A sudden gust of wind sent murmurs rippling through the crowd.
By the time they reached the Ninja Academy, Mizuki and Iruka were already waiting there.
Two groups of students also waited for Shiki.
"Shiki! You're late again!" Iruka snapped angrily.
Mizuki, on the other hand, gave a false smile and said, "Iruka, aren't you being too hard on Shiki? In my opinion, Shiki is truly a genius."
Shiki ignored Mizuki's feigned kindness. After all, in the story of Hokage, Mizuki was the one who first told Naruto that he was the host of the Nine-Tails.
He kept fueling Naruto's hatred toward the village.
Someone like him could never earn Shiki's favor. In fact, Shiki became even more wary of Mizuki's praise.
As the saying goes: If someone suddenly acts nice for no reason, they're probably hiding something. Naturally, Shiki didn't believe this man would genuinely compliment him from the bottom of his heart.
Besides, even Shiki's classmates were unaware of his current strength. No one around him even recognized Shiki's strength — calling him a genius was simply unfounded.
So Shiki ignored Mizuki, wiped the sweat from his forehead, walked to Iruka to apologize, then joined his group of classmates.
Iruka didn't say anything else but turned to Mizuki and said, "Mizuki-sensei, let's start now."
Mizuki felt somewhat humiliated since Shiki had completely ignored his flattery. He thought to himself, just wait until it's your turn, brat!
Still, he gave an unusually 'kind' smile and said, "Since everyone's here, let's begin."
Fights among children this age were quite boring. Besides, they held specially made shuriken, making the battle styles very monotonous.
None of them used any ninjutsu, even though most had already mastered the Clone Jutsu and Substitution Jutsu at a basic level.
"Next match: Naruto Uzumaki versus Yamamoto Niji!"
As expected, Naruto excitedly rushed onto the battlefield, shouting that he'd knock his opponent down.
Across the field stood Yamamoto Niji, fully equipped and dressed sharply. His pouch was filled with shuriken, kunai, and various ninja tools.
Naruto was clearly at a disadvantage. As soon as the fight started, he recklessly launched intense attacks using the few taijutsu moves he knew.
Yet the boy called Yamamoto Niji remained surprisingly calm. Finally seizing an opportunity when Naruto hesitated, he ended the battle with a powerful punch.
Chapter 12: The Outcome is Decided
The result was clear!
Even if Naruto wanted to stand back up and continue fighting, Shiki understood the outcome was inevitable.
Iruka announced reluctantly, "The winner is… Yamamoto Niji!"
The afternoon sunlight gradually weakened, yet somehow made people feel even more irritable.
"Looks like Kakashi-sensei's squad is really weak!"
"Yeah, yeah! Our class under Mizuki-sensei is the real hope of Konoha!"
"Other than Sasuke, who in Iruka-sensei's class can rival us geniuses?"
The sharp taunts cut through the air, and even Shiki Uzumaki began to feel anger rising.
The students from Iruka's class clenched their fists in rage, while several openly argued back.
Shiki noticed that Iruka-sensei didn't look too pleased either. But the truth was clear—Iruka's class had suffered far more losses than victories across all these matches. If things kept going like this, student morale would surely take a serious hit, right?
After all, as Shiki glanced around now, he saw nothing but discouraged faces.
For such competitive kids, even one or two losses could really hurt their morale.
But when the fight became a total one-sided rout, that hit on an entirely different level.
"Grr! Can't we even beat them?!"
"It's my fault—I dragged everyone down."
"No, maybe our class is truly inferior to Mizuki-sensei's class."
"Although they're way too arrogant, they're basically right. We're all dead last except for Sasuke, aren't we?"
Of course not like that at all. Shiki knew well that Iruka focused more on teaching fundamentals, making his class seem weaker during this phase.
I've got no choice. Shiki realized he had to act—he needed at least one decisive win to reignite his classmates' confidence.
Yet something puzzled him—the calmer types like Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame not stepping forward wasn't surprising, but why hadn't Kiba Inuzuka, with such a fiery temper, rushed out challenging them already?
Looking behind, he found Kiba eagerly staring at Iruka, clearly hoping Iruka would send him out next.
Unfortunately, the match lineup in Iruka's hand had already been fixed. If your name hadn't come up yet, then it simply hadn't.
Shiki couldn't help but marvel—truly, the strongest character in Naruto might actually be Iruka.
Probably the only man capable of instilling enough fear in most of Konoha's Twelve Guardians to keep them from daring to argue back.
Compared to Kakashi teaching Naruto [One Thousand Years of Death] or Jiraiya passing down [Rasengan], Iruka had gifted Naruto an unbeatable ninjutsu—[Talk-no-jutsu]!
Through Iruka's endless heart-to-hearts, Naruto totally mastered this technique. With this unbeatable [Talk-no-jutsu] alone, he defeated formidable foes like Zabuza and Nagato.
Wasn't Iruka the ultimate hidden powerhouse within the Naruto series?
Amused by his own thoughts, since Kiba seemed so stubbornly hesitant about challenging others, then this task would fall to himself instead.
Just as Shiki made this decision and prepared to step forward—
Suddenly, a sharp, icy voice cut through the air—"Iruka-sensei, let me take the next match."
Sasuke had finally stepped forward. At once, swarms of girls squealed with delight, their eyes sparkling.
"Sasuke is so cool!"
"Sasuke is the best!"
"Go defeat those idiots over there, Sasuke!"
"Teach our class's dumbasses a lesson, Sasuke-kun!"
This... Shiki felt somewhat speechless. He always knew Sasuke was popular, but never imagined this level of popularity.
What is it with little girls and guys who act so aloof anyway?
Well, since Sasuke had stepped forward already, Shiki decided to just observe how things developed.
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