Swish! Swish! Swish!
From time to time, the figures of these Ninja Academy freshmen flashed across the streets of Konoha.
These children, who were approximately five or six years old, were selected after passing the preliminary examination of the Academy. Their physical fitness was stronger than that of their peers.
The so-called chakra is a combination of physical energy and spiritual energy. According to theory, all people actually have chakra hidden in their bodies. But not everyone can successfully condense chakra after systematic ninja training.
On the streets of Konoha, passers-by and shop owners were not surprised by this scene, because every new student of the Ninja Academy must go through this stage.
The person who was leading in first place at this time was naturally Sasuke.
"Sasuke, you were so cunning just now!" Naruto shouted, trying his best to overtake Sasuke. But the difference in speed between them was not much, and coupled with the "accident" that just happened to Naruto, the gap between them was temporarily widened.
Sasuke simply filtered out Naruto's shouting and didn't hear it at all.
"Has it started yet?"
In the Hokage's office, Minato looked at the current scene in Konoha through the window, and a faint smile appeared in his eyes.
At this time, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was also in the office, slowly walked forward and stood side by side with Minato, looking at the scene with a bit of nostalgia on his face.
"You didn't intend for everyone to complete the difficulty you set this time, did you?" Hiruzen glanced at Minato beside him. Although Konoha was called a village, its actual size was no less than most cities in the Land of Fire. Running around it ten times within a certain period of time was impossible for these newbies who had not yet received proper ninja training.
"Yeah." Minato nodded.
"According to common sense, only those few people can accomplish this," Minato said, referring to those children from the ninja families in Konoha, such as Hinata Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara, and others.
"You mean?" Hearing the hidden meaning in Minato's words, Hiruzen asked.
Minato turned his head, exchanged glances with the Third, smiled faintly, and said, "Lord Third, what I mean is that I am expecting that, besides those students, some of the other freshmen will be able to complete this training."
"It seems that your purpose is not just as simple as training their physical fitness?"
Upon hearing this, Hiruzen smiled slightly. Even he, the former Hokage, didn't know what his successor was thinking.
Minato turned around and looked back at Konoha, saying, "The Ninja Academy system left by the previous Hokage really gave civilians the opportunity to become ninjas. It was a great innovation. But I think this mechanism still needs to be improved."
Ever since the Second Hokage established the mechanism of the Ninja Academy, this model of training ninjas had been used for decades. This system had indeed cultivated many outstanding ninjas for the village, but if you thought about it carefully, the best among them were either geniuses like Minato who had superb talents, or those who received guidance from famous teachers and gradually became powerful people who were renowned in the ninja world.
However, there were still some buried talents among them. Might Dai had been a Genin for decades and possessed unique skills. His strength was definitely not inferior to that of the Legendary Sannin. Although promotion to Chunin and Jonin was not entirely based on strength, with Might Dai's abilities, it was indeed a waste of resources for him to remain a Genin.
"The systematic teaching model can indeed train almost all students to become ninjas, but I think that on this basis, we can try to discover their talents in certain areas," Minato continued. "Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu – the latter two types of powerful ninjas are very scarce, whether in Konoha or other ninja villages. The root cause is that there is no perfect training mechanism."
Minato explained that when he was coaching Itachi before, he had the idea of training him to be an illusionist. However, it was because the two families were friends that Minato was able to discover Itachi's talent in controlling chakra. But there were so many students in the Academy, and how many teachers had the vision of Minato?
Hiruzen's eyes flashed, and he suddenly realized: "So the reason why you arranged this intensity of training is to select youngsters with potential in taijutsu?"
Minato smiled and nodded.
"You are truly remarkable!" Hiruzen looked at the blond man in front of him and couldn't help but smile with relief. It wasn't because Minato was once his student's student, but because Konoha was able to have such a Hokage.
As time passed, the gap between these freshmen gradually emerged.
Naruto and Sasuke were still rushing in the front, neither of them giving in to the other. However, even though they had already undergone such training in advance, their physical strength was still being consumed, and their heavy breathing and sweat on their faces became obvious.
Relatively speaking, Hinata, Shikamaru and others were also quite fast, but their positions had not changed much. They all completed the training in their most stable state.
Then, the level differences among the remaining students gradually emerged, and they were divided into many echelons.
"Hoohoo," the students breathed extremely rapidly and heavily.
It was almost noon.
At the end of the freshman group, two students were running slowly, their clothes already soaked with sweat.
At this moment, dense footsteps came from behind them, accompanied by gentle breathing sounds.
Swish! Swish!
Sasuke and Naruto overtook them from both sides one after another. Looking at the two figures gradually pulling away from them, the two almost exhausted students smiled bitterly. These two had already surpassed them by two full laps.
As their tense consciousness relaxed, their bodies began to go limp, and then they both collapsed to the ground. Their physical strength had reached its limit, and if they continued to hold on, they would faint.
"Minato?"
Just as Naruto and Sasuke were running past a barbecue restaurant in Konoha, an old man with gray hair blinked as he looked at the passing figure of Naruto.
He immediately followed the direction and saw the boy's back as he turned into the next intersection. The golden hair that looked extremely dazzling in the sunlight was the reason for his mistaken identity.
Then he chuckled. The boy who used to give people a humble and sunny feeling was now the Fourth Hokage of Konoha, and his son looked just like him.
"This guy," Sasuke, who was running at full speed, glanced sideways with a look of surprise on his face. Naruto, who had been lagging behind him just now, had gradually caught up and was about to overtake him.
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