Two years passed in the blink of an eye.
The children who had first entered the Ninja Academy had shed their childishness and reached graduation day, when their future paths would be decided.
The atmosphere in the Ninja Academy classroom was nothing like its usual relaxed mood.
There was tension, anticipation, and the melancholy of parting.
Iruka-sensei was giving his final explanations and words of encouragement.
Near the back of the middle row, Genya propped his chin on one hand while idly winding Ino's increasingly sleek, lustrous blond ponytail around the fingers of his other hand.
Beside him, Naruto fidgeted like a restless monkey, squirming in his chair and muttering under his breath.
"Genya, do you think I'll be put on your team? And Sasuke's?"
He had made enormous progress over the past two years. Especially after Genya had "inadvertently" guided him into memorizing and successfully learning the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, the advantages of his immense chakra reserves and countless clones had finally begun to show.
Although his grasp of theory was still terrible, he had passed both the practical combat and perseverance assessments, finally graduating fair and square.
Genya yawned and answered lazily.
"Who knows? Only those old men in the Hokage Building know what they're thinking."
He seemed utterly unconcerned about the team assignments.
On his other side, Sasuke snorted at this, folded his arms, and lifted his chin slightly, addressing Naruto with his usual haughty tone.
"Dead last, instead of worrying about that, you should pray you don't end up on the worst team. Or... maybe they'll put you on a team by yourself because you're too stupid?"
Despite his cutting words, a flicker deep in his eyes betrayed his concern about the assignments.
He had trained even harder over the past two years, and his