[Ding! Your Substitution Jutsu is studying hard. Its mastery has reached the Transcendent level!]
[Ding! Your body has noticed that the host is sleeping and has decided to work even harder. Physical strength increased by 20%!]
[Ding! Your Substitution Jutsu has completed its studies and evolved into the Flying Thunder God Technique!]
When Naruto woke up, he was slightly stunned.
“…Flying Thunder God? Isn’t that a bit of a huge leap?”
But when he thought about it, the Substitution Jutsu worked by switching his position with another object.
In that sense, it really was somewhat similar to the Flying Thunder God Technique.
“Naruto, come with me for a moment.”
Class had already ended, and Iruka called Naruto out into the hallway.
“What is it, Iruka-sensei?” Naruto asked.
You really don’t know?
Iruka gave him an exasperated look.
“About what happened before class…”
“You don’t need to say anything, Iruka-sensei,” Naruto interrupted directly.
“There’s less than a year left until graduation. Whether I accept their apology or not doesn’t make any difference. We won’t be seeing each other anymore.”
“You can’t look at it that way. You’re all going to become ninja in the future. You might even end up carrying out missions together!”
“Pfft!”
Naruto burst out laughing.
“Iruka-sensei, to be honest, with their level of skill, I think there’s a better chance they’ll get sent back to repeat the year.”
Iruka thought about how Naruto had single-handedly dealt with all those boys.
Without anyone noticing, Naruto really did seem to have changed quite a bit.
“Naruto, when did you become this strong?” Iruka asked.
“Those students might not be among the best in the class, but they’re still fairly capable. Yet you defeated all of them by yourself!”
Naruto smiled.
“I guess all my accumulated effort finally paid off.”
Iruka also assumed that Naruto’s previous efforts had simply borne fruit, so he didn’t investigate the matter any further.
“Looks like I don’t have to worry about whether you’ll graduate anymore.”
“But even if you’ve become stronger, don’t forget how important comrades are. A true ninja is someone who values their comrades!”
“Mm. I understand, Iruka-sensei.”
After giving Iruka a perfunctory response, Naruto was finally allowed to return to the classroom.
All he wanted was to be a slacker.
As for comrades…
He didn’t seem to have any yet.
He could worry about that later.
The next lesson was theory.
Uzumaki Naruto gained knowledge, but not strength.
At noon, Naruto ate some bread that had cost him a few ryō and drank a bottle of water.
Then he spent the rest of his lunch break swinging on the swing outside the academy before returning for afternoon classes.
The afternoon lesson was practical training.
“Today, we’ll be practicing with shuriken! There are ten targets, so everyone line up properly and take turns!”
Each group consisted of five or six students.
Each student would throw three shuriken at a target, retrieve them afterward, then return to the back of the line.
That was the entirety of Naruto’s shuriken practice.
[Ding! Detected the host practicing with shuriken. Your Shuriken Throwing Technique has worked hard and reached the Transcendent level!]
Naruto hadn’t even officially thrown a single shuriken yet, and his Shuriken Throwing Technique was already maxed out.
“If my System is capable, that means I’m capable too. I’m really way too capable!”
Naruto had been assigned to the third group.
His group consisted of Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, and two background characters.
Sasuke was the first to throw.
Three shuriken flew from his hand simultaneously.
All three hit the bullseye!
“Wow! As expected of Sasuke! He’s amazing!”
“Like you need to tell me how amazing Sasuke is, Ino-pig!”
“Who are you calling a pig, Forehead?!”
“Whoever answers is the pig!”
The two girls bickered noisily behind Sasuke, repeatedly butting their foreheads against each other.
Sasuke glanced coldly over his shoulder.
“Hurry up and throw. I still want to practice afterward.”
Although Sasuke had already mastered the basics of shuriken throwing, he had recently been practicing more specialized throwing techniques.
Reviewing the fundamentals wasn’t a bad idea either.
“Yes, Sasuke-kun! I’ll throw right away!”
“This is all your fault, Ino-pig! You’re getting in the way of Sasuke’s training!”
“What did you say?! You’re obviously the one getting in his way!”
Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Sasuke muttered, “Boring,” then turned around and went to the back of the line.
Naruto was currently last, so Sasuke ended up standing directly behind him.
Naruto glanced at Sasuke but paid him no further attention.
Sasuke, on the other hand, took a brief interest in Naruto.
“This guy used to be just as stupid as those two girls. Why does he seem different now?”
Sasuke stared at Naruto’s lazy back for a moment before losing interest.
“He’s the dead last, yet he’s still this lazy. Tch.”
After arguing for a little longer, Ino and Sakura finally calmed down and took their turns.
Like Sasuke, Sakura threw all three shuriken at once.
One hit the nine-ring, while the other two landed in the eight-ring.
The bullseye was already occupied by Sasuke’s shuriken, so the nine-ring was effectively the best score still available.
“Hmph. Not bad. I’m only a little worse than Sasuke-kun.”
Sakura shot Ino a provocative look, then happily ran to the back of the line to stand near Sasuke.
Naturally, Ino wasn’t about to back down after being mocked by Sakura.
As a member of the Yamanaka clan, she had received plenty of extra training from her father!
She raised three shuriken at once and threw them.
All three struck the nine-ring!
If there had still been room on the bullseye, perhaps Ino might have landed all three there instead.
“Hahaha! My score is better than yours, Sakura!”
Watching the smug expression on Ino’s face, Sakura’s inner self roared furiously.
Why is that Ino-pig better than me?!
Damn it!
The two background students went next.
Their results were roughly the same as Sakura’s.
Finally, it was Naruto’s turn.
Looking at the bullseye and nine-ring areas already packed with shuriken, Naruto casually tossed his three weapons.
Three bullseyes!
On the target next to his…
[Ding! Your Shuriken Throwing Technique is far too capable and has derived the D-rank ninjutsu, Manipulated Shuriken Technique!]