Graduation

Chapter 8: Graduation

The next day, afternoon, Ninja Academy.

"Good afternoon, Mizuki-sensei."

Lin Ke looked at Mizuki, whom he had "run into" again, and felt utterly speechless.

Didn't this guy think his appearances were a little too convenient?

"Good afternoon." Mizuki greeted him with a smiling face, then quietly left.

Watching his retreating figure, Lin Ke sighed silently. Sure enough, showing that he was different meant being watched.

Today was his first day of school. How should he put it? It was rather... boring.

After registering, they had been led into a classroom together. The entire academy had only a little over a hundred students, and there were only twenty or thirty students in the same intake, so there was no need to divide them into classes. Even the distinction between grades was vague.

Since the teacher responsible for the new students would not appear again later, he would be called the homeroom teacher for now.

On the morning of their first day, the homeroom teacher led the students through physical training and assessed each student's physical condition—

Unfortunately, Lin Ke's physical condition ranked around the lower-middle among the students in his cohort. However, he was persistent enough to endure the discomfort during the running test and hold on until the end.

Although the homeroom teacher did not directly state his evaluation of each student, it was clear that he was fairly satisfied with Lin Ke.

Among ninja who had not yet reached a certain level, hard work and perseverance were extremely important.

After the physical fitness tests, their first class covered the basic fundamentals of chakra. It was not exactly a word-for-word recitation from a textbook, but there was not much new either. Lin Ke had long heard it from his father.

After lunch, the students began their afternoon academic classes. The subject was history, though it would be more accurate to call it a politics class. It began with the Will of Fire.

It was highly inspiring for children. For Lin Ke, an adult inside a child's body, it was boring, but he still put on an expression as though he had been deeply encouraged.

This was important. The Ninja Academy's curriculum, as distinct from its grade reports, was divided into six modules: theory, practice, physical training, insights, spirit, and history.

The fact that history had been singled out as its own module proved that Konoha, at the very least, attached great importance to it.

Lin Ke wanted to become a ninja who could climb higher, so he could not be too much of an outcast. He could be somewhat mature, but he could not appear too clear-headed.

Being a genius was fine. Being a genius completely detached from his environment, however, was highly suspicious.

Konoha was a violent institution, not some messenger of peace. No evidence was needed to act against suspicious people. They could strike first, search through memories, and determine the evidence afterward.

Back to the point: the Ninja Academy did not care about gradual, step-by-step teaching. In the first semester after enrollment, taijutsu, ninjutsu, individual combat, group combat, and tactics would all be assessed. That was why only the first day was relatively easy.

Starting tomorrow, they would have to arrive at the academy in the morning for physical training, study basic knowledge in the morning, then conduct simulated combat after their academic classes in the afternoon.

The first semester did not involve spiritual training.

So-called spiritual training was not about strengthening one's mind. It was genuine pressure-resistance training meant to make students accept killing, being killed, and the deaths of comrades. (After the mission to pursue Sasuke, Choji nearly died and underwent surgery, Shikamaru cried, and Temari asked in surprise whether he had received spiritual training.)

That was also why children in their teens, or even only a few years old, could kill without hesitation once they stepped onto the battlefield.

No matter how beautifully Konoha described the Will of Fire, it did not change its nature as a war machine in the slightest. The essence of spiritual training was brainwashing, making children accept taking the lives of their own kind.

In truth, ninja had always been a rather dark profession. They were hired by others, gathered intelligence, engaged in espionage, assassinated targets, and participated in wars... There was no such thing as justice or evil at all.

As tools, ninja erased their emotions and pursued the completion of missions. Where was there any distinction between right and wrong?

It was simply a dark profession.

Under such circumstances, although the Ninja Academy had a six-year program, that did not mean all six years were spent studying.

All academic subjects and basic knowledge would be completed within one year. After that, the curriculum would continuously increase the amount of combat exercises, tactical application, and spiritual training.

Take note: the academy did not require students to study well or achieve outstanding grades. Graduating was very simple. If you felt capable, you could take the graduation exam. There was no strict requirement regarding how long you had been enrolled.

In other words, if Lin Ke wanted to, he could take the graduation exam next year. Since the exam randomly selected E-Rank Ninjutsu as its test content, anyone normally admitted to the academy could graduate.

Just as anyone who learned ninjutsu could take the Genin Certification Exam and become a genin, the graduation exam was very easy.

Only oddities like Uzumaki Naruto would fail the exam three times in a row.

In fact, ninja with even a little background would obediently train and study at the academy for six years before choosing to graduate. In peacetime, there was no need to graduate early.

Moreover, after graduating from the Ninja Academy, the Guidance Jonin leading the team would still conduct their own assessment of their subordinates. According to Hatake Kakashi, only one-third of them could become genin. The rest would fail the assessment and return to the Ninja Academy to continue studying.

But Lin Ke was different. He knew about the Konoha Crush Plan three years from now, Pain's Assault seven years from now, and the Fourth Shinobi World War eight years from now...

How could he still have the time to stay in the Ninja Academy and slowly develop?

Graduating quickly and finding ways to learn more ninjutsu was the right path. As long as he had enough chakra, that was enough.

After chakra was refined, a ninja's physical fitness and chakra reserves would rapidly increase for a period of time. The principle was simple—

The total number of cells in people of the Naruto World far exceeded that of people on Earth, yet the principles of training were surprisingly similar. When muscles were slightly torn, they repaired the damage and strengthened the muscle fibers while synthesizing more muscle to adapt to the training.

The process of refining chakra—consuming physical strength—was a form of squeezing the body dry, an alternative method of comprehensively damaging the body's muscular structure. The human body would naturally repair and adjust that structure while producing more muscle to meet the demands of chakra refinement.

With appropriate exercise added on top, cells could be stretched and deformed, increasing the permeability of muscle cell membranes. This would increase the amount of free amino acids within the cells, provide more raw materials for protein synthesis, and speed up muscle growth.

With both methods working together, it was hard for ninja not to grow stronger quickly.

However, the human body had structural limits, and training had diminishing returns. No matter how hard one pushed oneself, it still depended on talent. Hard work merely allowed someone to reach the upper limit of their talent faster; they might not even reach someone else's lower limit.

That was why chakra reserves mattered.

Lin Ke's chakra control was excellent, allowing him to judge his own rate of progress more clearly. But it also allowed him to make a more pessimistic assessment. If he maintained this level of effort, then in at most half a year, his rapid progress would approach zero without limit. He could only wait for his body to grow stronger with age and naturally gain more chakra.

When that time came, he would graduate early.

He would seek another path to strength through more ninjutsu.