"Alright then."
Kurenai nodded slightly.
In the end, she still agreed to Kiyohara's request. After all, Kiyohara was an orphaned civilian, whereas her father was a jōnin who specialized in genjutsu. In truth, she was a little rich lady.
Seeing this, Kiyohara continued walking inside.
He saw a few familiar faces, as well as many strangers.
The crowd naturally split into two sides. On one side stood the civilian genins, dressed in all sorts of outfits, mostly quiet, restrained, and standing separately. On the other side were the clan genin—uniformly dressed, standing together, and faintly exuding the pride that came from being born into a shinobi family.
Among them, two people were especially eye-catching: Uchiha Tekka, wearing a dark high-collared short-sleeved shirt with the clan's fan crest printed boldly on his back, and Hyūga Tetsu, clad in a loose white training uniform, his pupils pure white.
Naturally, a number of their clan members or close acquaintances formed small circles around them.
The chief proctor was a stern-faced jōnin with a long scar trailing from the corner of his eye. He gave a very brief explanation of the rules.
The rules were simple: one-on-one matches, stop at the point of contact, but the use of lethal ninjutsu was permitted. The examiners would judge the candidates based on battle performance, tactical application, overall strength, and other factors before deciding whether they qualified for promotion.
"Uchiha Tekka, huh?"
Kiyohara glanced at Tekka. If his memory was correct, a few years from now, Uchiha Tekka would become one of Uchiha Fugaku's trusted right-hand men.
At the moment, though, he probably hadn't yet joined the Konoha Military Police Force—only chūnin were eligible to join, after all.
"In this exam, the strongest opponents will most likely be Tekka or Tetsu."
Kiyohara observed them quietly.
Both were from Konoha's great dōjutsu clans. From birth alone, they possessed advantages that civilian shinobi simply could not match.
"Come forward and draw lots," the proctor announced.
Several assistant examiners brought out a black box. Everyone had to reach inside and draw their number.
One after another, the genin walked up to draw their lots. Soon, it was Kiyohara's turn.
"Not great luck, huh."
Kiyohara stared at the slip of paper in his hand—number 4.
His opponent was none other than Uchiha Tekka.
"I wonder if this version of Tekka has awakened the Sharingan yet."
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
The Sharingan was a bloodline limit with a fully developed evolution system.
One tomoe, two tomoe, three tomoe—gaining enhanced perception, copying ability, hypnosis, the ability to discern chakra flow, and eventually… awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan!
And the Mangekyō granted two unique ocular jutsu, plus the third power—Susanoo.
To this, Kiyohara could only sigh inwardly. This damned bloodline-based world really doesn't play fair.
In truth, the entire shinobi world was basically a story about the Ōtsutsuki clan and their descendants fighting among themselves, while all civilians were just the background characters who tagged along.
No matter how hard civilian shinobi fought all their lives, they might still fall short of the starting line of certain bloodline prodigies.
Even Naruto, who shouted about hard work and hot-blooded effort in the early days, ended up becoming the biggest embodiment of bloodline privilege—revealed to be the reincarnation of a god, the so-called "Child of Prophecy." His past-life father figure was the Sage of Six Paths, and in this life, his father was the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze.
"What, feeling jealous?" Missing-nin Kiyohara floated out from the ash urn and teased.
""Just reflecting again on how much birth matters in this world," Kiyohara muttered lightly, shaking his head and suppressing unnecessary thoughts.
"But I'm not without opportunities."
If he couldn't beat them, he could always join them.
With the Last Will System in his hands, who knew—maybe someday he could gather all bloodline limits into one body.
At this moment, the first match had already begun.
Two shinobi stood atop the arena platform. At the proctor's signal, the clash started immediately.
Kiyohara was number 4, so he still had three battles before his turn. He began carefully observing the techniques used by others, gathering intel.
Intelligence gathering—an essential part of shinobi combat.
The first few matches were mostly between civilian genin, or clan genin suppressing civilian ones.
The fights were intense, but not particularly spectacular.
Civilian shinobi were extremely cautious about chakra usage—each movement meticulously calculated. Most began with kunai exchanges, followed by shuriken feints, and only pulled out ninjutsu as a final trump card.
The clan genin, on the other hand, were much more extravagant. Their natural chakra reserves were higher, so ninjutsu flew around much more freely—far flashier to watch.
…
Meanwhile, in the stands.
From above, one could clearly see a large board listing the shinobi's names, numbers, and their matchups.
"Kiyohara's first match is against an Uchiha… he really is unlucky."
Kurenai returned with a bag filled with all the snacks Kiyohara asked for.
"Yeah, not the best matchup," Genma said with a senbon needle shifting at the corner of his mouth. "But trust him, Kurenai. We all saw what he did at Kannabi Bridge. That kid must have been hiding his strength. He's not that simple."
Genma sounded very confident.
They had all agreed to slack off together—but apparently he was the only one who truly slacked off.
Soon, the third match ended. The referee raised his voice:
"Match four: Kiyohara vs. Uchiha Tekka! Both fighters, step forward!"
Kiyohara took a deep breath and walked steadily toward the center of the arena.
Tekka moved at the same time, arms folded, looking at Kiyohara with the customary Uchiha arrogance.
"I've heard of you. Seems you did something noteworthy on the Grass Country front. But the ceiling of a commoner ends here. Meeting me is simply your misfortune."
Kiyohara didn't bother responding. He only focused on adjusting his breathing, bringing his condition to its peak.
"Begin!" the referee shouted.
Almost at the exact instant the word fell, Tekka moved—his hands forming seals rapidly like fluttering petals. His chest expanded sharply.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
He unleashed the iconic Uchiha clan jutsu something almost every Uchiha mastered.
A scorching wave of heat erupted as a blazing fireball over two meters wide roared forth, distorting the air as it hurtled toward Kiyohara!
"The merciful art of fire, huh…" Kiyohara thought suddenly, recalling the nickname. In the original tales, fire release rarely killed anyone—smoke without injury, flames without death. Thus it was called the "kindly art."
But Kiyohara certainly wasn't about to underestimate it—not when a massive fireball was aimed straight at his forehead!
He rapidly formed seals of his own.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A powerful gust of wind burst from his mouth.
However, instead of clashing head-on against the fireball, the wind struck its side.
Wind and flame collided violently—the force altering the fireball's trajectory. The blazing sphere, which had been charging straight at Kiyohara, suddenly veered off course, swept aside by the raging wind.
With a suffocating heatwave brushing past his side, the fireball flew toward the arena boundary, crashing into the protective barrier and exploding into a shower of fiery sparks!
Tekka's Fire Release was strong, yes—but…
The Wind Release techniques Kiyohara inherited from the missing-nin version of himself were jōnin-level!
(End of Chapter)
TN: Hey guys, after this I'm only able to post 1 chapter a day on webnovel and on my patreon since we caught up with author already.