Chapter 17: Graduation Exam

"Kakashi, Feiyu, you two finally came out!"

Walking out of the Anbu gates, Uchiha Feiyu looked in surprise at Uchiha Obito and Maito Gai standing at the entrance, and asked curiously:

"Why are you two waiting here? Kakashi and I are fine; the Anbu only locked us up for two days."

"Feiyu, did you forget, you guy?! Today is the day of our graduation exam!"

Uchiha Obito shouted, and at this moment, Maito Gai didn't say another word, grabbed Uchiha Feiyu, and ran toward the school without looking back.

"We're almost late, let's go quickly! It would be a disaster if the teacher marks us as failing!"

Uchiha Feiyu's eyes lit up:

"What happens if I fail? Do I get sent back to Ninja Academy to repeat the year?"

"You'll be assigned under a regular Chunin, and if a war breaks out, people like that belong to the first wave of cannon fodder!"

Kakashi followed by Uchiha Feiyu's side, his voice speaking gloomily.

Damn! What kind of terrifying organization style is this!

Uchiha Feiyu rolled his eyes, his figure flashed and he immediately accelerated, running much faster than Maito Gai and Uchiha Obito.

It wouldn't matter in normal times; anyway, with the soul of Hatake Sakumo in his body, even if Uchiha Feiyu didn't have a good teacher, he could slowly cultivate and at the very least reach the strength of Kakashi when he first appeared.

But now, a war is about to start! If he finds a regular Chunin as a team leader, is that preparing to go seek death?

Don't look at how Konoha won the Third Shinobi World War; in reality, the entire village's regular cannon fodder ninja were almost all dead!

Think about when Kakashi, Obito, and the others were executing missions, and when the Yellow Flash relied on the Flying Thunder God to support the ninja troops—at that time, the ninja on the front lines were almost all dead, with only a few left. In such an important battle, Konoha had almost no manpower left; one can imagine how tragic the situation was at the time.

Carrying the desire not to be cannon fodder on the battlefield, Uchiha Feiyu dragged Uchiha Obito and Maito Gai all the way back to the Ninja Academy, arriving just in time for the graduation exam.

The Ninja Academy's graduation exam nowadays is also very simple—they battle each other; those with strong strength get high scores and high rankings, and later they will have better team-leading teachers and more resources allocated to them.

Those with poor strength can only join a squad with a regular Chunin and go off to be cannon fodder.

What? You ask what to do if you fail? Sorry, now is exactly the time when cannon fodder is needed; there is no such thing as not passing the Ninja Academy exam!

Even if you don't come to the exam, in the end, the Ninja Academy will count you as having passed, forcibly issue you a Genin headband, and drag you off to do missions as cannon fodder!

"You're here, Uchiha Feiyu! Don't think that just because you're a few years older you'll definitely have the advantage; this time I will definitely defeat you!"

Uchiha Feiyu, who had just arrived at the school exam grounds, hadn't even stood steady yet when he was directly confronted by someone. Uchiha Feiyu blinked and turned his head to look, just in time to see Sarutobi Asuma looking at him with a face full of fighting spirit.

Because he was five years older, although Uchiha Feiyu had been "beating up kids" at the Ninja Academy, he was never called a genius, and coupled with his own personality, he was instead looked down upon even more.

But no matter how much they looked down on him, Uchiha Feiyu's fists still hurt when he beat people up, so regular ninja students really didn't dare to gossip about him to his face. Only Sarutobi Asuma dared to needle him a couple of times.

This, of course, was not because Sarutobi Asuma's father was the Hokage—when Ninja Academy students fight, as long as Asuma wasn't beaten to death or crippled, even if he was beaten black and blue or had a bloody head, Sarutobi Hiruzen wouldn't interfere. The Third Hokage certainly possessed at least that much poise of a superior.

The main reason was that Sarutobi Asuma's strength was indeed not bad; even though Uchiha Feiyu was five years older than him, during their battles, Asuma still had some ability to fight back.

This made Asuma feel that his own strength was not much worse than Uchiha Feiyu's, and he felt even more that his potential was far superior; naturally, he was eager every day to beat down this older "underachiever."

"So it's Asuma... then you should do your best!"

Uchiha Feiyu waved his hand, not caring much about it—now his Sharingan had awakened to Double Tomoe, and he had learned Hatake Sakumo's White Fang sword technique, his strength comparable to a Special Jonin. If he called Hatake Sakumo over to fight in his place, he could even trade blows with Shadow-level figures.

With this kind of strength, Asuma probably couldn't beat him even at his peak in Shippuden, let alone as an eight-year-old child now.

It could be said that after obtaining the soul of Hatake Sakumo, the gap between Uchiha Feiyu and ordinary ninja had already widened; now, in the entire history of Konoha, he could be called a genius.

Well, except for those Uchiha fanatics who awakened the Mangekyo at a young age, the talent of ordinary people was at most the level of Kakashi, and at Uchiha Feiyu's age, Kakashi had just become a Jonin.

"What do you mean by 'you should do your best'?! You guy, are you brushing me off again?!"

Asuma glared, speaking angrily, but at this moment Uchiha Feiyu's exam had already begun, so he waved his hand at Asuma and then went directly onto the training field.

There was nothing much to say about the subsequent battles; Uchiha Feiyu's original strength already stood out among a group of children, and after obtaining the White Fang sword technique, he progressed even more rapidly. He didn't even open his Sharingan or use his short sword before he directly beat that group of child opponents to the ground.

After beating a group of children like chopping melons and vegetables, Uchiha Feiyu advanced all the way to the final four, and then his opponent was Yuhi Kurenai, who was still a little girl.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Asuma had beaten Shiranui Genma and was also matched against Maito Gai, who had just beaten Uchiha Obito—don't look at how Obito, Gai, and the like were called underachievers; in reality, these people were not truly underachievers. At the very least, in actual combat, both Obito and Gai ranked near the top of the class.

It was just that Gai was full of youth and had no talent for ninjutsu, while Obito gave people the feeling of being a bit dim-witted and was late every day, which was why they were called underachievers.

But in the graduation assessment, the strength of these two was also fully revealed; even without the Eight Inner Gates and the Sharingan, their strength was above average.

Afterward, Asuma performed steadily and eliminated Gai, who couldn't open the Eight Inner Gates, and as for Uchiha Feiyu, he also defeated Yuhi Kurenai with ease.

Yuhi Kurenai's talent lay in Genjutsu, however, facing Uchiha Feiyu, who had awakened the Sharingan and had his mental power strengthened by the Method of Consuming Spirits from the Spirit-Binding and Commanding technique, those things like the Fox Mind Technique, Mist Servant Technique, and Sly Mind Affect Technique were truly of no use at all.

(End of chapter)