The Examiner Nearly Wet Himself: How Can Your Clone Still Form Hand Seals?!

"Can my 'barely usable' Clone Technique pass?"

As soon as Sen's words fell.

The wooden clone standing beside him cooperatively reached out.

Like an old butler, it helped Sen straighten his slightly wrinkled collar.

Then the Wood Clone turned its head.

At Mizuki, seated at the examiner's desk with a face darker than the bottom of a pot, it flashed an extremely human, provocative grin.

It was an utterly punchable smile.

"Boom!"

Mizuki felt as though something had exploded in his head.

He sprang up from his chair so abruptly that his knees slammed heavily into the desk, yet he did not even notice.

He pointed at the wooden figure on the platform, which not only had a physical body but could think and move on its own.

His finger trembled as if he were plucking cotton.

"A... a physical clone?!"

Mizuki's voice cracked, shrill as a drake with its neck stepped on.

"That's impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"You're a worthless fool who can't even control chakra properly! How could you possibly use a physical clone?!"

Physical clones were ninjutsu of B-rank or above!

Never mind these newly graduated genin brats.

Even Mizuki himself, a proper chunin, could only barely perform the most basic Shadow Clone, and it consumed an enormous amount of chakra.

Yet this brat before him had not only formed no hand seals, but there was not even the slightest trace of chakra fluctuation.

As if performing a magic trick, he had effortlessly created a perfect clone with a physical body!

Where was that supposed to leave him, the examiner?

This was practically grinding his intelligence into the floor!

Iruka was dumbfounded as well.

He even rubbed his eyes instinctively, wondering whether he had been grading papers too much lately and was hallucinating.

"Student Senju..."

Iruka stammered, his voice dry.

"Th-this... did you really create this?"

Sen leaned against the blackboard and yawned lazily.

"If I didn't make it, did it grow out of the ground by itself?"

He patted the Wood Clone on the shoulder.

"Hey, Number Two. Put on a little show for the teachers, so they won't say you're a plastic model."

The Wood Clone nodded, a trace of helplessness appearing on the face identical to Sen's.

"Original, you really know how to order people around."

With that.

Under the gaze of dozens of eyes widened like bronze bells throughout the classroom.

The Wood Clone took a step forward.

He raised both hands, his fingers flying.

"Tiger—Snake—Tiger—Snake—Tiger—Snake!"

His hand seals were so fast that they even left several afterimages in the air.

This was the advanced hand-seal sequence Iruka had taught them before, used to refine and condense chakra.

"What is he doing?"

Sasuke abruptly straightened, his Sharingan activating unconsciously as he tried to see through this unbelievable scene.

"A clone... is actually forming hand seals?!"

Everyone felt their common sense being challenged like never before.

A clone was merely a concentration of chakra. How could it independently refine chakra like the original, much less form hand seals and use ninjutsu?

It was as absurd as drawing a picture, only for the person in the picture to jump out and sketch you a portrait!

Yet something even more absurd was still to come.

As the Wood Clone completed its final hand seal.

"Bang!"

A duller sound than before rang out.

At the Wood Clone's feet, a smaller mass of wood swiftly rose and twisted together.

In the blink of an eye.

A tiny Wood Clone, just over half a meter tall and looking like a shrunken Sen Senju, appeared before everyone!

The large Wood Clone rubbed the little Wood Clone's head, then turned toward Mizuki, who had completely petrified below the platform.

"Honorable Examiner, buy one, get one free. You're not losing out on this deal, are you?"

Dead silence.

The classroom was so quiet that not even breathing could be heard.

Everyone stared at the three "Sen Senjus," large, medium, and small, lined up on the platform.

Their brains had completely crashed and stopped functioning.

Clones... could make more clones?!

What kind of godlike micro-control was this?!

Mizuki's legs gave out, and he collapsed back into his chair with a thud.

He felt cold sweat soaking his back, while a chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his skull.

"M-monster..."

Mizuki's lips trembled. The way he looked at Sen was as though he were staring at a demon wearing human skin.

He finally understood why the Third Hokage had treated this boy so specially.

This was no lopsided, useless fool.

This was clearly a prehistoric beast lying dormant in Konoha Village, one that could devour everything at any moment!

Terrible chakra control?

What utter bullshit!

Making one clone precisely control chakra well enough to create another clone—

Even the veteran jonin in the village probably could not achieve such miraculous chakra micro-control!

"Big Brother! You're freaking amazing!"

Naruto was the first to recover from his shock.

He excitedly jumped onto a desk, waving his arms and shouting like a madman.

"I told you my big brother is the strongest! Who still refuses to accept it?!"

Sasuke said nothing.

He bit his lip so hard that blood seeped out, but he did not notice at all.

As he looked at Sen Senju on the platform, who could not even be bothered to spare him a glance, resentment and jealousy gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes.

"Damn it... How can the Uchiha Clan lose to someone like him?!"

Iruka sat blankly in his chair, still clutching the stamp marked "Fail" in his hand.

He looked at Sen, then at the tiny Wood Clone, feeling as though all his years as a ninja had been for nothing.

"Teacher?"

Sen knocked on the blackboard, snapping Iruka out of his daze.

He yawned, his eyes full of impatience.

"I've already demonstrated my 'buy one, get one free' package. So do I pass or not?"

"I'm in a hurry to go back and take a nap. The sunlight is perfect right now. It'd be a huge loss to miss it."

Iruka jolted awake as if from a dream.

He frantically searched across the desk, tossing the "Fail" stamp far away.

Then, with violently trembling hands, he picked up the red stamp representing "Pass."

"P-pass! Of course you pass!"

Iruka's voice cracked slightly.

Holding Sen's report card in both hands, he solemnly and respectfully pressed the red mark onto it.

Then he took a brand-new Konoha forehead protector from the drawer.

He took a deep breath and calmed his surging emotions.

Iruka stood up and walked over to Sen.

Rather than simply handing it over as he did with the other students.

He held the forehead protector in both hands, looking at the unfathomable young man before him with an extremely complicated yet deeply respectful gaze.

"Student Senju, congratulations."

"From today onward, you are a true Konoha genin."

Sen raised an eyebrow and casually accepted the forehead protector.

Without even giving it a second glance, he stuffed it into his pocket, having no interest in wearing it on his head.

"Thanks, Teacher Iruka."

Sen waved a hand and turned to walk down from the platform.

The two Wood Clones also vanished with two bangs, turning into dry logs that fell to the floor.

With both hands in his pockets, he slowly walked out of the examination room beneath a sea of extremely strange stares.

"Now this is more like it. I finally got my official license to slack off."

Walking down the sunlit corridor, Sen was in an excellent mood.

"I heard genin squad leaders usually don't bother much with their students. As long as I complete a few missions like finding cats and pulling weeds, I can get paid."

"This kind of heavenly life was practically custom-made for me."

Just as Sen was planning all the fancy ways he could slack off in the future.

He had just reached the school entrance.

When a female jonin with a curvaceous figure and beautiful curly red hair suddenly stepped out from the shade of a nearby tree.

Blocking his path.

"Hey, junior. I heard you caused another huge stir in the examination room just now?"

Kurenai Yuhi smiled at Sen, her eyes brimming with undisguised interest.