NOVEL NEXT Chapter 04 – Academy Tests.
[Chapter Size: 1639 Words.]
Third Person POV
Ninja Academy, Konoha, Year 32.
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"...Today we will begin a new phase for the Leaf, what I see when I see all these children is our future, the future of Konoha, with the Will of Fire, I see the success of our village with these new leaves and sprouts!" Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, spoke easily for all present to hear him; he made a 20-minute speech, emphasizing the importance of Konoha and the Will of Fire.
Minato heard that, but his eyes were rolled. He knew it was just a way to introduce an ideology that everyone must sacrifice for the village and obey their superiors like killing machines without questioning orders. He didn't want that, and he didn't like how the village and the Hokage manipulated children with these words.
'I promise to change this when I become Hokage!' He said to himself.
Looking around, he saw how the children had shining eyes, while the adults seemed to agree with all these words.
The Hokage looked at the crowd with satisfaction; the situation among the nations is becoming critical, and a new war may break out in the coming years. A new batch of ninjas must be nurtured before, hoping to pick good sprouts here. He saw the boys looking at him with eyes shining with adoration for the most part, except for a few. Many of the prominent clans didn't have that look; Tsunade and her daughter particularly just rolled their eyes. The Uchihas had expressionless and scowling looks, while the Naras just looked at him with boredom. But Hiruzen couldn't do anything about it.
There were many people gathered, while the Hokage surveyed the place with a sense of accomplishment. He didn't know that among the civilians, there was a certain blond boy looking at him with eyes different from the others, and it would intrigue the Hokage if he had noticed, as it is expected from clans but not from a civilian.
Anyway, after the motivational and manipulative speech, he stepped down from the stage, leaving the academy chunins to take over the organization of the tests among the crowd, handing out forms for the guardians to fill out with the children's data before conducting the tests.
Madame Gorete took a stack of them with her fellow ninjas and began filling them out for the children.
This took many hours, once all the papers were handed in and the final hour closed, dozens of ninjas took a group of children to lead them to the largest testing field, dividing them into their groups.
When his turn came after a short wait, he picked up the iron kunai for the first time in his life. He felt the weight significantly different from the wooden ones he trained with yesterday and began throwing them at the designated targets after getting a little familiar with the weapon. He didn't achieve a great result with a score of 40% on the targets, but he didn't find his result as bad as he expected.
"Minato got more points than me!" One of the children, the one who claimed to be ahead of everyone, only scored 30% of the targets, feeling quite dejected.
"I think this test is not as important as you think; I believe you should focus on the upcoming tests," Minato advised him calmly.
"Yeah, I think you're right. Thank you, Minato," he said.
The next test was as Minato predicted, a circuit to assess the children's physical conditions. With the same group as the previous test, they started running together. Most children thought it was a race to see who could finish first, so chaos ensued at the starting line. The children burned all their energy to stay ahead.
Meanwhile, Minato ran rhythmically to conserve his physical energy. He was naturally stronger than the others with his otherworldly body, so he ended up finishing first after passing the exhausted children on the way. Even though it wasn't his initial intention, as he thought the result wasn't very important.
"Kid, good physical fitness, I'm impressed!" The Chunin said, jotting down the results on his clipboard after seeing Minato arrive first, surprising the examinee who didn't seem very tired.
'Yesterday's training was much worse than a simple obstacle course where the children had to jump and crouch as they went through the test,' Minato thought.
He didn't start the circuit in the first place, but the children in front quickly tired, and he passed them while maintaining his own effortless pace.
The orphanage children wanted to talk to him after that, but he ignored them and continued to the next test.
'What can I say to them? They'll keep screaming that it's unfair for me to be better than them and stuff. I'm not in the mood to answer stupid questions,' he thought as he walked to the next test.
Now there was another Chunin in front of them, and they formed a large line in front of him. The test was designed for each to be tested with the release of chakra in their bodies and the affinities that the children possess, something that surprised Minato to hear since, in the original work, the ninja academy didn't seem to care about that. It was quite strange from his other life; elemental affinities should be something important.
He wasn't the first in line, so he had to wait his turn as they walked to the Chunin who placed a chakra finger on the child's chest to release it, and then the child had to place their newly released energy on a special paper next to it.
All children so far had a single affinity, ranging from fire, water, earth. Rarely did someone have a lightning affinity, and none had wind, the rarest of elements.
After waiting for dozens of minutes in line, Minato was called for his turn. He walked up to the ninja, who did it calmly and let him put his finger on Minato's chest to pull his chakra.
"Hm!?" Minato felt the energy overflow his body in the next moment effortlessly.
'This is incredible, it's so warm and comforting. Is this my spiritual energy they call chakra?!' Minato said internally, feeling all that energy.
"Hm! Kid, that's astounding. I've never seen a child pull their chakra so effortlessly, and you have so much of it at such a young age!" The Chunin couldn't help but comment with a lot of surprise. Minato had an amount that could be compared to a newly graduated genin. He might not be the child with the most chakra, as there was a Senju among them, but he certainly shocked that ninja with this civilian orphan.
"Well, I'll fill in your data here. Try channeling the energy you just felt onto this small paper here. They're called Chakra Conducting Sheets," he instructed, and Minato nodded.
Taking the seemingly ordinary paper on the table, Minato internally focused on the energy he felt before and tried to put it on the paper between his fingers. In the next moment, the paper emitted a small blue light and went out, undergoing some changes in the next moment.
The paper split into three aspects. One of them made a cut on one side of the paper, another burned, and in the last part, small electric currents appeared.
"What?! 3 elements!" The man, who was already surprised by his chakra, was even more shocked by this. He never expected three elements from the boy, considering most had only one element, with the exception of some clans that had 2 elements among their members. Witnessing a common orphan boy with three different elements left him stunned, drawing everyone's attention around him.
"Is that true, Greg? Does the boy have an affinity for 3 elemental affinities?" Another Chunin approached after hearing this and asked the instructor leading that group of children at the moment.
"Yes, fire, lightning, and the rare wind are in this child. He also has chakra reserves much higher than the other children; I would say he has more chakra than all the children this year," he said.
"I doubt the chakra reserves will be greater than the daughter of Princess Senju, but still, 3 elements and a higher amount of chakra are enough to put him in class A. How were the other tests with this boy?" He asked, and the current examiner looked at the papers in front of him and said.
"Kunai throwing is well below a satisfactory result, but he certainly hasn't received training before, so it's not a surprise. But the physical test already shows great potential, as he came in first without any problem or exhaustion like the other children," he said.
Minato was getting a bit uncomfortable; they seemed to be talking about him like a rare species at an auction. It bothered him a lot, but there wasn't much he could do.
"Stamp your resume as a recommendation for the prodigy class. I'll talk to the organizers later," said the man, and he walked away, not forgetting to congratulate Minato.
Minato thanked him, despite his annoyance.
He thought the chakra paper from the test was common; if it were more special, they could see his high affinity with the Yang element too, which is even rarer than the wind element.
"Speaking of this element, I've never tested my fruit, and I don't even know how to activate it yet. I should go back to the forest and start training when things are finished here," Minato reasoned.
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