Before Graduation

The siblings did not have much time together before Orochimaru received orders from the Hokage, forcing him to depart the village in a hurry alongside Jiraiya and Tsunade.

Touma, who had been resting at home for a full ten days, suddenly received notification that the fifth and sixth-year students would be graduating early.

Under normal circumstances, they would not have begun the team-assignment process until the end of the year. Clearly, the news Orochimaru brought back to the upper echelons was not good, forcing the leadership to accelerate the reconstruction of the genin forces.

The Ninja Academy had six to eight classes per grade, with each class limited to about thirty-six students, which allowed for exactly twelve genin squads to be formed.

Of course, not all twelve squads were guaranteed to pass the instructor's assessment. Once an instructor determined that the three members of a squad could not coordinate with one another or follow orders, they would be collectively failed.

Those who were failed would either return to the academy to repeat a year before attempting the assignment process again, or they would be sent to the genin training camp at Mount Nara outside the village to cultivate their combat capabilities through high-intensity training.

A childhood playmate of Touma's named Kenta had been sent to that genin training camp. The once enthusiastic and lively chubby boy had returned not only lean and muscular but also silent and withdrawn.

Touma had not seen him for over half a year. According to news from other friends, it seemed Kenta had already been dispatched on a "special intelligence mission."

So-called "special intelligence missions" were essentially undercover or espionage work. Of course, as a genin, Kenta could not be assigned to any critical intelligence post; he was generally used as a decoy to take the fall for important intelligence personnel. This was a very normal occurrence in the ninja world.

However, compared to other ninja villages, Konoha was slightly more humane. If Kenta were used as a decoy, he would at least have a chance to be enshrined at the Memorial Stone, and his family would receive appropriate compensation.

If this were the Water Country, which held extreme prejudice against Kekkei Genkai, or the impoverished Wind Country, such cannon fodder would certainly not be granted that treatment. Being recorded on the casualty list would be considered lucky; most of their names were completely buried beneath the vast seas or the endless yellow sands!

As for the graduation and team assignments, Touma truly had nothing to worry about.

Although the graduation exam was more difficult than in the era of the Fourth Great Ninja War, it would ultimately not exceed the average capabilities of a genin.

According to his sister Orochihime, Touma needed to be cautious when using Wind Style ninjutsu. After all, the combat examiner randomly matched to him might not be able to withstand his techniques.

Orochimaru believed that even a Special Jonin could easily flip their car if they were careless when facing Touma.

Not to mention, the combat examiners for this graduation exam would likely only be Chunin or genin who were not currently out on missions, as many experienced Chunin and Special Jonin had been temporarily reassigned to the front lines for war preparations.

Orochimaru suggested that Touma stick to taijutsu. Not only would it allow him to control his output, but it would also expose less intelligence. After all, it had been nearly ten months since last year's "Great Purge," and there was no guarantee that enemy ninja hadn't infiltrated the village.

One had to know that before major nations went to war, they always conducted specialized operations to eliminate behind-the-lines elements, all for the purpose of clearing out unstable factors.

Genius students from the academy who had actual combat records, like Touma and Minato, were likely already on the assassination lists of every major nation.

Otherwise, Touma's mother would not have been directly arranged to live inside the Kan-Kuri-Kan shop. Not only were there Uchiha Police Force ninja lurking near the school, but the school was also not far from the Sarutobi clan grounds; if the Sarutobi clan heard any commotion, they could provide support at the fastest speed!

Since there was no one at home, Touma did not return to live there, choosing instead to board at the academy. He didn't bring a bento; he could simply step out of the school gates and enter Kan-Kuri-Kan to eat his mother Takako's cooking.

In the days leading up to the exam, clan ninja like Shibi had already returned to their respective families for intensive special training.

However, Touma was not worried about Shibi. Although this guy didn't have much presence in class, his methods were absolutely top-tier. He had simply been infected by Touma and learned to control his scores, causing teachers and classmates to completely overlook him.

The person Touma was more concerned about was another friend: the pink-haired Haruno Kizashi, the biological father of the strongest genjutsu user of the Fourth Great Ninja War era, "Sakura of the Other Heavens."

This guy had no shortcomings in his ninja talents; his ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu were very balanced. He had mastered three or four Water and Earth Style techniques, one or two practical genjutsu, and possessed quite decent ninja tool handling skills.

The only bizarre thing about him was that he would suddenly enter a "disconnected" state during combat, his body stiffening for a second or two and exposing a glaring opening to his opponent.

Touma had, of course, discussed this issue with Kizashi. According to him, his brain was busy analyzing how to defeat the opponent, but because he thought too much, obvious conflicts would arise between the plans he had formulated, causing him to fall into a state of decision paralysis.

It was a classic case of cerebral hyperactivity—thinking too much caused his brain to overheat during combat. Simply put, his "CPU had burned out!"

However, for Touma, solving his problem was not difficult. The simplest and most direct method was to stop him from thinking, pre-setting combat templates for him and training those templates into muscle memory before the fight, so he could simply call upon them during combat.

And if he wanted Haruno Kizashi to endure this painful training, he had to give the kid a little sweetness.

Touma used a set of medical ninjutsu notes as the price to hire Kizashi's childhood sweetheart, Mebuki Kazamatsuri, to cheer the kid on.

These notes were obtained by Touma from his sister Orochihime; they were Tsunade's early insights and reflections on training basic medical ninjutsu, an irresistible temptation for Mebuki Kazamatsuri, who was dedicated to becoming a medical ninja.

"Kizashi, get up! Mebuki is cheering for you on the sidelines!"

"Kizashi, stop slacking off! You don't want Mebuki to look down on you, do you?"

"Kizashi, control the range of your movements! That angle looks too stupid; you don't want to ruin your image in Mebuki's eyes, do you?"

"Kizashi, this is the last round of shuriken training! I've already bought tickets for you and Mebuki; once training is over, you two can go to the pleasure district to watch the show!"

"..."

Under Touma's relentless psychological manipulation, Haruno Kizashi's progress was nothing short of rapid. The five pre-prepared combat templates had all been etched into his muscle memory.

Of course, there was a small flaw: he couldn't choose the templates himself. Only when Touma helped him make the decision in advance could he successfully switch into combat mode.

However, this was enough, because before the graduation exam began, Shibi had informed Touma that according to internal news, if the three of them passed the exam, they would be directly assigned to Squad 9, and their squad instructor would most likely be the genjutsu ninja who had just been promoted to Special Jonin, Shinku Yuhi!

This Teacher Shinku was just like his name—he had quite a bit of fame within the village.

This was mainly because the Yuhi clan itself was a small ninja clan skilled in using genjutsu. When a genius ninja who inherited the clan's traditions appeared within such a clan, it would certainly be heavily publicized by the family.

On top of that, Shinku Yuhi was very handsome, which caught the eye of other clans also skilled in genjutsu. In particular, the Uchiha and Kurama clans, both of which possessed genjutsu Kekkei Genkai, had directly visited the Yuhi clan head, hoping that Shinku Yuhi would become their son-in-law!