The Ninja Academy examination room was so oppressive, it felt like a memorial service was being held.
Iruka sat behind the podium, his brow furrowed tightly enough to crush flies. Mizuki, beside him, wore his eternally false smile, his gloomy eyes unpleasant to look at.
"Next, Hinata Hyuga."
The Byakugan girl walked up with her head lowered, every movement stiff and proper. Though she was so shy she looked ready to combust, she at least earned a steady passing grade.
"Next, Uchiha Sasuke!"
The moment that name was called, the previously lifeless examination room instantly erupted.
"Sasuke! Look over here!"
"Ah—! Sasuke looked at me just now, I can't take it, I'm going to have his babies!"
Ino and Sakura, the two ringleaders, shouted the hardest. Ino especially had her long legs pressed tightly together, both fists tucked beneath her chin. Her adolescent hormones practically overflowed from her fitted ninja uniform, her chest heaving violently with every scream.
Ye Tian sat in the corner, his gaze sweeping over Ino's waist and hips, whose curves had been outlined to a startling degree.
"Mm, the assets are indeed impressive," he assessed inwardly, then silently added, "Her voice is a little too loud, though. Hard on the ears."
Onstage, Uchiha Sasuke still wore that expression of "the whole world owes me a hundred million." He casually grabbed five shuriken and, without even looking, flicked them out with several swishes.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Five bullseyes.
"Perfect score. Outstanding graduation." Iruka finally showed a hint of a smile.
Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and returned to his seat amid the girls' screams. To Ye Tian, his show-off aura was practically spilling off the screen.
"Next... Ye Tian."
Iruka's voice suddenly dropped several octaves, carrying the concern of someone worried this child might not even make it to the podium.
The entire class fell into dead silence.
Ye Tian slowly stood up. He had rehearsed this move for five years, every detail perfected. First, his body swayed, and he gripped the edge of the desk tightly, his knuckles looking pale and weak from "overexertion."
"Cough... cough, cough, cough!"
He coughed until his waist bent like a shrimp, while secretly using Spiritual Power to force out a breath of turbid air, instantly turning his complexion from deathly pale to translucent.
He crossed those dozen or so meters as if he were traversing the Himalayas.
"Is he really okay?"
"Someone go help him. I'm seriously afraid he'll breathe his last on the spot. Would they have to put that forehead protector straight into his coffin?"
Mizuki shifted his chair backward, his eyes full of disgust, as though afraid Ye Tian's "consumption" might infect him.
At last, Ye Tian shuffled to the table.
He shakily picked up a shuriken, his hand trembling as though vibration mode had been turned on.
"Ye Tian, if you're not feeling well..." Before Iruka could finish, Ye Tian weakly waved his hand.
"Teacher... I, I want to try."
He turned toward the target, and in that instant, his gaze became unfathomably deep.
Muscular strength? Didn't exist.
A Chakra burst? That was just asking to get beaten.
Ye Tian's Divine Sense stirred slightly, and a nearly imperceptible wisp of Fire Spiritual Energy seeped from his fingertips—it was something he had just mooched off Naruto.
"Off you go."
His wrist gave a limp flick.
The shuriken wobbled as it flew out, looking like a dragonfly with broken wings. It traced a crooked S through the air, seemingly about to skim the floor and fly into the trash can.
Sakura had already covered her eyes below the stage.
But just as the shuriken came within ten centimeters of the ground, that wisp of Spiritual Energy suddenly yanked!
The shuriken, which had been about to crash, seemed to be lifted by an invisible hand. It eerily curved through a perfect arc and performed a tactical upward climb in midair.
Thunk!
Dead center.
"What the hell?"
"Th-this was the wind, right?"
Before the students could react, Ye Tian repeated the same trick. Every shuriken flew out looking half-dead, only to act as if it had a guidance system at the final moment and plunge precisely into the target's center.
All five hit!
"Whew... cough, cough!" Ye Tian immediately braced himself against the table and panted heavily, though he sneered inwardly. Mortals, do you understand what Divine Sense guidance is? I'm not throwing shuriken. I'm launching cruise missiles.
Mizuki's smile froze. He had not sensed any Chakra and could only attribute it to this sickly weakling possessing some mystical knack for throwing.
"Shuriken... perfect score." Iruka's face was filled with shock, followed by pity. "For the next ninjutsu test, pick one."
"Then... the Clone Technique."
Ye Tian took a deep breath. Using Spiritual Power to imitate Chakra was delicate work. If he made it too similar, people would grow suspicious. If it did not resemble Chakra enough, it would be useless.
Since he was putting on an act, he might as well make it a vicious one.
He deliberately slowed his hand seals by half a beat, mixing a faintly chilly aura unique to a Cultivator into his Spiritual Power output.
Clone Technique!
Poof!
The white smoke dispersed, and the temperature of the entire classroom seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.
"Ah—!!!"
Sakura, in the front row, let out a scream and jumped directly onto the desk beside her, both hands clamped tightly over her mouth.
A clone had appeared beside Ye Tian.
Its face was bluish-white, its lifeless eyes rolled upward, and its tongue hung from the corner of its mouth. Most outrageous of all, it only had an upper body.
The thing floated in midair, looking exactly like a vicious ghost that had just crawled out of a morgue.
"What the hell is that?!"
"A corpse is coming back to life!"
Several timid girls even crawled straight under their desks.
Ye Tian feigned terror and swayed, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth at just the right moment—he had bitten his tongue earlier.
"Sorry... my Chakra... really can't hold out... I could only make half..."
Iruka was so frightened that he jumped down from the podium and caught the unsteadily swaying Ye Tian. Even his voice trembled. "Stop talking! Stop talking! I understand! I understand everything!"
A child this sickly was still desperately trying to produce half his body just to take the exam. What kind of will was that? What kind of Will of Fire was that!
"Ye Tian, you passed! Here, this is your forehead protector. Hurry home and rest!"
Iruka hastily stuffed the forehead protector into Ye Tian's hand, afraid that he might "split" out the other half the next second.
Ye Tian held the forehead protector, his eyes filled with "grateful tears." "Thank you... Teacher."
He slowly made his way back. As he passed Ino, she looked at his pale face, which carried a strange sort of eerie beauty. The fear she had felt moments ago somehow transformed into an inexplicable thrill.
"Um... Ye Tian, in the future... be careful," Ino said softly, her gaze involuntarily sweeping over his somewhat slender yet straight back.
He was a little frail, but this ghostly vibe with a hint of taboo somehow felt pretty exciting?
Ye Tian returned to his seat and looked at the cold metal forehead protector in his hand, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.
With the forehead protector in hand, his ninja credentials were complete. Next came the time to legally "mooch energy."
He glanced at Naruto, who was about to go onstage.
"Come on, my little power bank. The happiness of my second half of life depends entirely on you."