A month later, Naruto had become familiar with Bai’s group.
Of course, that was limited to the boys—as everyone knows, funny guys have zero luck with the opposite sex!
Naruto didn’t mind either; he was already more than satisfied that someone was willing to be his friend.
On the first day of school, the Academy handed out a basic handbook on chakra extraction to every freshman, and the first day’s curriculum focused entirely on extracting chakra.
Over the following month, the new students extracted chakra one after another.
In small ninja villages, extracting chakra might qualify someone as a Genin, but in Konoha, this was merely the very first step in shinobi education.
And today, Bai and his classmates arrived at their first practical sparring session.
Compared to written exam scores, practical combat results were clearly valued much more—aside from prestigious Konoha clans like the Hyuga and Uchiha who cared immensely about reputation, none of the other clans gave a damn about written test scores.
Take Shikamaru for example: despite having the sharpest mind among his peers, he always did just enough on every written exam—long live the passing grade, writing a single extra word was a waste.
He was practically Konoha’s master of score control, yet even his extremely strict mother had never scolded him for it.
The main reason was that written scores were primarily meant to cultivate a ninja’s intelligence gathering and learning capacity, meaning fully eighty percent of what was taught was utterly useless in practice.
Take the optimal throwing angle of a shuriken under various conditions, for instance; if you asked top throwing weapon masters about it, they would only offer a three-word answer—go by feel!
Who on earth would give you time in actual combat to calculate the throwing angle of a shuriken!
Of course, written exam results weren’t entirely useless—if someone wanted to become a medical ninja, failing the written tests meant they wouldn’t even get a chance to do hands-on training!
Returning to the topic, in Bai’s class, there was the new generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, the heiress of the Hyuga Main Family, the second son of the Uchiha clan leader, Naruto the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and Bai himself, the newly famous civilian prodigy.
The village placed considerable importance on this class’s first practical sparring session; Itachi Uchiha, Hiashi Hyuga, the senior Ino-Shika-Cho leaders, and Anko Mitarashi were all present.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage himself, personally attended, and after a lengthy speech on the Will of Fire, the practical sparring officially commenced.
The first match was Hinata Hyuga against a civilian girl.
The fight was an absolute one-sided sweep.
After all, Hinata had received personal guidance from Hiashi Hyuga since age four, and the combination of the Byakugan and Gentle Fist was formidable in the early era.
Talking pure strength, a full-out Hinata ranked at least in the top three of their class; current Sasuke, who hadn’t awakened his Sharingan nor mastered a single decent ninjutsu, wouldn’t be Hinata’s match!
Even so, Hiashi Hyuga maintained a stern demeanor without showing a trace of satisfaction, leaving Hinata feeling disappointed and anxious, growing even less confident in herself.
Seeing this, Bai shook his head inwardly.
Hiashi Hyuga was a classic tiger dad pushing his kid.
It might work on someone else, but Hinata had a naturally shy and introverted personality; this kind of relentless high-pressure education offered no benefit other than making her less confident.
“I need to find time to help Hinata rebuild her confidence!” Bai thought to himself.
The next few matches were one-sided stomps when clan children fought civilians, or weak clumsiness when civilians fought civilians; even when clan kids fought clan kids, there wasn’t much to see—at this stage, most clan children hadn’t started learning their family secret techniques yet, and only a tiger dad like Hiashi Hyuga would anxiously force Hinata to practice Gentle Fist from early childhood.
“Sasuke Uchiha versus Hanyu Bai!”
After a full half hour, Bai finally heard his name called by Iruka!
However, Bai hadn’t expected his opponent to be Sasuke.
“Form the Seal of Confrontation!” Iruka announced firmly.
Bai and Sasuke Uchiha complied.
As both took a few steps back, a sharp battle intent erupted in Sasuke’s eyes!
Though there were no past grudges or recent rivalries, Bai knew why—it was simply because Sasuke felt his title as the top genius had been stolen.
Typical Uchiha clan mindset; completely understandable!
What’s more, Itachi Uchiha was a genuine genius shinobi, so Sasuke, as his younger brother, naturally had high expectations thrust upon him.
Having not experienced the night of the massacre, Sasuke wasn’t much different from normal kids, perhaps even happier, so he naturally wanted to make his father proud, earn the admiration of his clansmen, and above all, hear praise from Itachi Uchiha!
But none of that had anything to do with Bai!
Bai wasn’t going to intentionally lose to Sasuke just to hide his strength; he was determined to claim the top spot, and Sasuke wasn’t going to stop him!
While thoughts raced through Bai’s mind, Sasuke had already thrown a kunai and charged straight toward him!
A standard Genin tactic: due to limited chakra and a small repertoire of jutsu, Genin battles usually relied on taijutsu, with throwing weapons serving as the textbook answer to draw an opponent’s attention.
Unfortunately, the textbook answer wasn’t always the correct answer.
Weaving hand seals, a clear current of chakra surged from Bai’s wrists, coating his hands.
C-rank Jutsu: Water Release: Great Water Arm!
Amid gasped cries from Ino and the others, Bai didn’t dodge or duck.
With remarkably nimble movement, he snatched the incoming kunai out of the air, flipped his hand horizontally, and Sasuke practically ran straight into it, putting his own neck right in front of the blade!
Bai smiled softly: “You lose!”
“Uh…” Iruka hadn’t expected Sasuke to lose so fast either.
After freezing for a second, he called out: “Form the Seal of Reconciliation!”
Bai pulled back the kunai.
It wasn’t until Bai completed the Seal of Reconciliation and walked out of the ring that Sasuke snapped back to reality.
In an instant, overwhelming shame surged through him, turning his face bright red.
He didn’t even dare look at Itachi Uchiha, completely unaware of how he staggered out of the arena!
Seeing this, Bai felt helpless.
Sasuke’s pride was too strong, and he cared far too much about what others thought of him.
Given a choice, Bai didn’t want to bully a child either—honestly, Bai’s mental age was almost that of Sasuke’s father, so beating a six-year-old Sasuke brought him zero sense of achievement.
But he had no choice.
Coming from an ordinary background, only by demonstrating his talent as much as possible could he gain leverage and resources that favored his development.
As for the threat from Root…
Ever since obtaining the Sage Body, Bai had paid attention to that issue, only to eventually realize it was completely groundless worrying.
Shinobi targeted by Root either possessed special Kekkei Genkai—like Sai—or lacked inheritance of the Will of Fire.
What qualified as a ninja who hadn’t inherited the Will of Fire?
For example, among Konoha’s major clans, many ninjas in earlier years never entered the Academy nor registered as official Konoha shinobi, practicing only clan secret jutsu.
These individuals acted more like private guards of noble families, tasked solely with protecting clan inheritance.
Even during Shinobi World Wars, Konoha could not forcibly draft them—these were ninjas who hadn’t inherited the Will of Fire!
In short, untalented ninja were ignored regardless of their choices, whereas talented ninja either entered the Academy to be indoctrinated with the Will of Fire, or entered Root to be bound by the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
Unless Bai displayed talent that intimidated both Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura, or awakened a Kekkei Genkai that Danzo drooled over, even Danzo Shimura couldn’t snatch kids straight out of the Academy!
In a sense, Root’s original purpose was indeed to benefit Konoha’s development; without Root’s pressure, a clan heiress like Hinata, even if registered as a Konoha shinobi, would never attend school alongside ordinary kids like Bai!
Unfortunately, the dragon slayers eventually became dragons themselves.
In the past, noble clan members avoided the Academy and withheld registration; now, it was the families of Konoha’s F4 leeching off the village.
In Bai’s entire class, there wasn’t a single kid named Shimura, Utatane, Mitokado, or Sarutobi!
Hiruzen Sarutobi, as the Third Hokage, at least put up a superficial show—both his sons were legitimate Academy graduates, and his future grandson would be sent to the Academy as well.
The other three families didn’t even bother keeping up appearances…