Graduation Survival Trial

Graduation Survival Trial

My name is Masayo, and I have been reborn into the anime world of Naruto.

Reincarnation through transmigration happens every year, and this year is especially busy. Such an event happened to me too, and I even turned into a toddler of around two years old.

In Konoha, which had just experienced the Nine-Tails disturbance, he was consequently deemed an orphan. His current name discarded the family name of Xia from his past life, and under the name Masayo, he lived in this world, relying on Konoha's survivor pension to keep him in this world.

He had no system, nor any bloodline limits like the Sharingan. The time period he lived in was two years earlier than the protagonists Naruto, Sasuke, and the others.

He initially thought he might sink down with reluctance, or find some ordinary-looking wife to marry and live out his life peacefully like a passing traveler, but he discovered that he did not seem to be as bad off as he had imagined.

In the 61st year of Konoha, after passing the graduation exam—which was extremely simple for him—he began the subsequent survival trial. If he failed the survival trial assessment, he would be sent back to repeat the year.

This survival trial was not located in Training Ground 44 at the moment. Besides Masayo, there were two other members with him, classmates who basically never spoke. One was a dropout named Inoue Mura, and the other was a girl who kept glancing at him with heavily made-up, alluring attire named Matsumoto Kei.

"Hey, Masayo, you look so nervous! What's the matter, could our top-ranked student in the grade be such a coward?"

Inoue Mura's voice carried a deep, mocking tone. He cast a sideways glance at Matsumoto Kei and shouted deliberately, trying to attract Matsumoto Kei's attention.

Masayo was leaning against a wooden stake at the moment, paying no attention to Inoue Mura's words. Nervous? Of course he was nervous! He never expected that his Jonin instructor would actually be him!

After the team assignments, the other students were all called away by their respective Jonin instructors, leaving just the three of them. It was almost noon, and they had waited so long that even he was getting impatient before their Jonin instructor finally arrived.

Kakashi Hatake, Kakashi of the Sharingan, a genius ninja who became a Jonin at the age of 12, the Copy Ninja who had copied a thousand jutsus, an elite Jonin of Konoha known as Konoha's primary technician, and at the same time, the Jonin instructor who was originally supposed to become the protagonist of Team 7 two years later.

To be honest, when Masayo heard that the team he was assigned to was called Team 7, he had already begun to suspect whether his Jonin instructor would be Kakashi Hatake.

Faced with Inoue Mura's remarks, Masayo replied very directly, "I am indeed afraid, because I've inquired about our Jonin instructor Kakashi's reputation. He is an elite Jonin of Konoha and the Copy Ninja who has copied a thousand jutsus. He is also extremely strict, and up until now, no one has ever graduated from his hands."

"No way, Masayo, are you serious?"

Matsumoto Kei covered her mouth with a look of disbelief.

Masayo nodded. He was the top-ranked student in the grade, while Inoue Mura was a dropout who had barely passed the exam at the bottom of the grade. As for the girl named Matsumoto Kei, needless to say, although her grades looked better than Inoue Mura's, her actual strength was even inferior to Inoue Mura's.

"Therefore, we need teamwork between us; otherwise, there's simply no way to pass the survival trial and become a ninja."

Although Masayo's appearance was not as handsome as Sasuke, it was not bad at all—he was somewhat handsome and gave people a clean, neat first impression. Coupled with the fact that Masayo maintained very good superficial relationships with other classmates and teachers, he enjoyed the same treatment that Sasuke Uchiha would receive in the future.

"Humph!"

Inoue Mura merely let out a cold snort. Seeing that Matsumoto Kei was drawn to Masayo once again, he felt extremely displeased. He turned around and presented Masayo with his back, clearly showing that he had no desire whatsoever for the teamwork Masayo mentioned.

"I..."

Masayo had a stomach full of words he wanted to vent, but left unsaid. Just as there were people who liked him, there would naturally be those who disliked him. After all, he was not money; even if he put on a good facade, there would still be people who detested him, such as the Inoue Mura right in front of him.

If you were someone with genuine strength, acting arrogant would be one thing, but you have no real skills so what the hell are you putting on airs for? If you like Matsumoto Kei, then go like her and confess to her directly—what on earth does it have to do with him? He had no interest in such superficial women either, so what was the point of showing off? If he hadn't known the content of the assessment, how could he possibly engage in teamwork with this guy? He had no idea how the team assignments were even sorted out.

Am I really going to get sent back to repeat the year?!

Masayo thought pessimistically in his heart. He couldn't carry this weight—it was completely impossible to carry. If things followed the plot development of Naruto in his memory, these two people grouped with him would probably end up just like other unknown characters, becoming another statistic in Kakashi's elimination record.

"My, it looks like you guys aren't getting along very well!"

Suddenly, a lazy voice came from behind, causing Masayo's gaze to freeze and his heart to skip a beat. He raised his head to see that Kakashi Hatake was squatting atop a wooden stake at that moment, wearing a green Jonin flak jacket and silver hair, with his face mask on and a Konoha-emblazoned headband covering his left eye.

Masayo asked with an expression of astonishment, "Kakashi-sensei! Why are you—no, when did you get here?"

Whoosh!

Kakashi used the Body Flicker Technique to vanish from the wooden stake, landing right in front of the three of them. His dead-fish-eye gaze was filled with laziness. He thought for a moment and said, "Hmm, when did I arrive? Probably right around when you were being rejected by Inoue Mura. But Masayo, I didn't expect that you would actually investigate me."

Masayo stood up and gently patted the dust off his body. He wore a blue outfit, but unlike others, he did not wear ninja shoes. For one thing, he wasn't used to having his toes exposed, and for another, due to his combat style, he wore flat-bottomed shoes with a black and red pattern, wearing the standard Konoha headband tied across his forehead.

"Isn't intelligence gathering very important for a ninja? Kakashi-sensei, besides that, I also know that Kakashi-sensei loves to be late. I actually thought that for something like a survival exam, Kakashi-sensei, you wouldn't show up until noon?"

Even though Masayo had exposed him, Kakashi merely scratched the back of his head, his exposed eye narrowing into a smile as he said, "I didn't expect you to have investigated so thoroughly. What else did you find out then?"

Kakashi spoke with an encouraging tone, clearly saying it on purpose. He had a favorable impression of Masayo; just the fact that he gathered intelligence alone made this the first time he had seen a graduating student do such a thing. However, his impression of the other two was merely average.

Masayo replied, "Aside from that, there is also the fact that not a single graduating student has ever truly passed and graduated from Kakashi-sensei's hands."

As soon as Masayo finished speaking, he looked at his two teammates, Inoue Mura and Matsumoto Kei, and noticed that their faces were also pale with dread, clearly frightened. Evidently, having Kakashi, the person involved, present was much better than his own weak and pale explanations.

Just when Masayo thought Inoue Mura had genuinely decided to join forces with him for teamwork, the scene that unfolded next completely shattered both Masayo's and Kakashi's understanding of reality.

"Heh heh... Kakashi-sensei, don't try to scare us. I've been frightened since I was a kid! Let's get started already; I will definitely graduate from you, Kakashi-sensei, and become a ninja."

The atmosphere froze instantly, time seeming to stand still as Masayo experienced a complete mental breakdown internally.

Idiot! People always say Naruto looks foolish and silly, but this guy is the true fool! Do people in the ninja world have IQs below average? Didn't you understand what I meant earlier when I said we needed to cooperate as a team?

Masayo was utterly numb. Matsumoto Kei intended to cooperate with him as a team, but what good would that do? Would she just hold him back? No, wait, it seemed the function of these two was precisely to drag him down.

Ah, whatever! At worst I'll go back and repeat the year. Even if the subsidy is gone, I'll work part-time while studying—I refuse to believe this!

Masayo was ready to flip the table right then and there. He had given up on himself; encountering teammates like these had driven him mad. He had already explicitly stated the graduation requirements, and he cried out in desperate internal defiance.

Next, he planned to fight Kakashi with all his might. As for these two, he had already given up on them—or rather, he even intended to give up on graduation itself. He was truly having the worst possible luck.