Graduation Exam

A week later.

"Minato, hurry up! We'll be late if you take any longer."

Feng Xun's urging made Minato, who was still organizing his ninja tool pouch, raise his head slightly. "Xun, don't you hate school more than anyone? You even had me get you a week off before. Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic?"

Feng Xun curled his lip and replied without hesitation, "Times are different now, aren't they? Today is the big day when you graduate from the Ninja Academy. As your little brother, isn't it normal for me to be excited?"

Indeed, after today, Minato would officially graduate from the Ninja Academy.

Hearing Feng Xun's words, Minato sighed. "Xun, it's not certain that I'll graduate. If I fail the exam, I'll have to stay at the Ninja Academy for another year."

Feng Xun grumbled inwardly, unconcerned.

If the future Fourth Hokage couldn't even graduate successfully, then Konoha was truly finished. Of course, his precious future son was an exception—after all, not everyone was Naruto Uzumaki.

The Ninja Academy graduation exam was very different from those after the Third Shinobi World War. This was still an era of war, after all. Compared with the Three Body Technique emphasized during the peaceful years to come, ninja now placed greater importance on actual combat. In other words, anyone who wanted to graduate had to fight a genuine match against a classmate.

But no matter what the test involved, he still stood by the same words: if the future Fourth Hokage couldn't pass, then Konoha was beyond saving.

"All right! Let's go!" Minato said after closing his ninja tool pouch, addressing the already impatient Xun.

"We should've left ages ago." Feng Xun pouted as he complained, closely following behind Minato.

"Future Fourth Hokage, let me see just how great the gap between us is right now."

Staring at the somewhat slender figure ahead of him, Feng Xun lowered his head and murmured.

It had been exactly a week since his father last returned. During that time, he had not only familiarized himself with the system he carried, but had also done a great deal of training at home.

It could be said that his strength had undergone earthshaking changes over the past week. If he had once merely been a weakling worth five points, now he was at least worth fifty—though he still seemed like a weakling.

[Feng Xun]

[Class: Ninja Academy Student]

[Strength: Genin]

[Bloodline: Half-Saiyan]

[Skill: Basic Taijutsu, Afterimage Technique (Triple): Move at high speed to create three afterimages that confuse the opponent before attacking. (Upgradeable) Proficiency: 23%]

[Special Talents]

[Potential Unleashed: Under special conditions, can unleash combat power several times greater than his own.]

[Survival of the Fittest: Recover from an uncontrollable near-death state, greatly increasing combat power.]

[Inventory]

[Shop]

Just as the system data showed, after being tempered by the Saiyan bloodline, he now possessed the preliminary strength of a Genin. Not only that, the power of his bloodline had also granted him two talent abilities, though he considered both of them rather useless.

As for why, anyone who had watched Dragon Ball would understand perfectly. Other than training, what did Saiyans like Gohan rely on to increase their strength?

Without question, the first thing that came to mind was rage.

Back then, how had Gohan headbutted Raditz and kicked Frieza? How had Goku transformed into a Super Saiyan? Without question, it had all been because of anger.

Intense rage awakened the power hidden within Saiyan blood, but he was different.

He had been in this world for seven years, yet he had never felt any truly intense anger.

In Feng Xun's own words, after coming to this world, he had loving parents, a brother who cared for him, and an exciting life beyond anything he could have dreamed of in his previous life. Why would he need to get angry?

As for whether getting beaten up by the little pepper a while ago would make him angry, that was even more absurd.

Not to mention that she was his future sister-in-law, she was also one of his few friends. That alone made it impossible for him to get mad at her.

As for the second ability, Survival of the Fittest—a tribute to battle royale games—it was even more useless. He had no masochistic tendencies and had no intention of letting someone beat him half to death.

But aside from that, what made Feng Xun happiest was the increased power of the Afterimage Technique. If the original Afterimage Technique had only been D-rank taijutsu, then after a week of uninterrupted practice, it now definitely possessed the power of C-rank taijutsu.

At only seven years old, I've not only mastered a C-rank ninjutsu, but also gained Genin-level strength. I should be able to rival Itachi's talent now, right?

Feng Xun thought smugly.

(An extra note here: the male lead enrolled at four and is now seven. Itachi enrolled at six and graduated at seven. Well, they're about the same!)

Before long, Minato and Xun arrived at the gates of the Ninja Academy.

Looking at the crowded students and parents outside the gates, Feng Xun clicked his tongue, feeling a faint trace of envy.

As if seeing through his younger brother's thoughts, Minato ruffled his hair and smiled. "Don't worry. When you graduate, Father and Mother will definitely come too."

"What are you talking about? It's not like I want them to come!" Feng Xun turned his head away with a tsundere expression.

Just then, a red-haired girl squeezed out of the crowd and spotted Minato and Xun at once.

Kushina strode up to them with her hands on her hips. Ignoring Minato's awkward expression, she said bluntly, "You brat, you finally decided to come back to school? Minato told me you've been bedridden at home ever since I punched you twice."

Huh? Bedridden? What was that supposed to mean? I've been full of energy these past few days.

Feng Xun blinked in confusion, unable to understand what she meant.

He then turned his gaze toward Minato, only to find that Minato's expression was equally unnatural.

Could something have happened while I was gone that I don't know about?

Thinking that, Feng Xun said to Kushina, "Big Sis, wait a moment. I need to talk to my brother." Without waiting for her answer, he grabbed Minato and pulled him into a corner.

After glancing at Kushina, who made no move to follow them, he asked, "Minato, can you explain what exactly is going on?"

"Uh..." Faced with his younger brother's question, Minato, who never lied, flushed slightly as he explained, "Didn't you ask me to get you leave? So I told the teacher that you'd been sick in bed these past few days. Who knew Kushina would hear about it later?"

"Mm-hm, and then? You didn't tell Big Sis I was faking it?" Xun found it strange. In his eyes, someone as innocent as Minato wouldn't hide the truth from her.

"Because Kushina thought she was the reason you were bedridden, she was worried about you and kept asking me about you. You know, Kushina didn't used to like talking to me much, so I didn't tell her that you were only pretending to be sick."

After saying that, Minato lowered his head and fell silent like a child who had made a mistake.

Xun stared at him speechlessly.

Who said Minato had low emotional intelligence? Damn it, he'd sold out his little brother just to chase a girl, and someone like that had low emotional intelligence? Though maybe that wasn't right either. This guy had sold out his little brother for a girl more than once or twice. I should've gotten used to it by now.

Seeing Minato still hanging his head, Xun felt a little embarrassed as well. He nudged him with his elbow. "Let it go this time. But don't hide things like this from me next time. I'll help you keep it from Big Sis."

Well, in order to help his brother win the beauty's heart, he was really going all out.

Once the matter had been settled, Xun and Minato returned to Kushina.

"You two took forever! The groups will be assigned for the matches soon," Kushina complained impatiently.

"Sorry, sorry!" Xun scratched his head. "By the way, Big Sis, are you taking the exam too?"

"Of course! If even that sissy is taking the exam, how could I fall behind him?" Kushina crossed her arms and shot Minato a provocative glance.

After all, she was only a ten-year-old girl. In her eyes, the first obstacle to becoming the female Hokage was Minato. He was the best student in their class, and only by becoming stronger than him could she prove that the position of Hokage belonged to her.

P.S. Let me explain Kushina being kidnapped by the Lightning Shinobi today. There are actually major holes in that incident. Old Cat can only offer an explanation based on some personal thoughts. First, the reason the Lightning Shinobi kidnapped Kushina was probably because something had gone wrong with the Eight-Tails, so they wanted to target Kushina, the stable Nine-Tails Jinchūriki. But then the question was, how did the Lightning Shinobi know Kushina was a Jinchūriki? Was Konoha's secrecy really that poor? Come on—when Kushina became a Jinchūriki, even the Sannin didn't know. Only Konoha's upper ranks would have known. So Old Cat's guess is that Danzo leaked the secret. Some people might ask why Danzo would do that. As Konoha's darkness, he had no reason to hand a Jinchūriki over to another ninja village.

Okay, I'll explain the rest in the next chapter.