NOVEL NEXT Graduation Exam
“““[[…]]”””
“What’s wrong? You don’t like the name?”
“Err… nee-san, that name is a little err…”
“Of course, I like it. It sounds badass!”
An awkward silence descended on the group as they looked at the owner of that voice, Minato Namikaze. Minato’s eyes shone with excitement after hearing the name Yuna came up with. When she used all those seals for the first time and gave the technique such a basic name, he was really disappointed. In his mind, an awesome technique naturally needs a badass name.
“You used ice to create all those seals, didn’t you? How about putting that in the name, as well? How about [Convergence of Heaven and Earth: Return to Origin Ice Sealing Matrix]?
Yuna, immediately, became excited, as well.
“That’s good! Really good! But now that I think about it, doesn’t that feel really impersonal? What about [Uzumaki Clan’s Convergence of Heaven and Earth Secret Technique: Return to Origin Ice Sealing Matrix].
Minato couldn’t help but facepalm after hearing this name.
“How could I forget about that? As expected of my daughter. When you create a badass technique, you obviously need to incorporate your name into it. How about you…”
While the duo was talking, the other people started to slowly distance themselves. After getting out of hearing range, the two parts of Kurama started talking with each other, since they still needed to figure out what exactly happened to them. When they have split apart, they didn’t feel different at all, which probably was a side effect of being sealed for so long, but now that they were pretty much free, they easily notice how different everything felt after getting their Yin Yang balance back.
Naruto, Hinata, and Kushina on the other hand simply started chatting about nothing and everything. This was another good chance for Naruto to learn more about his mother, so he would naturally take it.
Like the first time, Minato was the first to disappear and Yuna returned to the rest of the group with a satisfied smile on her face. No one dared to ask, what kind of name the two came up with. A while later, Kushina disappeared, as well and, yet again, Yuna could only smile wryly when Kushina said her last words.
“Live well, my children.”
Naruto was, naturally, crying pretty hard again. It took Hinata and Yuna a while to calm him down, but when they did, the two halves of Kurama had also finished their discussion, so it was time to leave their mindscape. It would take Naruto a while to use Kurama’s chakra probably, but that was not something that couldn’t be solved with a healthy dose of training, so Yuna didn’t worry about it too much.
A few months passed and it was finally time for the trio to finish the academy. The only noteworthy thing that happened in these months was, that they got a new teacher that seemed to be exclusively responsible for their physical education. Yuna didn’t bother to remember his name, but she was pretty sure it started with “Mez”. Truth be told, Yuna was rather fond of him. It is rare to find someone that sell’s himself as a big shot but is actually a comedian in disguise.
The first time he entered the classroom, he actually displayed his pathetic amount of killing intent in an attempt to get the respect of the children in the class. Then, he proceeded to hold a speech at how pathetic it was, that the previous teacher couldn’t even dodge something as huge as a cake being thrown at them, just to be hit by a cake straight in the face the moment he finished that sentence.
He, naturally, got angry at that and started hurling curses at whoever was responsible for this just to be hit, yet again, when he said: “I dare you to try this again!”
Yuna almost wanted to stand up and applaud his performance. His facial reaction, his words, the way he moved, he was perfect. The perfect side character C. Funny enough to please the audience, but insignificant enough to barely be remembered.
Yuna couldn’t help but be slightly excited about finally becoming a genin. After all, becoming a genin meant that she would be considered an adult and that it would be much harder to mess with her from now on.
The whole class was currently sitting inside the classroom and was waiting for the final test to start. The trio would, like always, answer barely enough questions to get a passing mark and then would perform the required jutsu to an acceptable degree. As soon as they were genin, they could finally drop this annoying act and show what they were actually capable of.
Only a single test remained, which was to show off the mastery over the [Bunshin no Jutsu].
The first of the trio to be called for testing was Hinata, who passed the test easily. The next one to be called in was Naruto, who, surprisingly, failed the test. Yuna, however could easily see-through Naruto’s sad facade.
‘Oh? Is he plotting something?’
Naruto’s and Yuna’s eyes met for a split second and Yuna, immediately, had, at least, a basic understanding of what was going on.
‘So, he really is plotting something, huh? I cannot help but feel proud of him for how far he has come.’
[My memories might be a little off considering how often I get flooded with your degeneracy, but I’m pretty sure I remember, that you said you didn’t want to corrupt Naruto.]
Yuna decided to casually ignore Kurama’s comment, as she walked into the testing room. As soon as she reached the middle of the room and stood in front of the desk that had Iruka and Mezu…Miza…the new teacher sitting at it, she was asked to perform the [Bunshin no Jutsu].
She pretended to go through the necessary hand seals and while doing so, she felt the new teacher attempting to cast a genjutsu on her. For a moment, she considered just killing him right here, but since Naruto seems to have something planned for him, Yuna decided to just ignore the interference and create the clone.
Their new teacher was, naturally, surprised when she managed to create a clone despite his interference, but considering the current situation, he couldn’t say anything about it. Iruka congratulated her and handed over her Konoha headband, which would identify her as one of Konoha’s shinobi from now on.
After everyone except for Naruto received their headbands, they went home to their families. Naruto was the only one left behind while being “depressed” about his failure.
Yuna and Hinata were naturally watching him from afar, to see what kind of scheme Naruto had come up with. Although Yuna had already expected their new teacher to be the culprit, she couldn’t help but chuckle a little when she saw him approach Naruto.
‘Go for it, side character C. Go down how you are supposed to: In a single flare of forgettable light.’