Graduation

Yichen took the vocabulary everyone had translated and returned to the Tsuchikage's Office Building to resume studying the S-rank Sealing Jutsu, "Fire Domain."

With this dictionary-like thing, reading it went much more smoothly this time. Though there were still many words he did not understand, he could at least barely grasp the general direction of what the scroll was discussing.

After reading through it once more, Yichen carefully pondered some unfamiliar terms.

After going over it several times, he gained quite a bit more. Yichen was delighted. The others had probably gained new insights as well. Once they pooled everything together, it would not take many more rounds before they could roughly understand this S-rank Sealing Jutsu.

Sure enough, when the Barrier Team gathered again, they exchanged the newly translated vocabulary they had each worked out.

Then the group discussed for a long time which words had been mistranslated and which words could have multiple interpretations.

Once they were done, Yichen took the opportunity to suggest dividing contributions according to how much each person had translated. After all, the village would eventually compensate them for these translation results.

No one objected, and they allocated credit proportionally based on the compiled dictionary.

Then everyone went back to their own work. From then on, however, they decided to gather every ten days to exchange insights.

After several such rounds, Yichen was finally able to understand the contents of the "Fire Domain" seal.

Because of his Chakra Amount, Yichen could not use the "Fire Domain" seal. But without conducting experiments, he had no way of finding the connection between Sealing Jutsu and Natural Energy.

So, based on his own understanding, Yichen split the "Fire Domain" seal into dozens of sections.

Because his understanding was insufficient, the divisions were rather vague. There were wide gaps between the contents of certain sections, because Yichen judged that the material in those gaps was unrelated to what he was looking for.

When dividing it up, Yichen placed certain details into several different sections. Those were the places he suspected most strongly, allowing him to test them repeatedly.

And splitting it into dozens of sections was not the end of it. Yichen still had to break those sections down a second time.

Fortunately, he had experience splitting apart B-rank Sealing Jutsu before, so Yichen was fairly confident.

Yichen had a feeling that although he had split it apart, the key portions of the Sealing Jutsu had not been separated. Only the connections between them had been forcibly severed.

And so, a complete S-rank Sealing Jutsu was broken down by Yichen into hundreds of tiny fragments.

Some of these fragments contained very little, but Yichen did not understand their purpose. Others contained a great deal, mainly because he had no idea how to divide them without damaging their structure.

Next, Yichen began testing the pieces he had separated.

This testing was not as simple as drawing them out once and seeing whether they worked.

Instead, Yichen had to try using the Sealing Jutsu he knew to complete them himself.

After completing them, he would use them to determine the function of each fragment.

Fortunately, Yichen was patient. He started with the simple ones and tested them bit by bit.

At first, many experiments failed. The functions Yichen guessed at often differed greatly from their actual effects, so the failure rate was high.

He only succeeded five or six times in a month. In other words, over the course of a month, Yichen made hundreds of attempts and only figured out the contents of five or six small fragments.

Moreover, those five or six fragments were the simplest type among the hundreds of fragments.

But Yichen was not discouraged. Experiments were naturally difficult at the beginning. Once he found the right method, his progress would become extremely gratifying.

Thus, although the remaining Sealing Jutsu fragments were more complicated, Yichen's pace of deciphering them grew faster and faster.

In the second month, he deciphered the functions of more than twenty fragments. Of course, there were also some he tried repeatedly and still could not understand, so he could only set those aside for the time being.

By the third month, he had deciphered more than fifty.

Although the others in the Barrier Team did not know what Yichen was doing, they could clearly sense his improvement.

Everyone was improving, but Yichen's rapid progress made the others feel as though they could not keep up at all. At the beginning, less than one-tenth of the dictionary consisted of translations by Yichen.

But as Yichen's experiments progressed more smoothly, his translations also became faster. Now, nearly half the dictionary had been translated by him.

If things continued step by step, perhaps in another month or two, Yichen would finish deciphering the fragments of the "Fire Domain" Sealing Jutsu.

But at that moment, an important event had to interrupt Yichen's experiments: he was about to graduate.

Four years after crossing over, Yichen had grown from a five-year-old child into a nine-year-old. After four consecutive years of effort, he had changed tremendously.

If there were a system, if there were a status panel, then its contents would definitely look like this:

Name: Yichen

Age: 9

Level: Fourth-year Ninja Academy student

Chakra Amount: 11C (Note: 10D = 1C, 100C = 1B, so Yichen's Chakra Amount was still far from enough to use B-rank Ninjutsu.)

D-rank Ninjutsu mastered: Substitution Technique (Substitution Technique with prepared Substitution Wood), requires 3 hand seals, speed 3 per second, Chakra consumption 0.4D;

Substitution Technique (unprepared Substitution Technique), 3 hand seals, 3 per second (+1), 0.4D;

Clone Technique, 4 hand seals, 2.6 per second, 0.6D;

Transformation Jutsu, 4 hand seals, 2.6 per second, 0.6D;

C-rank Ninjutsu: Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall: 14 hand seals, 2.6 per second, 1.1C;

Water Style: Water Line Jutsu: 16 hand seals, 2.4 per second, 0.8C;

Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear: 15 hand seals, 1.9 per second, 2.5C;

Sealing Jutsu: B-rank Chakra Masking Technique. (C-rank and below not recorded.)

During the period before graduation, Yichen focused most of his energy on Sealing Jutsu. Thus, once he could successfully use Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear—making every spear emerge from a position he controlled, with each one sharp enough to inflict sufficient damage—he stopped practicing it excessively.

Instead, he familiarized himself with Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, reducing it by two hand seals, increasing the speed a little, and saving some Chakra.

As for throwing kunai and the like, he could only be called average. There was nothing worth recording.

Sitting in the classroom, Yichen waited with his classmates for Teacher Ishikawa to come and arrange their team assignments.

Perhaps because they were about to part ways, the students were somewhat saddened.

But they were children, after all. When they did not know how to express such complicated emotions, they often vented them through arguments.

So the loudest sounds in the classroom were all sorts of bickering and insults from people who could not stand the sight of one another.

Yichen was gradually coming to like this noise. It was full of vitality and youthful energy, carrying a hint of carefree innocence.

Because of the war, quite a few students in Yichen's class had lost both parents.

But after so much time had passed, that sense of grief had faded. Everyone was more filled with hope for the future and anticipation for becoming Ninja.

Shinohara was, as always, secretly peeking at Tana. This time, though, Yichen did not interrupt him.

If the two of them were not assigned to the same team this time, then their fate together would more or less end there.

Shinohara, that coward who had spent four years with her without ever confessing, would be even less likely to win Tana over once they were separated.

As for Tana, the young girl had plenty on her mind as well. She clearly had not noticed Shinohara watching her.

The three from Taniya were still arguing over who could become Tsuchikage. Perhaps they were using this method to cherish the bond they had shared for four years.

Ikura was still the idol of every girl in the class. While the boys foolishly pretended to be carefree as they argued, the girls expressed their inner feelings by staring at Ikura with even more unrestrained, lovestruck gazes.

Yichen surveyed the surroundings, using his own way to reminisce about the past.

Overall, Yichen's four years at the Ninja Academy had been relatively uneventful.

He had not had many intense clashes with others. Thinking about it carefully, his time with the Barrier Team had actually been far more exciting.

Perhaps from the very moment he crossed over, he had regarded himself as a Ninja. That was why he identified more strongly with a Ninja's work than with being a student.

But no matter what, the faint bond between him and his classmates truly existed.

As though he too was reluctant for everyone to part, Teacher Ishikawa arrived later than usual today. When he entered the classroom with steps that looked steady but were actually somewhat unsteady, the classroom fell silent at once.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at Teacher Ishikawa.

Teacher Ishikawa first studied Yichen and the others one by one. Comparing them in his heart to how they had looked when they first entered the academy, it felt as though everything were right before his eyes, yet also as though his impression of each of them had become hazy.

Teacher Ishikawa rubbed his eyes. Uncharacteristically, he did not waste words and began directly reading the team assignments.

Team One: Taniya, Mubuki, Fujino.

Everyone was somewhat surprised. Those three were famously at odds in the class, so how had they ended up together?

Moreover, all three were in the top tier of the class in terms of strength. Was this not a little unfair to everyone else?

Then they saw that the three wore strange expressions and wondered whether they were dissatisfied. But even if they were dissatisfied, should they not be making a different expression?

Unable to hold back, Yichen said, "You three, if you want to laugh, then laugh. Stop pretending."

Only then did everyone realize that those expressions were clearly the faces of people trying hard not to laugh while pretending to be angry.

So those three, who argued so fiercely every day, were actually this happy about being assigned to the same team?

The entire class burst into laughter, and the original melancholy atmosphere instantly vanished.

Teacher Ishikawa laughed as well. Of course, he could see what was going on with the three from Taniya.

Seeing that they had been exposed by Yichen and were about to fly into a rage out of embarrassment, he hurriedly signaled for everyone to quiet down and began reading the second team.

But the atmosphere in the class was much better now. No one worried about being separated anymore, and they whispered among themselves as they waited for the results.

Team Two: Ikura.

Teacher Ishikawa had only said one name when the entire class instantly fell silent.

Nearly every girl stared at Teacher Ishikawa. Tana, meanwhile, lowered her head deeply. Yichen could sense that from that very moment, her body had become tense.

The moment one of the boys in class made the slightest sound, he would immediately be glared at by more than a dozen furious pairs of eyes, frightening him so badly that he did not dare move.

Teacher Ishikawa was startled by the immense pressure as well. After calming his racing heart slightly, he hurriedly continued.

Meikou, Uzumaki Yumi.

After Teacher Ishikawa finished reading those two names, the entire classroom fell silent for a brief instant. But the next moment, more than a dozen shrill, dissatisfied voices erupted.

For a time, the classroom descended into chaos.

At the same time, in Yichen's eyes, Tana seemed to instantly lose all spirit, as if she had shrunk by a full head. Shinohara beside her seemed to let out a breath of relief.

Yichen's attention passed over the two of them and settled on a red-haired girl in the first row.

So she really was from the Uzumaki Clan. More than half a year ago, after these members of the Uzumaki Clan who had been rescued by Iwagakure learned that both the Uzumaki Clan and the Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed, they all joined Iwagakure.

In truth, the process had gone much more smoothly than expected. These people had been peripheral members of the Uzumaki Clan and had not been valued, but after coming to Iwagakure, they received excellent treatment.

Furthermore, their homeland no longer existed, and Iwagakure was not the enemy that had destroyed their country, so they had fewer mental barriers to joining.

There were many children among this group of Uzumaki Clan members, including quite a few around Yichen's age.

This Uzumaki Yumi was the most talented among them, so she had been assigned directly to Yichen's class.

And now she had been assigned Ikura and Meikou as teammates. It was clear how highly the village valued her.

Team Five: Yichen, Shinohara, Tana.