Graduation Exam

"Yu, tomorrow I'll become a real ninja."

After school, the three walked side by side along Konoha's streets. Naruto spoke with obvious excitement.

"Hmph!"

Sasuke, as usual, showed nothing but disdain for Naruto's words. This was the usual routine between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Your Clone Technique still only works sometimes, doesn't it? If it's like that again tomorrow, you'll be finished," Yu said to Naruto.

Although Naruto had changed enormously compared to the anime, and his strength was several times greater than that hot-blooded, chuunibyou boy from the show, he still faced tremendous difficulty with the Clone Technique.

With Snow Charm around, the Nine-Tails had stopped influencing Naruto. Naruto's chakra control was now much better than it had been in the anime. However, the chakra within Naruto's body was still simply too vast. Not only did he possess the enormous chakra brought by the Uzumaki Clan bloodline, but the seal Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, had placed on him would automatically convert the chakra leaking from the Nine-Tails into Naruto's own chakra. This made Naruto's chakra reserves abnormally immense.

The Clone Technique was simple; as long as one could extract chakra, one could more or less learn it. But learning it and using it proficiently were two different matters. To use the Clone Technique skillfully, the clone had to have the exact same build and height as the original, be maintained for a long time, and be freely controlled. Achieving all that was far from easy.

Naruto could use the Clone Technique, but his success rate was not very high. If he failed to perform tomorrow during the exam, he would be completely done for.

At Yu's words, Naruto's previously excited demeanor immediately deflated.

Naruto desperately wanted to become a ninja. He knew Sasuke and Yu would definitely pass the graduation exam without trouble. If he failed this exam, he would very likely have to repeat a year. Worse still, there was the possibility of being expelled from the Ninja Academy.

The thought instantly made Naruto panic.

"I'm going back to train harder. See you tomorrow!" When they reached an intersection, Naruto spoke to Yu and Sasuke. He was in a hurry—at this point, all he could do was cram at the last minute.

"Naruto, you'll definitely make it."

Yu said to Naruto.

"Even though you're pathetic, dealing with tomorrow's exam will still be easy," Sasuke, who had been wearing a cold expression all along, suddenly said as well.

"I'm the man who'll become Hokage." Naruto stared blankly for a moment before putting on a foolishly broad grin.

Then he waved at Yu and Sasuke and ran off toward his home.

When Naruto said that he wanted to become Hokage now, it was simply because he believed the Hokage was the strongest person in all of Konoha.

Neither Yu nor Sasuke showed the slightest concern over tomorrow's graduation exam. The Three Body Technique was truly easy for both of them, so passing the exam was a hundred percent guaranteed.

After the two approached the Uchiha compound, a fiery red figure swiftly rushed out from within and arrived before them.

Red Cat immediately ran to Yu's side and affectionately rubbed her head against his thigh, then went over to Sasuke and rubbed against him as well.

In Red Cat's eyes, Yu would always come first.

Red Cat did not look much different from how she had looked more than two years ago, at least on the surface. But that was all outsiders could see. In reality, Red Cat had grown tremendously compared to two years ago. Her combat strength was formidable, and the Chakra Hearts within her had already increased to three.

After returning home, things proceeded as usual. After dinner, Sasuke took Red Cat to the training grounds while Yu returned to the laboratory.

Tonight, many boys and girls were destined to lose sleep. Most Ninja Academy students dreamed of becoming ninjas. But not everyone thought that way. Ninjas possessed power far beyond that of ordinary people, but they also faced dangers ordinary people could not imagine.

In Konoha, ordinary people might be able to live out their lives in peace, but many ninjas never survived long enough to reach the natural end of their lives.

Being a ninja was a profession people respected, admired, and yearned for, but it was also an extremely dangerous one. This was especially true for ninjas from ordinary backgrounds. They received little support or resources to begin with, and when they went out on missions, there was a high chance they would die if they encountered danger.

Therefore, there would be one more matter tomorrow: Ninja Academy students who did not wish to become ninjas could apply to withdraw, then live in Konoha as ordinary people.

A genin who had mastered the Three Body Technique possessed the strength to go onto a battlefield and kill enemies. No matter how strong an ordinary person was, in most cases they would be utterly unable to fight back against a freshly graduated Konoha genin. It might even become a one-sided slaughter.

The original purpose of the Ninja Academy was to train professional, elite ninjas, placing particular emphasis on the students' future potential. In battle, one powerful ninja was far more useful than dozens of low-level ninjas.

This could also be seen in the anime. By the later stages, the Konoha 12 all possessed tremendous power, yet none of them were over thirty years old. On average, the Konoha 12 possessed jonin-level strength or higher.

Looking across Konoha's history, there had been very few ninjas who reached jonin level. Most were chunin or genin, and many ordinary ninjas, even after becoming genin, would likely never rise beyond that level.

Nine of the Konoha 12 had come from Iruka's class, which showed just how effective the Ninja Academy's education was.

In the manga, aside from the Konoha 12, the other Ninja Academy students received very little screen time. This created the impression that only a dozen or so people graduated in Naruto's year, which was obviously impossible.

Konoha was an enormous power. Though it had the word "village" in its name, it was actually a city. Konoha currently had roughly ten to twenty thousand ninjas, and such a massive ninja population naturally required a constant influx of new blood to sustain itself.

Thus, there were around four hundred graduating students in their year, and more than three hundred would likely graduate successfully. Moreover, the Ninja Academy was not the only way Konoha replenished its ninja ranks.

Yu, however, was not in the mood to conduct experiments in the laboratory tonight. He was too excited, too eager for tomorrow to arrive.

"Tomorrow is when the story begins. I wonder what changes my existence will bring? I just hope it doesn't change too much, or I'll cry myself to death." Yu lay on a reclining chair in the laboratory, his hands behind his head, and muttered to himself.