Applying to Graduate Early (Part Two)

The Ninja Academy's notice of rejection slammed into Uchiha Arashi's face like a heavy, muffled punch.

He stood before Umino Ikkaku's desk, and for the first time, clear astonishment appeared on the Shadow Clone's face.

"Teacher, what did you say?"

Umino Ikkaku looked at the child before him, who was clearly only five years old yet always wore an expression that said, "I have seen through everything." He sighed inwardly, but his tone was exceptionally firm.

"Arashi, the school's rules are rules. The curriculum is six years, and you've only studied here for a little over one. No matter how you look at it, that won't hold up. It's not that I don't acknowledge your strength, but the rules can't be broken."

"Rules?" The Shadow Clone tilted his head, a trace of icy mockery entering his voice. "Only the weak need rules to protect them."

"You little..." Umino Ikkaku felt a headache coming on. "This isn't about strength or weakness! It's procedure, it's..."

"Enough." The Shadow Clone cut him off. "I'll find a way myself."

With that, without waiting for Umino Ikkaku to say anything else, the Shadow Clone vanished in a puff of smoke.

When Arashi's real body received the memory feedback from the Shadow Clone at the training ground, his brows twisted into a knot.

"Rejected?" he muttered under his breath, disbelief written all over his face.

As far as he was concerned, with his current strength, forget graduating and becoming a genin—even taking the Chunin Exams would be more than enough.

The Ninja Academy's basic courses were simply a waste of his life.

"Clan Head Fugaku said I could ask him for help if something came up..." Arashi's fingers tapped unconsciously against his chin.

But he quickly rejected the thought.

"No." He shook his head. "My problems have to be solved by me. Teacher Fugaku already faces a lot of pressure from Konoha's higher-ups. If I make him go ask for favors, it'll only give them an even better chance to press him."

The influence of the Vegeta Template had already sunk deep into his bones.

He needed an opportunity, one that would let him prove himself directly to Konoha's higher-ups and bypass these tedious rules.

"The Hokage Building..." Arashi's gaze turned toward the tallest building at the center of the village.

That was the center of power in Konoha.

As long as he convinced the Third Hokage, a small matter like graduating early would just take a single word, wouldn't it?

With that thought, he set off at once.

However, reality slapped him hard across the face once again.

When he arrived at the entrance of the Hokage Building and tried to enter, two gatekeepers dressed in standard ninja gear, their expressions stern, stopped him.

"Kid, this is where the Hokage works. You can't just go in," one of the gatekeepers said, his tone still fairly gentle, though his eyes held unmistakable vigilance.

"I want to see Lord Hokage. I have something important." Arashi raised his head, trying to make his voice sound more convincing.

"See Lord Hokage?" The other gatekeeper gave a snort of laughter and looked Arashi up and down. "Whose kid are you? Did you get lost? Hurry home. Don't cause trouble here."

"I'm Uchiha Arashi of the Uchiha. I have something important to report to Lord Hokage!" Arashi emphasized his words, trying to bring out the Uchiha name.

"Uchiha?" The gatekeepers exchanged a glance, and their tone instantly turned cold. "Hmph, the Uchiha name doesn't scare us. Even if you're an Uchiha brat, that doesn't mean you can see the Hokage whenever you want. Hurry up and leave, or we won't be polite!"

They clearly did not believe a five-year-old child could have any "important business" and only took it as a moment of mischief.

Arashi's fists clenched.

He could feel the "ki" inside his body churning, a surge of anger rushing straight to his head.

This again! This feeling of being looked down on again, of being treated like an ignorant child!

He was almost unable to control himself. He wanted to force his way in with sheer strength.

But in the end, he held back.

This was the Hokage Building, and its defenses could be called the strongest in Konoha.

Even if he could break in, it would inevitably cause a huge uproar, and he might even be treated as a rogue ninja. That was not the outcome he wanted.

"Very well." Arashi took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in his heart, but his eyes became even colder. "You just wait."

He turned and left, his back carrying a suffocating pressure that made one's heart tremble.

The gatekeeper watched the direction he left in and curled his lip. "Kids these days really have less and less respect for rules."

Back at the clan compound training ground, Arashi punched the boulder beside him.

Bang!

With a muffled boom, spiderweb-like cracks appeared across the surface of the hard rock.

"Damn it!" he growled, frustration and anger intertwining in his heart.

The deadline for the system mission was drawing closer day by day, and the penalty for failure was a 10% decrease in template progress. To him, that was absolutely unacceptable!

Vegeta never accepted failure!

"I have to find a way... I have to graduate within half a month!" Arashi's eyes flickered wildly as he considered every possibility.

Go directly to Fugaku? No. Too embarrassing.

Force his way into the Hokage Building again? Too risky.

What other way was there to make Konoha's higher-ups, especially the Third Hokage, notice him and agree to his graduation application?

His gaze swept over the training ground, his mind racing.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

"In the original work... Zabuza..."

That "Demon" of the Hidden Mist, in order to overthrow the dark decree of "classmates must kill each other to graduate," had directly slaughtered every graduate of his year, forcing the Mist higher-ups to abolish the decree.

Although Arashi did not want to go that far, this line of thinking... seemed worth borrowing!

"If I want to attract the higher-ups' attention quickly, the simplest and most direct method is to create a big enough 'disturbance'!"

"Ninja Academy... students..."

The corners of Arashi's mouth slowly curved into a dangerous arc.

Since the normal path was blocked, he would use a "Saiyan" method to carve out a shortcut!

Over the next few days, the Ninja Academy completely blew up.

The reason was simple. Uchiha Arashi had gone mad!

No one knew what he was thinking, and no one knew where that tiny body of his got so much strength.

Every day, starting in the morning, whenever the teachers were not around, whether in the classroom, the hallway, the playground, or on the way home from school, any student who was not in Uchiha Arashi's class and happened to run into him was, without exception, extorted by him!

From sixth-year seniors on the verge of graduating down to first-year newcomers who had just enrolled, boys or girls alike, as long as he ran into them, refusal to pay meant a vicious beating.

His attacks were not lethal, but they were extremely humiliating. He specifically aimed for their butts.

The beaten students were often in so much pain that tears streamed down their faces, yet they could not even touch the corner of his clothes.

Arashi was too fast. In the eyes of those ordinary students, all they could see were afterimages.

Bang!

A fifth-year student who tried to resist had only just taken a stance when Arashi tripped him with a clean, decisive leg sweep. Immediately after, he received a heavy kick to the butt, making him howl in pain.

"Too slow, lower-class warrior." Arashi looked down at him from above, his eyes filled with disdain.

"And you." He turned toward the few students beside him, who were trembling in fear. "Your chakra fluctuations are as weak as candles in the wind. How are you fit to be ninjas like that? All of you, hand over your money."

The students, already beaten into fear, did not dare say a single word of refusal. One after another, they trembled as they took their pocket money from their pockets.

"My parents sacrificed themselves for Konoha," Arashi said expressionlessly as he took all the money away, his tone so flat it was as though he were stating a fact. "I'm dirt poor now, and the pension isn't nearly enough for my training. As members of Konoha, you ought to compensate me. Consider this money your 'Will of Fire' contribution."

"A Will of Fire contribution"?!

That reason was absurd to the extreme!

But which of the beaten students dared refute him? They could only watch helplessly as their pocket money was snatched away by this demon-like five-year-old brat.

In just a few short days, the matter of Uchiha Arashi "violently extorting" his classmates spread through all of Konoha as if it had grown wings.

"Have you heard? That brat from the Uchiha named Arashi beat up every student in the Ninja Academy!"

"Seriously? How old is he?"

"It's absolutely true! My neighbor's kid was one of the victims. His butt was swollen from being beaten, and his pocket money was stolen too!"

"He's completely lawless! Why don't the Uchiha do something about him?"

"I heard even the Ninja Academy's teachers can't control him. That brat's strength is ridiculously strong!"

"If he's that powerful, why is Lord Hokage still letting him stay in the academy? Isn't that just asking for trouble?"

Rumors and gossip surged like a tide toward the Uchiha Clan Compound and the Hokage Building.