The start of the school year is always busy; the new kids need testing, evaluations, and class assignments.
Students preparing to graduate need to take exams and hold graduation ceremonies.
This only happens when there's a collective early graduation; in a normal six-year cycle, the ceremony would be held at the end of the previous semester in mid-March, when other classes are on spring break and new students haven't enrolled yet.
So when all these events coincide, there aren't enough teachers to go around, and they even have to issue several d-rank missions for Genin teams to help maintain order.
Although it's wartime, nothing can be simplified; on the contrary, things must be done more grandly. Only with a grand ceremony can the newly graduated 'fresh leaves' feel a greater sense of mission and ritual, sparking a high-spirited will of fire.
These past few years, the April school opening day has been destined to be the stage for new students and graduates.
[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name; Taiwan Novel Network is great for relieving boredom and very practical.]
As for students in the second year or above who didn't apply for early graduation, like Higashino Shin, they were temporarily set free; today there was only a half-day of morning class, and it was self-study, so they could do whatever they wanted.
The classroom was noisy; some were outside in the hallway watching the new students' entrance tests, critiquing the energetic juniors.
Others were in the classroom chatting with each other, talking about the classmates who had applied for early graduation.
Higashino Shin sat quietly in his seat, looking at the scenery outside the window.
He held a leaf between his left index and middle fingers; the poor leaf was first surrounded by Chakra, turning into a frantically wriggling piece of seaweed, yet it remained incredibly tough, refusing to break no matter how it was bent.
Then its color deepened, becoming extremely hard, as if a piece of black stone had been carved into the shape of a leaf.
Finally, this stone-like leaf was split in two by Chakra, and the two halves continued to split as they fell until they turned into a pile of tiny powder, scattering with the wind.
This was the result of Higashino Shin's Cultivation of Wind, Water, and Earth Chakra natures to an extremely high standard.
The flexibility of Water, the heavy hardness and decomposition of Earth, and the cutting power of Wind.
As the leaf disappeared, Higashino Shin's fingers twitched, and from a pile of leaves under the desk, another light one flew out, landing precisely between his two fingers to repeat the transformation process once more.
For him, any time was for Cultivation; even if he sat in the classroom like his classmates, seemingly idle, the change in his Chakra's nature never stopped for a moment.
Compared to loud talk, he was more obsessed with Cultivation, and his increasingly massive Chakra reserves supported him in doing so; most people wouldn't even know where to start if they wanted to learn.
Being an adult after all, he couldn't really vibe with those kids who liked to brag and look at handsome boys; he had already done that kind of thing in his childhood in his previous life.
Living a second life, only getting stronger through Cultivation in this world could keep him tirelessly interested; becoming a Ninja was just one of the incidental interests along the path of Cultivation.
Beside him, Yūgao Uzuki had her head down, struggling with the leaf in her hand; however, she could currently only manage to split an ordinary leaf twice, unable to cut it into a pile of powder like Higashino Shin.
Her Chakra nature was Wind, only one type, just like the future Naruto.
Gekkō Hayate's innate attributes were Wind and Water.
Coincidentally, they all had Wind; even Shisui had it, as his innate attributes were also three types: Wind, Fire, and Lightning, plus he was from the Uchiha Clan, so he had to be counted as having a Yin Attribute as well.
The Wind attribute is very common in the Hidden Sand Village, but there are actually quite a few in Konoha as well; for instance, all three of Higashino Shin's companions had it.
Since everyone naturally possessed Wind-natured Chakra, Higashino Shin naturally wouldn't keep it to himself and often shared his Cultivation methods and insights with them.
However, their progress was on completely different levels; only Uchiha Shisui was slightly better, but reaching Higashino Shin's current level was still a long way off.
This was the progress of an ordinary Ninja's nature transformation Cultivation.
They couldn't use Naruto's thousand-man cheat mode to compress years of time into days, nor did they have Higashino Shin's condition of enjoying Natural Energy to modify their bodies every day; they could only grind it out with time.
"Hey, hey, Shin-niisan, isn't there a better way? It's been two years, and I can still only do it to this extent. When will I be like you?"
Yūgao Uzuki threw away the fragmented leaf and began her daily complaints again.
"Not for now. When I find a way, I'll tell you." As Higashino Shin spoke, he glanced at the empty seats next to them and continued, "It's about time. Let's go to the Multi-purpose Classroom and see how Hayate and the others are doing."
"Right, right, let's go greet them."
The two of them left the classroom as they spoke, followed by many classmates who had the same idea.
---
The Multi-purpose Classroom was a huge lecture hall, usually used for collective school meetings, capable of holding hundreds of people at once.
At this moment, the doors were tightly closed, and graduation assessments were being held inside.
The content of the assessment wasn't difficult; usually, any one of the Three Basic Jutsu was chosen as the exam topic. Since it was wartime, the requirements were higher, and all three might be tested.
On the open ground outside the classroom, many students were standing, all waiting for the assessment results to see who successfully graduated early and who became a pathetic failure.
After a while, the classroom door opened, and the students who had taken the assessment walked out in groups of twos and threes. Unlike when they went in, a brand-new Konoha Forehead Protector was now tied around their foreheads—though some wore them on other parts of their bodies.
This was the symbol of becoming an official Ninja.
Now, these people were no longer students of the Ninja Academy but Ninjas; some of them stroked their Forehead Protectors from time to time with smug looks on their faces. When they looked at the spectating classmates, they seemed to have naturally aged several years, as if they were looking at their juniors.
In fact, their ages weren't that different.
"Wow, so cool! I want one too." The spectating students collectively let out exclamations of envy.
Those recommended for graduation were basically students with good grades, so no one failed.
This gave many students of the same age an illusion that graduating early wasn't that difficult.
I could do that too.jpg.
"Hayate-niisan, Shisui, we're over here!"
Yūgao Uzuki called out to them in the crowd.
At this time, Hayate, like Shisui, just had his Forehead Protector simply tied around his forehead, not yet using a headscarf to cover his whole head like he would later.
Both of them smiled and walked over after hearing the voice; graduating smoothly was indeed something worth being happy about.
Higashino Shin's gaze moved past them to look at this year's early graduates; except for a few, he didn't recognize most of them.
From his class, there were seven or eight people including Uchiha Shisui, Hyuga Tokuma, and Muta Aburame; those from other classes who applied for early graduation were also mostly from clans, with fewer civilian Ninjas.
Now, the class would have a few fewer people, but it wasn't a big deal; the classes would be merged when the time came.
From Hayate's year, he only saw two familiar faces; they looked like they should be the future Gatekeeper Duo, Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki.
It turned out they were in the same year as Gekkō Hayate, but they didn't seem very well-acquainted, possibly not in the same class.
There was also a girl following behind Hayate; the two seemed to be on quite good terms, but she was only there to greet him, not a graduate herself.
Higashino Shin asked curiously, "Hayate, is this... your classmate?"
"Yeah, she's my classmate. Her name is Tsubaki."
Then Hayate introduced his friends to Tsubaki, and they officially got to know each other.
Higashino Shin glanced at the girl; her appearance wasn't familiar, as there was a big difference between the character designs in the real world and the anime.
But hearing her name, she seemed to be Mizuki's future girlfriend.
Checking the time, Higashino Shin waved his hand. "It's about time for school to let out. I'll treat you all to a meal to celebrate you and Shisui graduating smoothly."
Uchiha Shisui and Gekkō Hayate smiled; they had hung out together for so long that they weren't embarrassed. Even Shisui had long since loosened up, not as constrained and overly polite as when they first met.
Tsubaki was a bit embarrassed, but Hayate said, "Come along. This guy Shin usually has more pocket money than us, and he doesn't spend it recklessly, so he's saved up quite a bit."
Tsubaki nodded with a blush.
Yūgao Uzuki suddenly hugged Gekkō Hayate and stuck out her right pinky finger. "Hey, Hayate-niisan, could this be your... ehehehe."
"Cough, cough, cough!" Gekkō Hayate coughed hard and, as usual, gave Yūgao a light punch on the head. "You, don't talk nonsense."
Tsubaki's face turned even redder, while Shisui and Higashino Shin had knowing smiles.
The open ground outside the classroom was suddenly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.