The Fate of a Tagalong

The entrance exam drew a sea of applicants.

But only twenty-seven were accepted in the end. There were only so many openings each year—no more than ten extra, no fewer by much.

These were peaceful times. During the previous Ninja World Wars, they had mass-produced a bunch of cannon-fodder Genin.

Now, the village's operations simply had no use for so many Genin. To put it plainly, there was too little work and too many people.

That was why there were jokes about ninja pulling weeds and hauling manure for civilians.

In peacetime, low-ranking ninja in the village got by worse than ordinary farmers.

Naruto could now force himself through even Might Guy's insane training regimen.

But he couldn't stop taking medicinal baths every week.

His body was still growing. Without soaking in medicine, once his muscles got trained stiff, he wouldn't be able to grow any taller.

When it came to avoiding being short, he couldn't afford to slack off at all.

By the time he wandered into the classroom, that bunch had already been waiting.

Every one of them looked listless, as if their elders had whipped them with shoe soles at home.

The moment the door opened, several pairs of eyes lit up in unison, and they all swarmed over.

Kiba Inuzuka was the fastest, grabbing Naruto by the sleeve.

"Naruto! Hurry up and keep going. What happened after Konoha was founded?"

The agonized itch for answers was written all over his face. He was so worked up he could barely stand still.

His family had issued an order forbidding him from talking outside about the nonsense Naruto had told them yesterday.

But an order was an order. How could it possibly restrain someone like Kiba?

Naruto yawned and flopped straight onto his desk.

"What are you rushing for? Can't you see the bell's about to ring? I'm a good student. I need to focus on studying."

The people around him grimaced in disgust.

Study my ass. What part of you looked like a good student?

On the other side of the classroom, a group of civilian-born children huddled together and whispered in low voices while looking over at them.

The anger in their hearts was impossible to suppress.

Naruto's group hadn't even needed to take the exam; they had simply walked right in.

Quite a few of their friends had been squeezed out because of the limited slots and hadn't even gotten through the door.

One class had been forcibly split into two camps.

One was the second generation of ninja centered around Naruto, while the other was the civilian students led by Sakura Haruno.

There hadn't originally been this much friction between them. By the rules, everyone should have honestly tested their way in.

But Naruto, that shit-stirrer, had thrown everything into chaos, and the plot had taken a sharp turn.

The looks the civilians sent his way were like little knives, but Naruto didn't take them to heart at all.

He knew perfectly well that the unlucky ones in this class were, plainly speaking, fated to serve as the prince's companions.

Only Sakura Haruno, who had placed first in the exam, was lucky enough to properly graduate from the Ninja Academy alongside Naruto and Sasuke.

Everyone else would fail at the Jonin instructor stage.

Kakashi had been specifically placed there by the old Third to watch over Naruto, the Jinchuriki.

But his zero pass rate wasn't just a boast. When civilian ninja ran into him, nine and a half out of ten would be sent packing.

Naruto: The Ninja Way talked about dreams and perseverance on the surface.

Naruto's ninja way of charging forward and keeping his word made it sound like anyone could turn things around so long as they dared to dream and worked hard enough.

The truth was that every powerful ninja was built on Kekkei Genkai, or at the very least came from a ninja clan that kept secret techniques.

In Naruto, being born into the right family ranked first among all skills.

Just look at Rock Lee. He had nearly trained himself to death, yet he still couldn't compare to a single month of Kakashi giving Second Pillar special coaching.

He could train the Eight Gates Released Formation until he died and still only force open the Sixth Gate.

Might Duy and Might Guy, father and son, had burned themselves out day and night. The result of kicking with their lives on the line was just that one strike.

Thinking of that, Naruto truly felt fortunate from the bottom of his heart that he had transmigrated into Naruto Uzumaki.

He had embraced one of the Naruto World's two greatest cheats right from the start.

If he had transmigrated into a civilian, without a cheat to support him, even becoming a ninja would have been difficult.

If Pain brought down a Shinra Tensei, whether he could even leave behind an intact corpse would depend on luck.

Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique could revive, at most, those whose corpses were still intact.

Those smashed into meat paste or separated from their heads didn't get that treatment.

Why would Naruto have the spare attention to care whether a bunch of people destined to become cannon fodder rolled their eyes at him?

An unfamiliar man entered through the door, dressed as a Chunin.

"My name is Akagi Ganglie. I'm your homeroom teacher, and from now on, I'll teach you the skills ninja use to make a living."

His face was stiff as an iron plate. He didn't spare anyone seated below so much as a proper glance before letting out a cold laugh.

"Listen carefully in class. Entering the Ninja Academy doesn't mean you're already ninja."

"Even if every one of you passes the school's graduation exam, there'll still be another round of practical drills afterward."

"There are only nine Genin headbands to go around. The other eighteen will all stay behind at school."

The moment he finished speaking, the civilian students exploded.

A group of them blankly turned their heads and began counting Naruto's people one by one.

One, two, three...

Fuck, there was only one graduation slot left for civilians.

The people who had been throwing their arms around each other's shoulders moments ago now turned and glared at one another like enemies who had murdered their fathers.

Sakura Haruno, the leader among them, was abandoned off to the side in the blink of an eye.

Compete for the spots belonging to those second-generation ninja around Sasuke?

Don't make him laugh. They could enter without even taking the exam, and you were telling him they might fail to graduate? They could probably pass with their eyes closed.

Naruto watched the scene unfold, his lips curling in mockery.

This was what Konoha's civilians were like—every last one selfish and self-serving.

When they had no use for you, they bent whichever way the wind blew.

Back then, they had called him a demon fox and thrown every vile insult they could at him.

Once his fists became strong, they turned around and praised him as the great hero who had saved the village.

For a pack of ungrateful wolves like them, Itachi Uchiha had actually slaughtered his entire clan in exchange for their peace.

The more Naruto thought about it, the more he felt that Itachi Uchiha's brain was full of mush.

Naruto shifted his gaze to Sasuke, and the longer he looked, the more Sasuke resembled a complete idiot.

After all, he was the product of that filial son's older brother.

He went on and on about destroying Konoha, yet after showing his face upon returning, Hashirama Senju talked him down with a round of mouth-fu.

Asura's reincarnation carried the Betsuten Mouth after all. It really was an ultimate technique passed down through a single line.