Ninja Academy Graduation, Finally a Genin

Naruto looked at Hinata, who stood before him clutching the corner of her clothes, her eyes rimmed red. The indifference in his gaze faded somewhat.

He took two steps forward and stopped in front of Hinata. Looking down at her trembling fingertips, his voice was lower than it had been when he spoke to Sasuke.

"It wasn't me who changed."

The setting sun stretched their shadows long. Naruto's words were as light as a sigh, yet they struck Hinata's heart with crushing weight.

"It was this world that forced me to change."

He raised his eyes toward Konoha's Hokage Rock. In his blue eyes surged a dark undercurrent Hinata had never seen before.

"I just don't know whether you can still accept me like this, Hinata."

"Even if I become the villain everyone talks about, would you still treat me like this?"

He withdrew his gaze and looked back at Hinata's face, his tone carrying a trace of probing that even he had not noticed.

Hinata's body suddenly shook. She snapped her head up, her Byakugan wide open, and the tears she had held back for so long finally rolled down her cheeks.

She took a small step forward. For the first time, she did not avoid Naruto's gaze. Her voice began weak and soft, then gradually became firm, every word filled with heartfelt sincerity.

"Even though I like Naruto-kun, who sticks to his ninja way and charges forward without fear."

"If you've been hurt, then I would rather you protect yourself."

"Hinata can bear all of this for Naruto-kun. Please believe me!"

She seemed to pour all her strength into that final sentence. Her cheeks were red enough to bleed, yet her fingertips clutched Naruto's clothes tightly, as though she were holding onto the only light in her life.

Naruto looked at her reddened eyes, and the softness buried beneath the darkness in his heart was suddenly scalded.

He raised a hand and gently rubbed Hinata's soft black hair, unable to hide the heartache in his voice.

"You've always been this kind. Even for your clan, your sister, and the branch family, you were willing to become a useless girl in everyone else's eyes rather than let them suffer the Caged Bird Seal."

His fingertips paused, and his tone abruptly sank, carrying an unquestionable force.

"But this world is wrong."

Hinata stared blankly at him, forgetting to cry and even forgetting to be embarrassed.

Naruto withdrew his hand. Seeing her stunned expression, a faint smile flashed through his eyes.

"For the next while, I'll be teaching Sasuke. You can come train with us too."

Those words exploded in Hinata's mind like thunder. She froze for a full three seconds before reacting. Her face instantly turned red to the tips of her ears, and she nodded frantically. Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, yet brimming with joy.

"O-Okay! Naruto-kun!"

She did not dare linger any longer, afraid she might say something embarrassing again. She gave Naruto a deep bow, then turned and ran off with a red face. Even after running far away, she could not help looking back at him, the light in her eyes shining like stars.

Naruto watched her retreating figure, and the smile on his lips slowly faded.

"Then I'll move the Hyūga Clan piece later."

The shackles of the Caged Bird, the blood-deep hatred between the main and branch families—these were explosives buried in the bones of the Hyūga Clan.

And Hinata was the fuse that could ignite them.

One Uchiha genius in his grasp, and one eldest daughter of the main family who could shake the entire Hyūga Clan.

But at this moment, he did care about Hinata. For her sake, he could wait a little longer!

Over the next two and a half months, Naruto completely began a crazed, obsessive training routine.

Before dawn, he would plunge into the back mountain. Even while sleeping, he spread Mind's Eye of the Kagura throughout his sensing range. Not even an ant could approach without him noticing.

The reports ANBU submitted to the Third Hokage grew thicker by the day.

Yet they were all mundane details of his daily life!

Inside the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage puffed on his pipe and looked over the reports. Naruto ran to the back mountain every day, sitting there for an entire day, or training with Sasuke.

"Strange. Extremely strange! He sits there every day? What exactly is Naruto doing?"

The ember in his pipe flickered uncertainly, and his cloudy eyes were filled with complicated emotions he could not understand.

Sasuke showed up at the back mountain every day without fail to train with Naruto.

The way he looked at Naruto gradually changed from initial resentment and hostility into awe and dependence. And deep down, in a secret known only to himself, he had begun to regard Naruto as the only opponent who could stand beside him.

Hinata came every day too. At first, she only hid behind trees and watched secretly. Later, Naruto dragged her out and had her train chakra control alongside them.

For a time, Hinata's Gentle Fist improved by leaps and bounds. Even Hyuga Hiashi was astonished by his daughter's changes.

Only Neji, whenever he saw that Hinata's eyes held nothing but Naruto, felt the Caged Bird mark faintly burn. Jealousy grew wildly like weeds.

Two and a half months passed in the blink of an eye.

The day of the Ninja Academy graduation exam had finally arrived.

The examination hall buzzed with voices. The candidates ahead completed their tests one after another. Sasuke passed with full marks without surprise, while Neji, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sakura all passed smoothly as well. Only the final name remained—Naruto Uzumaki.

The entire examination hall instantly fell silent, and everyone's eyes gathered on him.

After all, this was the perennial dead last who had failed for three straight years and could not even use the most basic Clone Technique.

How far could he have come now?

Iruka stood among the examiners, looking at Naruto as he walked onto the platform. His eyes were full of worry, but also a trace of anticipation he had not noticed himself.

He had watched this child grow up. He had even, in a way, come to see Naruto as his own child—just as in the original story.

"Naruto Uzumaki, examination content: the Three-Basic Techniques. Passing is enough to graduate."

As Iruka's voice fell, Naruto raised an eyebrow without making any unnecessary preparations.

His fingertips moved slightly, and the Shadow Clone Technique activated instantly. More than twenty identical Narutos stood neatly in the examination hall. Their chakra fluctuations were completely identical, even their expressions exactly the same. Forget Genin—even the Chunin examiners could not tell which one was the original.

The entire hall erupted.

Before anyone could react, Naruto's figure blurred, leaving only a wooden stump behind. The Substitution Technique flowed as naturally as water, without the slightest excess chakra fluctuation.

Then the Transformation Technique activated. Standing before everyone was an exact duplicate of Iruka. His tone, expression, and even the scars on his body were identical. Even Iruka himself froze in place.

The Three-Basic Techniques took less than three seconds from start to finish, executed so perfectly that not a single flaw could be found.

The chief examiner abruptly stood up, his voice trembling as he forcefully marked the evaluation on the score sheet.

"S-rank! Examination rating: S-rank!"

Those words exploded through the examination hall like a thunderclap.

"Are they insane? S-rank? Since the academy was founded, barely any graduates have earned an S-rank!"

"That's the dead last who couldn't even use the Clone Technique? Am I dreaming?"

"His Three-Basic Techniques were even more precise than Sasuke's!"

Iruka looked at Naruto standing on the platform, and his eyes instantly reddened.

He hurried over and handed Naruto a Genin forehead protector. His voice caught with emotion, but his smile was incomparably gentle.

"Naruto, congratulations. You've graduated."

He looked at Naruto as though he were watching his own child finally grow up.

From the child who had been pointed at throughout the village and could only use pranks to draw attention, to the boy now standing before everyone, shining brilliantly.

Naruto accepted the forehead protector. His fingertips paused, and he nodded at Iruka, his voice softening slightly. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

That thanks came from the bottom of his heart.

In this village, where everyone saw him as the Demon Fox, only Iruka had been the first to see him as "Naruto Uzumaki."

Within the crowd, Neji looked at Naruto, surrounded by everyone, and his expression turned ugly to the extreme. His nails dug deeply into his palms.

The humiliation of being defeated in a single move, the helplessness of being left far behind by Naruto over the last two and a half months—all of it surged over him like a tide.

Yet no matter how unwilling he was, he could do nothing. He could only force out a smile, walk over, and hypocritically say, "Congratulations, Naruto."

After saying that, he instinctively looked toward Hinata.

With just one glance, the jealousy in his heart instantly burned to its peak.

Hinata stood outside the crowd, staring unblinkingly at Naruto. The light in her eyes was so bright it seemed ready to bloom into flowers.

The affection and admiration in them could not be hidden. From beginning to end, her gaze had not left Naruto for even a moment.

Neji clenched his fists and turned away.

Just as the commotion here began to settle, Sasuke pushed through the crowd and walked up to Naruto. His scarlet Two-Tomoe Sharingan flashed in his eyes, and excitement filled his voice.

"Naruto, over these two and a half months, I awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. My strength has grown enormously.

"After school, let's go to the back mountain and fight again!"

Naruto glanced at him, casually put the forehead protector on his head, and rejected him bluntly.

"No. There'll be plenty of chances later. We'll talk in a few days."

Sasuke froze for a moment. He was somewhat dissatisfied, but did not argue.

Over the past two and a half months, Naruto had taught him more than he could have gained through three years of hard training alone.

He knew very well that he was still no match for Naruto.

But he knew even more clearly that only by following Naruto could he become stronger and earn the right to seek revenge on Itachi Uchiha.

Hinata hurried over from the side, her brows slightly furrowed and her eyes filled with concern. "Naruto-kun, you just finished your exam. Shouldn't you rest for a while...?"

Naruto lowered his head to look at her and reached out to rub her hair. His tone was relaxed. "Don't worry. Do you not trust my strength?"

Hinata's face reddened. She hurriedly lowered her head, but still could not resist sneaking glances at him, the corners of her lips lifting uncontrollably.

After sending away the people crowding around him, Naruto found an empty corner and silently spoke in his heart.

"Bring up my status panel."

The next second, a system panel with a cold gleam instantly unfolded across his retina:

[Host: Naruto Uzumaki]

[Darkness Value: 120]

[Ninjutsu/Abilities]

1. Nine-Tails Chakra: One-Tail (Golden Two-Tails!)

2. Rasengan (A-rank)

3. Multiple Shadow Clone Technique (A-rank)

4. Mind's Eye of the Kagura (A-rank)

5. Wind Release: Storm Technique (C-rank)

6. Three-Basic Techniques

7. Three-Tomoe Sharingan

8. Wind Release: Vacuum Wave (B-rank)

9. Wind Release: Great Breakthrough (C-rank)

10. Fūma Shuriken: Shadow Windmill (D-rank)

11. Wind Nature Transformation (Mastered)

12. Wind Release: Spiral Cyclone Pierce (self-created, half-step S-rank, currently his ultimate trump card)

Naruto swept his eyes over the panel and silently calculated.

Aside from spending 2,000 Darkness Value to completely control the Nine-Tails' second golden tail, he had spent 3,000 Darkness Value to exchange for a side-effect-free Three-Tomoe Sharingan, then spent another 800 and 500 Darkness Value on Wind Release: Vacuum Wave and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.

All the remaining abilities had been honed through his own relentless training over the past two and a half months.

Especially his self-created Spiral Cyclone Pierce. By integrating extreme Wind Nature Transformation into the Rasengan, it could burst forth at close range and be thrown from afar, its power nearly reaching that of an S-rank ninjutsu.

Most importantly, it caused no harm to his body and lacked the fatal flaw of the original Rasenshuriken, which damaged the user's chakra pathways through backlash.

There was also the Three-Tomoe Sharingan exchanged from the system. It perfectly matched his chakra without any rejection whatsoever, directly reaching the limit of three tomoe. Its perception, copying ability, and resistance to genjutsu were all top-tier.

The only issue was that exchanging for a Mangekyō Sharingan beyond that cost 10,000 Darkness Value per eye. It was practically a bottomless pit.

Naruto conversed with the system in his mind. "System, are you sure you can recycle Mangekyō Sharingan?"

[System: We deal honestly. One intact Mangekyō Sharingan can be recycled for 5,000 Darkness Value.]

Naruto chuckled, his tone teasing. "System, you're tempting me to murder people. This baby knows it, but this baby won't say it."

Yet he had already begun making calculations in his mind. At this very moment, the first person he thought of was Lord Danzo.

What a good man Danzo was. His entire arm was embedded with Sharingan, and he even had one of Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan. He was practically a walking Darkness Value cash machine.

Once Naruto stripped all the Sharingan from Danzo's arm, forget Mangekyō Sharingan—even Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan could be piled up.

Naruto put away the panel and looked up at Hokage Rock, a cold smile curling across his lips.

Tomorrow was the day teams would be assigned. He was truly looking forward to seeing whether this plot he had turned upside down would still follow the original story and place him on Team 7.