章節 4: Chapter 4 - White Fang's Pride, Hatake Kakashi

On the Academy's training ground, forty children were seated on the ground while facing the four Chunin Instructors.

Looking at them, Instructor Mito turned to his friend and asked in confusion. "Why aren't them from the same batch of the previous test?"

His friend, Instructor Hiroko shook his head as he turned to look at the Hokage's office. "Lord Sandaime gave us direct orders to gather the examinees of a list together, so some of the students were sent to the other Exam Sections."

Mito turned to look at them, then looked at the list Hiroko was holding. "Who are the new additions?"

Hiroko smiled helplessly and sighed. "Besides a group of unknown kids, I only recognize two of them, and that is... The Hokage's son, Sarutobi Asuma, and the White Fang's son, Hatake Kakashi."

Not only Mito, but the other two instructors were also speechless hearing this! Who wouldn't know about those two? Their parent's back was the highest in the entire village, shouldering the responsibility of protecting against any and all threats!

Tetsuya who was among this group, couldn't help but look around him curiously, more than ten kids from his batch had been replaced. With his experience, he could tell from a single look that they aren't simple, and there was even a threatening feeling coming from one of them, a kid wearing a black scarf, a face mask, and white hair.

The moment he looked at him, the kid turned to look at him as well, their fierce gazes locked at each other, and the atmosphere in the training ground seemed to have become colder by several degrees.

Coughing to dispel this sudden negative feeling, Hiroko stepped forward with a smile on his face and spoke loudly. "Everyone, first of all, I must congratulate you for not giving up on the test. I know that many of you come from humble backgrounds and aren't confident in passing the exam, but your courage to come and try it anyway is proof that you already have one of the most important characteristics of a Ninja, the will to face challenges without backing away!"

Hearing his words, all kids from civilian families and weak clans felt emotional, who amongst them didn't have friends who gave up on the test without even trying? How many times did their parents try to dissuade them from even coming, using arguments such as power belonging only to the powerful?

These kids, no matter how untalented, how weak, were all unsatisfied with their fates! Each one of them wanted, even if without hope, to fight for a different destiny! They all want to soar above the heavens and feel what is like to have the freedom to fly.

Tetsuya could tell just how they felt because he felt the same in his previous life. Some kids were even crying after hearing the Instructor's words.

"Now, this next test is much easier than the previous one." Hiroko smiled as he turned to look at Mito.

Mito nodded and stepped forward, his personality though was different from Hiroko, he wasn't as friendly and went straight to the point. "A Ninja must be capable of doing many things, without mastery of Chakra, you are no different from useless ants! Those who can perform at least any of the three foundational Ninjutsu will be considered as to have passed the test."

Hearing this, the kids from humble origins were instantly drenched in a cold sweat, especially Guy, who was shaking all over as his face turned purple.

"What is it, Guy?"

Hearing Tetsuya's voice, Guy slowly turned to look at him and said with a voice full of fear. "Tetsuya-san... I-I am very bad with Ninjutsu!"

Hearing this, Tetsuya wasn't so surprised, although Duy was very physically strong, he could feel slightly that his Chakra flow was very messed up just from standing near him. It was as if Duy didn't even try to control it. If his son was the same, then, he would probably have difficulty when performing any sort of Ninjutsu.

"Guy... ahh, just do your best. Who can blame you for not being a master of Ninjutsu? In the end, it's not like you have centuries of inheritance to rely on like many people here."

Although Tetsuya wasn't trying to, he somehow successfully managed to anger three individuals who were listening silently in the crowd, they were Asuma, Obito, and Takehiko.

All of them cast enraged gazes towards Tetsuya, startling him. Looking at them he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in confusion. But the moment he saw Takehiko's eyes and the crest on Obito's shirt, he instantly understood the problem. He probably touched their sore spot, as for the other guy... who the hell was him?

"Cough, everyone. I hope you still remember your Exam ID, we will be drawing your numbers randomly. Whoever is called must come to the front of the crowd and perform any Ninjutsu. Remember, this is not a competition, so long as you can do it, consider it as your success." Hiroko said as he tried to defuse the sparks about to be ignited in the crowd.

Mito brought out a box with a hole on the top, and Hiroko grabbed a piece of paper inside. After looking at the number, he shouted. "Number 76!"

The moment he finished his words, the boys were instantly drawn to a beautiful figure based on their childish standard. The girl had long untamed black hair that reached her waist, her eyes were a beautiful and extremely rare red color, and her pupils had some sort of mutation that caused them to have a black thin inner circle around the iris.

Even Guy who sat next to Tetsuya was blushing as he looked at the girl, and this honestly made Tetsuya astonished. He thought that this boy was obsessed with his body, much like his father who had superhuman strength, but apparently, he also had girls in his mind.

In the end, Tetsuya could only stare enviously at the kids beside him... If only he had the mentality of a young kid, perhaps he too would be attracted. But looking at that small girl and looking at the ground was the same to him... he could only feel uninterested.

To make it worse, the only beautiful woman among the instructors wasn't in this Exam Section... Sighing, Tetsuya felt like crying, why can't he stare at someone he considers beautiful as well when everyone else was doing that...

"You must be Yuhi Kurenai, right?" Hiroko smiled gently as he looked at her.

The girl nodded shyly as she kept her head lowered and her fingers crossed.

"Then, you can start."

Kurenai nodded and took a deep breath, looking at the instructor, she performed a few hand signs and shouted, but what happened next made them all confused.

Dog - hare - snake - ram. "String Bean Binding Illusion!"

Looking at her with curiosity, the examinees were all confused, did the jutsu fail? However, two seconds later, Hiroko drew a mouthful of cold air as he stared at Kurenai with surprise in his eyes. "Good Genjutsu!"

Hearing this, even Tetsuya was surprised. Genjutsu was the art of casting illusions upon your enemy's mind, it's not that difficult to learn, but to trap a Chunin in it for two seconds, she was probably extremely talented towards it, and she probably only has one elemental affinity, which must be the Yin element!

Although she was not from any powerful clan, this was one such example of how ahead of others your genetics can make you be in this world. She is only four years old now and can already put a Chunin in an extremely dangerous situation, after a few more years pass, wouldn't she be able to kill the instructor without even breaking a sweat?

The names were called one after the other, and not many showed exceptional talent like Kurenai.

Guy's turn was a pure embarrassment as he tried the clone jutsu and summoned a perfect copy of his clothes.

The one called Obito was partially at Guy's level, and when he tried to summon a clone, it ended up being a body with pale skin that couldn't even stand up and fell face-first to the ground, exploding in a puff of smoke soon after it appeared!

"Cough, cough..." Hiroko frowned as he looked towards Obito who was fiddling with his goggles embarrassed. With a sigh, he pointed to the crowd and said. "You can go sit now..."

"Yes..."

The next one was the most comical of all. When Hiroko called out number 122, the only participant of the Hyuga clan, Takehiko walked out of the crowd, and with an arrogant expression, he tapped his hands together, and his left eye's vein bulged like they were under a lot of pressure.

"Oi... what the hell is doing?"

"This guy is so weird."

Before Hiroko could explain to the students, Takehiko exploded in rage as he turned to them. "Shut up! What ants like you would know!? My Byakugan is a Doujutsu, therefore, it's considered as having successfully used a Jutsu!"

Obito stuck out his tongue as he looked at Takehiko and said loudly. "Hahaha! It had to be a Hyuga, you guys are so insistent at not using Ninjutsu, it's no wonder that the exam instructors have to allow any type of jutsu! It's just so that you can pass somehow!"

Hearing this, the other children also chuckled at Takehiko. Indeed, if it wasn't for them allowing any type of Jutsu, would a Hyuga even be able to enter the Academy?

"Why you..." Takehiko frowned as he clenched his fists, he was about to attack him, but Hiroko's words brought him out of his rage.

"Alright, alright... you have passed, Takehiko. Please, go sit down." Looking at the crowd who still had smiling faces, he sighed and said. "Ahem... next one, number 4."

When he said those words, a boy stood up but didn't move.

Seeing his white hair, every instructor looked at him with curiosity in their eyes.

"Hatake Kakashi, what are you doing? If you can't use Ninjutsu then-"

Before he could finish his words, Mito had to swallow them as the boy did a single ram hand-sign, and close to eleven clones of Kakashi appeared all around them, stunning every single person in the training ground!

"W-what!? How could it be! Isn't this Clone Technique!?"

"What the hell! How did he summon eleven clones in one try!?"

"Shit! I can barely even do one, he must be cheating!"

The crowd was full of confusion as they stared at Kakashi, not many people knew his identity, but the exam Instructors knew very well and weren't so surprised at this. Still, they were all amazed at this young man's ability, if it was during times of war, he would probably graduate right away as a Genin without having to go through years of tedious training.

At this time, one of the other examines shouted loudly with his deep voice.

"Shut up! How dare you question the authenticity of the exam, or White Fang's pride, Hatake Kakashi! If you have the ability, go and summon eleven clones, do not slander other people without proof!" His voice was full of rage and killing intent, making those kids shudder with fear, as they weren't expecting to feel such a frightening feeling out of nowhere.

"Kenshin, you don't have to go so far, they are just kids..." Hiroko tried to calm the man but he simply scoffed at them as he looked at Kakashi with bright eyes.

In the end, Hiroko could only sigh helplessly, during the last Shinobi war, Hatake Sakumo had saved Kenshin a few times, earning his unconditional trust and respect, the man wouldn't allow anyone to question Sakumo or his son.

As the commotion died down, Hiroko looked at the list and sighed in relief, there was only one person remaining. "Number 33, one step ahead of the crowd!"

Hearing this, Tetsuya smiled and stood up.

"Good luck!"

Turning to his side, he noticed Guy giving him a thumbs up and smiled gratefully.

When he went forward and stood a few steps away from the instructor, the noise began once again.

"Tsk, it's just another no-name without clan, this is so boring."

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of sitting here! Go and fail already so that we can move on to the next part of the exam!"

Hearing those comments full of malice, Hiroko and the others were stunned. It was true that the exam takes a long time, this was also one of the hidden criteria of the exam, which was to test those kids' patience.

Seeing who were the ones making trouble, the examiners noted their names down and looked at Tetsuya with a troublesome look on their faces. It was rare for a kid to be under the limelight and be verbally assaulted like that during the exams, they thought that he would be full of rage and want to beat them up. But to their surprise, he was just standing there and grinning mischievously.

They first thought that he was pretending, but when they noticed the lines around his eyes... They, who are Chunin, had experience and were trained to read people for interrogation during the war, knew that this kid was laughing for real! He really thought that the situation was funny!

Wiping a tear from his eyes that dripped down due to how much he laughed, Tetsuya looked at the Instructor and asked. "Sir the level of Chakra control can also be considered in this test?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Tetsuya smiled and said with a chuckle. "Like this!"

When those kids saw what Tetsuya did, they went pale with fright. Not only them, even the instructors were stunned. Among the crowd, only Kakashi stared at him with a glint in his eyes. 'I never expected to find someone with the same level at the Academy...'