Land of Fire, Konohagakure.
A light drizzle was falling from the sky. On the playground of the Ninja Academy, two young boys were brandishing kunai, locked in a fierce mock battle.
"The written exam results are out. You're first again, Gen."
Nara Shikaku sat leaning against a railing with a blade of grass in his mouth, watching the fight on the playground as he spoke leisurely to Uchiha Gen, who was eating snacks beside him.
"The written exam only accounts for forty percent; it's no big deal. On the other hand, you manage to precisely control your score to sixty every time. That difficulty is probably even higher."
Uchiha Gen shook the empty snack bag and spoke, then casually reached into Akimichi Choza's backpack and pulled out a small bag of dried fruit. Akimichi Choza blinked his small eyes a few times, looked at the snacks in his backpack that had already hit rock bottom, and fell silent.
This was the graduation assessment for the Ninja Academy, and it had reached the final two matches. Most of the students from the elite class were waiting here while watching the battle between Uchiha Inabi and Sarutobi Enjun. Seeing Uchiha Gen take snacks from Akimichi Choza and eat while watching, many others also ran over to grab a handful of sunflower seeds or dried fruit from Akimichi Choza, sitting aside to enjoy the show.
Most ninjas of the Akimichi clan love eating as much as their lives, but Akimichi Choza had a gentle temperament and didn't mind sharing food with his companions, provided that he wouldn't go hungry himself.
"Tsk, looks like the winner is about to be decided. The first place for this practical assessment should be Enjun."
Nara Shikaku stood up from the ground and stretched his back. The end of the practical assessment meant that the graduation exam was almost over. Because the Great Ninja War broke out the year before last, even the grandson of the Shodai Hokage who graduated back then perished on the battlefield. Therefore, starting from this year, to improve the practical combat abilities of the academy students, the graduation assessment was no longer just the Academy Three Jutsu, but was graded based on the results of practical combat drills.
"Hard to say. That kid Inabi is holding something back," Uchiha Gen said, tossing a raisin into his mouth.
Currently, the one with the advantage on the field was the eldest son of the Sarutobi clan, Sarutobi Enjun. However, Uchiha Gen knew that during this year's winter break, Uchiha Inabi had learned a C-rank ninjutsu at the Uchiha clan's school.
The resources available to clan ninjas are not comparable to those of civilian ninjas. The Uchiha clan, being the number one prestigious family in the current ninja world, had another internal education system. The clan school was generally used to lay the foundation for children who hadn't yet entered the Ninja Academy, but it was also open to clan members who were already academy students during winter and summer vacations. It was roughly equivalent to a holiday cram school, intended to prevent clan students from having poor grades and shaming the family.
Uchiha Inabi had excellent grades and his comprehensive ability was high enough to compete for first place in this year's class. Coupled with a jōnin father who had awakened the San-Tomoe Sharingan, the educational resources he could obtain at this stage were not inferior to anyone else's. Even if Sarutobi Enjun was the eldest son of the Sandaime Hokage, it was the same.
As for Gen... he was quite special.
Regarding his own talent, he felt he was only upper-middle at best. However, being a transmigrator made him more precocious. He had accumulated a certain first-mover advantage when he first entered the Ninja Academy. Combined with the training from the Uchiha clan school, although his resources weren't as good as Inabi's or Enjun's, he wasn't lagging too far behind the others in this elite class full of second-generation ninjas.
With the little bit of help brought by his "Golden Finger," he could firmly hold a spot in the top three of the class, not much worse than Inabi and the others.
As for why it was just a 'little' bit of help...
Character Name: Uchiha Gen
Character Level: 8
Currently Loaded Character Card: Haruno Sakura (Ninja Academy Student)
Currently Available Item Cards: None
Available Gacha Draws: 0
Current Attribute Values: Nin: 5, Tai: 4, Gen: 4, Str: 4, Spd: 5, Sta: 4, Seal: 5, Int: 6, Total: 37
The system's greatest help to Uchiha Gen was this Haruno Sakura character card he got from the gacha. Although most of the abilities Gen possessed had already surpassed the Haruno Sakura of the period represented by this character card, this card still allowed him to solidify his foundation, giving him comprehensive qualities no lower than those of Uchiha Inabi and Sarutobi Enjun.
Furthermore, the greatest use of this card was Sakura's almost monstrous level of basic knowledge mastery, which allowed Uchiha Gen to take first place in every written exam with a near-perfect score.
Yes, Gen had a system, and he was quite familiar with it because he had developed many of the functional settings within it. Before transmigrating, a certain Naruto IP mobile game developed and operated by his company was quite popular. Even if the 'potato' servers glitched from time to time, it still frequently topped the revenue charts thanks to the players' love.
So the company started a "gu-rearing" mode, wanting to replicate this successful experience. On one hand, they invested real money to develop similar games for other IPs; on the other hand, they continued to dig deep into the Naruto IP and developed a card game.
As an employee on the latter project, Uchiha Gen participated in the production of many of the game's content settings. However, while the game was still only a semi-finished product, he met with a stroke of luck on his way to work and came to the ninja world. The semi-finished game inside his work laptop also followed him, becoming his system.
Because it was a semi-finished product, the gameplay was still very crude, only having roughly established the level-up and gacha mechanics. In addition to the character cards that had already been completed, the prize pool was stuffed with many items, both good and bad, but the drop rate was not very high. This was naturally to force players to spend money.
To get gacha chances outside of leveling up, one naturally had to participate in activities that required "krypton" (spending money). His company's games focused on the idea that you could become stronger by spending money. Unfortunately, except for this part, other content hadn't been made yet. Even the experience points needed for the level-up system only had a function for rewarding experience through missions.
But fortunately, Uchiha Gen discovered that missions officially released by Konohagakure could also grant experience. Even practical drills and monthly or final exams in the Ninja Academy could be counted as missions, though their rating was very low, only being counted as E-rank.
"The winner is about to be decided."
A brown-haired boy who always had a stiff face suddenly spoke. His name was Kurama Murakumo, a member of the Kurama clan.
It wasn't just Kurama Murakumo who saw it; many other students present saw it as well. Because both sides competing on the playground had pulled back their distance and were quickly forming hand seals.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
A bright flame erupted from Uchiha Inabi's mouth, reflecting a bright red glow on his young face. On the opposite side, Sarutobi Enjun also finished his hand seals, and what he spat out from his mouth was also a ball of fire.
"Katon: Kadan!"