In full view of the Third Hokage, several instructors, and numerous students, the ninjutsu assessment officially began.
Everyone lined up and stepped forward one by one to demonstrate.
Some followed the rules precisely and showcased whichever of the Three Basic Techniques they had mastered best.
Some demonstrated the Clone Technique and the Transformation Technique; comparatively few used the Substitution Technique, likely because they had not prepared substitution tools in advance.
Some took turns performing all three basic techniques, immediately earning looks of admiration from their classmates.
Some may not have had sufficiently strong mental composure. Facing the Third Hokage, they were overly nervous; when attempting the Clone Technique, they botched it badly, and only a limp, indistinct creature appeared on the ground.
This triggered roaring laughter from the students below, and the spacious multipurpose classroom was instantly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Even the Hokage himself, pipe clenched between his teeth, chuckled along. When dealing with the village's children, he always presented an approachable image, making it difficult to associate him with the powerful figure known as the "Shinobi Hero."
Some may have been affected by the earlier failures, their thoughts in disarray. The Transformation Technique they formed seals for was riddled with flaws, making it obvious at a glance that it was a fake.
Higashino Makoto recognized this person—it was his classmate from the same year, Umino Iruka.
Makoto did not know what Iruka's past grades had been like, but judging by today's performance, he was clearly tense and affected by the environment. The harder he tried to perform well, the more problems appeared. Under these circumstances, there was no way he could graduate.
No wonder he had still been acting foolish at the academy after the Nine-Tails incident to draw attention; it was all the more remarkable that he would later become such an outstanding ninja academy teacher.
Thus, having limited combat talent does not mean a person lacks other abilities. Iruka was likely this type: because he himself was not a genius, he paid particular attention to students who seemed a bit slow and treated them with exceptional patience.
Unlike certain instructors—such as Funeno Daikoku—who only favored prodigies of astonishing talent like Itachi, and had always looked down on, or even felt aversion toward, those at the bottom of the rankings.
When it was Uzuki Yūgao's turn, this girl was not the type to be easily frightened. She went up on stage calm and composed and, in a proper and orderly manner, performed the Three Basic Techniques once through—nearly perfect.
After training behind Higashino Makoto for several years, if she still could not even do this properly, he would have beaten her face swollen long ago.
When it was Higashino Makoto's turn to go on stage, he first, like the other students, respectfully bowed to the Hokage and the teachers. Then he formed seals quickly and cleanly.
With a soft poof, an identical copy of himself appeared at his side, with not the slightest discrepancy even in the details of hair and clothing.
At the same time, the original formed seals and transformed into the appearance of his teacher, Inoue Kuroiwa—also perfect, with absolutely no way to tell from the outside.
At this moment, the clone Higashino Makoto raised his hand and shot a shuriken at the original. The original—transformed into Teacher Inoue—burst into a puff of white smoke. A blackboard eraser fell from the air, was caught by the clone, and was put back into the chalk tray.
"Whoa! That's awesome—so… so how did you do that? I can't make sense of it at all!" The students below could not understand it, but they were deeply shocked.
Even the teachers conducting the assessment looked completely baffled; clearly, they had not seen through it either.
Inoue Kuroiwa muttered, "How is that possible? The Clone Technique only produces a phantom—it's not a Shadow Clone. How could it throw a real shuriken?"
"The clone even caught the blackboard eraser. Could the clone be the original? When did they switch positions?"
"Oh-ho-ho, what a splendid performance. Makoto, I never expected the basic Three Basic Techniques could be used like this. Even I gained some inspiration from it," the Third Hokage said, nodding happily.
With his strength and eyesight, he naturally would not be fooled the way those chūnin teachers were.
Then he explained to the assessment teachers, "At the instant Higashino Makoto's clone raised its hand to make that movement, he had already swapped positions with the original."
Another assessment teacher said in surprise, "How could that be? If it were the Body Flicker Technique, we should have noticed it."
The Hokage tapped his temple with a finger. "It was genjutsu. The real clone raising its hand to attack was only meant to draw everyone's attention. The original used a simple genjutsu to deceive your vision—so you all overlooked the crucial detail of the position swap."
"So that's how it was… truly impressive. We completely failed to notice the effects of the genjutsu."
The Third Hokage did not continue arguing with the assessment teachers. Instead, he turned to Higashino Makoto with a kindly expression and said, "Makoto, your talent truly did not disappoint me. Very good, very good. All right—go on down."
"You flatter me, Hokage-sama."
Higashino Makoto bowed once more, stepped down from the stage, and yielded his spot to the examinees behind him.
In truth, this method of his was inspired by the way his friend Shisui would later fight. How did Uchiha Shisui earn the nickname Shunshin Shisui?
He would create a large number of ordinary clones that could move but lacked real offensive capability, then rely on his superb Body Flicker Technique and genjutsu to freely swap positions among those clones.
Any clone attacking you could, at any moment, become the real body stabbing you. Without sufficient perception and strength, it was impossible to tell them apart.
The Kirigakure ninja were stabbed into developing a psychological shadow, which was precisely how Shisui made his name ring out among them.
You had to know that at the time, Ao possessed the Byakugan—yet he was still beaten so badly he could not find his bearings.
So Kakashi was right: ninja combat can be summed up in a single word—deception.
Even those so-called gods who could not truly be called ninja would still fall for it if they let their guard down.
Uchiha Madara was deceived by Senju Hashirama's Wood Clone.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was even more embarrassing—one Reverse Harem Technique left her completely dumbfounded on the spot.
...
After the assessment ended, some were happy, and some were dejected.
But Higashino Makoto felt that those who failed to graduate need not be discouraged. In fact, it was a good thing—graduating later meant conveniently missing the war.
"Makoto, from this day forward, you are an official Konoha ninja. I hope you will continue to work hard and grow into a reliable force that protects the village," the Hokage said.
"I will, Hokage-sama."
After taking the forehead protector from the Third Hokage, Higashino Makoto thought about it for a moment and, like Uzuki Yūgao, tied it around his forehead.
This thing was essentially just an identity credential. As for its protective function for a ninja? In truth, it was more or less optional.
However, it also carried a hidden "stronger-than-average" certification function—for example, carving a horizontal slash across it.
Higashino Makoto considered it, but ultimately did not dare to do something that exciting. He was worried that, given the Hokage's age, getting that angry on the spot might cause something seriously bad to happen.
That afternoon, after a brief graduation ceremony, they received their graduation certificates from the Third Hokage, officially announcing that they had graduated from the academy and become glorious Konohagakure genin.
The ninja registration certificates, after having photographs affixed, were handed over to the village for safekeeping and classified as confidential.
They contained each student's basic personal information and ninja identification number.
Uzuki Yūgao's ninja registration number was 012161.
Higashino Makoto's number was the adjacent 012160.
The graduation certificates did not have photographs, only a short explanatory text. They were not classified and were kept by the students themselves.
After all of this, the students who had successfully graduated immediately returned to their respective classrooms to wait for team assignments. Next would come the matter of the jōnin team leaders.
Uzuki Yūgao began to worry. "Makoto, we should be assigned to the same team, right? We should be, right? I really don't want to team up with other people."
"That's not up to us." Although Higashino Makoto said this, he felt there was a high probability they would be in the same team. On the surface, the Hokage claimed that team assignments were based on balancing strength, but in reality, the key factor was bonds.
Just then, Inoue Kuroiwa read out, "Team Three: Higashino Makoto, Uzuki Yūgao."
"Yay!" The girl flashed a big victory sign at Higashino Makoto, then immediately noticed something was off. "Huh? Why is it just the two of us? Shouldn't there be three people?"
Higashino Makoto scratched his head, a sense of foreboding rising within him, and thought darkly to himself, No way—did some influential clan set me up? I already helped Shisui unlock the two-tomoe Sharingan, and that still wasn't enough? They're actually planning to use me as Mangekyō fodder?
As expected, a naturally evil clan. If that's really the case, then there's no need to wait for Uchiha Itachi to grow up—this old man will personally…
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