Graduation

Konoha, late autumn

The golden season, the season of harvest, and the season of graduation.

The Ninja Academy was bustling with excitement.

Parents of graduating students had gathered in the schoolyard, standing or sitting around, chatting and joking. It was a lively scene.

There were more than twice as many people here today as at previous graduation ceremonies.

In the past, only the parents of graduating students came to watch their children's exams. Today, though, there were parents of students in other grades as well, and even many Konoha villagers.

Recently, two things had caused the biggest stir in Konoha. The first was that Kakashi, who had graduated not long ago, had completed several C-rank missions and met the requirements for the Chunin Ninja Exams. He was preparing to take them at the end of the year. If he passed, Kakashi would become the youngest Chunin in Konoha's history, breaking every record in the village.

The second was that Uchiha Suifeng of the Uchiha Clan had applied for early graduation today—and would challenge Kakashi once again.

By the way, who was Uchiha Suifeng?

Why "again"?

Had he challenged Kakashi before?

Most people didn't know who Uchiha Suifeng was, much less that Kakashi had once taken him down in a single blow.

Plenty of students at the Ninja Academy had challenged Kakashi. Obito, that hopeless fool, had lost count of how many times he'd tried. Asuma had challenged him, too, and the results were much the same. One more Suifeng was nothing unusual.

However, a large number of the parents here were ninja. Since this was one of the main events of today's graduation exams, they had naturally gathered quite a bit of information in advance.

Where there were questions, there would be people ready to explain. Gossip was human nature, and ninja were no exception.

Before long, news about Suifeng had spread among the parents.

Uchiha Suifeng, a second-year student at the Ninja Academy and a member of the Uchiha Clan, had been taken down in a single blow when he challenged Kakashi.

That part was no surprise.

But after his defeat, he had awakened the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. He'd spent the past month or two training with the Uchiha Clan, determined to challenge Kakashi again and prove the Uchiha Clan's superiority.

His declaration had also spread: "A moment's brilliance doesn't mean eternity. Before these eyes of mine, he's nothing."

It was a grandiose boast, and it had successfully raised everyone's expectations.

The requirements for graduating from the Ninja Academy weren't particularly high: Kunai-throwing and the Three Body Technique. Compared to the future, there was one extra requirement—the Genin assessment.

Every student had to fight a Genin. Winning or losing was secondary; they had to demonstrate sufficient combat ability to graduate.

The Uchiha Clan had taken advantage of that requirement to make Kakashi Suifeng's assigned Genin. There was no need for any challenge or acceptance; this was a D-rank mission, and as a Genin, Kakashi had no grounds to refuse.

The schoolyard was divided into several groups. The graduating class started their exams first. Even though the fights were only between students and Genin, some civilian parents still gasped in surprise. Some students passed, others failed, but there was little else to stir the crowd.

Although the Second Shinobi World War had ended, Konoha's High Command knew the truce was only temporary. The other great ninja villages were merely taking the chance to catch their breath. The real conflicts remained unresolved, and all it would take was a spark for war to break out again.

So the graduation exams were still fairly strict.

The graduation rate was kept at around seventy percent.

Once this group of students had finished their assessments, it would be the early-graduation applicants' turn.

Suifeng wasn't the only one applying for early graduation. The Ninja Academy had six grades, and every year, plenty of upperclassmen applied to graduate early. Kakashi had attracted so much attention because he was so young, was Sakumo's son, and had been hailed as a genius since childhood.

Suifeng was also the youngest applicant this year, only in his second year. And since Kakashi was his assigned examiner, he naturally attracted attention as well.

In a way, he was borrowing Kakashi's fame.

If Suifeng managed to defeat Kakashi, he'd make his name by stepping on Kakashi.

Of course, given Kakashi's excellent performance since becoming a Genin, almost no one thought Suifeng's challenge would succeed.

"So you want me to bet all your pocket money on you winning?!"

Uchiha Fukuyama looked at the bills in his hand, then gave Suifeng a strange look.

"Yeah. The odds are ten to one!"

"You're really that confident you can beat Kakashi?!"

"Sure, I'd be lying if I said I was confident. I'm just trying to give myself a little more confidence!" Suifeng gave an awkward smile. He had played out the fight against Kakashi countless times in his mind, but now that the moment was here, there was no point pretending he wasn't nervous. It was Kakashi, after all—the mountain looming over their generation for the next ten years. Suifeng was just a rookie who'd arrived in this world a month or two ago, with combat experience cobbled together from fragmented memories. He couldn't even convince himself that he would definitely beat Kakashi.

Right now, he was just trying to fool himself.

Uchiha Fukuyama gave him a long, searching look. As an experienced Jonin, he could see Suifeng's state of mind clearly. The kid was genuinely a little scared.

There was nothing wrong with being scared.

He was still just a child, after all. Of course he'd be afraid of messing up the adults' plans.

At first, Fukuyama had been thoroughly reluctant when he was assigned to teach this child, Suifeng. He was a respectable Jonin; having him do this felt like a waste, even if Suifeng had awakened his Sharingan at six.

He'd expected Suifeng to be a difficult kid to handle, but the boy had surprised him.

Suifeng wasn't at all like the impulsive child Fukuyama had imagined, the sort who'd recklessly challenge Kakashi. Instead, he had a levelheadedness rare for his age, and he was clever, too.

He'd completely overturned Fukuyama's assumptions about the clan's troublemaking kids.

Most importantly, the boy had ideas of his own. Whether it was the tactics he'd specifically designed to exploit Kakashi's strengths or his talent for Body Techniques, Suifeng had impressed him.

Though he'd wanted to slack off at first, Suifeng had still worked hard once he got used to the intensity of the training. Over the past month, his somewhat outlandish Body Techniques training had made progress so astonishing that Fukuyama could hardly believe it.

Iron Body!!

There was no doubt that this was a defensive technique with tremendous potential. Whether Fukuyama was testing it himself or training Suifeng, he could feel how effective the technique was. If they continued developing it along these lines, it might even surprise him further.

A genius!

Not the kind of genius people praised at school, but a true one—at least when it came to developing techniques. The only thing that felt surreal was that a member of the Uchiha Clan was a genius at Body Techniques.

Toward the end of training, Fukuyama had gradually stopped thinking of Suifeng as a child and started treating him like an adult. It wasn't until he saw the boy in front of him getting cold feet that he recognized a little of the troublemaking kid in him.

"All right, I'll go place the bet for you!" Fukuyama glanced at him. "You're about to go on. Don't overthink it. No matter what happens, you're a genius who awakened the Sharingan at six. Even if you lose, the clan won't give up on you so easily."