Cruel Beginning

In the Kirigakure Ninja Academy, located in the Land of Water, the top-floor classroom was filled with the chatter of over a hundred boys and girls. A significant portion of them wore expressions of excited anticipation.

In a hazy blur, the cacophony of noise flooded into Chen Jie's ears. He couldn't help but groan, clutching his head.

"Where is this place?"

Chen Jie opened his eyes and stood up, swaying unsteadily.

To his left was a window. Chen Jie looked out in a daze, seeing a world that was completely foreign. All around him, a crowd of ten-year-olds was engaged in heated discussion.

"Japanese?" Chen Jie cleared his head slightly, identifying the language spoken by those around him. The next moment, his mind went blank as fragments of memories belonging to someone else surged forward.

The graduation ceremony of Kirigakure in the Land of Water.

And the name belonging to this body: Kanna.

"Kanna? My name is Kanna?" Chen Jie's breathing quickened, but he soon regained his composure. The expression on his face smoothed out, and even his eyes turned vacant.

However, this was not a state of calm, but rather a manifestation of shock, helplessness, confusion, and horror all tangled together—in common parlance, he was stunned, scared witless.

Perhaps what one sees or hears can be faked, but memories cannot. At the very least, the strange, inexplicable memories now flooding his mind were certainly not the result of "hypnosis," "magic," or any such trickery.

With the help of these memories, Chen Jie could barely understand some of the conversations in the room.

"I wonder what the test will be."

"It's nothing more than the usual assessments, don't worry."

"Once the exam is over, I'm going to make my dad buy me that limited-edition ninja tool set!"

With so many factors swirling together, Chen Jie—or rather, Kanna—felt his anxiety rising. But as an "adult," he managed to avoid a total panic. He took a few deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the terror in his heart, and began to observe silently.

Using the reflection in the window glass, Kanna narrowed his eyes and carefully scrutinized the boy staring back at him.

He had short black hair and eyes that were bright and alert. His features were well-defined, though his eyebrows were knitted together so tightly they formed a knot, revealing the inner tension of their owner.

Kanna didn't care about the appearance of this body; what he cared about was that this brand-new, unfamiliar, youthful body further proved that this couldn't be a prank. He was supposed to be a twenty-year-old adult!

However, Kanna was not one to lose heart easily. He walked back to his original seat without a word, sat down, and listened carefully and cautiously. Although he wasn't yet familiar with the new language from the memories in his mind, he could pick up bits and pieces. None of it was substantial; most of it was just talk about plans after the "exam" and guesses about what the "exam" would entail.

"Exam?"

With a lead, Kanna prepared to search through those memories. But as his consciousness sank into them, countless fragmented recollections surfaced, chaotic and tangled, impossible to sort out in such a short time.

Kanna frowned. Just then, the door was pushed open. Five or six adults, dressed in what Kanna considered strange attire, walked in and stood at the front of the classroom. The middle-aged man in the lead stepped onto the podium and scanned the room.

The man wore a sleeveless, tight-fitting black outfit with bandages wrapped around his legs. The muscles in his arms and legs were bulging, and he wore a silver-white forehead protector engraved with four diagonal lines representing raindrops. His eyes were terrifyingly sharp; Kanna felt as if he saw a flash of cold light in them, forcing him to lower his head involuntarily, not daring to meet his gaze. Yet, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"That outfit, and that forehead protector... could it be?"

"Alright!" Before Kanna could fully confirm it, the man spoke. Kanna understood this word without needing to think, but he struggled to grasp the rest of what followed.

"Quiet. Now, follow me to the testing grounds. Everyone, keep up."

"Oh! It's starting!"

"Is it a field combat test?"

The children cheered. Led by the adults, they formed lines and filed out of the classroom. Kanna followed silently, keeping his head down and acting as inconspicuous as possible, striving not to give himself away.

The journey that followed was somewhat long. The group left the school, traversed several streets, and walked for over half an hour before arriving at a remote, desolate lot. Kanna took the opportunity to observe the environment of this new world.

Quite a few people were already waiting in this wasteland; given the context of the exam, these were likely the proctors.

Seeing the students arrive for the day's exam, the proctors nodded to one another. One of them stepped forward to coordinate with the lead man, and the preparations for the exam were complete.

The students were still chatting excitedly, making the scene boisterous and lively. The teachers made no move to stop them. Once the proctor received a wax-sealed envelope from the lead man, they began calling the students to stand in formation. The proctor tore open the envelope, pulled out a booklet to read, and began calling out names one by one. The students entered the grounds in the order of the list.

Kanna looked at the wasteland, which was surrounded by tall, long barbed-wire fences with only a single gap for entry. He was lost in thought when a hand gently pushed him from behind, followed by a few words.

"Oh, oh." Kanna realized he had been called. He gave the girl who had kindly reminded him a silly smile, then composed his expression and walked into the testing grounds, filled with unease.

As time ticked by, the last person entered the grounds. The proctor who had been calling the names waved his hand, and two men pulled the barbed wire shut, sealing the exit.

"Follow me."

The proctor led the group deep into the center of the wasteland, stopping only when the surrounding environment felt completely unfamiliar.

"I will now announce the rules!" The proctor looked around and said expressionlessly, "There are one hundred and twenty students taking this graduation exam. You will be paired up to fight each other. You must kill your opponent to pass. Surrendering, begging the teachers for mercy, or similar actions will be considered invalid and will not be accepted by the teachers. In other words, at most, only sixty of you will survive."

Kanna listened, feeling dizzy. He only caught a few keywords, but he keenly observed that many of the children who had been excited or calm moments ago had their expressions shift drastically as the man spoke.

"How is that possible!"

Cries of shock erupted, interrupting the proctor. Kanna turned to see a boy pushing his way out of the crowd, his face filled with confusion, shock, and disbelief, his tone urgent as he spoke to the man.

Kanna might not have understood the normal speaking speed, and now he had an even worse headache. It seemed something terrible was happening, yet he couldn't fully grasp what the two were saying!

In this situation, Kanna had no choice but to observe their expressions. The proctor remained indifferent, not interrupting the boy and letting him continue. The accompanying teachers wore complex expressions, while the surrounding children began to chime in. Words like "oppose," "no," and "quit" were heard from time to time. Kanna vaguely sensed that what the middle-aged man had announced was something opposed by the vast majority; in any case, it was certainly not good news.

Not only that, but as the memories in his mind settled, Kanna captured a series of fragmented recollections. He seemed to understand something.

"The Kirigakure graduation ceremony?" Kanna's heart sank bit by bit. "If that's the case, could this be the world of Naruto?"

It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mind. As Kanna sorted through this part of his memory, an image surfaced, accompanied by a sentence he could now understand.

"The day after tomorrow! The day after tomorrow is your graduation ceremony. Of course, as I have mentioned many times, it is the first test of your ninja career. For some of you, it may also be the last. So, make the most of your time." On the podium, a man with his face covered in white bandages said each word clearly.

For some reason, in this memory, Kanna remembered the gaze of that man—who seemed to be a teacher—with particular clarity. That gaze revealed a bone-chilling indifference, along with a trace of imperceptible pity.

A voice devoid of any emotion rang in his ears.

"Objections are invalid! Everyone must participate in the exam!"

The proctor seemed to have anticipated this situation. With a single glance, the ninja instructors walked among their students, whispering instructions to persuade them, or perhaps simply to prevent the students from rioting. Their faces were grim, ignoring the children's wailing. Kanna even saw one child, who had made too much of a scene, being hoisted into the air by his teacher, a cold-gleaming kunai pressed against his throat.

On Kanna's side, a short man was explaining something to them. He could barely guess that the man's intent was to tell them not to shrink back, and that surrendering would not terminate the exam, among other things.

After a while, the proctor shouted a command, causing the teachers to fall silent. They stepped away, disappearing from Kanna's field of vision with a few agile leaps.

For some reason, seeing this scene, a thought surfaced in Kanna's mind that left him unable to decide whether to laugh or cry.

What exaggerated jumping power.

With the irrelevant parties gone, the proctor scanned the students. Seeing that no one dared to openly object anymore, he continued: "Following the order of the roll call, number one and number two are a pair, three and four are a pair, and so on. One hundred and twenty people will be divided into sixty groups to fight each other. After fifteen minutes, only the 'one' person who survives from each group can leave and become a ninja."

"One last piece of advice: in this exam, there are no rules other than killing your opponent!"

Kanna roughly puzzled out the meaning, and combined with his guesses about this new world, he already had a plan in mind.

"I don't want to! I quit!"

Beside Kanna, a chubby boy suddenly burst into tears, pushed through the crowd, and attempted to flee the grounds. But the next moment, a flash of silver streaked by. With a metallic clang, a kunai grazed the fat boy's face and embedded itself diagonally into the dirt, buried up to the hilt.

"I don't want to!" The fat boy seemed terrified; he sat on the ground, his hands clenched into tight fists, roaring in terror.

"Application to withdraw is invalid." The proctor stared straight at the fat boy, the chill in his words making the boy shiver instinctively and fall silent.

Hoo. Kanna heard a sharp intake of breath. He turned his head to see a tall, thin boy looking at the runaway fat boy with a complex expression, his fists tightly clenched. In his eyes, Kanna saw a look that made his skin crawl, though the expression vanished in an instant. Then, the tall, thin boy walked forward silently and helped the fat boy up.

Kanna's eyes flickered. As he expected, the fat boy struggled violently, trembling as he pulled a kunai from his robes. He pointed it at the tall, thin boy while blindly backing away, retreating ten meters until the proctor placed a hand on his back, causing him to collapse to the ground in relief.

The exam hadn't even begun, and he was already too terrified to move!

Kanna took another deep breath and closed his eyes. He now fully understood what he was facing.

A brutal slaughter, a trial like fledgling eagles forced to kill their own kin—the first test for training ninjas in the village known as the "Bloody Mist," Kirigakure! A bloody graduation ceremony where one must kill their closest companions to pass!