Graduation Exam

Since it was the weekend, most people in the village seemed relaxed. The ninjas who usually went out on missions had finally gotten some time off. They either stayed home and slept in, or took advantage of a rare free day to shop and sample street snacks, enjoying a brief, peaceful moment of comfort.

Children always seemed to have boundless energy. Sometimes you couldn't help wondering, Don't these kids ever get tired? How do they have so much energy every day? They were curious about the world, especially the children at the Ninja Academy. Before learning any ninjutsu, they were already quite the troublemakers. Once they learned some, they really did start tearing the roof off the place.

"Take this! Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" A few children from the Ninja Academy played together in groups of three or five by the roadside, performing all sorts of motions with their hands and mouths.

"Now watch me! Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!" Another group of children refused to be outdone. They looked imposing, but were only pretending. They hadn't produced so much as a spark or a splash, let alone used fire or water techniques.

A crowd of children played among the passersby, and the adults by the roadside couldn't help but be infected by their energy. The fresh morning breeze, the clear blue sky, the playing children, and the chatting adults came together in a harmonious scene.

"Hey, hey, look at those three over there. Aren't they Hyuga and the others?" A few sharp-eyed children spotted Zi Xu and his companions approaching in the distance and hurried over to surround them.

Over the past three years, Zi Xu's team had become one of the most outstanding groups among their peers. They were among the best in both theory and practical combat. Zi Xu's grades, though, had always been average, so people considered him a lucky guy who had "hitched a ride on his teammates' coattails." Plenty of people challenged him, claiming he didn't belong in such a "top team," but every time, Chino and Hatsumi sent the challengers packing.

"Uzumaki Zi Xu! I challenge you! If you're a man, accept my challenge! My Clone Technique is already perfected, and it has the power to destroy heaven and earth..."

"I recently had a breakthrough and developed a technique for throwing kunai. I've named it 'All Kunai Throwing Technique'..."

"Damn, why is this guy so lucky? He got assigned to such a good team, with Hyuga and Aburame helping him. Even an idiot could get good grades with their help. This guy hasn't changed much, though. His grades have always been average. What a pain."

The other students' chatter reached Zi Xu's ears, but he didn't pay it much mind. If anything, this was exactly how kids their age were supposed to act. Someone as extreme as Nohara was the exception.

But just because Zi Xu didn't care didn't mean Chino and Hatsumi wanted to hear those snide remarks. They had some idea of how strong he was. They didn't know his exact ability, but in their practice matches, Zi Xu's poor act of looking exhausted made it clear that he had plenty of room to spare against them. Just how bad was his acting? Imagine Ultraman falling down before his chest light even started flashing. It was painfully obvious.

"Could you all please make way? We're going to see Teacher Takeshi Goda for our graduation exam. Please let us through." Chino's voice was gentle, making people want to do as she asked. There was another reason for the change in her personality: she used to live burdened by worry, and learning that a parasite implanted by the past Hokages was also lurking in her mind had weighed her down even more.

But over the past three years, she had learned from her clan that the mother insect controlled by the past Hokages only targeted Aburame clan members who had awakened poisonous insects. Someone like her, who had shown little talent from the start and hadn't awakened a poisonous insect capable of becoming a human plague, wouldn't be targeted. Chino had explained this to them during that time.

She had said those things back then to make Zi Xu and herself feel threatened, and to strengthen the Jin Organization they had founded. After going through such extreme highs and lows, she had let go of much of her anxiety, and her outlook had changed considerably.

Hatsumi wasn't as easygoing as Chino. Her expression turned icy and her eyebrows lifted with irritation. "Move. Don't block the way." The people who had been trying to approach them came to a halt. Sometimes intimidation worked better than kindness.

"Um, everyone, we're off." Bringing up the rear, Zi Xu flashed the group a grin that looked pretty obnoxious. They clenched their fists, itching to teach him a lesson.

But if they actually fought Zi Xu, they probably wouldn't hurt him as much as the Horned Beetle's charge did. And even the Horned Beetle had given up long ago, after failing to get through his defenses, and had hidden in a corner to weep in silence.

"Those really were good times, the days at the Ninja Academy." An adult watching from the roadside took a sip of steaming tea, looking at the children as if he were seeing his younger self.

"The Ninja Academy is indeed the most carefree time in a ninja's life. You may not learn much ninjutsu, but the friends you make then often become lifelong companions."

"I heard they're going to take their graduation exam. Once they graduate, they'll be Genin. They'll have to go on missions."

"They'll have to bear the name of ninja..."

As the saying went, some things took a long time to tell, while others took hardly any time at all. Zi Xu and the others soon arrived outside Takeshi Goda's office. Under normal circumstances, teachers had weekends off too, but Zi Xu's team had put off their exam for far too long. They had claimed that their fundamentals weren't solid enough and that they needed to work harder to strengthen their basics.

In reality, it was because of Zi Xu's mission requirements. Their team should have been strong enough to meet the mission's demands, but the mission still hadn't been marked complete. With no other choice, he had put off the exam to help the team improve. Even now, though, no completion notice had appeared, so he had decided to take the exam first and see if that would settle it. If not, there was nothing else he could do.

Takeshi Goda was sitting in his office, revising lesson plans. More importantly, his superiors had been urging him to schedule the exam for Zi Xu's team as soon as possible. He was eager for them to come in and take it, so he could have one less thing to worry about.

"Knock, knock."

"Come in."

"Fat—Teacher Takeshi Goda, we came to..." Chino had just started to explain why they were there when Takeshi Goda saw the three of them. Without a word, he pulled out a notebook he'd prepared in advance and interlaced his fingers.

"I know. You're here for your graduation exam, right? There's no need to say more. I know what you can do, but rules are rules. Let's begin." Takeshi Goda spoke so quickly that he barely gave them a chance to say anything. He was worried they might not have come for the exam.

"Draw lots. The slips have your test subjects on them." Takeshi Goda pulled a stack of slips from his pocket, his practiced movements almost painful to watch.

"Uh, okay." The three of them were at a loss for words. They'd only postponed it by a few days... Fine, a few dozen days... Ahem, a few months. Surely it wasn't that bad.

"I got the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique."

"Me too..."

"Same here."

"Right. You'll all be tested on the Clone Technique and the Transformation Technique. You can begin."

"Then what was the point of drawing lots...?" Zi Xu stared at Takeshi Goda's serious face, suspecting he'd done it on purpose.

Hatsumi nodded and walked lightly up to Takeshi Goda, bowing politely.

"I'll begin."

Hatsumi brought the ring and little fingers of both hands together and shaped her hands like pistols. Then she raised the index and middle fingers of her left hand against her right palm and slightly bent both thumbs, forming a strange hand seal.

"Poof!" White smoke rose out of nowhere around Hatsumi. When it cleared, she had vanished. In her place was a yellow cicada, a little larger than an ordinary one. Its head and abdomen were brownish yellow, patterned with rings like the growth rings of a tree. Its transparent wings looked like two overlapping leaves.

"Good Transformation Technique." Takeshi Goda wrote down his assessment in the notebook and motioned for her to continue.

A cloud of smoke appeared, and Hatsumi returned to her original form. Then she pressed her index and middle fingers together and crossed her hands in a seal.

Another cloud of smoke appeared, though it wasn't as large as the first. When it cleared, a figure identical to Hatsumi stood beside her. Double the fun.

After finishing, Hatsumi nodded and stood to the side, smiling as she watched Chino and Zi Xu.

Chino's movements were crisp and efficient. She quickly formed the hand seals and transformed into a pigeon with a patch of reddish down on its chest. Though it was a pigeon, its gaze was oddly human. If you met its eyes, you couldn't help wondering, Is this pigeon looking down on me?

Chino then successfully performed the Clone Technique. Her clone looked almost identical to her—a textbook example of the technique.

When she finished, Chino stepped aside and folded her arms, watching.

"Hello, Teacher." Zi Xu greeted him out of habit, then quickly crossed his hands. When the smoke cleared, a two-meter-long little snake was lying on the ground like a flopped fish. After lying there for a while, it began to writhe and slither across the ground at incredible speed. Its long, slender tail whipped through the air with sharp cracks, and its forked tongue flickered in and out. It looked dangerous.

After dispelling the technique and returning to his own form, Zi Xu performed the Clone Technique. He used the version taught at the Ninja Academy, not the Shadow Clone Technique he had learned from Chino.

After seeing Zi Xu's clone, Takeshi Goda wrote, "Solid fundamentals. Meets the standard," in his notebook, then closed it and let out a breath of relief. He opened the drawer in front of him and took out three Headbands. With solemn care, he handed one to each of them, watching their expressions closely and taking in every detail before speaking with earnest gravity.

"Congratulations on graduating. You are officially Genin now. Konoha will need you to protect it from now on. Remember: wherever the leaves of Konoha dance, the fire will continue to burn. You must carry on the Will of Fire..."

Although the three of them didn't agree with him, they all acted as if they did, nodding firmly as though they truly believed every word Takeshi Goda had said.

Looking at the abstract leaf emblem engraved on the Headband in his hands, Zi Xu felt a little wistful. This was his third year in the Naruto World, and his first day as an official ninja. It meant that at last, he had gained some ability to change the course of events and had stepped onto the board of the ninja world.

"Wait, aren't Genin the strongest rank? I heard Genin could fight and destroy the world. I guess these Genin aren't those Genin. Maybe real Genin are stronger than Kage Level experts..." Zi Xu was lost in his own thoughts when they were interrupted by the mission notification that had been silent until now. It finally displayed: "Completed."

***

A question for the readers

Who's stronger, Genin or Kage?