Time flowed like a river—years passed in the blink of an eye.
Before long, the day of Ninja Academy graduation and team assignments arrived. Nagi, Naruko, and the others all successfully passed the graduation exam.
The students arrived early and gathered in the classroom, waiting for the team assignments.
"Satsuki! That seat is mine!"
"Naruko, you came too late."
"Don't lie! We clearly arrived at the classroom at the same time!"
Naruko and Satsuki were currently fighting over the seat to Nagi's left. The rest of the class had already grown accustomed to this scene.
Hinata sat on Nagi's right.
As for why Naruko and Satsuki didn't try to take Hinata's seat—it was simple.
They couldn't beat her.
The four of them often trained and sparred together. Although none of them knew Nagi's true strength, they were very familiar with each other's abilities.
Secretly, they had even held competitions behind Nagi's back. Whoever won would get the seat closest to him.
However, over the past few years, Hinata had maintained a perfect winning record.
As a result, she had always remained Nagi's desk partner.
"Nagi, I hope we're assigned to the same team. That way we can stay together in the future."
"Yeah, I hope I end up in the same team as you all too."
(Though that's impossible.)
For some reason, Nagi felt that over the past few years, Naruko, Satsuki, and Hinata had become increasingly attached to him.
Especially Hinata.
On weekends, she often brought a pile of high-grade ingredients to his house as a guest.
Nagi did enjoy working with premium ingredients—but many times, halfway through cooking, he would have to pull Hinata out of his bedroom after she had secretly slipped inside…
After a while, Iruka Umino walked into the classroom holding a list.
"Everyone, quiet down."
"I already said my farewell speech yesterday, so I won't repeat it. Today I'm here mainly to announce the team assignments."
…
"Team Seven: Naruko Uzumaki, Satsuki Uchiha, Sakura Haruno."
Upon hearing this, Naruko and Satsuki immediately fell silent.
Sakura, meanwhile, instantly felt an enormous amount of pressure. After all, the strength of her two teammates was simply overwhelming.
Watching from the Hokage Office, the gathered jōnin immediately understood the reasoning.
After all, Minato Namikaze, Fugaku Uchiha, and Kizashi Haruno had been extremely well-coordinated comrades during the Third Great Ninja War.
"Team Eight: Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame."
Hinata also fell silent.
Kiba and Shino, however, were practically trembling.
"Who put us in the same team as the boss lady?!"
"What did we do wrong?! Can't we fix it?!"
The two of them could already imagine their future lives being ruthlessly suppressed.
"Team Nine: Karin Uzumaki, Sai, Shin."
"Team Ten: Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka."
The three of them had already expected this outcome, so they showed little reaction.
…
"That concludes the team assignments for everyone," Iruka said.
"If you have any questions, please raise your hand before speaking."
"If there are no questions, please remain in the classroom and wait for your team instructor to arrive."
Naruko immediately raised her hand.
"Iruka-sensei, I have a question! Nagi wasn't assigned to any team!"
Iruka smiled.
"Because of Nagi 's outstanding performance at the academy, the Hokage has specially assigned him to the International Exchange Class."
"The International Exchange Class forms squads composed of genin from different countries or hidden villages. The supervising jōnin will also be stationed representatives from those countries currently assigned to Konoha."
Nagi had actually received this news yesterday.
At the time, Minato and the others had personally visited his home to explain the situation.
He quickly realized what this meant.
This was essentially the prelude to deeper cooperation between Konoha and other nations.
By selecting him—the top student of the academy—Konoha intended to showcase its strength to the other villages.
After Iruka left, everyone remained in the classroom waiting for their instructors.
Eventually, only Nagi and the Rookie Nine remained—along with Team Nine.
At that moment, the classroom door opened.
A woman with short blonde hair and an impressively ample figure walked inside. Holding a list, she called out:
"Nagi ."
"Present."
Samui and Nagi looked at each other—and both froze for a moment.
But they quickly recovered.
"I'm your supervising jōnin, Samui. Please take care of me."
"Next, come with me. I'll take you to meet your other teammates."
"Yes."
Nagi followed Samui out of the classroom, leaving Naruko and the others completely petrified.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
"Th-that woman…"
"She's dangerous—way too dangerous! I have to tell my father when I get home. Nagi can't be allowed to follow someone so… dangerous!"
"…."
That overwhelmingly evil presence left Hinata, Satsuki, and Naruko feeling both threatened and slightly inferior.
Meanwhile, Sakura and Ino were simply envious of her figure.
Samui led Nagi to a training ground in Konohagakure.
Under a large tree nearby, two people were already waiting.
One was a girl with long black hair tied into a single ponytail, who—despite her young age—already possessed a rather impressive figure.
The other had brown hair, a sweet smile, and an elegant, graceful aura reminiscent of a refined Yamato Nadeshiko.
After arriving, Samui briefly explained the situation before speaking again.
"To help everyone get familiar with each other, let's start with introductions. I'll go first as an example."
"My name is Samui, from Kumogakure. My wish is that ninja can become a bit calmer and more composed."
(Within Kumogakure, C needed to serve as the Raikage's bodyguard. Dodai had to constantly analyze the movements of other villages. Mabui absolutely couldn't leave the village—or everything there would fall into chaos. Yugito Nii, as a jinchūriki, couldn't casually travel to another village. As for the others… they were even less suitable.)
(Therefore, the stationed representative ultimately became Samui.)
Next came the black-haired girl.
"My name is Fūma Shizuka, from Fūma Village. I hope to become stronger in the future so that I can change my village."
(Her mentor had already sensed the growing trend of cooperation centered around Konoha. Thus, she entrusted Jiraiya with bringing Shizuka to Konoha, and Jiraiya recommended her for the International Exchange Class.)
After speaking, Shizuka glanced subtly at Nagi.
For some reason, she felt a strong urge to get closer to him.
Next was the brown-haired girl.
"My name is Ameno, from Sunagakure. I hope to become a woman like Lady Tsunade someday."
(During the Third Great Ninja War, Hashirama had used Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence in the desert, creating vast forests. Because of this, Sunagakure no longer struggled as severely with resources. Over the past few years, they had been consistently expressing goodwill toward Konoha.)
(Sending Ameno—who had excellent talent for Medical Ninjutsu—served two purposes: to learn Konoha's advanced medical techniques, and because medical ninja tend to build strong bonds with teammates.)
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