"Well then, shall we go?"
"Ah, wait, let me close the door. Yoshi."
After making sure the door was properly shut, Hatake Shōsaku nodded toward Uchiha Seiji and Kakashi, who were waiting for him. "Alright, let's get going."
…
Before long, the three of them arrived at the front gates of the Ninja Academy.
"Ah, nice to meet you. These two children will also be attending the Academy. Please take care of them… I hope you'll all get along."
"That's not happening."
"Eh?"
"Father, you've got it wrong. He didn't pass the entrance exam this year."
"Oh… oh, how rude of me. We just happened to meet here at the Academy gates, so I thought…"
"Ahahaha, so that's how it is."
"What's so funny about that?"
"Hey, Kakashi, that's rude."
"Wasn't Father just rude too? Besides, he wants to get into the Academy but can't even use a single jutsu. No matter how you look at it—"
"Tch, like you can use that many yourself."
Seiji pulled the lollipop from her mouth and said, "You've barely mastered the Clone, Transformation, and Substitution Techniques, right?"
"Shut up, mind your own business! Whatever, let's hurry up—we'll be late!"
"Late? That's because of you. You said we should leave early, but then you dawdled forever."
"…Well then, goodbye for now," Shōsaku said awkwardly.
"You're Hatake Kakashi, right? Thanks for cheering me on!"
"…Oh?"
Seiji narrowed her eyes as she looked at Guy, noting the obvious training injuries across his body.
From her estimation, Guy's training level wasn't quite equal to her own during that intense three-month regimen, but it was close.
If she could have maintained Guy's kind of training intensity all this time…
"By now, I'd probably be at elite jōnin level. Instead, I can't even defeat a stronger tokubetsu jōnin. The gap really is huge…"
Not to mention chakra reserves—at least for sheer physical toughness, Guy had already reached genin level.
She thought about it, then glanced over at Kakashi. His body was also around genin level, and quickly nearing chūnin.
Reluctantly, under Shōsaku's prompting, Kakashi finally asked Guy's name.
"Well, we'll be going now."
Kakashi muttered to his father, then followed Seiji toward their assigned classroom.
When they arrived, sure enough—they were nearly the last ones.
Excluding Guy, there were already about a dozen students present out of the twenty total.
Two more familiar faces from Seiji's original class—Sasabe Motoki and Seki Akegami—had also been placed here.
The former Class A had already moved on to second year. Seiji could have skipped ahead too, but she couldn't be bothered.
Some from Class B had been placed into this year's Class B, while the higher achievers had joined the new Class A. The same restructuring had happened with the other classes as well.
Seiji casually picked a seat in the corner, and Kakashi sat down beside her.
"…Huh? Why are you sitting next to me?"
"No reason. Just instinct to sit near someone I know."
"Is that so…" Seiji raised a brow. "How about we make a bet?"
"A bet? On what?"
"That boy named Guy… I'm betting he'll be in this class too."
"You're joking, right? He didn't even pass the exam."
"Really? Then do you dare to bet against me?"
"…And what are we betting?"
"Ah…" Seiji froze. She hadn't actually thought that far.
"…Forget it. Not worth playing with you."
Just then, the classroom door opened and two more students walked inside.