"You spent all your money on this kunai—what about yourself?" Uchiha Yuan asked.
"It's fine. The clan won't let me go hungry. I'm a genius, after all!"
Yuan smiled at his words. He accepted the kunai from Shisui, then pulled out his mother's heirloom—a chakra-conductive short sword—from his storage ring.
"Shisui, by the time you graduate, I'll probably still be at the front lines. Consider this short sword your early graduation gift from me."With that, Yuan tossed the blade to Shisui.
Shisui instinctively caught it. Before he could say anything, Yuan had already disappeared from sight.
Shisui slowly drew the blade and found that it, too, was made of chakra-conductive metal. He carefully put it away and muttered, "Senpai, you have to come back alive…"
Yuan arrived at the Academy. Most of his classmates were already there, looking thrilled—none of them seemed nervous at all.
But really, students from Classes 1 and 2 didn't need to worry about graduation exams. The written test wasn't important, and the Three Basic Techniques posed no challenge to them.
At 9 a.m., the graduation exam officially began. First up was the written test. After distributing the papers, Yuan glanced through it: most questions were related to war, with the rest focused on the Will of Fire and similar topics.
Yuan immediately locked eyes on Hyuga Asana and, copying Uchiha Sasuke's move from the original story, activated his Sharingan and filled out his test sheet with ease.
After the written part, they proceeded to the practical exam: testing the Three Basic Techniques.
The teacher called each student up by name to demonstrate the required technique.
Yuan was assigned the Transformation Jutsu. The teacher asked him to transform into another classmate's appearance. Yuan performed the hand seals and executed the transformation flawlessly, passing with flying colors.
This year's graduation pass rate was 100%. Not a single student from the fourth year was held back.
Then again, it made sense. In wartime, even cannon fodder is welcomed—nobody's going to fail.
After that, the teacher distributed Konoha forehead protectors. From that moment on, they officially became genin of the Hidden Leaf Village.
Wartime made everything simpler. Forget the flashy antics Naruto pulled in the original timeline—none of that would fly now.
The teacher read the team assignments aloud. As expected, Uchiha Yuan, Hyuga Asana, and Yamanaka Kagetsu were placed together in Team One.
"At 2:00 p.m., your jōnin instructor will come to find you. I hope all of you survive on the battlefield. That's it for now—dismissed!"
With that, the teacher turned and left.
"Two more hours. Yuan, Asana, should we go get some lunch?" Yamanaka Kagetsu asked.
"Sure! We can also talk about how to deal with our instructor," Yuan replied.
"Deal with the instructor?"
"Yeah. Most likely, the instructor will give us a test to gauge our capabilities. While it won't affect our status as ninja, making a good impression could help our future development."
"But we don't even know who the instructor is."
"That's not important. What matters is how we coordinate as a team," Hyuga Asana said.
"Alright, alright! Let's stop chatting here. We'll eat and talk on the way," Yuan said as he got up and left.
Asana and Kagetsu followed close behind.
At 1:30 p.m., the three returned to the school.
By 2:00 p.m., all the students were back.
Soon after, the jōnin instructors arrived one by one and began taking their respective squads away.
Yuan didn't recognize any of the instructors, but from Asana and Kagetsu, he learned that half of them were chūnin, and the rest were special jōnin. Not a single full-fledged jōnin had shown up.
Even for Class 2, there were no real jōnin assigned—proof that Konoha's manpower was stretched thin.
"Yamanaka Kagetsu, Hyuga Asana, Uchiha Yuan—come with me."
A sudden voice at the door interrupted Yuan's thoughts.
He looked up and saw a man wearing dark sunglasses, sporting a mustache, and carrying a huge jar on his back.
Without waiting for them to respond, the man turned and walked out of the classroom.
The three hurried to follow him.
Along the way, the man didn't say a word. He silently led them to a training ground near the school.
Once there, he finally stopped and said, "Let me introduce myself. I am Aburame Shibi, a jōnin of the Aburame clan."
Upon hearing the name "Shibi Aburame", the first thing that came to Yuan's mind was the movie The Lost Tower, where a younger Shibi had gone on a mission to Rōran with Minato Namikaze and Chōza Akimichi.
There, they met Naruto, who had traveled back in time, and together defeated Anrokuzan—the one who disrupted the flow of Ryūmyaku energy.
Besides that, Yuan only recalled Shibi being Shino's father—someone who was good at bug techniques, but otherwise left little impression.
Which made sense—Shibi didn't appear much in the main story. Even the official databooks mostly emphasized his prowess in insect control.
In that regard, no one in the ninja world surpassed him. As Shino's father, he had gathered and cultivated many rare insects.
Shibi could manipulate vast swarms of bugs for attack, defense, or binding his enemies.
In battle, he could even release them all at once to instantly consume an enemy's life.
After introducing himself, Shibi didn't say anything else. He simply turned to look at Kagetsu.
Not knowing what Shibi wanted, Kagetsu froze. Yuan sighed and began his own self-introduction: "My name is Uchiha Yuan. My chakra affinities are—"
"Next," Shibi interrupted.
Kagetsu quickly gave his info, followed by Asana.
Once all three had introduced themselves, Shibi finally spoke:
"The Hokage assigned me to be your instructor. To be honest, I didn't want this job—I prefer to work alone.
"But the front-line recon squads have taken massive losses, especially near the Land of Bears. There are barely any recon teams left who can still operate.
"In ninja warfare, intel is critical. Without recon teams, our grasp on battlefield conditions suffers greatly.
"New genin—even with dōjutsu like the Byakugan and Sharingan—can't fully leverage their abilities in recon yet. That's why you'll receive specialized training, to become an effective recon unit as quickly as possible.
"Our Aburame clan excels at reconnaissance. That's why I've been assigned as your instructor."
(To Be Continued...)