Early Graduation

Life at the Ninja Academy passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, Toru had already spent a semester at school.

The end of the semester had arrived, along with graduation season.

The Ninja Academy followed a five-year system, and Toru's class was still in its first year.

The graduation season of Konoha Year 42 had nothing to do with their class. By all rights, they wouldn't graduate until Konoha Year 46.

And yet, one student from their class was about to graduate: Hatake Kakashi.

"Kakashi, are you really going to graduate early?" Nohara Rin asked with concern.

"Yeah. Lord Hokage has already approved it," Kakashi replied with a nod.

"Hmph, what's so great about that?" Obito Uchiha said, his voice thick with jealousy.

In truth, word of Kakashi's early graduation had already spread throughout the school.

The son of the White Fang of Konoha seemed poised to show off his extraordinary talent.

If Kakashi passed the graduation exam, he would become the youngest Genin in Konoha's history.

Nearby, Yuhi Kurenai had also taken an interest in Kakashi's early graduation. "Toru, do you think Kakashi can graduate early?"

"With his abilities, graduating early will be easy," Toru said honestly.

In fact, Kakashi had already been as strong as an ordinary graduating student when he first enrolled. After a semester of training, he was well beyond the level needed to graduate.

"Then why don't you take the graduation exam early, too? Aren't you about as strong as Kakashi?" Kurenai asked.

Toru fell silent for a moment, then said only, "Graduating early isn't necessarily a good thing."

Kurenai didn't understand what he meant. She only nodded, half-understanding.

After spending a semester together, the two had grown quite close and had come to understand each other.

So Kurenai knew Toru's thinking was often far-sighted. It was all right if she didn't understand him right away.

In Toru's view, graduating early would certainly make Kakashi the youngest Genin in Konoha's history, but becoming a Genin came at a price.

He would lose the freedom to train and get caught up in all sorts of missions.

Toru had visited Konoha's mission office before and seen that most of the available jobs were meaningless, low-level tasks: catching kittens, feeding puppies, picking up trash, and patrolling.

Most of those missions went to Genin and Chunin.

The thought of spending his days on such tasks after graduation gave Toru a headache. It would be a complete waste of his life.

And no matter what the mission was, it would take time away from his training.

Toru was at the perfect age to train. The foundations of a future strong shinobi were built at this stage.

If all kinds of missions took up his training time now, he would have to spend far longer making up for the foundations he had lost.

So Toru's plan was to graduate with the rest of his class.

Once he successfully became a Genin, he would immediately try to become a Chunin and escape as many of those pointless, low-level missions as possible.

The final exams and graduation exams were held at the same time.

After the final exams ended, everyone in Toru's class gathered outside the graduation exam room to wait, since Kakashi was still inside taking his test.

They discussed how difficult the final exams had been this year, as well as whether Kakashi would pass the graduation exam.

Their conclusion was that Kakashi would pass. After all, he was Kakashi.

Only one person seemed unhappy about it: Obito Uchiha.

Toru wasn't close to his fellow Uchiha, but he could tell that although Obito and Kakashi seemed to dislike each other, it was only the sort of childish friction between boys.

The cause of that friction was the little girl standing beside Obito, Nohara Rin.

Another person had noticed, too: Sarutobi Asuma.

Unlike Toru, who had figured it out thanks to the perspective and experience of his previous life, Asuma understood because he knew exactly how it felt.

At that moment, Asuma and Obito were kindred spirits.

They were both in love with a girl. Obito liked Nohara Rin, while Asuma liked Yuhi Kurenai.

But the girls they liked both admired a genius. Just as Rin admired Kakashi, Kurenai admired Uchiha Toru.

Unlike Obito, though, Asuma had already given up on Kurenai.

Asuma considered himself a clever person.

After spending a semester making a fool of himself while Kurenai barely gave him the time of day, he had finally realized that things between them would never work out.

He and Kurenai had once gotten along well, sticking together every day.

Just when everything seemed to be going perfectly, Uchiha Toru arrived, and everything changed. Kurenai started ignoring him.

That contrast had left Asuma completely disheartened.

Asuma felt deeply sorry for Obito, though he also admired and envied him a little.

His sympathy went without saying. As for his admiration, it was for Obito's sincere devotion and persistence in loving Rin, qualities Asuma knew he himself lacked.

He envied Obito because Rin was actually very nice to him. Anyone could see it.

While the students outside chattered and discussed things noisily, the exam room door opened.

Kakashi wore a black shirt and a green scarf, and his mask was the same as always. The only difference was the metal Forehead Protector on his brow.

The Forehead Protector bore Konoha's symbol. It was the mark of a shinobi.

Everyone knew without being told that Kakashi had passed the graduation exam.

The students congratulated Kakashi one after another.

Might Guy, the bowl-cut boy, threw both hands into the air and said excitedly, "Kakashi, you really are a worthy rival! You became a Genin so quickly! Looks like I'll have to work twice as hard!"

Rin smiled warmly. "Congratulations on becoming a Genin, Kakashi."

Standing beside Toru, Yuhi Kurenai silently applauded Kakashi.

Asuma applauded with the others, but one person offered no congratulations: Obito.

Kakashi walked over to Obito and looked at him, seemingly waiting for him to offer his congratulations.

Instead, Obito angrily snapped, "I'm not going to congratulate you!"

Then he ran off on his own.

Most of the students didn't care about Obito, the class dead-last. They just thought it was inappropriate for him to cause a scene at a time like this.

Only Nohara Rin watched Obito's retreating figure, her face full of concern.

After congratulating Kakashi once more, Rin left early. It looked like she was going to comfort Obito, who had just stormed off in a huff.

Toru saw all of this, but he didn't care.

He knew Rin's personality and how Obito felt about her. Rin would surely manage to calm Obito down.