My Dream Is to Become Hokage Too!

"Sakura Haruno, begin the exam!"

Sakura Haruno, with her long pink hair, formed hand seals.

A cloud of smoke suddenly appeared around her, obscuring her figure.

The smoke dispersed the next instant, and when Sakura Haruno reappeared before everyone, there were four identical versions of her.

This was the Clone Technique, one of the three most basic ninja techniques. Together with the Transformation Technique and Substitution Technique, they were known as the "Three-Body Technique."

Mizuki observed Sakura Haruno's clones. From their build and expressions to their movements, they were no different from her original body.

He recorded Sakura Haruno's score on the board. "Next, Sasuke Uchiha!"

Sasuke Uchiha walked out from the line of students waiting to be tested, his hands tucked into his pockets. Wearing a cold expression, he said nothing and immediately formed hand seals to perform the Clone Technique. Judging by the speed of his casting, Sasuke Uchiha was faster than Sakura Haruno.

Then, before Mizuki could say anything, Sasuke Uchiha dispelled the Clone Technique himself and returned to his seat.

That aloof demeanor drew shrieks from the girls.

After Sasuke Uchiha, Mizuki called several more students forward for their exams.

Naruto waited quietly for his own turn.

The Clone Technique...

Naruto remembered that in the original story, Iruka Umino's question in the Three-Body Technique mock exam before the official test had been "Transformation."

But with Mizuki, it had become the Clone Technique.

During the two years since his transmigration, Naruto had continued pretending to be bad at ninjutsu on the surface. Under that disguise, his Clone Technique was even worse than it had been in the original story.

As expected, Mizuki was preparing to use whether Naruto passed the graduation exam to lure him into stealing the Scroll of Seals.

It seemed that, just like Naruto, Mizuki could no longer wait to make a move on the Scroll of Seals...

However, Naruto's reason for pretending to be bad at ninjutsu was not merely to fool Mizuki into giving him information about the Scroll of Seals.

It was also to fool Danzo.

Being unable to master ninjutsu meant Naruto was highly controllable. That was what Naruto was supposed to look like in the eyes of the higher-ups.

Besides, compared to the image of a "genius ninja" making Danzo wary, combined with the original Naruto's poor attitude toward the village, Danzo's little schemes—only recently stopped by the Third Hokage—might start stirring again ahead of schedule.

He might as well pretend to be a complete "dead last" and lie low while growing stronger.

Open matters were difficult to handle; secret matters were easier to accomplish.

By pretending to be bad at the Clone Technique, Naruto had been able to openly come into contact with the Shadow Clone Technique while diligently practicing the Clone Technique.

Although Ninja Academy teachers only taught basic ninjutsu that required little chakra and no chakra nature transformation, such as the Three-Body Technique required of Ninja Academy students.

The school did not stop students from expanding their own strength. After all, some Ninja Academy students came from Konoha's ninja clans, and with their families' support, they were always stronger than students from ordinary households.

To ensure the most basic fairness in educational resources, the Ninja Academy also opened its library to all students.

It allowed talented students to learn on their own.

But most of the time, ordinary students at the Ninja Academy only learned the Three-Body Technique.

Otherwise, the Ninja Academy graduation exam would not consist of only the Three-Body Technique.

The library contained ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, as well as release techniques that required mastery of chakra nature transformation—so students could understand the principles behind such techniques and quickly use the corresponding release techniques after mastering chakra nature transformation in the future.

There were also explanations of basic sealing formulas that ordinary people could access, like those used in ninja tool scrolls.

Naruto did not find this strange. There had even been a graduate from the previous Ninja Academy class who excelled at summoning ninja tools to attack—Tenten.

But while these techniques came in a dazzling variety, they were still low-level techniques without any unique traits.

That was understandable.

Advanced techniques were simply not something Ninja Academy students, who could not even be considered ninja yet, could master.

As for unique techniques—they were either secret techniques of ninja clans or self-created ninjutsu, and could only be learned through one's family or a master's teachings.

As for the Shadow Clone Technique Naruto needed...

The library had it too. It was even on the very next page after the Clone Technique.

Its widespread usefulness was obvious from that alone.

Unlike the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, a derivative of the Shadow Clone Technique that was listed as a forbidden technique and rated A in learning difficulty.

The Shadow Clone Technique was not some confidential ninjutsu.

Almost every ninja with sufficient chakra would take the initiative to learn it.

For ninja who placed tremendous importance on intelligence, Shadow Clones were a convenient technique that allowed the original body to remain somewhere safe while still gathering information.

It greatly increased a ninja's survival rate while collecting intelligence.

And Naruto's plan to defect from Konoha could finally begin its initial implementation after he learned the Shadow Clone Technique.

The Shadow Clone Technique was a B-Rank ninjutsu invented by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

The ordinary Clone Technique taught at the Ninja Academy created nothing more than visual illusions.

The Shadow Clones created by the Shadow Clone Technique possessed physical bodies, shared the original body's consciousness, could attack enemies, and had a certain degree of resistance to damage.

Once a Shadow Clone was dispelled, its memories and experiences returned to the original body.

The special properties of Shadow Clones allowed ninja to conduct intelligence work more effectively.

That was why the Shadow Clone Technique, though created by the Second Hokage, had spread widely throughout the ninja world.

That was also why Naruto could easily access the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique while studying the Clone Technique.

Not to mention that, in everyone else's eyes, Naruto could not even perform the Clone Technique.

What did it matter if he knew how to learn the more advanced Shadow Clone Technique?

During the two years he secretly learned Shadow Clones.

Naruto had used the fact that Shadow Clone training added to the original body's experience to continuously practice controlling the Nine-Tails' chakra in private.

With the help of the Eight Trigrams Seal, which inherently helped jinchuriki use the overflowing chakra of their tailed beasts.

After successfully controlling the Nine-Tails' chakra, Naruto began attempting to master natural energy, allowing himself to enter Sage Mode.

Even without Mount Myoboku's frog oil from the original story, or Fukasaku's experience with Sage Mode.

As long as he knew how to absorb natural energy—that was, to first sense natural energy—Naruto, after two years since transmigrating, had mastered Sage Mode not long ago.

However, although Naruto used Mount Myoboku's method of meditative sitting to cultivate Sage Mode, the results seemed somewhat different.

When he first began absorbing natural energy, Naruto cautiously absorbed only an extremely tiny amount.

Even so, Naruto experienced failures in absorbing natural energy.

Whenever a Shadow Clone returned to the original body, Naruto felt an unbearable pain.

He thought it was a sign that he was beginning to turn into a frog. After all, the method he was using to absorb natural energy was Mount Myoboku's frog-style training, explicitly described in the original work.

But Naruto did not mind. This was a level of failure he could accept—failing to absorb a small amount of natural energy would not make him severely frog-like, much less turn him into stone.

Yet after the pain of failed natural energy absorption passed...

Naruto discovered that no part of his body had turned into a frog, nor did he feel mentally inclined to eat bugs...

He simply could not gather chakra for several days, and during that time, he could not absorb natural energy either.

Blessings and misfortunes went hand in hand. Naruto's appearance as a "dead last" became even more convincing.

After several failed attempts at absorbing natural energy resulted only in a temporary inability to gather chakra, Naruto boldly began practicing Sage Mode.

But these were secrets known only to Naruto himself.

To prevent Danzo from discovering them through Root's surveillance, or the Third Hokage from noticing them with the Telescope Technique.

For the past two years, Naruto had only used Shadow Clones for training at school.

This was a pattern Naruto had figured out: neither Danzo nor the Third Hokage monitored him while he was at school.

Before officially using Shadow Clones to train, Naruto had gone through a long period of "skipping class."

He would genuinely skip class and wander around the village for a while, letting the Hokage's ANBU and Danzo's Root, who secretly watched him, know that his movements matched his words.

Then he would calculate the time and return to school early, using his original body to practice the basic release techniques he had seen in the library.

Normally, there was no need for a student to hide the fact that he was learning release techniques.

If the Third Hokage and Danzo discovered his strange behavior, they would certainly be even more wary of him because of his status as a jinchuriki.

Naruto had prepared several excuses for being caught secretly practicing release techniques, but he was not certain they would convince two old foxes like Danzo and the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage was merely indecisive, not stupid.

Danzo was even more likely to use Naruto's actions as an excuse to once again demand control over the Nine-Tails from the Third Hokage.

Naruto was taking a huge gamble with this. He definitely could not bear the cost of failure.

But fortunately, Naruto won the gamble.

Since he had won, there was no need to talk about those "possibilities of failure" that would never happen.

It was like a gambler winning a jackpot worth ten million, with the money already sitting right in front of him.

Would you still argue with him about the possibility that he might not have won?

No matter how much you argued, he really did have ten million in prize money.

Back to the point: Naruto first confirmed that Danzo would not monitor the Ninja Academy.

The Ninja Academy's educational nature made it a place wholly dedicated to the Hokage's spread of the Will of Fire.

Students from every clan in the village received their education at the school. To avoid being accused of interfering in the Hokage's affairs, Danzo would not place his own forces within the school.

As for the Third Hokage...

In the original story, the Third Hokage had used the Telescope Technique to let the Jōnin instructors learn about the graduating students waiting in the classroom in advance.

Naruto was somewhat wary of that.

But before long, Naruto also figured out the Third Hokage's logic for using the Telescope Technique on him.

As long as Naruto remained in the village, and no rumors related to Naruto reached the Third Hokage's ears.

The Third Hokage would almost never actively use the Telescope Technique to monitor Naruto.

The Third Hokage was not the conspiracy-obsessed old man described in the online comments Naruto had seen in his previous life.

His only flaw was that as he grew older, his way of handling both major and minor matters became increasingly indecisive.

This caused many tragedies that could have been prevented to be preempted by the decisive and ruthless Danzo.

Even so, Naruto only used Shadow Clones inside bathroom stalls at school, training while classes were in session.

As soon as the lunch break arrived, Naruto would dispel his Shadow Clones to prevent anyone from discovering that he was training with them.

Therefore, Naruto did not actually spend much time training with Shadow Clones in private each day.

Yet even with this sneaky training, his rate of growth was still astonishingly fast.

Whenever this happened, Naruto could not help but wonder why so many people joked that Naruto was a story about "bloodline-based ninja."

The benefits of Naruto's Uzumaki Clan bloodline and his status as Asura's reincarnation immediately became apparent.

All this accumulated training was preparation for Naruto to gain the strength to defect from Konoha before Danzo made another move against him at some unknown time.

But the most crucial thing for increasing his strength was... the Scroll of Seals.

Whether it was the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, which could further accelerate his training progress, or the Eight Trigrams Seal that sealed the Nine-Tails... such forbidden techniques were all contained in the Scroll of Seals.

If possible, Naruto wanted to take the entire Scroll of Seals, rather than being satisfied with merely learning the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

With Danzo watching him, defecting was the only way to survive.

But before officially defecting, Naruto wanted to maximize the benefits of his defection!

To achieve that goal, the first step was to make good use of Mizuki...

"Next, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Mizuki called out.

It was finally Naruto's turn to take the mock exam.

Naruto stepped out of the line and stood before Mizuki, forming hand seals.

"Oh—"

Watching Naruto's earnest hand-seal posture, Mizuki focused intently on the result of Naruto's exam.

"Clone Technique!"

Naruto shouted, and smoke appeared before dispersing.

Despite Naruto's imposing display, he only summoned one limp, half-dead-looking clone sprawled on the floor.

Faced with this scene, the other students in the classroom freely mocked Naruto's terrible Clone Technique.

Mizuki looked at Naruto helplessly as well. "Naruto, if this is all you can do, you won't be able to graduate tomorrow."

Naruto's face flushed red, and for a moment, he could not even find words to argue back.

Seeing Naruto like this, Mizuki narrowed his eyes and continued.

"Don't you always say you want to become Hokage? But how can someone who cannot even graduate from the Ninja Academy, someone who is not even a ninja, become Hokage?"

Although he was stating facts, a closer listen revealed the hidden mockery in Mizuki's tone.

It truly did not sound like something a teacher should say.

Naruto's pretense of being unskilled in ninjutsu had made Mizuki take the bait...

It was time to reel him in.

"As for the Clone Technique... I! I can learn it the moment I decide to!"

Naruto shouted at Mizuki.

But the louder he was, the more it sounded to others like empty boasting from someone without ability.

The laughter that Mizuki had originally stopped rose again because of Naruto's ridiculous words.

Naruto turned and pointed at the students laughing at him. "One day, I'll become the greatest Hokage in the village!"

The moment he finished speaking, Naruto rushed out of the classroom, unwilling to remain there for even another second.