Class Assignment

"Feel it, then control it."

In the end, Orochimaru still did not teach Ye Zi anything. He only said one brief sentence.

Ye Zi had no idea how to feel or control it, or what steps were involved, but that did not stop him from trying to sense Chakra.

After staying up all night, Ye Zi tried every possible method to sense Chakra, looking like an idiot. Perhaps hard work really did pay off. At sunrise, he finally felt something like a stream flowing inside his body. It began in his abdomen and slowly spread throughout his body, like a thin creek.

"Is this Chakra...?"

The first rays of morning sunlight fell onto Ye Zi's small face. In moments, they evaporated the thin layer of moisture on his cheeks and swept away the fatigue on his face.

He lowered his head and clenched his fists tightly. A restrained smile rose on his small face. As he trudged along a road with no visible end, the reason he could keep going was the signpost that appeared each time.

Ye Zi went to the Ninja Academy with a different feeling. No one noticed the change in him. From that day onward, he was no longer bored with the Ninja Academy. During class, he seriously absorbed the knowledge Takagi taught. After class, he worked to increase his Chakra reserves and experimented with how to control Chakra.

The problem he realized was simple. Although it would take three years to graduate from the Ninja Academy, he had no need to spend those three years following the academy's pace.

He did not let anything the academy taught slip past him. If he could learn it, he learned it.

As for what the academy had yet to teach, he found ways to teach himself.

Spring passed and summer arrived. Autumn ended and winter came. The old trees gained layer after layer of growth rings, the grass poked its head out again, and the desolate flowerbeds began competing in beauty for another season.

Time followed people's expectations. Sometimes it was like a surging river, and sometimes like an old man leaning on a cane. To Ye Zi, he wished time were an old man while training, but a river while sleeping.

Day after day, year after year.

Under the silent attention of countless eyes, Ye Zi grew rapidly from the moment he came into contact with Chakra.

Over the next two years, the reports on Ye Zi placed on the Hokage's desk were constantly updated. Hiruzen witnessed Ye Zi's astonishing changes time and time again.

His exquisite Chakra control, his diverse applications of Chakra...

The first time he condensed Chakra over his body, the first time he used a tiny amount of Chakra gathered in his palm to increase his destructive power, the first time he concentrated Chakra in the soles of his feet to adhere to objects, the first time he tried and failed to attach Chakra to a Kunai, and the first time he manipulated the Chakra condensed outside his body to transform it.

If he had not been monitoring Ye Zi all along, Hiruzen might even have suspected that Orochimaru had secretly taught him. In truth, the help Orochimaru had given Ye Zi amounted to only one sentence. Yet that very sentence had allowed Ye Zi to recognize the treasure within himself, after which he had taken flight.

"Orochimaru, you really did bring back an extraordinary child."

Every time Hiruzen looked at the updated reports, he could not help sighing in admiration.

Whoosh...

Suddenly, a figure flashed into existence and appeared mysteriously before the desk. Hiruzen was not surprised in the slightest.

The newcomer wore a black, tight-fitting outfit and a white fox mask. It was an Anbu member.

"Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama has returned." The Anbu bowed slightly and respectfully, then transformed into a black shadow and vanished.

Upon hearing that Jiraiya had returned, Hiruzen was slightly stunned before smiling faintly. "He came back at just the right time."

Today was the day Ye Zi's class graduated.

In the classroom, Takagi stood with a stiff, corpse-like expression, both hands braced against the lectern. Looking at the students who had begun to shed their childishness, he said coldly, "After today, you will be ninjas."

Even at the final moment, the man was unwilling to put on a smiling face.

"This is the class assignment list. Someone will come for you later."

He could not even offer a word of congratulations, nor was he willing to read out the class assignments. Takagi turned around and stuck the list on the blackboard. At the final moment before their parting, he swept his eyes over the students in the classroom without saying anything else, then decisively turned and walked out.

"Don't die too easily, you lot..."

The instant he stepped out of the classroom, a trace of sorrow flashed through Takagi's eyes.

Ninjas existed on the borders between life and death. The stronger they were, the greater the dangers they faced. In these still-turbulent times, even Genin were not absolutely safe.

After Takagi left, most of the students in the classroom surged toward the class assignment list posted on the blackboard.

After graduation, Genin were divided into groups of three and led by a Jonin. The list did not state the names of their team leaders, so no one knew who their teacher would be.

Ye Zi did not go look at the class assignment list. He rested his chin on his hand and gazed at the training field outside the window.

Before long, the students in the classroom had gathered into groups of three, with the exception of Ye Zi, who remained in a daze as he stared out at the training field.

Kushina looked up at the list bearing her name. The name directly above it was especially glaring.

"Ye Zi."

Kushina rubbed her forehead, then turned and glanced at Ye Zi, who was staring blankly out the window. She was utterly speechless.

Judging from the class assignments, there was clearly a pattern. Two outstanding students would not be placed on the same team. Her team was a complete exception. Why had she been assigned to the same team as Ye Zi? She could not understand it.

"Kushina, from today onward, we're teammates."

As Kushina rubbed her forehead, she suddenly heard a timid voice beside her. She turned her head and saw a bespectacled Watermelon Head Boy. A few pimples dotted both his cheeks, and he was half a head shorter than her.

When Watermelon Head Boy saw Kushina look over, his eyes darted away. He seemed eager to lower his head and avoid her gaze.

"Um... I look forward to working with you." Watermelon Head Boy forcibly resisted the urge to avert his eyes, his voice trembling slightly.

Kushina stared at Watermelon Head Boy and asked, "What's your name?"

In an instant, Watermelon Head Boy felt as though an arrow had pierced his heart. His entire body froze, and the words What's your name? echoed repeatedly in his mind.

Three whole years as classmates, and she did not even know his name.

Watermelon Head Boy thought sorrowfully that he was about to cry.

Seeing the sorrowful look on her classmate's face, Kushina smiled awkwardly. "You never told me your name either. It's not strange that I didn't know, right?"

Pfft!

That was the sound of sharp arrows piercing his body, wasn't it?

Watermelon Head Boy clutched his chest and said mournfully, "My name is Bei Xingye. Please make absolutely sure you remember it."

Kushina nodded repeatedly. She realized that what she had just done seemed a little too hurtful. But it could not really be blamed on her, right? Who told this classmate to have such a weak presence?

"That guy definitely doesn't know Bei Xingye's name either."

Thinking this maliciously, she looked toward Ye Zi.

Bei Xingye suddenly shivered. He also looked toward Ye Zi. That was his other teammate. Could Ye Zi have forgotten his name too?

"He probably hasn't..."

A strained smile appeared at the corners of Bei Xingye's mouth. He turned to Kushina and asked weakly, "Um, Kushina, aren't we going to find Ye Zi?"

"Of course we are."

With that, she walked straight toward Ye Zi. Bei Xingye hurried after her.

Smack.

Kushina slapped a hand onto the desk, successfully drawing Ye Zi's attention.

Ye Zi's gaze lingered on Kushina's face for a moment before shifting to the students gathered in groups of three around the classroom. He said calmly, "Uzumaki Kushina." After a pause, he looked at the Watermelon Head Boy beside Kushina. "Bei Xingye. Looks like the three of us are on one team."

When he heard Ye Zi say his name, Bei Xingye's eyes immediately filled with tears.

Kushina withdrew her arm and said, "You really don't care about the class assignments."

Ye Zi glanced at her and said flatly, "I look forward to working with you."