“Wake up, wake up!”
A gentle voice sounded beside Kuroda Ren’s ear.
Kuroda Ren opened his sleepy eyes and looked at the black-haired, red-eyed little girl sitting in front of him.
“School’s over?”
His deskmate, Yūhi Kurenai, rolled her eyes.
“It’s time for practical combat class.
Did you forget?
You were the one who told me to wake you up before practical training started.”
“Oh, right.
I remember now.
Thanks.”
Kuroda Ren hurriedly thanked her.
He had absolutely no interest in listening to the brainwashing class known as The Will of Fire.
The textbooks they had been given on the first day of school had been taken home by Kuroda Ren, who had flipped through them once.
The other subjects were fine.
But the Will of Fire course was something else entirely.
In roughly half a page, it introduced the achievements of the First Hokage in ending the chaos of the Warring States Era and the Second Hokage in bringing the First Great Ninja War to an end.
The remaining 99% of the textbook was devoted to praising the various achievements of the Third Hokage in every possible way.
The level of flattery was so excessive that it reminded Kuroda Ren of his previous life, where a certain “Great Sun” on the neighboring peninsula was praised to the heavens.
Kuroda Ren really wanted to ask Sarutobi Hiruzen:
What exactly gives you the right to call yourself the “Strongest Hokage”?
Have you seriously never seen Senju Hashirama’s Wood Release?
In any case, Kuroda Ren had absolutely no interest in attending a class like that.
So he simply chose to sleep.
Practical combat, however, was something he couldn’t avoid.
“Is practical combat class starting now?
Let’s go.”
Kuroda Ren looked around the classroom, where only a few students remained, then called out to Yūhi Kurenai and walked with her toward the training field.
After waiting for a while, everyone had arrived.
Imai Nobuyuki stood in the center of the training field.
“The fact that you’ve been admitted to the Academy means you’ve already learned how to refine chakra, so I won’t bother teaching you overly basic material.”
Imai Nobuyuki spoke confidently.
“For first-year practical combat, we’ll mainly focus on two things: taijutsu and shuriken throwing.”
“Today, I’ll teach you Konoha-Style Taijutsu, which is one of the Iron Fist-style taijutsu disciplines…”
Imai Nobuyuki demonstrated the techniques several times before having the students practice on their own.
He walked among them, observing each student’s movements and pointing out their mistakes.
Although Kuroda Ren possessed a cheat-like system, and once the three-year period was over he would be able to immediately step on his own foot and spiral into the heavens, becoming an absurd stat monster…
He still didn’t slack off.
He seriously practiced Konoha-Style Taijutsu.
After all, the shinobi world in this era was far from peaceful.
Even during this relatively peaceful period, major incidents had already occurred, such as Kumogakure attempting to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina and the White Fang of Konoha being driven to suicide.
This was completely different from the “absolute peace” that existed during the period when the future protagonist, Uzumaki Naruto, was growing up.
Even with his cheat-like system, Kuroda Ren still needed to gather a complete set of six legendary items before he could truly “ascend.”
Before that happened, at most, he was simply a talented young genius.
Until talent was converted into actual strength, it meant nothing.
Mastering a few more combat techniques would at least give him a slightly better chance of surviving if he encountered danger in the future.
“Here.”
Imai Nobuyuki tapped Kuroda Ren’s arm.
“Don’t raise your elbow so high.
It’ll interfere with your ability to generate force.”
He adjusted Kuroda Ren’s punching form.
“Try it again like this.”
Kuroda Ren followed his instructions and adjusted his posture before throwing another punch.
Sure enough, his power flowed much more smoothly.
Even the force behind his punch seemed to have increased by several degrees.
“Thank you, Teacher.”
Kuroda Ren sincerely thanked him.
In a shinobi world where people tended to keep their techniques close to their chests, a teacher willing to seriously teach even something as basic as Konoha-Style Taijutsu was certainly worthy of being called a competent instructor.
Of course, this was part of Konoha’s regulations.
But there was a huge difference between teaching something perfunctorily and carefully correcting every tiny mistake.
At least based on his interactions with him over the past two days, Imai Nobuyuki could be considered a responsible teacher.
While practicing taijutsu, Kuroda Ren’s gaze swept across the field.
Among the named students—excluding the random background characters who had never appeared in the original story—there were already obvious differences in their performances.
Hatake Kakashi truly deserved his reputation as the number-one genius of this generation.
Every movement he performed was even more polished than those demonstrated by their teacher, Imai Nobuyuki.
Chakra coated his fists and feet.
Every punch and kick produced a distinct whistle as it cut through the air, clearly demonstrating considerable power.
Everyone else was noticeably weaker.
But they were still stronger than most of the civilian students.
Even Uchiha Obito, who was known as a “dead last,” was performing far better than Kuroda Ren had originally expected.
At the very least, he was roughly on par with Sarutobi Asuma and Yūhi Kurenai.
He simply couldn’t compare with Kakashi.
Compared with the majority of the background students, however, Obito was clearly more than one level stronger.
Kuroda Ren couldn’t help wondering where the nickname “dead last” had come from.
Could it be because Obito’s performance in theoretical classes was just that terrible?
The thought couldn’t help but surface in his mind.
After practicing several times, the students with weaker physical endurance were already beginning to pant heavily.
Imai Nobuyuki took the opportunity to call a halt.
“Next, we’ll draw lots for sparring partners.”
“Practicing by yourself will only teach you flashy movements.
If you want to truly master what you’ve learned, you need actual combat.”
Imai Nobuyuki took out a box containing slips of paper and explained the rules.
“The two people who draw matching names will spar against each other.”
“You may only use the Konoha-Style Taijutsu we taught today.
You are not allowed to use any secret techniques or ninjutsu that the Academy hasn’t taught you yet.”
As he spoke, Imai Nobuyuki drew two slips from the box.
He read out the names.
“Uchiha Obito and Hatake Kakashi!”
“Here we go!”
Uchiha Obito leaped into the center of the training field.
“My conquest of the Ninja Academy starts with this battle!
Who’s Kakato?!”
“It’s Kakashi.”
Hatake Kakashi walked forward expressionlessly.
Obito’s face immediately flushed red after getting his classmate’s name wrong.
He instinctively apologized.
“Sorry, I heard it wrong!
But I won’t go easy on you in this fight!”
“That’s exactly what I want.”
Hatake Kakashi was also curious about the level of his classmates.
If they were all hopelessly weak, he had no interest in playing ninja games with these little kids.
If he wanted to restore the Hatake clan to its former glory, he had to make a name for himself as quickly as possible.
“Form the Seal of Confrontation!”
Imai Nobuyuki stood between the two boys and raised his hand.
“Begin!”
The moment Imai Nobuyuki announced the start, Uchiha Obito charged forward without hesitation.
The next instant, Hatake Kakashi effortlessly dodged Obito’s straight punch.
He hooked his foot around Obito’s leg, tripping him to the ground.
Then, taking advantage of the momentum, Kakashi dropped his knee and pinned Obito down by the neck.
One-move defeat!
Even Imai Nobuyuki froze for a moment before recovering.
He quickly announced:
“Winner: Hatake Kakashi!”
“Form the Seal of Reconciliation!”
Hatake Kakashi released Uchiha Obito.
Obito’s entire face was flushed red.
“I let my guard down just now!
I wasn’t prepared!”
“I refuse to accept this!
Again!”
“Even if we did this a hundred more times, the result would be the same.”
Hatake Kakashi remained expressionless.
“You’re not my opponent.”
His tone made it sound as though he were merely stating an objective fact.
At the same time, he silently labeled Uchiha Obito in his mind:
Dead last.
“You!”
Uchiha Obito’s composure completely shattered.
Furious, he was about to charge forward again.
“Obito.”
Nohara Rin approached with a bandage and handed it to him.
Pointing at his wrist, she said:
“You’re injured.
You should treat the wound first.”
“Huh?”
Uchiha Obito looked at the girl standing before him.
His mind went completely blank.
He stood there dumbfounded, staring at her.
Meanwhile, Imai Nobuyuki had already reached into the lottery box and drawn the names for the second match.
“Sarutobi Asuma and Kuroda Ren.”