"Naruto! You bastard, I'm going to kill you!!" Sasuke shoved Naruto away with all her might, turned her head aside, and started gagging, completely losing control.
Naruto leaned the other way and gagged too, howling, "Bleghhhhh!! My mouth's going to rot!"
"Uh, I... I'm sorry!" The boy in front of them looked completely at a loss.
But soon, the girls who had witnessed their beloved prince's first kiss being stolen surrounded Naruto, each one radiating murderous intent.
What happened next was too awful to watch. Mo Chen couldn't bear to look.
With due reverence, Mo Chen found an empty seat far away from the scene of carnage and sat down.
"Mo... Mo Chen-kun!" A soft, sweet voice sounded beside him.
Mo Chen turned to look and couldn't help pausing for a moment.
He'd been so focused on Naruto and Sasuke that he'd accidentally sat down next to Hinata.
At that moment, Hinata was blushing and looking nervous, just like she had when she saw Naruto in the original story. Her little hands kept fidgeting with the hem of her clothes.
"Good morning, Hinata!" Mo Chen smiled and nodded to her, then quickly looked away so he wouldn't put too much pressure on her.
That warm smile left Hinata dazed for a moment, and much of her nervousness melted away.
"Let's... do our best today!" Hinata said softly.
Mo Chen smiled and nodded again. "You do your best, too!"
Hinata smiled. Mo Chen-kun is so kind. I never noticed before.
Meanwhile, after stealing Sasuke's first kiss in front of everyone, Naruto had been beaten into a pulp by the girls in the class.
The sight was so pitiful that it took some of the anger out of Sasuke.
"Hmph. What a huge idiot!" Sasuke pursed her lips and turned to look out the window.
Soon, their homeroom teacher Iruka arrived. He gave them a few words of encouragement, then began assigning teams.
"...Team 7: Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki."
"Awesome!" Naruto threw both hands in the air and cheered, while Sakura drooped her head in dismay beside him.
"...and Sasuke Uchiha!"
"Yay!" Sakura threw both hands in the air and cheered, while Naruto drooped his head in dismay beside her.
"Team 8: Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame."
What a shame!
Hinata's gaze dimmed as she looked at Naruto in front of her, then unconsciously glanced at Mo Chen beside her.
"Team 9: Chie Mai, Mo Chen, and Ryota."
Mo Chen scanned the classroom and quickly figured out who his two teammates were.
Chie Mai was the only one on their team with a surname, though she looked like a civilian girl.
She wasn't as pretty as Konoha's Four Flowers, but she was above average. She looked a little like Matsuri, Gaara's student.
Her figure, however, stood out; at such a young age, she already had curves.
Ryota seemed like a timid sort, even less noticeable in class than Mo Chen.
Of the three, Chie Mai's theoretical knowledge was average and her combat ability was below average. Mo Chen was average overall, while Ryota was only a little better than the class dead last.
So, as Iruka had claimed, the teams had been assigned to balance their overall strength? What a load of nonsense.
"Team 10: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi!"
Sakura secretly flashed Ino a victory sign, making Ino grind her teeth in fury.
But in truth, after seeing the Future videos, Ino had never doubted her two teammates. She simply couldn't stand Sakura's smug expression.
The students waited in the classroom for a while. One after another, the Jonin team leaders arrived and took their teams away.
"I'm Endo Hiroshi. Team 9: Chie Mai, Mo Chen, and Ryota. That's everyone. Follow me!"
A square-faced man who looked about thirty appeared at the classroom door. He looked like a bit-part character through and through.
Chie Mai and Ryota followed him eagerly, brimming with anticipation for the future.
Mo Chen said goodbye to Hinata, then followed them.
Minor characters like them were destined to be excluded from the main plot.
Fortunately, Mo Chen had his own cheat, which would let him enter the story.
But for now, he still had to work hard to improve his strength.
He'd already obtained the Sharingan. The next step was to get another ability.
The Future videos hadn't made it clear what that ability was, but Mo Chen had already laid the groundwork. The system shouldn't steer it in some other direction, right?
Endo Hiroshi, the Jonin leading Team 9, took Mo Chen and the others to a training ground.
"First, there's something I need to tell you!" Endo Hiroshi got straight to the point. "Next, I'll be putting you through a combat assessment. It'll be extremely difficult for you!"
Seeing how serious Endo Hiroshi looked, Chie Mai and Ryota swallowed nervously.
Endo Hiroshi said coolly, "Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be acknowledged as Genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy for more training."
"In other words, this assessment is an elimination round. The elimination rate is 66.7 percent. Prepare yourselves."
"If you can't take part in this assessment with the resolve to kill me, you won't have a chance!"
"You have half an hour to rest and prepare. The assessment starts as soon as time's up. The test is simple: the three of you will fight me."
After speaking, Endo Hiroshi took out a timer, set it, and placed it on a nearby rock.
Then he found a clean spot, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.
"Is this a joke?" Ryota's legs trembled. "We finally graduated, and there's still an elimination test? With our strength, how could we possibly beat a Jonin? Doesn't that mean we're guaranteed to go back to school and repeat the year?"
Chie Mai was relatively calm. She thought for a moment, then said to Ryota and Mo Chen, "It's not that we have no chance. Teacher Hiroshi just said that nine people could be recognized as Genin."
"But there's no way any of those nine spots will go to us, right?" Ryota crouched down, holding his head, as if the outcome had already been decided.
His own grades were near the bottom, and Chie Mai and Mo Chen had both ranked outside the top ten.
If they couldn't even make the top ten, how could they compete with the top nine?
Chie Mai encouraged them. "If we give up, we're guaranteed to be eliminated. Are you really okay with that? At least right now, it's three against one!"
"Since we can't avoid the test, we might as well give it everything we've got. Maybe we'll get lucky and pass! What we need to figure out now is how to make the most of our combined strength!"
Mo Chen looked at Chie Mai in surprise, then voiced his agreement.
Even if he didn't have his cheat, when defeat was inevitable, he'd still have to struggle to the bitter end, just to prove he'd lived in this world.
Giving up outright was the act of a coward.
Ryota still didn't think they could earn one of those spots, but he agreed with Chie Mai all the same. He forced himself to buck up and joined them in discussing their battle strategy.
What Mo Chen and Ryota didn't know was that Chie Mai was silently sneering to herself.
With their strength, no matter how hard they struggled, they would most likely be eliminated.
But if the three of them worked well together, perhaps one of them could be lucky enough to pass.
And that was the lucky spot she wanted.
That was why she was encouraging Mo Chen and Ryota, egging them on to take the lead against Endo Hiroshi.
Then Chie Mai could hang back, sneak in an attack, and pick up the scraps. She might just have a chance!
Before you continue