"Holy crap! That kick!"
"Kazama-sensei... he's not dead, is he?"
"Hard to say. If I took a hit like that, I'd be checking out early."
"Yue-sensei's Gale Flicker is incredibly fast. If it hadn't been for that one-hit knockout, he would have danced around that girl until she collapsed."
The spectating teachers were in an absolute uproar. They hadn't expected a battle that seemed all but over to end in such a breathtaking reversal.
The seemingly frail, water-wielding blind girl was, in reality, a pint-sized engine of destruction. A single kick had been enough to strip the formidable Kazama Yue of all combat capability.
"That Taijutsu..."
Mitsuda-sensei was floored. Looking at the raw power, she really did look like Might Guy's flesh and blood. But what kind of woman would it take to neutralize Guy's... unique facial features and nonexistent Water Style talent, only to elevate them to this level?
Is his wife the Mizukage? No, that's impossible. The current Mizukage is a man! Mitsuda's imagination was running wild.
Might Guy himself was equally stunned. As a master of Taijutsu, he hadn't seen a single sign of physical conditioning on Hinami. She looked delicate, with skin so fair it seemed it might bruise at a touch. He wouldn't have been surprised if she were purely a ninjutsu specialist.
But that kick had been a work of art. It even held the faintest, haunting shadow of the Morning Peacock.
"Beautifully done, Hinami!" Guy roared, flashing his teeth in a blinding grin and thrusting a thumb into the air.
Hinami waved her hands frantically, signaling him to stop embarrassing her. Naturally, Guy took this as a sign of spirited interaction and raised his volume: "This! This is youth!"
Hinami decided she could no longer look at him.
Cough, cough, cough...
Over ten meters away, the motionless Kazama Yue finally stirred. He hacked twice, braced his arms against the dirt, and forced himself up. "Cough... I almost saw the afterlife there."
"Sensei, may I enroll now?" Hinami asked, her voice tilting with a feigned, innocent curiosity as she watched him struggle to his feet.
"Heh..." Yue let out a pained, dry laugh.
His green flak jacket was shredded, and a scorched, blackened boot print sat squarely over his sternum. If he hadn't focused his chakra at the point of impact at the very last second to reinforce his defenses, his heart might have stopped.
With strength like that, you're really going to pretend to be a rookie? Yue thought bitterly. If he had known, he would have skipped the formalities and gone straight for the high-output Wind Style.
He gritted his teeth. "Hmph! Once you're in my class, I'm going to bury you in homework every single day."
Hinami pursed her lips and replied coolly, "Your Taijutsu is a bit lacking, Sensei. When you assign work, try to avoid that subject. We wouldn't want you misleading the students."
Yue was instantly speechless. His chest tightened with a mix of fury and physical pain. He wasn't sure exactly how many ribs he had broken.
"Go with Mitsuda-sensei to pay your fees and collect your textbooks. You're being placed in the Elite Class. You start tomorrow."
"You head to the hospital; I'll handle things here," Mitsuda said, patting her chest.
Yue nodded to her, then with great effort, wove a series of signs. With a gentle breeze, he vanished.
The crowd of teachers began to disperse in twos and threes, talking excitedly. They had seen and taught many "prodigies" in their time.
Setting aside the older generation who went to war as toddlers, there was Minato Namikaze, who had defeated Cloud Jonin before graduation. There was Kakashi Hatake, who graduated at five and made Jonin at twelve. And now, there was Itachi Uchiha, who was rumored to be an Anbu captain at thirteen.
Konoha was never short on geniuses. Kazama Yue himself had been a renowned prodigy in his youth.
But even among geniuses, there were tiers. At six years old, she had defeated a Jonin-level instructor. While Yue hadn't used his most lethal jutsu, a win was a win. In the world of shinobi, information, deception, and lures were the standard tools of the trade.
Hinami had proven herself to be at the very top of the hierarchy. The name Zhuri Hinami was destined to be etched into the annals of the Leaf. As witnesses to its beginning, the teachers felt a strange sense of shared pride.
"Naruto! Who won? Did you see?"
"Quiet! I'm looking!"
At the back of the field, the young students who had snuck out of class couldn't push through the wall of teachers.
Shikamaru had suggested a human ladder. Choji, being the strongest, was the base. Kiba took the middle, and the lightweight Naruto was perched at the very top with a pair of binoculars.
"What's happening, Naruto?" Sakura asked anxiously. Hearing that the handsome Kazama-sensei was on the ropes had her panicked.
"I can't tell! There's too much mist!" Naruto squinted through the lenses.
"If you can't see, let me up there!" Kiba grunted, swaying under Naruto's weight.
"I... I can't hold much longer," Choji wheezed from the bottom.
Sasuke, refusing to participate in such idiocy, had climbed a nearby tree. Unfortunately, he was too far away to see anything clearly without binoculars. He was too proud to go down and ask Naruto for help, but staying in the tree made him look interested. He settled for muttering "boring" and jumping down to walk away.
Suddenly, a group of teachers walked toward them. Seeing a bunch of "runts" stacked on top of each other, and comparing them to the six-year-old who had just toppled a Jonin, the teachers felt a wave of irritation.
"Isn't this class time? Which class are you in?"
"Crap! Run!"
The roar of the teacher sent the group into a panic. Naruto tumbled off Kiba's shoulders. The students scattered like startled birds.
Someone—likely Shikamaru—tossed a smoke bomb. Naruto scrambled to his feet and vanished into the gray haze.
"Hurry, Hinata!" Ino grabbed the dazed girl's hand and fled the scene.
When the smoke cleared, the teachers waved the soot away from their faces. The field was empty.
"Those little brats!"
"They sure move fast when they're in trouble."
"Wait, isn't there one left? You there, boy in the sunglasses. What class are you in?"
"Eh?"
Standing there alone was Shino Aburame. He had been wandering sadly after being ignored by Iruka and his classmates, only to walk straight into the line of fire.
"Me...?" Shino looked around in disbelief.
"Yes, you! Who else? Name, class, and a three-thousand-word apology. You're not going anywhere."
"I..."
Shino fell into a deep, silent contemplation of his life choices.