News of Early Graduation

Morning light shone over Konoha Village. At the Konoha Ninja Village's Ninja Academy, scattered groups of students had just finished their training on the field and were heading back to their classrooms.

The young ninja students, fresh from their workout, were already buzzing with discussion.

"Did you hear? They say our class is about to graduate!"

"I heard the situation at the front has been bad for a while. Looks like it's our turn to go to war!"

"The battlefield? That's dangerous!"

"What are you afraid of? Kakashi graduated and went to war at five. He's already a Chunin now!"

Watching the Ninja Academy students chatter excitedly, their faces full of anticipation, a student walking at the very back—one who seemed unusually mature for his age—couldn't help curling his lip.

Do they really think going to the battlefield means they'll achieve glory? Unless they've got connections or backing, which makes the battlefield only slightly less dangerous, people like us are nothing but cannon fodder.

Of course, he would never say something like that aloud. Anyone who had read the original story knew what ninja villages were like. Here, saying the wrong thing really could get you killed.

Although the Naruto World's system for training ninja seemed far better than the death-soldier-like ninja of Japan's history, its core had not changed much. It was still a fusion of an intelligence agency and a violent enforcement agency. Brainwashing education was certainly unavoidable, and the demands for loyalty were downright harsh.

So, seeing his classmates so fired up and eager to charge onto the battlefield, Yota could only gripe to himself. Naturally, he would not say anything else.

As a civilian ninja orphan whose soul had crossed over, Yang Tai had long formed mature values in his previous life. Even though he had started over as the infant Yota in this life and had spent ten years in Konoha Ninja Village, he had not been assimilated by his surroundings or brainwashed into becoming an ordinary ninja of the Naruto World.

Right now, he was merely troubled by the fact that he was about to be sent to war.

So the ninja village isn't even bothering to keep up appearances anymore? They're directly making us graduate two years early. The situation at the front must really be terrible. I need to make plans early.

In truth, while Yota's talent was not particularly outstanding—merely average—his self-discipline and mental maturity far surpassed those of ordinary ninja students. His diligence in training ranked among the top few in the entire Ninja Academy, so he had already met the graduation standards two years ago.

Being able to use the Three-Body Technique in actual combat, scoring a combined total of ninety points in ten ninja tool throws, skillfully using traps and Exploding Tags, along with passable close-quarters taijutsu—those were the so-called Ninja Academy graduation standards.

It was obvious that these standards were designed entirely to select cannon fodder. Other than the clan factions, ordinary Ninja Academy students could not learn any higher-level ninjutsu here. On the battlefield, they were basically there to throw kunai and Exploding Tags, set a few traps, and stall for time.

Unless you possessed extraordinary talent and caught the eye of someone important, like Orochimaru, Jiraiya, or Minato Namikaze, changing your fate against the heavens? Go dream on. Dreams had everything!

Even geniuses like Minato Namikaze and Orochimaru, who had reached the ceiling for ordinary people, could never achieve much through the Ninja Academy's educational methods alone without more learning resources.

This was precisely how the higher-ups of the ninja village and the major clans kept civilian ninja by the throat. To the village higher-ups, civilian ninja had to rely on them and sell their lives to become stronger. To the major clans, aside from a handful of true geniuses, civilian ninja basically posed little threat to their status.

And Yota was not quite a standard civilian ninja. His late father had been a Medical Chunin. Though he had died in service, he had left Yota a decent inheritance: a sizable pension, some ninja training tips, and Medical Ninjutsu.

Unfortunately, Medical Ninjutsu was not easy to learn. It placed high demands on Chakra control, the nature transformation of Yang Release Chakra, and medical knowledge. Thus, even now, Yota had learned only one Hemostasis Technique.

The most difficult part was the nature transformation of Yang Release Chakra. There was no shortcut for that. To improve it, one had to constantly use Yang Release Chakra to heal.

The saddest part was that even if you practiced the nature transformation of Yang Release Chakra for a lifetime, you might still not compare to someone who had simply been born into a good family.

Someone like Lady Tsunade had been born with Yang Release talent close to maxed out. Even if Yota lived to a hundred and spent every day without food or sleep cultivating the nature transformation of Yang Release Chakra, he still could not compare to the innate purity of her Yang Release Chakra.

Yota had only just entered the classroom and taken his seat, lost in thought, when he heard hurried footsteps. Soon afterward, a Chunin teacher walked into the room.

"Students, I'm sure you've already heard about the village's decision."

The gray-haired, one-eyed ninja looked over the group of elementary-school-aged children in the classroom. A trace of reluctance flickered through his eyes before he spoke solemnly. "Starting today, all fourth-year Ninja Academy students will graduate immediately and be granted the rank of Genin."

"Other Ninja Academy students may also take the graduation examination directly if they are confident."

"Of course, the village is currently at war with other ninja villages. Even newly graduated Genin will be assigned highly dangerous missions and may even be sent to the battlefield. So please consider early graduation carefully."

At the end, the ninja teacher could not help offering them a word of advice. Over the years, he had seen many of his students leave full of ambition, only to return broken and miserable—or not return at all.

The students under him were not from an elite class. Even their team leaders were ordinary Chunin. Their danger level was far greater than that of elite class students led by Jonin.

"As expected," Yota sighed softly and muttered under his breath. "The worst outcome really was being forced to graduate."

If he had another two years, Yota was confident he could learn the higher-level Healing Technique. Then he could be assigned directly as a Medical-nin, which would be far safer than serving as a frontline ninja.

Although Lady Tsunade, one of the three, had once proposed adding a Medical-nin to every three-man team, anyone could tell that Konoha could not possibly have that many people proficient in Medical Ninjutsu.

Even by the end of Naruto, most three-man teams still had no Medical-nin. In the end, that proposal was simply impractical.

Only elite teams genuinely trained as Jonin had promising elite Medical-nin candidates, who not only knew Medical Ninjutsu but also possessed decent combat ability.

Ordinary Medical-nin, meanwhile, were usually stationed directly at rear camps. If anything went wrong on the front lines, these Medical-nin would even be the first to retreat. Naturally, they were far safer than ninja fighting on the front lines.

Unfortunately, Yota's dream had now been completely shattered. Knowing only a Hemostasis Technique was not enough to join the ranks of Medical-nin. He could only continue serving as cannon fodder.

"So..." Yota closed his eyes and looked at the system in his mind.

(Charging complete. Able to travel to the next world.)

"...I should hurry up and escape Konoha."