Two Years Later

After Konoha successfully defeated the ninja forces of Sunagakure and Kirigakure, the Third Hokage recalled Jiraiya and Hatake Sakumo.

At the same time, he left only Tsunade and Orochimaru behind, each with 1,000 ninja stationed along the borders of the Land of Fire to guard against Sunagakure and Kirigakure making a comeback.

He then deployed Hatake Sakumo to the border between the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfall to defend against an attack from Iwagakure, while Jiraiya was sent to the Land of Hot Water to guard against Kumogakure making a move.

It was said that when Kumogakure and Iwagakure launched their attacks on Konoha's ninja forces, their public slogan was that Konoha had attacked Sunagakure and Kirigakure, fellow members of the Five Great Nations, without cause.

Soon afterward, Kirigakure and Sunagakure also issued statements strongly condemning Konoha's vile actions and so on.

Konoha paid no attention whatsoever. After all, slogans were just words; shouting them wouldn't cost anyone a piece of flesh.

You shouted yours, and I shouted mine. Whoever everyone else believed was none of their business. They only needed an excuse.

This was the naked principle of interests above all else that stood before the great powers of the ninja world.

Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya merely held their respective battlefields and did not take the initiative to attack.

But if you increased your forces, then we would also ask the Hokage for reinforcements. This way, neither side could do anything to the other.

Before the Kage-level powerhouses of Konoha, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure personally entered the fray to decide the outcome, the war between both sides remained confined within a certain scope.

It was worth mentioning that Kumogakure's attacking force was led by the current Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Blue B, while Iwagakure's force was led by the Five-Tails Jinchuriki Han.

And so, with Konoha on the defensive and Kumogakure and Iwagakure on the offensive, this tug-of-war continued for two years.

Later, in order to keep the frontline ninja healthy, the ninja forces were rotated once, and even the commanders were replaced.

Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade rotated positions, while Jiraiya and Orochimaru did the same.

However, this Ninja World War had no effect whatsoever on the group of students still attending the Ninja Academy. They still went to class when it was time for class and went home to sleep when it was time to sleep.

"Soji, tomorrow I'll be rotating back to the front with the troops. Take good care of yourself while you're home alone. If you need anything, just go directly to the Clan Head." That evening, Hyuga Kumokawa spoke to Soji.

When the troops rotated a year ago, Hyuga Kumokawa had returned with the frontline forces.

When it came time to rotate again this year, everyone in the clan advised Hyuga Kumokawa not to return to the battlefield.

After all, he was already so old. If anything happened to him on the battlefield, Soji would be left all alone.

But Hyuga Kumokawa still insisted on his decision.

"Okay, Grandpa. Take care. I'll look after myself."

Over the past two years, Soji had grown quite a bit taller. Now eight years old, Hyuga Soji was nearly 1.4 meters tall due to his year-round training.

"Don't rush yourself too much when training Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven. You're still young."

Yes, perhaps because Minato Namikaze had spurred him on two years ago.

Over the past two years, Soji had trained himself desperately.

He had already mastered the Gentle Fist's Sixty-Four Palms half a month ago.

Now, he was learning the Hyuga Clan Main Family's core ninjutsu—Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven.

Only by fully mastering this ninjutsu could Soji feel even slightly at ease, no longer fearing that the absurdly overpowered Minato Namikaze would leave him far behind.

"I know what I'm doing. Don't worry, Grandpa."

"Mm, good."

After that, the two of them returned to their rooms to rest.

The next day, Hyuga Kumokawa left home. After eating, Soji silently headed to the Ninja Academy by himself.

Since the war had fully begun, the village was no longer as tense as it had been before the fighting started. The children were thus allowed to go to school alone.

When he arrived at school, Soji began recalling what he had learned at the Ninja Academy over the past two years.

The basic ninjutsu, such as the Three Body Technique, had already been taught to everyone. How much each person had mastered was their own business.

Konoha's current education system lasted four years. The first two years mainly covered theory, regular training, and basic ninjutsu.

The following two years would teach each ninja combat techniques.

In truth, by this point, some ninja could already apply to graduate.

For example, outstanding ninja like Hyuga Soji, Uchiha Homura, the three Ino-Shika-Cho families, and the outrageously gifted Minato Namikaze.

What they lacked now was actual combat experience.

And actual combat was something that could not be learned at the Ninja Academy.

Everything learned at school was ultimately just theory on paper.

Only by truly carrying out missions and walking onto the battlefield could one genuinely understand those things.

Unfortunately, the Second Ninja World War had now broken out.

On the main battlefield, Konoha had always held the advantage.

There was absolutely no need to send children so young onto the battlefield.

So even if Soji submitted an application to graduate, it was highly likely that it would not be approved.

Soji had discussed this with Hyuga Kumokawa as well.

At this point in the Second Great Ninja War, Konoha was still at its peak. It was nothing like the passive position it would be in during the Third Ninja World War in the original story.

By then, White Fang had committed suicide, Tsunade had left after developing hemophobia, and Jiraiya had gone after Tsunade.

The Third Hokage and Danzo had both grown old.

The Third Hokage was still all right. With his mastery of numerous ninjutsu, he barely maintained Kage-level strength.

Danzo, however, had completely fallen from his prime. His strength had barely remained at the level of an Elite Jonin.

What was more, Konoha had been caught up in internal strife.

Danzo's ambitions had swelled, while the Third Hokage had become indecisive and gradually lost the ability to restrain Danzo.

The Uchiha Clan had concealed its sharp edge, and the conflict between the conservative and radical factions within the clan erupted once again.

The reason the war situation could barely be maintained was because Minato Namikaze had grown stronger and Orochimaru, one of the Three Sannin, had struggled to hold things together.

If Minato Namikaze had not emerged at that time, Konoha would likely have rotted away completely, handing the position of the ninja world's foremost village to Kumogakure.

What a mess. Konoha weakened, and Kumogakure and Iwagakure ended up fighting each other.

They even surrounded and killed the Third Raikage at the cost of over a thousand of their own ninja.

That caused Kumogakure to turn the guns it had aimed at Konoha toward Iwagakure.

Sunagakure and Kirigakure fought each other as well.

That was how Konoha managed to endure the Third Ninja World War.

Not to mention the deaths of Elite Jonin like Dan Katō.

Therefore, the period of the Third Ninja World War was truly too difficult for Konoha. That was why so many ninja graduated from the Ninja Academy at seven or eight years old and headed straight for the battlefield.

For the current Soji, there were still two more years of student life ahead of him.

Although there was no longer much useful knowledge to learn at school, training together with his friends, chatting together, and skipping class together were still quite enjoyable.

Yep, Soji had now learned to skip class.

Whenever the lesson had nothing to offer him and he happened to feel the urge,

Soji would leave behind a Shadow Clone and call Uchiha Homura, who shared his interests, to skip class with him.

Besides Uchiha Homura, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio occasionally skipped with them as well.

Even Minato Namikaze, the "model student" in the teachers' eyes, skipped class once or twice from time to time.

But the group did not skip class to play around, though that happened occasionally. Most of the time, they went out to train together.

Since the school's lessons could no longer help them grow, they would help each other grow instead.

It should be mentioned that the requirement for skipping class was learning the Shadow Clone.

If you could not even use a Shadow Clone, how could you have the nerve to skip class?

The Shadow Clone was not especially difficult to learn. One simply had to inject an appropriate amount of Chakra on the foundation of the Clone Technique, then replicate everything about oneself into the clone.

It sounded simple, but it was not that easy for ordinary people to learn.

For Soji and the others, it was relatively simple.

But ordinary people could not master it.

The amount of Chakra needed merely to create a Shadow Clone was already beyond what most eight-year-old students possessed.

Not to mention that when a Shadow Clone was released, everything it experienced would be experienced once more by the original body.

If handled poorly, an ordinary person might even be crippled outright.

Without a strong constitution and willpower, learning the Clone Technique was more than enough.

Without the talent and diligence of Soji and the others, talking about skipping class was just absurd.

And since they trained together, they naturally had to spar with one another.

How could ordinary people possibly be qualified to train alongside them?

They probably could not even keep up with the intensity of the training, much less spar.

Since their matches were all private, no one knew the records between them.

However, according to Hyuga Soji's recollection, he and Minato were basically evenly matched.

Maybe Minato would win one match today, and Soji would win it back tomorrow.

Against the other friends who skipped class with them, it was essentially a complete mismatch.

Whether it was Soji or Minato facing the others, they usually won quite easily.

As for Uchiha Homura, in Hyuga Soji's words: "You're already eight and still haven't awakened the Sharingan. What are you going to use to fight me, little bro?"

(Uchiha Homura: Is awakening the Sharingan at eight really that late?)

Perhaps it was because, in the original story, whether Itachi Uchiha or Sasuke Uchiha, Soji remembered that they had awakened the Sharingan at eight years old, or even earlier.

That was why Soji had such doubts about Uchiha Homura.

Uchiha Homura's record among the group of class-skipping friends barely ranked third.

Because his arrogance always led to him being turned around by the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

His win rate against Soji and Minato Namikaze had remained zero so far.

What Soji had always found puzzling was how exactly Minato's strength improved. Even if he had cheats, wasn't this going too far?

Soji asked himself: aside from eating and sleeping, he had basically spent all his time training. Why could Minato still keep pace with him?

Later, during one of their class-skipping outings, Soji finally discovered Minato's secret to cheating.

Soji remembered that day clearly. A frog as tall as a person suddenly appeared before him and Minato.

It startled him so badly that, if Minato had not stopped him quickly enough, he would have blasted it with an Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms.

Then Soji watched as the large frog spat out a scroll before the two of them, then vanished into white smoke with a bang.

According to Minato, the scroll contained Lord Jiraiya's cultivation insights.

It also contained ninjutsu Minato could learn, as well as Minato's next training goals.

Soji had truly been envious at the time.

He envied Minato for having such a good teacher, and he wanted to sign a contract with a Summoning Beast too.

But the main reason was still that Minato himself was exceptional and hardworking.

Otherwise, forget having Jiraiya standing behind you—even if the Sage of Six Paths stood behind you, it would be useless!

From that day onward, Soji dared not slack off even more.

Someone else had a good teacher and could still work that hard. What right did you have not to work hard?

At school, everyone peacefully listened to Teacher Kimura's lessons.

But whenever they skipped class to train outside, if Soji was in a bad mood, he would drag that kid Uchiha Homura over for a beating disguised as training.

That guy was stubborn enough. Even though he clearly knew he could not beat Soji, he still eagerly accompanied Soji in training and sparring every time.

There was no helping it. Minato was different from them; he did not agree to skip class together every time.

Without Minato, an evenly matched opponent, Soji could only look for Uchiha Homura, who would follow him whenever he called.

Even when Soji did not call him, Homura would come along on his own.

That was Soji's peaceful yet passionate school life over the past two years!