Successfully graduating from the Ninja Academy

"Inoichi, what's gotten into you today? You seem a little out of sorts.

Don't tell me you've finally come around and decided to give Ino a little brother or sister?"

"Having a second child is a good thing, but you're not getting any younger, Inoichi. You'd better take it easy."

The next day, while Inoichi Yamanaka was out on a mission, his teammates noticed something off about him and couldn't resist teasing him.

Inoichi Yamanaka could only give a wry smile at their teasing.

He really hadn't slept well last night, but it wasn't because he and Rino had been busy making a baby. Rino had punished him by making him kneel on the floor all night.

The reason was simple: Rino thought Inoichi Yamanaka had gone too far the previous evening.

He had taken a sparring match against two children that seriously. What if he had actually hurt them?

Faced with Rino's accusations, Inoichi Yamanaka had no way to explain his misery.

He hadn't intended for things to turn out that way, after all. He simply hadn't expected Yang Cheng to be so strong already.

At first, he had only planned to teach Yang Cheng and Ino a little using the Three Body Technique and some taijutsu. But when he discovered that Yang Cheng's taijutsu was unusually strong, he started using ninjutsu too.

Who could have imagined that, by the end, he would even bring out the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques...

Honestly, although he had won last night's match, Inoichi Yamanaka felt he had lost every last shred of dignity.

After all, he was a Konoha jonin with extensive combat experience, yet he had nearly lost to a twelve-year-old child. That was hardly something to be proud of.

But unlike the despondent Inoichi Yamanaka, Rino Yamanaka was delighted.

She even kept declaring that their family had produced a super genius!

That was right. In Rino Yamanaka's eyes, Yang Cheng was already family. Taking the Yamanaka name was only a matter of time.

Regardless of whether Yang Cheng and Ino ultimately got together, she and her husband had raised him since childhood. To outsiders, Yang Cheng was her child.

Early the next morning, Ino and Sakura went to school together again. That was how their fair-weather friendship worked: yesterday, they had fought like mortal enemies; today, they were inseparable again.

Ino was especially excited that day, constantly telling her best friend how amazing she and Yang Cheng had been the previous night.

She claimed that the two of them had teamed up and nearly forced her jonin father into a tough fight.

Naturally, she made no mention of the fact that all she had done during the fight was throw a few shuriken.

So what if she had only thrown a few shuriken? That still counted as taking part in the fight, okay?

Kakuzu: The girl is right. Her situation was exactly like my battle against the First Hokage back in the day.

Sakura clearly didn't believe Ino's boasting, but since they had only just made up, she could only maintain an awkward yet polite smile.

Ino's father was a Konoha jonin, while Yang Cheng and Ino were just like Sakura-genin who hadn't even graduated yet.

Leaving Yang Cheng aside, Sakura knew her best friend Ino's abilities quite well.

If Ino could force her father into a tough fight, there were only two possible explanations.

Either Ino was bragging, or her father had gone far beyond merely going easy on them.

Several days flew by, and soon this year's graduation season arrived at the Ninja Academy.

Looking at the students before him, Iruka couldn't help feeling sentimental.

Several years had passed, and he had watched these children grow up.

This time, the Ninja Academy's graduation exam tested the Clone Technique, one of the basic Three Body Technique skills.

"Sasuke Uchiha. Hmm, very good. You pass!"

"Sakura Haruno. Good. You pass too."

As Iruka continued calling their names, the boys and girls stepped forward one after another, successfully performed the Clone Technique, and passed the exam.

For Yang Cheng, who had already learned the Shadow Clone technique, passing a mere Clone Technique test was naturally no trouble at all.

Until...

"Naruto Uzumaki. Fail!"

Since this was Konoha's elite class, made up almost entirely of descendants of its ninja clans, most of those present naturally passed the graduation exam.

Then the confident little blond monkey, Naruto Uzumaki, stepped forward, shouted "Clone Technique!" at the top of his lungs, and produced a grayish-white, utterly useless clone.

The smile Iruka had maintained all this time finally faltered when he saw Naruto's clone.

"Iruka-sensei, why don't we give this child a chance?

After all, whatever else you might say, he did successfully create a clone, didn't he?"

Besides Iruka, the other teacher overseeing the Ninja Academy's graduation exam was Mizuki, known as the "budget Tiger Mask."

Yang Cheng didn't have much of an impression of Mizuki. He was just a minor character who served a purpose in the story, after all.

One of the few things Yang Cheng remembered about him was probably that he had a very pretty fiancée.

"No, Mizuki-sensei. As examiners, we have to be fair and impartial. That's also part of our responsibility to these children.

Look at the clone Naruto created. Would it be any use on a battlefield?"

Iruka pointed at Naruto's clone lying on the ground, which looked as though it suffered from severe kidney deficiency, and spoke with a grim expression.

Most of the students at the Ninja Academy received their ninja forehead protectors from Iruka and left amid praise from their parents.

Seeing Naruto sitting alone on a swing, looking dejected, Yang Cheng was about to go over and comfort him when he noticed that the budget Tiger Mask had approached Naruto first.

Yang Cheng had no intention of interfering with Mizuki's scheme to use Naruto to steal the Hokage Scroll.

After all, without this little incident, how would Naruto learn one of his signature ninjutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique?

And honestly, Naruto being able to steal the Hokage Scroll from the Hokage Building was pretty absurd in itself.

Yang Cheng certainly didn't believe that old geezer, the Third Hokage, knew nothing about it.

What kind of place was the Hokage Building? Calling it the nerve center of all Konoha was no exaggeration.

Would the Hokage's workplace normally have no guards at all?

And what was the Hokage Scroll? It contained all sorts of forbidden and secret techniques left behind by successive Hokage. Anyone outside the Hokage's inner circle wouldn't even get a chance to glance at it. How could a brat who wasn't even a genin steal it?

There were too many eyes on Naruto, so Yang Cheng didn't want to get involved for now. In any case, Naruto's life wouldn't be in danger during this incident.

The only thing Yang Cheng found a little regrettable was-

The techniques recorded in the Hokage Scroll.

Leaving the other techniques aside, he was very interested in the Flying Thunder God, Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, and Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags developed by the Second Hokage.

Unfortunately, that old geezer, the Third Hokage, might well be watching through his crystal ball.

Naruto could read the Hokage Scroll without any trouble, but if Yang Cheng read it too, he would most likely be hauled off by the Anbu for a little chat.