Applying for Graduation

Over the past half year, Hoshi and the other three had all made considerable progress.

The most noticeable improvements were in their Three Basic Jutsu training and physical conditioning. After half a year of training and adjustment, all four had perfectly mastered the Three Basic Jutsu.

Their physical abilities had also reached Genin standards. Though they were still weaker than adults in terms of strength, their speed and agility far surpassed those of ordinary Genin.

Beyond that, each of them had developed a specialized skill in a particular direction based on their own strengths.

Influenced by Hoshi's Line of Moonlight, Sakumo had developed a half-finished sword technique called Severing Void.

Under Hoshi's guidance, its core principle was similar to Lightning Blade: using lightning-nature Chakra to stimulate cellular activity and increase speed, while relying on White Fang's exceptional Chakra conductivity to damage the opponent.

Sakumo had already gotten the hang of cellular activation. Although it still harmed his body, Hoshi believed that with his relentless efforts, the technique would only become more refined.

Jiraiya, meanwhile, had seen tremendous improvement in taijutsu. Hoshi described taijutsu techniques such as Lion Combo and Shadow of the Dancing Leaf to Jiraiya based on what he had seen in the Original Story.

After putting in a great deal of hard work, Jiraiya had successfully mastered those taijutsu techniques as well.

Jiraiya might look a little foolish in a one-on-one fight, but once he had teammates supporting him nearby, he could absolutely unleash considerable combat power.

Orochimaru had completely revealed his talent for developing ninjutsu. He had fully developed Shadow Hidden Wire Hand.

Through long-term practice and his exceptional calculating ability, he could now silently restrain an opponent without them noticing.

Furthermore, the C-rank ninjutsu Earth Release: Earth Wall that he had acquired earlier had, through some imaginative thinking, evolved into the B-rank Earth Release: Earth Rising Spear.

Though his Chakra reserves limited the number of times he could use it, using it even once at a critical moment could be enough to save his life.

With the other three performing so well, Hoshi naturally could not fall behind. Speaking of Hoshi, one had to mention the Sword Heart System.

That damn system determined that Hoshi had now surpassed Sakumo, so it reduced the experience he gained from fighting Sakumo. On top of that, Basic Swordsmanship experience was clearly much harder to obtain than Beginner-level experience. Despite training desperately over the past half year, Hoshi had only gained a little over forty experience points.

However, that did not mean Hoshi's swordsmanship had not improved. Just as mentioned in the previous chapter, Hoshi had developed a new combat style: a two-handed sword style combining a long blade and a short blade. This style had initially been created to deal with Sakumo. Since his swordsmanship was not yet refined enough to completely suppress Sakumo, and since he could not use the godlike skills Secret Technique: Assault and Line of Moonlight during sparring, Hoshi would easily end up in a miserable state against Sakumo's close-quarters fighting style that used both hands and feet.

Thus, during their usual sparring sessions, Hoshi simply gave up gripping his blade with both hands. Instead, he adopted a style where he held a Ninja Blade normally in his right hand and a Dagger in a reverse grip in his left.

After discovering that this method was better suited for everyday battles without skills, as well as direct offense and defense against ninjas, Hoshi kept it.

This method had another benefit: it could shorten the windup for Line of Moonlight and allow for a follow-up attack.

One necessary condition for using Line of Moonlight was holding the blade in a reverse grip. Therefore, Hoshi had previously needed to rotate his blade before activating Line of Moonlight.

Now that he had a Dagger in his left hand with a reverse grip, that windup was eliminated. In addition, both blades could benefit from the silver glow enhancement during Line of Moonlight's dash.

Therefore, when wielding two blades at once, Hoshi could follow up the horizontal sweep of Line of Moonlight with a downward slash. That was another advantage of using this method.

Even the system acknowledged this approach, directly adding an extended skill under Basic Swordsmanship: Silver Moon Cross Slash.

It also gave Hoshi ten experience points as a reward for developing an extended skill, making his eyes light up as though he had discovered a new way to get rich.

However, it was worth noting that this Two-Sword Style was destined to be used only in frontal combat and when he was not using skills.

After all, Hoshi would definitely draw more Iaido-type skills like Secret Technique: Assault in the future. If he used only Two-Sword Style, those skills could not be used. Thus, this Two-Sword Style was destined to remain a supplementary discipline rather than the focus of Hoshi's swordsmanship training.

After the four finished sparring, they went to Teuchi Ramen as usual and ordered steaming bowls of ramen.

While eating, Jiraiya could no longer hold himself back and spoke up.

"Half a year has passed now, and our strength is already about the same as ordinary Genin. How about we apply to graduate tomorrow?"

This time, Sakumo was the first to voice his agreement. He had long since stopped wanting to remain at the Ninja Academy, where there was little left for him to learn.

Orochimaru nodded lightly in agreement as well. Seeing the other three turn their gazes toward him, Hoshi could not help but laugh. "What are you looking at me for? Of course, I can't wait to graduate either."

Early the next morning, when the four arrived at school, they tacitly chose not to enter the classroom and instead headed straight for the teachers' office.

What they did not expect was that, aside from Teacher Mitsui and the others, there was an additional blond figure in the teachers' office. Hearing the commotion, that person smugly turned around and made a face at Hoshi and the others.

The meaning was obvious: I'm the first person in the entire Ninja Academy to apply for early graduation!

That blond figure was naturally Tsunade. Hoshi, Sakumo, and Orochimaru did not care much, but Jiraiya felt like he had been tricked.

He had previously placed great importance on the title of "the first person to graduate early from the Ninja Academy." Who would have thought that someone would suddenly appear out of nowhere and snatch away his very cool achievement?

Teacher Mitsui felt as though his worldview had been shattered. What kind of joke was this? Tsunade coming to apply for graduation had already surprised him greatly.

And now there were four more. In a single day, the five students he valued most had all applied to graduate. For a moment, the teacher felt as though the sky had fallen.

"Hey, do you even understand what early graduation means? Do you know how much risk you'll be taking?

"This isn't some ninja game. One careless mistake could cost you your lives. Besides, this sort of thing can only be carried out with the Hokage's approval.

"If you don't have a handwritten letter from the Hokage, then no matter what you say today, I won't agree to let you do something so foolish."

But as soon as he finished speaking, Tsunade unhurriedly pulled out a letter from her clothes and handed it over. Teacher Mitsui subconsciously accepted it and opened it.

"After my observation, these five have displayed outstanding performance and possess the standard for early graduation. They are permitted to take the Graduation Exam early. —Hiruzen Sarutobi"

Mitsui: ( )Σ(дlll