Introductions

The four kids arrived in the classroom early and waited for their Jonin instructor.

Sasuke and Sakura were skeptical of Naruto's little prank of placing an eraser above the door.

But the next second, the door opened, and the eraser landed squarely on the man's head.

All four of them froze...

"Hmm. You guys have made a pretty terrible first impression."

The silver-haired man patted the dust off his head.

"All right, let's go somewhere else and talk."

Everyone followed the white-haired man up to the rooftop. Along the way, Naruto kept muttering to Jimo about how unreliable the guy seemed.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'll keep what I like and dislike to myself... As for my hobbies, I have plenty."

"That was just your name! Come on!"

Kakashi ignored Sakura's complaint and asked the four kids to introduce themselves one by one.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant noodles. My favorite thing is when Iruka-sensei treats me to Ichiraku Ramen, and what I hate is waiting three minutes for my noodles!"

Kakashi wore an utterly defeated expression. How could everything this kid liked have something to do with ramen...

"My dream is to surpass the Hokage and make everyone in the village acknowledge me."

"As for my hobbies... I guess playing pranks."

Next came Uchiha Sasuke's dramatic, brooding speech and Sakura's lovestruck one.

"As expected of Sasuke... He's already got such an aura about him..." Jimo smiled and said nothing.

He couldn't exactly tell him that his big brother could beat him up without even activating his eyes...

"Those were interesting introductions... What about you?" Kakashi looked at Jimo with keen interest. The Third Hokage had specifically told him to keep an eye on this student. When Kakashi had gone to the office to talk, he'd also seen the unrepaired fist-shaped hole.

Aside from Taijutsu users like the Hyuga Clan and Akimichi Clan, only Gai in all of Konoha could punch through a load-bearing wall with his bare hands.

"My name is Jimo. I like looking at beautiful women. What I hate is anyone hurting my family or friends. As for my goal... I want to live freely in this world, on my own terms!"

"That's an interesting thing to say..." Kakashi thought that, when it came to looking at beautiful women, he knew someone who was an expert...

"That's enough introductions for now... Starting tomorrow, you'll be taking your first mission!"

The four kids were all excited. Jimo wanted to find out how strong he was at the moment, while the other three were simply happy to have become ninjas.

"An outdoor survival test? What kind of mission is that..."

The other three were confused after hearing Kakashi announce the mission.

"We've done that kind of thing at school countless times. What's so hard about it?" Sakura was the first to speak up.

"This isn't some kindergarten game where your babysitter of a teacher takes you to pick vegetables and mushrooms, then has you cook around a campfire."

Kakashi put on a serious face. "If I told you what the test really involves, you'd probably want to quit on the spot."

"Out of the twenty-seven... Er, no, twenty-eight graduates, only ten will be recognized as Genin. The other eighteen will be sent back to school to study again! The test has a failure rate of over sixty-six percent."

"What the heck! Then what was the Forehead Protector you gave us for? And what was the graduation exam for?!"

Naruto looked irritated. Sakura and Sasuke fell silent, while Jimo stood off to the side, slowly clipping his nails. He seemed completely out of place.

"The graduation exam only selected students with the potential to become Genin. If you fail, we'll take your Forehead Protectors back, you know!"

Kakashi ignored Naruto's protest.

"All right, that's enough for today. I'll be waiting for you at the Training Ground tomorrow. After the test, I'll decide whether you pass or fail."

Before leaving, Kakashi made a point of telling them not to eat breakfast, or they'd throw up.

Then he vanished from the rooftop in a puff of white smoke.

"What should we do?" Sakura asked, looking at her three male teammates, each of whom seemed to belong in a completely different story.

"Train! We need to start training right away! Right, Jimo?" Naruto looked at Jimo, brimming with confidence. Jimo had just finished filing his nails to perfection.

"What are you doing?! If we fail tomorrow, we'll be sent back to school! At a time this important, you're clipping your nails?!"

"He's actually been clipping them since Kakashi-sensei started introducing himself..." Sasuke's remark struck Naruto like a knife.

To Sasuke, this showed that Jimo had absolute confidence he'd pass the test.

"I don't mind either way. Instead of worrying about things we can't control, why don't we all go get something to eat?"

Jimo put his nail clippers away in his waist pouch.

"You really are... optimistic," Sakura said with a wry smile.

"Come on, let's fill our stomachs first! We won't have the energy to train if we don't eat."

In the end, they decided to buy some ingredients and have a meal at Naruto's place.

After frying, stir-frying, braising, and stewing, a table laden with exquisite dishes was laid out in Naruto's home.

"Jimo, it'd be such a waste if you didn't become a chef..." Naruto stared at the spread and decided he'd get Jimo to move in with him. Then he wouldn't have to suffer through instant noodles every day.

Even Sasuke and Sakura were amazed by Jimo's cooking.

After learning the Shadow Clone Technique, he'd received this random skill from the system... It was called the culinary skills of the Chinese Master Chef!

When Jimo got it, he'd wondered why it wasn't the skills of Divine Chef Little Fortunate instead.

The four of them devoured the food. Even Sakura, who usually skipped dinner to lose weight, ate quite a lot.

To make sure the three knuckleheads really didn't eat breakfast the next morning, Jimo had prepared several calorie bombs.

He'd stuffed the fried meat patties and fried potato balls with as much cheese as humanly possible.

"Everyone, here's to all of us passing tomorrow's test." Jimo raised his drink and clinked glasses with the other three.

After seeing Sasuke and Sakura off, Jimo took Naruto to the Training Ground. There was still time, and after thinking it over again and again, Jimo had come up with a technique Naruto might be able to use too.

After all, all it required was releasing Chakra. With Naruto's Chakra reserves, he ought to be able to use it many times.

All they needed was to use the Shadow Clone Technique to help train. One night should be enough.

By midnight, Naruto was lying exhausted on the Training Ground, with burns of varying severity on both hands.

The results weren't ideal, but he'd still managed to develop a very useful technique.

"Naruto, don't go throwing this technique around... It can kill people..." Jimo patted the dust off his clothes. His own outfit had been blown to pieces.

"Jimo, did you really develop this ninjutsu yourself?"

"Uh, sort of..."

At that moment, the Third Hokage, woken by the explosions, watched the two of them through the Crystal Ball. He quietly pulled out his notebook and classified the technique Jimo had created, the "Chakra Jade," as a B-rank ninjutsu. He made a note in particular that Chunin and anyone below that rank were not allowed to study it...