Konoha.
Ninja Academy, training ground.
The seventh round.
The eighth round.
The combat trials proceeded in orderly fashion.
After Hinata and Sasuke's dazzling performances,
the battles that followed seemed rather ordinary.
Every student who stepped up gave it their best.
Most were battered, but managed to last five minutes.
A few, however, were eliminated by their Genin proctors.
The world of ninja was unforgiving.
Geniuses were rare; most people were destined to be ordinary.
"The ninth round."
Mizuki checked a box on the score sheet and looked up.
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
A stir swept through the crowd around the training ground.
Naruto's name was known throughout Konoha.
He had once been the Demon Fox boy everyone in the village despised.
Then Chiba had taken power and purged the darkness from the leadership.
Naruto's standing had been transformed.
The Fourth Hokage's son. The Fifth Hokage's adopted younger brother.
Those two titles alone were enough to make everyone stare at the blond kid.
Naruto strolled to the center of the field with his hands in his pockets.
His proctor was a veteran Genin.
The Genin's arms were wrapped in bandages, and his stance was rock-solid.
He studied Naruto from head to toe, his expression grave.
He could not underestimate Lord Hokage's adopted younger brother.
But he could not go easy on him, either. That would disrespect the Fifth Hokage.
"Naruto."
"Are you ready?"
The proctor took a defensive stance, Chakra gathering beneath his feet.
Naruto grinned, showing two rows of white teeth.
"You'd better give it everything you've got, big guy."
"Or you'll get hurt."
The moment he finished speaking,
Naruto drove his right foot into the ground.
Bang!
A small crater burst open in the hard-packed earth.
An orange blur tore through the air and closed on the proctor in an instant.