Self-Introduction

The four little ones arrived at the classroom early in the morning, waiting for their assigned jonin instructor to show up.

Sasuke and Sakura were skeptical of Naruto's trick of placing the eraser on top of the doorframe.

But the next second, the door opened. The eraser fell squarely onto the person's head.

All four of them froze...

"Hmm~ You lot give me a pretty annoying first impression."

The silver-haired man dusted off the chalk from his hair.

"Alright, let's go somewhere else to talk."

Everyone followed the white-haired man to the rooftop. Along the way, Naruto muttered complaints to Jimo about this unreliable guy.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. Likes and dislikes are secret... As for hobbies, I have quite a few."

"That's just introducing your name, hey!"

Kakashi ignored Sakura's jab and had the four little ones introduce themselves one by one.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen. My favorite thing is when Iruka-sensei treats me to Ichiraku Ramen. My least favorite thing is waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook!"

Kakashi wore a look of utter despair—this kid's likes were all ramen-related...

"My dream is to surpass the Hokage! To make everyone in the village acknowledge my existence."

"As for hobbies... pranks, I guess."

Next came the Second Pillar's chuunibyou speech and Sakura's love-struck rambling.

"As expected of the Second Pillar... Already this full of swagger at this stage," Jimo thought with a silent smile.

He couldn't exactly say, "Your brother could beat you right now without even opening his Sharingan"...

"Interesting introductions... What about you?" Kakashi looked at Jimo with some interest. This student the Third Hokage had specifically told him to keep an eye on—when he'd gone to the office for a talk, he'd also seen the fist-shaped dent that hadn't been repaired.

In all of Konoha, aside from taijutsu specialists like the Hyuga Clan and the Akimichi Clan, only Gai could crack a load-bearing wall with a single bare-handed strike.

"My name is Jimo. I like looking at beautiful women. What I hate is when someone hurts my family and friends. As for my goal... to live freely in this world by my own will!"

"Quite an interesting statement..." Kakashi remarked that he knew someone who was deeply versed in the art of looking at beautiful women...

"Let's end the introductions here... Starting tomorrow, you'll be carrying out your first mission!"

The four little ones were all excited. Jimo wanted to test where his current level stood in terms of strength, while the other three were simply happy to be recognized as ninjas.

"Survival training in the wild? What kind of mission is that..."

After hearing Kakashi lay out the task, the three little ones were baffled.

"We've already trained for that kind of mission plenty of times at the academy. What's so hard about it?" Sakura couldn't help speaking up first.

"This time, it's not a kindergarten game where a babysitter teacher leads you to pick wild veggies, gather mushrooms, and cook hotpot around a campfire."

Kakashi put on a grave tone. "If I told you the details, you'd probably want to quit on the spot."

"Out of twenty-seven... no, wait, twenty-eight graduates, only ten will ultimately be recognized as genin. The other eighteen will be sent back to the academy for retraining! This test has a difficulty rate of over sixty-six percent."

"What the hell! Then what was the forehead protector we got supposed to mean? What was the graduation exam for?!"

Naruto was getting agitated. Sakura and Sasuke stayed silent. Jimo, meanwhile, was slowly trimming his nails with a pair of clippers, looking completely out of place.

"The graduation exam is just to select students with genin potential. If you don't pass this, your forehead protectors will be taken back!"

Kakashi ignored Naruto's protests.

"Alright, that's it for today. I'll be waiting for you at the training ground tomorrow. After this exercise, I'll decide whether you pass or fail."

As he left, Kakashi specifically told them not to eat breakfast, or they'd throw up.

Then he vanished into a puff of smoke on the rooftop.

"What do we do?" Sakura looked at her three male companions, each with a completely different vibe.

"Special training! We need to cram in some special training! Right, Jimo?" Naruto looked at Jimo with full confidence. But Jimo had just finished meticulously filing his nails with an emery board.

"What are you doing?! If we don't pass tomorrow's test, we'll get sent back! And you're filing your nails at a time like this!"

"He's been filing his nails ever since Kakashi-sensei started his introduction," Sasuke said, landing a precise jab at Naruto.

In his view, it was a sign of Jimo's absolute confidence in passing the exercise.

"I don't really care. Instead of racking our brains over things we can't control right now, why don't we all go grab something to eat?"

Jimo tucked the nail clippers back into his pouch.

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

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

In the end, everyone decided to buy some groceries and have a meal together at Naruto's place.

After a round of frying, stir-frying, braising, stewing, and simmering, the table at Naruto's house was packed with exquisite dishes.

"Jimo, it's a real shame you didn't become a chef..." Naruto stared at the spread and decided he needed to get Jimo to move in with him—then he wouldn't have to suffer through instant ramen every day.

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

This was the random skill the system gave him after he learned the Shadow Clone Technique... named: Chinese Master Chef's culinary skill!

When it was given, Jimo inwardly complained about why it wasn't Divine Chef Little Fortunate.

The four of them devoured the food in a whirlwind, and even Sakura, who usually skipped dinner to lose weight, ate quite a bit.

To ensure those blockheads actually skipped breakfast tomorrow, Jimo deliberately made several calorie bombs.

The fried meat patties and potato croquettes were stuffed to the brim with cheese.

"Everyone, may we all pass the exam tomorrow." Jimo raised his drink and clinked glasses with the three little ones.

After seeing off Sasuke and Sakura, Jimo pulled Naruto to the training ground. There was still time. After thinking it over repeatedly, Jimo thought of a technique that Naruto might also be able to use.

After all, this technique only required releasing chakra. With Naruto's chakra reserves, he should be able to use it many times.

He just needed the Shadow Clone Technique to assist in training. One night's time, no big problem.

In the middle of the night, Naruto lay exhausted on the training ground, both his hands bearing varying degrees of burns.

Although the result wasn't perfect, he still managed to develop a very useful technique.

"Naruto, don't go throwing this technique around carelessly... it'll kill people..." Jimo patted the dust off his clothes. This outfit of his had been blasted to tatters.

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

"Uh, I guess so..."

At that moment, the Third Hokage, woken by the explosion, watched the two through his crystal ball. He silently pulled out his notebook, recorded this ninjutsu named "Chakra Jade" that Jimo had created as a B-rank technique, and made a special note: not to be studied by chunin or below...