises down from when they were kids. He was there to help them realize their full potential, and to train them if they decided to deviate from their parents. Generational Squads like the Ino-Shika-Cho formation really only lasted three or so generations, as other villages would learn to pick apart the formation, and the formations would change and deviate to avoid being caught flat-footed by the enemy.
Still, he was surprised and pleased to see how just an extra four years at the Academy had lead to these three Genin already more than ready for the Chunin Exams. Choji knew how to survive in the wild, forage food and water, find shelter, analyze his opponents Taijutsu for openings so he could grapple him and then break them upon his Human Boulder Jutsu. Ino knew how to cast her Mind Transfer Jutsu without needing to stay still, and had already picked up on being able to telepathically reach to her team members, which often led to what he called 'Silent Idea Sessions' as Shikamaru would relay his plans silently to Ino. She had even created a brief offshoot of the Mind-Transfer Jutsu that she called her 'Disruption' Jutsu. Basically she cast the same jutsu as the Mind Transfer, but only sent a 'thought' bubble that had a specific command or idea. An enemy hit by the jutsu would receive the thought or command, and would end up acting upon it instantly. This allowed Ino to lead enemies into traps or committing grave mistakes as they ended up losing control of the battlefield.
To be honest, both were frightening. Choji had the skills and capability of taking down Jonin by being much faster than most would expect someone his... size to look, and had the strength to crush rocks without much thought. Choji even commented that it was annoying sometimes, since he had to regulate himself to not accidentally break something at home! Ino Yamanaka was a prodigy, and was even scarier than her father in how easy it was for her to pick apart the tells and the mental weaknesses of a person, breaking them down with ease as she whispered doubts and fears into their minds, making them make fatal mistakes.
While both of them were commendable, easily Chunin rank in Asuma's opinion, neither of them compared to the horrifying nature of Shikamaru Nara. Honestly, if Asuma hadn't seen it first hand, he'd have thought the reports he was handing in were inaccurate.
Shikamaru Nara was an absolute monster, there really wasn't any other way to put it. Ignoring his immunity to ninjutsu, taijutsu, and targeted/area of effect genjutsu, Shikamaru Nara didn't fit the playbook of the Nara Clan. Oh sure, he could bind others in place with shadows, kill them with spikes, blind them in their own shadows as they flailed helplessly, but that was when he was 'shaking off the rust' of his abilities, as he put it. No, Shikamaru Nara prefer using his 'advanced bloodline limit', as he took to calling it, to fucking teleport into the enemy, and then knock them out if he needed them alive. Or crush them against a solid surface if he felt truly sadistic.
Asuma still cringed at the memory of the bandit begging for Shikamaru to stop as he pressed him against the wooden wall of their bandit camp, the sound quickly being choked out, replaced by the sound of bone snapping, flesh crushed under itself as the eyes popped out and turned into paste, the heart briefly exposed and beating only to be burst open with a solid gushing noise against Shikamaru's field.
Of course, Asuma had brought them to a bandit camp so that way he could get his kids 'bloody', so they would know what it is to kill. Some shinobi quit, others... enjoyed it too much and were often sent to be trained further into ANBU as a result, since the ANBU were all about either protecting the Hokage or killing in the name of the Hokage, and some felt nothing from it, like it was taking out the trash.
Ino had felt nothing, her blue eyes cold as she tore out the memories and emotions of the bandit she had been assigned. A brutal young man that had done a lot of crimes in the Land of Fire, and all that was left him was an empty gaze, blood and drool going down his face as he had chewed his tongue off in his screaming. A swift kunai, and the man died, turned into little more than a husk.
Choji had felt disgusted, complaining the whole way back to Konoha about how nasty it felt to feel the man's blood and organs all over him. Not an uncommon thing with the Akimichi, as their clothes were often red in color for that reason.
Shikamaru claims to have felt nothing, but the cold terrifying grin on the young man's face as he relished in taking on most of the bandit camp probably said otherwise. The fact that the teen had been absolutely livid at the sight of the raped victims who weren't exactly mentally aware anymore, and the dead ones thrown into a ditch probably didn't help. Ino had been the one's to identify the bodies that weren't too decayed, their last moments often being a replay of their lives which allowed Ino to figure out who they were.
Shikamaru Nara was fully capable of flight, something that he used to his advantage by creating a Shadow Clone of himself to act as his 'eye in the sky' during their operations. While he could only create three or four Shadow Clones before running empty, it was a very good plan since the Shadow Clone carried the same 'advanced bloodline limit' to defend itself without popping. Asuma, in the back of his head, wondered what that would do in combination with the Uzumaki's own endurance/vast chakra pool.
The image of hyperactive, hyper-intelligent, little toddlers running around causing pranks and eating all the ramen in Konoha while being both untouchable and capable of flight, scared Asuma so bad that he swore he'd retire the moment he heard of Naruko Uzumaki's pregnancy. Fuck. That. He wasn't helping with that. Not for all the money in the world.
Then there was the dark stuff, the stuff that Asuma filed away because while they were a Capture Team, they weren't necessarily required to bring them back alive. Sometimes it was to kill a target, group of targets, and then bring their bodies back to confirm they were actually the target before incinerating them to dust.
To which, while Ino and Choji were great and fully capable of taking out bandits, Shikamaru took to a higher level.
"So, Asuma-sensei, our job is to take out the bandits hiding in the minor village?" Asuma nodded.
"That's correct, Shikamaru. Now, our intel is that there may be some low ranking missing ninja there, so we'll be doing some scouting beforehand, but there's probably no civilians inside that village now that they've turned it into their very own fortress."
"So, any concerns about collateral damage?" Shikamaru asked cheerfully. Choji looked like the idea hadn't occured to him and also looked at Asuma for answers.
Asuma shrugged. "The daimyo has already written off the minor village as a lost cause. The bandits here are just becoming enough of an annoyance that rather than send his samurai, we were brought in."
"Oh, good. I was worried about having to pay them back for the damages, this mission's kind of cutting into my spending time with Naruko, since she's probably waiting for me now that her therapy is done for the week around this time, so I'd like to wrap this up." Shikamaru yawned as he stepped forward in front of them.
"Shikamaru, being vague isn't being all that helpful. Can you... explain..." Asuma's voice trailed off as the presence of danger sharply rose.
Shikamaru held his hand outward toward the village.
"Phase, Twilight. The Eyes of Prajna. Maximum Cursed Technique: Lapse Blue."
A massive blue orb exploded out of Shikamaru's hand, the orb expanding as it shredded the earth and landscape, the blue orb ramming into the village walls as the orb seemed to rapidly suck in everything into itself, the buildings and the walls being ripped right out of the ground and pulverized as the bandits could be heard screaming and dying en mass as the orb seemed to expand to cover the entire remains of the small village.
The blue orb churned and crushed everything in it's place, rapidly pulverizing and crushing everything inside it as it stopped expanding before it winked out of existence. The rubble, wood chips, and what Asuma would infer was likely a lot of dead bodies turned into chunks all falling toward the ground into the neatly created pit that had once been an entire minor village teeming with bandits and some missing ninja.
What shook Asuma the most was how... bored Shikamaru looked, turning back to the team as he shrugged. "Mission accomplished." The teen yawned.
The Technique was considered an easy S-rank, labeled simply as 'Blue', and Shikamaru had briefly explained it as sucking in the 'space', the 'shadows' between what made the foundation of the universe, until the whole thing snapped inward. It seemed rather obvious to Shikamaru.
It didn't help that he explained to Ino that it wasn't all that powerful since he needed to use 'Red' in order to combine it with the Blue technique to create Hollow Purple, a much more powerful technique that was capable of vaporizing anything it came in contact with. It was what he considered his current 'ultimate fuck you' technique to any major enemies that tried to pull a siege or an army on Konoha somehow.
Only to a genius like Shikamaru could that seem obvious, and Asuma found himself going to the "After Work Bar" needing a drink.
Kakashi had nodded with approval at Shikamaru's actions, since it helped keep Team 10 safe and allowed him to fulfill the parameters of the mission at the same time without wasting time.
Asuma couldn't remember much after that.
Geniuses were fucking scary.