Chapter Two The Shinobi Path
"What's your name?" Kakashi Hatake gave Zhao Yi Qianming a quick once-over and asked.
He was intrigued. The boy before him had not yet trained Chakra, yet he had outpaced a pack of clan kids. Before enrollment, Kakashi's father, Sakumo Hatake, had told him to take note of worthy rivals. For now, though, Zhao Yi Qianming still wasn't someone he took seriously.
"Zhao Yi Qianming. You?" Zhao Yi Qianming shot back.
Kakashi frowned and said flatly, "Kakashi. Kakashi Hatake."
With that, Kakashi lost interest. It wasn't arrogance. Zhao Yi Qianming's tone and expression were so stiff that Kakashi found them off-putting.
Back in his previous life, Zhao Yi Qianming had never been good at socializing. He was taciturn by nature. Crossing into the Naruto world only worsened it; he had spoken to almost no one for years. His speech was rigid and awkward, unpleasant to hear.
The two hundred–lap test soon ended. Aside from a handful who failed, most passed the entrance exam. Anyone who came here had confidence in themselves.
Among those eliminated, Zhao Yi Qianming took note of a boy in a tight green jumpsuit.
Might Guy. The man who would one day, relying on the Forbidden Technique [Eight Gates], thrash Madara Uchiha in his Six Paths form. Zhao Yi Qianming was interested in befriending Might Guy, just not yet.
There would be plenty of time over the next few years at the Academy.
This cohort included quite a few famous figures from the original story. Zhao Yi Qianming was interested in all of them. They would be the backbone of Konoha's future. Shared time as classmates would make many things easier later.
It was why he had approached Kakashi first. If he didn't know what Kakashi would become, he would never have taken the initiative.
After receiving his admission notice, Zhao Yi Qianming went home alone, packed lightly, grabbed some food, and headed into the forest behind the Hokage Rock.
Konohagakure treated war orphans humanely. They had their own housing and received a monthly stipend sufficient for living expenses. Luxuries like a private training ground, however, were out of reach.
So the vast forest behind the Hokage Rock became Zhao Yi Qianming's practice field.
His training was simple: push-ups and other strength-building drills.
Among Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu, Taijutsu was the least valued, because Taijutsu users were at a disadvantage against opponents skilled in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu.
Might Guy later became overwhelmingly strong, but only with [Eight Gates]. Without it, even facing Kisame Hoshigaki when he used the [Shapeshifting Technique] to create a clone with only about thirty percent of the original's power, Guy still had a hard fight.
Zhao Yi Qianming, however, placed great emphasis on Taijutsu. Solid physical skill was the foundation for using Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.
Focusing on basics was also a necessity. He had no access to the shinobi world's inner circles and did not know its cultivation methods.
In the original story, many top shinobi did not rely on Kekkei Genkai: the Third Hokage, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and others. None had inherited bloodline limits, yet each reached great heights. Zhao Yi Qianming intended to find his own path by walking the roads they had walked.
Ninjutsu-focused, Forbidden-Technique-focused, Sage-Technique-focused, and speed-focused paths.
For a shinobi without a Kekkei Genkai, only mastering Ninjutsu powerful enough to counter bloodline abilities would allow him to compete.
To survive the coming Third Shinobi World War, he would need to keep getting stronger.
Zhao Yi Qianming had drawn up many plans for his future, but for now he was still just a kid who couldn't even refine Chakra.
Fortunately, the Ninja Academy would officially begin tomorrow. He was genuinely interested. The first step to becoming a shinobi started at the Academy.
The next day, Zhao Yi Qianming got up on the dot and reached the Academy with only minutes to spare.
The moment he stepped through the gate, he felt several hostile stares. It wasn't heightened perception. Those looks were blatant. If not for being at the Academy, those boys would probably have jumped him.
A glance told him why. They were the clan heirs he had outpaced yesterday. Being surpassed by a civilian, they had surely been scolded by their elders for disgracing their clans.
He looked away, crossed the yard, entered the teaching building, stepped into his classroom, and sat down as if no one else existed.
He didn't think much of those clan brats. If they came to cause trouble, then he would fight. If he beat them, he would naturally enter the higher-ups' sights. If he lost, it would be a beating at most. He would train harder and win it back later.
The noisy classroom clashed with Zhao Yi Qianming's silence. Or perhaps Zhao Yi Qianming clashed with the room itself. Children laughed and shouted on all sides. Some who knew each other had been placed in the same class and were overjoyed, horsing around.
Among his peers, Zhao Yi Qianming had no friends and didn't want any. They had no common language.
"Teacher's here!"
Someone shouted. The room fell quiet at once.
The Academy's curriculum wasn't childish play like in the original story. It taught the most basic knowledge for shinobi. If you studied seriously, you could learn many useful fundamentals.
The times were warlike. Tensions only grew. The village had just endured the Second Shinobi World War and was desperately short of genin and chunin, the ranks prone to attrition. The training period for shinobi had been sharply shortened.
In the original peacetime, Academy students had to be twelve to graduate. In the current wartime, sub-ten graduations were common. Monsters like Kakashi graduated at five and became chunin at six.
Shortening study time inevitably hurt teaching quality. With everyone still children, few could focus. The result was predictable: many died on the battlefield not long after graduation.
War did not lack for war orphans. One batch died, and another soon replaced them.
For Zhao Yi Qianming, this was an edge.
With an adult mind, he could easily stand out among children. As long as the talent he displayed drew the attention of the higher-ups, he would not be assigned suicide missions after graduation.
Unfair, yes. But who was going to care?