Differential Treatment

With a "ding," Shiranui Genma threw a shuriken at the target, but it didn't hit the bullseye.

"Decent posture. Does anyone in your family happen to be a ninja?" the teacher, who had been staring intently at Genma since he picked up the shuriken, asked casually.

"Yes, my father is a Jonin of Konoha," Shiranui Genma nodded.

"I see. Have you encountered the Three Body Technique?" The teacher, picking up a form and writing something on it, continued to inquire.

"Clone Technique!"

Upon hearing the teacher's question, Shiranui Genma chose to answer with action.

Seeing the clone the other person created, the teacher immediately spotted its flaws.

"Although there are some imperfections, for your age, this is acceptable." Nodding, the teacher placed the pen back on the desk and gestured for Genma to wait to the side.

"Anko Mitarashi, is that right?" Looking at the girl before him, the teacher took out a new form.

"Yes." Anko, usually boisterous, was unusually well-behaved when facing the teacher, nodding obediently.

"Yes~" Kazashiro behind her couldn't help but imitate Anko's tone with a deliberately affected voice, causing Anko to turn and give him a death glare.

It also drew the teacher's attention to him.

However, the teacher didn't say much, just gave Kazashiro a deep look before shifting his gaze back to Anko. "Just like the little fellow before you, throw a shuriken and let me see."

Anko also threw the shuriken with a reasonably standard posture. As usual, the teacher asked about Anko's family situation before testing her Ninjutsu and Genjutsu aptitude.

"Okay, next." As Anko finished her test, Kazashiro slowly walked up to the teacher.

"Name."

"Shimura Kazashiro."

"Shimura..." Hearing the name, the teacher's hand, reaching for the form, paused mid-air. He then casually withdrew it and wrote down Kazashiro's name.

At the same time, he recalled the conversations he had with his colleagues before coming to work that day.

"Did you hear? Among the students applying this time, there's not only the Third Hokage's young son but also the Hokage Assistant's own son."

"Really? The Hokage Assistant actually has a son!"

"You don't know? He was often seen hanging around with Asuma and the others on the streets a while back. Among those wandering around, he was the cutest one."

"Then you have to be careful. If you accidentally fail someone from these important families, the consequences..."

"Teacher?" Kazashiro cautiously probed, looking at the teacher who had stopped speaking for some reason, holding the form.

"Ah, oh, Shimura Kazashiro, right? Let me ask you some simple questions first." The teacher, snapping back to reality, quickly put on a smile.

"When that teacher tested us just now, he didn't seem to be smiling, did he?" Anko asked Genma beside her somewhat irritably.

Chewing on a toothpick, Genma looked unfazed. "If your dad was the Hokage Assistant, the teacher would smile at you too."

"As a ninja, the most important thing is quick thinking, so I'm going to test your thinking ability." The teacher completely skipped the shuriken and Genjutsu tests, marking them all as full marks on the form, and then asked the so-called question:

"Which is bigger, 8 or 4?"

"Uh, 8 is bigger."

"That's right. Our Konoha ninjas usually operate in teams of four, but other villages don't have this structure. Iwagakure, for example, tends to favor large-scale group actions. Therefore, when facing eight people, our four-person team is indeed at a disadvantage." The teacher explained as he wrote "Quick thinking, exceptional intelligence" in the remarks section of the form.

"What is 4+4?"

"Uh, 8."

"That's right. Combining two four-person teams makes eight. This is the meaning of teamwork." The teacher nodded approvingly and added another sentence to the form: "Possesses good teamwork spirit."

"..." Kazashiro was speechless.

He seriously suspected that even if he said 4+4=2, this guy would find a way to spin it positively.

"Alright, next." Smiling, the teacher gestured for Kazashiro to wait by Anko. Upon seeing Might Guy appear before him, the smile on the teacher's face instantly vanished.

"Teacher, I..."

"Alright, throw the shuriken first." The teacher interrupted Might Guy with a raised hand and directly wrote his name on the form.

The son of the eternally Genin Might Duy, always engaging in strange performance art in the village, truly disgracing the name of a Konoha ninja.

With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, after testing Might Guy's Ninjutsu and Genjutsu abilities, the teacher's expression visibly soured.

This guy, apart from his physical fitness, his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu abilities are simply unbearable to watch...

"Tsk, tsk, it looks like that kid is in some trouble..." Seeing the teacher's expression, Anko blurted out, then Kazashiro lightly slapped her head.

"Don't talk nonsense, Anko."

Anko and the others didn't know, but Kazashiro himself was aware that the future Might Guy would interpret "paying with one's life" as "paying with money" for others, fighting bloodline monsters with mortal strength, and almost ending the world with a single kick, roaring as an ordinary person in this world of bloodline supremacy.

"Oh." Anko obediently agreed after being slapped and fell silent.

"Thanks for the support!" Their voices weren't loud, but they were exceptionally clear in the empty room. Might Guy, who had been underestimated, didn't show a hurt expression and instead gave Anko a thumbs-up.

"This kid..." Anko's expression showed surprise.

As the last student walked out of the teaching building, the entrance recruitment for this session officially concluded.

Looking at the thick stack of reports before him, Hiruzen let out a helpless smile. "It looks like I'll be busy for a while."

"This is your duty as Hokage." Danzo remained seated, as if fishing, and picked up his teacup for what felt like the hundredth time.

Seeing Danzo's leisurely demeanor, Hiruzen, feeling a bit petulant, pulled out some of the forms and placed them in front of Danzo. "You, are you really just here to drink tea?"

"I'm just here as a parent waiting for my son." Glancing at the forms in front of him, Danzo didn't even have the motivation to reach for them.

Root was undergoing secret reforms for his own expectations, so Danzo had no intention of recruiting anyone recently. As for the Anbu trained for the Hokage...

He'd let Hiruzen worry about that himself.