Assessment

In the two years since World War II had just ended, every ninja village in the shinobi world had been huddling down and licking its wounds, while intensifying the training of its ninja to cope with the growing variety and number of missions that had returned alongside postwar prosperity.

As one of the victors of World War II, Konoha Village had swallowed up a considerable share of the ninja mission market. Every ninja in the village practically wished they could use Shadow Clones to take on a few more missions.

Having endured the pain and constant anxiety of war, Konoha Village had also shaken off its fears of conflict over the past two years and resumed all kinds of commercial activity.

Yet judging by the high proportion of war orphans at the Ninja Academy, the aftermath of war—and the hatred it bred—would continue to linger.

Though he could not remember the timeline clearly, Kagetsu vaguely recalled that the gap between World War II and World War III had not seemed very long, and that World War III had been even more destructive and influential.

He had to seize this rare period of peace in the shinobi world and gain at least some ability to protect himself as quickly as possible.

Some time ago, Inuzuka San's father had paid a special visit to the Nara Clan to negotiate a partnership concerning the new dog food formula Kagetsu had created and the supply of medicinal herbs.

The partnership was settled quickly. A few days later, Kagetsu received from the clan a sum of money and the medicinal herbs he needed.

It was a long-term business. Though the clan took the lion's share, Kagetsu, as the provider of the formula, could continuously receive a portion of the profits.

The proposal he had revised again and again without ever being able to put into action had finally taken its first step, gaining a modest foundation for realization.

Using the funds, Kagetsu purchased some basic, urgently needed instruments and converted an unused room into a crude laboratory.

Night.

"Is he still in that laboratory of his?" Nara Yuno asked her husband, looking worriedly toward the backyard.

"Hasn't this been going on for quite a while already?" Nara Shikaji replied lazily, his face full of helplessness.

"So?" Nara Yuno's gaze fixed on her husband and began to turn dangerous.

"I was just about to go take a look!" Almost instinctively sensing the killing intent reaching out from beside him, Nara Shikaji immediately stood up, stretched with a yawn, and headed toward Kagetsu's laboratory in the backyard.

Although he had neither stopped nor obstructed Kagetsu's so-called research, it had always cast a shadow over his mind.

As the strategist of the Hokage's team, he had helped the Third Hokage handle no small number of affairs and reviewed a great many classified documents. He could not claim to know everything about secret experiments involving human and biological research, but after all the information from various sources had been gathered in his hands, he had pieced together a fair understanding.

So while he acted cold and indifferent, his vigilance over Kagetsu's state of mind had never fallen below the alert line.

Nara Shikaji felt rather depressed. Why had the Nara Clan, which valued laziness and hated trouble, produced such an oddball as Kagetsu? Why would he voluntarily find things to do for himself?

"Have you finished your research for today?" Before Nara Shikaji could reach his destination, he saw Kagetsu approaching him with a flowerpot in his hands.

"I'm finished." Kagetsu nodded.

"Can you tell me what kind of research you're doing?" Nara Shikaji walked beside Kagetsu toward the bedroom in the main house and asked in a casual tone.

"I'm just making preparations for tomorrow's practical exam." Kagetsu answered without hiding anything.

Nara Shikaji nodded at that and did not press further. So long as Kagetsu had not become involved in those human experiments that cost lives, he would treat it as a hobby.

Ninja Academy training ground.

A Chunin named Yeka Shuren, the teacher in charge of Kagetsu's class, held a match chart and announced the various assessments to all the students standing on the training ground, along with the opponents for the final practical examination.

The first assessment was Shuriken and Kunai throwing.

The second was the casting and execution of ninjutsu.

Clan ninja and civilian ninja immediately displayed a considerable gap in these two assessments.

Unlike civilian ninja, who could only learn a small amount of ninja skills at the Ninja Academy, clan ninja received superior training from childhood.

Even relatively peripheral clan members would not lack access to ninjutsu training appropriate to their stage whenever they needed it.

For instance, Uchiha Obito, who wore a pair of goggles, used the Great Fireball Technique during the second assessment—a technique the Ninja Academy had never taught.

For civilian ninja, the best way to learn such ninjutsu was to become Genin, earn merits, and exchange them with the village. Or, upon graduation, they might encounter a kind-hearted squad leader who could teach them a technique or two depending on the circumstances.

After the two consecutive practical assessments came the final one-on-one combat test.

This was also the assessment that some more perceptive students cared about most. Ninja of Chunin rank or above would generally be watching it.

After all, if someone performed brilliantly enough in this assessment to catch the attention of a ninja master and be taken on as a disciple for dedicated training, it was entirely possible.

The examples were Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others, who had been taken in as disciples by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, at the founding of the Ninja Academy, as well as Konoha's Sannin, who had later become disciples of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage.

Even those students who did not know this were still fired up to prove themselves before their teachers and classmates. Such as a certain Uchiha who was staring intensely at a silver-haired boy.

"Kakashi, come fight me and settle this once and for all!" Uchiha Obito leaped out from the group and landed in the open space designated for combat. He pointed toward the silver-haired boy, his booming voice drowning out every sound on the training ground and drawing everyone's attention.

"This idiot." Kakashi, his face covered by a mask, rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Get back in line!"

Yeka Shuren's roar instantly plunged Uchiha Obito's excitement to freezing point. He cast an unwilling glance at Kakashi, who remained unmoved by his challenge, then dragged his feet back to his original position under everyone's gaze.

"First round: Nara Kagetsu versus Aburame Qingzhi." Only after watching Obito return to the group did Yeka Shuren clear his throat twice and select the first pair of students from the match chart.

"The Aburame Clan and the Nara Clan?" Several Chunin in the viewing stands looked curiously toward the combat area. As two of Konoha's renowned secret technique clans, one could manipulate shadows while the other could control insects.

They were not Jonin from the two clans, but that did not stop the match from drawing their attention.

The two stood in position on the combat ground and formed the Seal of Confrontation. Once their teacher, Yeka Shuren, stepped away, the battle began.

A great mass of pitch-black insects poured from beneath Aburame Qingzhi's wide sleeves and swarmed through the air. In silence, they split left and right like two black arrows, streaking toward Nara Kagetsu.