Konoha's Three Musketeers of Porn, Gambling, and Drugs

The students lined up and followed their teachers onto the training grounds.

Six grades, six classes, several hundred students gathered around the area, making an incredible racket.

Only after several chunin teachers shouted at them did they gradually quiet down.

Amid the crowd, Kushina stood on Hyuga Wuye's left, with Minato on his right.

He raised his eyes and looked around.

There were not many people at the Ninja Academy. Few would become notable in the future, and he had basically recognized them all by now.

For example, the trio from Ino–Shika–Cho's parental generation, who were one grade above him: Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Choza.

One grade below him were Nara Yoshino and Inuzuka Tsume, the future mothers of Shikamaru and Kiba respectively.

Among those roughly his age, Uchiha Mikoto and Aburame Shibi had graduated in the previous two classes. The brothers Hyuga Hiashi and Hyuga Hizashi were five years older than him and had long since graduated.

"Huh? That's..."

A somewhat familiar figure appeared at the edge of the training grounds, and Hyuga Wuye finally perked up. "Why is she here?"

"Who?" Kushina asked curiously.

Wuye pointed toward the edge of the field.

"Huh? That's Lord Hokage's disciple..." Minato suddenly realized. "It's Ji—"

"Mm, that's right," Wuye cut in. "The legendary Konoha trio of porn, gambling, and drugs."

Minato: "..."

They could also be called the ageless, deathless, immortal trio.

The young trio still wore their green flak jackets.

Tsunade with her golden braid, Orochimaru with his long black hair, and Jiraiya with his spiky white hair.

Legend had it that a team had to gather all three hair colors, or it would never amount to anything. Minato's future team and the future Team Seven both proved that point.

Shouldn't Tsunade be mourning right now? Why did she come here?

"Tsunade, why aren't you staying with Lady Mito? Why did you drag us to the Ninja Academy?" Orochimaru happened to ask in his gloomy voice.

"Grandmother said that a ninja being able to choose their own death was something worth being happy about, so we shouldn't be sad over it," Tsunade said slowly.

Yet looking at how different she was from usual, how could she possibly not be grieving?

Jiraiya and Orochimaru exchanged a glance and tacitly stopped bringing it up.

"I heard the old man decided to let outstanding students graduate early?" Jiraiya asked, feigning ease. "Can these little brats really handle it?"

"When you graduated, you might not even have measured up to them," Orochimaru said darkly.

Jiraiya clicked his tongue. "I'm a genius."

Orochimaru quietly contradicted him. "You are indeed a genius, though perhaps a genius of the red-light district."

"Orochimaru!"

Jiraiya raised his fist. "Are you looking for a fight?!"

Orochimaru remained gloomy. "Feeling suicidal?"

"You!"

Jiraiya was just about to fly into a rage when Tsunade slammed a hand onto his shoulder with a bang, embedding his entire body into the ground.

"You two, that's enough. I don't need this kind of comfort from you."

She pointed toward the graduating class. "My younger brother Nawaki is in there too. I called you here because I want to find him a teacher."

"Me! Let this great sage teach your brother!" Jiraiya pulled himself out of the ground.

"Orochimaru, take a look. If he's suitable, I'll leave him to you," Tsunade said, as if she had not seen Jiraiya volunteer.

Orochimaru found it strange. "Wouldn't it be best for you to teach him yourself?"

Tsunade shook her head. "I can't bring myself to be harsh with him."

"What about Jiraiya? His strength is average, but it's enough to teach Nawaki." Orochimaru clearly had no interest in teaching children.

"Him? If Nawaki learns how to peep into women's bathhouses, I'll go crazy." Tsunade curled her lip.

Jiraiya's face darkened. "Am I really that unreliable?"

Tsunade and Orochimaru looked at each other. "Yes."

Jiraiya: "..."

"Then I'll observe him. If he performs well and meets the standard, taking him as a disciple would be acceptable," Orochimaru said helplessly.

A smile appeared at the corner of Tsunade's lips. "You won't be disappointed. There's no one in the Ninja Academy who can defeat Nawaki."

At that moment, the Third Hokage arrived with a large group of teachers.

"Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru?"

The Third Hokage smiled at his three prized disciples. "You came to watch as well?"

"Tsunade asked Orochimaru to teach her brother," Jiraiya said in a distinctly displeased tone.

The Third Hokage smiled. "You could consider taking a disciple too. If they defeat Nawaki, wouldn't that prove you're stronger than Orochimaru?"

"Huh? That's a good idea, old man." Jiraiya's eyes lit up.

Bang!

The next moment, his head had a friendly encounter with the Third Hokage's hand.

"Show your teacher some respect!"

The Third Hokage withdrew his hand, still smiling pleasantly.

With his arrival, the entire training ground fell deathly silent, and a tense atmosphere began to spread.

"Begin."

The Third Hokage waved a hand. "Let me see the strength of the new generation."

"Yes!"

The teachers nodded, then headed toward their respective classes.

"The training ground will be divided into six areas, with the central field left open. The six grades will take the field one by one for combat practice. We're in this area," the chunin teacher said as he walked over. "Next, I'll arrange for you to take the field one at a time. If anyone wants to challenge students from higher grades, you may go to the central field."

Everyone tacitly ignored the second half of that statement.

Before long, six sets of matches began.

The lower grades only engaged in taijutsu and wildly tossed shuriken around. There was nothing worth watching.

The chunin teachers darted around the edges of the fields, preventing stray shuriken from injuring others.

The upper-grade matches featured quite a bit of the Three Body Techniques and were far more interesting, but no particularly eye-catching battles appeared.

Other than the Ino–Shika–Cho trio, who possessed their clans' secret techniques, the Third Hokage found no one else worth watching. Thus, his gaze drifted toward Hyuga Wuye from time to time.

"Minato, do you want to challenge an upper-grade student?" Wuye suddenly asked. "With your strength, you could easily defeat even someone from the graduating class."

"Huh?"

Minato scratched his head. "I never considered graduating early. Are you planning to challenge someone?"

Wuye nodded slightly. "I want to test my strength against the graduating class."

"Wuye, are you going to graduate early?" Kushina suddenly grabbed his hand. "Then I want to challenge them too!"

"Mm, I might not be able to stay at the Ninja Academy any longer," Wuye said quietly.

Minato turned to look at him, then suddenly said, "Then I'll challenge them too. If we graduate early together, maybe we can still be assigned to the same team."

Hyuga Wuye glanced at him, not knowing what to say.

In truth, he had no idea at all what awaited him next.

"Then I'm going first!"

Not caring about anything else, Kushina energetically leaped into the central field. "I want to challenge the graduating class!"

The six matches around them came to an abrupt halt, followed by an uproar.

"No way, someone is actually challenging the graduating class?!"

"She jumped out from the second-year class, didn't she? She dares to do that?"

"Then again, if it's Bloody Habanero, she really might dare."

"..."

The graduating class's teacher stepped out. "Who do you want to challenge?"

Kushina's gaze swept across the graduating class. She skipped over Nawaki and pointed at the boy beside him. "Him."

The graduating class suddenly fell silent.