Hokage Building.
The jōnin instructor responsible for teaching Kazama and Kakashi arrived at the Hokage’s Office carrying a completed application.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.” After receiving permission from the Third Hokage, the instructor gently pushed open the door.
“Sorry to disturb you, Lord Hokage.” He stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and looked toward the Third Hokage seated at his desk.
“Oh, Yunzhi.
What brings you here?” The Third Hokage wore his white Hokage robes, though he wasn’t wearing the ceremonial hat.
His face still looked relatively young.
Strictly speaking, Hiruzen Sarutobi was no longer truly young.
His body had already begun to decline from its prime.
But compared with the elderly Third Hokage of later years, with wrinkles and age spots covering his face, he was still far younger.
“Lord Hokage, two of the students in my class have applied to take the graduation exam this year.” The jōnin instructor handed over the files for Kakashi Hatake and Kazama.
The documents contained records of their usual performance, along with the instructor’s assessment of their current strength.
There was no question about it.
Both Kazama and Kakashi had already reached the level of an ordinary genin.
By the time the graduation exam arrived at the end of the year, their strength would likely be firmly within genin level.
If that were the case, there would be little reason to keep them in the Ninja Academy any longer.
With talent like theirs, it would be far better to assign them jōnin instructors as early as possible and begin teaching them more advanced material.
Kazama’s evaluation in particular contained several special remarks.
Extremely high learning ability.
Powerful spiritual strength.
Near-perfect memory after a single viewing.
Able to perfectly control every muscle and bone in his body.
From Kazama’s everyday behavior, the instructor could also tell that he was genuinely diligent and hardworking.
As a jōnin, there was no way he could have failed to notice that Kazama frequently divided his attention between two tasks.
Even while listening carefully during class, he would continue practicing hand seals with his hands.
If the instructor couldn’t notice something that obvious, he wouldn’t deserve to be a jōnin.
And he certainly wouldn’t have survived the previous Shinobi World War.
“It seems you think very highly of this Kazama.” Hiruzen flipped through the documents.
He skimmed Kakashi’s file first, then focused more carefully on Kazama’s.
Shinku Yūhi had already mentioned Kazama to him before.
Apparently, the boy really was an exceptional talent.
“All right.
I understand.” Hiruzen closed the files and set them aside.
“You can go for now.
We’ll decide when the year-end graduation exam arrives.” Whether the applications would ultimately be approved still depended on how Kazama and Kakashi performed over the coming months.
They were undoubtedly geniuses.
But being talented did not mean they should be thrown into dangerous missions too early.
The earlier someone left the Academy, the greater the danger they might face.
Only a genius who survived long enough to grow— was a genius useful to Konoha.
“Yes, Lord Hokage.” The jōnin instructor nodded and left the Hokage Building.
…
After obtaining the Shadow Clone Technique, Kazama could finally accelerate many parts of his training.
Most of that acceleration, however, applied to ninjutsu.
As for taijutsu, Kazama’s body was still in a period of rapid growth.
He would have to wait several more years before pushing that aspect of his training much harder.
He had also begun gradually studying chakra shape transformation and chakra nature transformation.
Now that he was working on both, he had naturally started experimenting with the Rasengan and Chidori as well.
Thanks to Kazama’s exceptional chakra control, shape transformation was not particularly difficult for him.
Because of that, his progress toward the Rasengan was relatively smooth.
Nature transformation was another matter.
That was something Kazama had to explore largely on his own.
Among the five basic chakra natures, only Wind Release had been explained in considerable detail in the original story, so Kazama had a rough training method he could follow.
The other four natures required him to slowly figure things out himself.
Because of that, his attempt to recreate Chidori had stalled.
For now, he could only focus on Wind Release nature transformation.
As for the ninjutsu Kakashi had lent him— Kazama had mastered all of them within a month.
During this period, Kazama and Kakashi often trained together.
They also sparred frequently.
The results were exactly what one would expect.
Kakashi kept losing.
As time passed, Kazama’s strength continued increasing, making it increasingly difficult for Kakashi to win.
But those defeats only made Kakashi train even harder.
Kurenai was the same.
Perhaps Kazama’s decision to apply for early graduation had truly affected her.
For an entire month, she barely spoke to him and instead threw herself into training with even greater focus.
Kazama had originally thought he could coax the little girl back to normal within a few days.
Unexpectedly— an entire month passed without much progress.
Apparently, young Kurenai could really hold a grudge.
Time continued to pass.
Before long, Kazama had become the most dazzling genius in the entire Academy.
He accepted challenge after challenge.
Kakashi challenged him dozens of times.
Obito Uchiha, Asuma Sarutobi, Might Guy, Hyūga Ryūma, and several others also challenged him varying numbers of times.
The result— Kazama won every single match.
Ninjutsu.
Taijutsu.
Genjutsu.
There seemed to be nothing he wasn’t proficient in.
Before long, Kazama also became the classic “other family’s child” that Konoha parents used to lecture and encourage their own children.
“Young Master Kazama works so hard…” “Young Master Kazama is already this strong…” “Look at Young Master Kazama …” His name appeared in countless households.
“This is our fortieth match.” Beside a quietly flowing stream, Kazama and Kakashi stood facing one another once again.
The end of the year was approaching.
Year 39 of Konoha was almost over.
Their applications for early graduation had already been approved.
Ever since their first fight, Kazama and Kakashi had sparred a total of thirty-nine times over the past several months.
Kazama’s record— Thirty-nine wins.
Zero losses.
A complete sweep.
Quite a few people had gathered beside the stream to watch.
Kurenai was naturally there.
So were Shizune and Rin Nohara.
Might Guy, Obito Uchiha, Asuma Sarutobi, and Hyūga Ryūma from the Hyūga branch family were also present.
Kurenai, Shizune, and Rin had been training together with Kazama and Kakashi.
Guy sometimes joined Kazama’s training as well.
As for Obito, Asuma, and Ryūma— they were mostly there to watch the excitement.
The graduation exam was approaching quickly.
Kazama and Kakashi’s requests for early graduation had officially been approved, allowing them to participate.
Whether they could actually graduate, however, would depend on their performance.
But the children by the stream weren’t the only ones paying attention to this battle.
Inside the office of Konoha’s highest leader— the Three Legendary Sannin were gathered together.
The Third Hokage was using the Telescope Technique to observe Kazama and Kakashi through a crystal ball.
And over the past half year— this was far from the first time he had secretly watched them like this.
“So that’s the brat?” Tsunade stood with her arms folded across her chest as she looked at Kazama inside the crystal ball.
“Kazama, right?” Then her eyes shifted slightly.
“How did even that little girl Shizune end up hanging around him?” She frowned.
“He’s still tiny, and his strength isn’t anything truly impressive yet…” “But he already has plenty of girls around him.”