While working on his test paper, Obito Uchiha heard the conversation between Makoto and the newcomer. He subconsciously looked up—and froze.
He recognized the boy.
Shisui Uchiha.
Members of the Uchiha clan all lived together in the clan district assigned by Konohagakure, so people of the same generation usually knew of each other.
Even if they had never met face-to-face, they had at least heard about one another.
Especially someone like Shisui.
A prodigy like him often appeared in conversations among the clan elders as the classic "someone else's talented child."
It was practically impossible not to know his name.
Obito felt confused.
Why was Shisui here?
And judging by their conversation, he seemed very familiar with Makoto.
Could Teacher Hosokawa be some distant relative of Shisui's?
Obito suddenly came up with a rather unreliable guess.
"Teacher, I'm finished!"
Just as Obito's mind wandered, Might Guy suddenly shouted energetically from beside him.
"So fast?" Obito was stunned.
He was sure he hadn't stopped working for long. How had Guy already finished?
Curious, Obito leaned over to take a look.
Guy had only answered the first three multiple-choice questions. Everything else on the paper was blank.
Obito didn't know what to say.
The entire test only had ten questions—four multiple-choice and six written problems.
Although Obito himself didn't know how to solve many of them, he at least tried to fill in the paper so it looked more complete.
Hearing Guy's shout, Makoto walked over and checked the answers.
Two were wrong.
Only the first question was correct.
"Sorry, Teacher… I…" Guy looked at the three questions he had answered—two of them incorrect—and didn't know what to say.
"It's fine," Makoto said with a warm smile.
"Not knowing the answers is normal. If you already knew everything, you wouldn't need me to teach you."
"Don't feel discouraged because your score is low. Think of it another way—your room for improvement is huge."
"After all, improving from 5 points to 25 points is much easier than going from 80 points to 100 points."
Guy's body trembled.
Having always been labeled the dead last and mostly ignored by teachers, this was the first time he had received encouragement from someone other than his father.
"You're right, Teacher! My room for improvement is huge!"
Guy's fighting spirit instantly surged.
When Makoto explained the problems afterward, Guy listened extremely carefully.
Even when he struggled to understand, he still tried his best.
Next came Obito's paper.
Obito had filled in six questions, but only two were correct.
Makoto treated him the same way—first offering encouragement, then explaining the problems.
Afterward, Makoto handed each of them two more practice papers of the same type.
"We still have to do more?" Obito groaned.
His eyes drifted toward Shisui, who had already started practicing Fire Release nearby.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Shisui rapidly formed hand seals and instantly released a massive fireball nearly two meters tall, which shot toward the river.
Seeing the huge fireball, Obito couldn't help feeling impressed.
As expected of the clan's famous genius.
As an Uchiha himself, Obito also knew the Great Fireball Technique.
But whether in size or power, his version looked more like a small fireball compared to Shisui's.
Another genius like Kakashi…?
Although Guy didn't know who Shisui was, judging from his appearance, the boy looked only six or seven years old.
Yet he could already perform such a powerful technique.
Guy immediately thought of the person he had already declared his eternal rival.
Kakashi Hatake.
The Ninja Academy used a three-semester system.
The first semester ran from April to July, followed by summer break.
The second semester ran from September to December, followed by winter break.
After winter break came the third semester.
However, Kakashi hadn't even finished the second semester.
He had applied for early graduation—and successfully passed.
His level of genius was obvious.
And the feeling Shisui gave Guy right now…
was exactly like seeing Kakashi at the same age.
Soon after, Shisui began practicing another technique.
Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique.
Seeing that Shisui knew yet another fire-style ninjutsu, Guy was even more shocked.
After all, Guy had spent three whole years just trying to master the Academy Three Basic Techniques, and even that felt difficult.
Watching Shisui control a fire dragon soaring through the sky, Obito felt deeply envious.
If I could do that… Rin would definitely look at me differently.
"You've already improved a lot in terms of chakra shape transformation compared to your first attempt," Makoto commented.
"The fire dragon moves faster now. Looks like you practiced a lot after going home yesterday."
"It's mainly because your training manual helped me so much, Teacher," Shisui replied with a smile.
"Let me demonstrate it again for you."
Makoto stepped forward.
He clapped his hands together.
Chakra rapidly gathered and compressed inside his body.
In the next instant, he opened his mouth and released three enormous fire dragons.
Seeing the ferocious flames and the sheer size of the three dragons, Obito was dumbfounded.
Just a second ago, he had thought Shisui's technique looked incredibly cool.
But after Makoto demonstrated his version…
Obito completely changed his mind.
The two techniques didn't even look like the same jutsu.
Shisui's fire dragon compared to Makoto's was like the difference between a snake and an eel.
And the speed was unbelievable.
It felt like Makoto hadn't even formed hand seals.
The three massive fire dragons streaked across the sky, leaving blazing trails of fire in their wake.
Then they formed several large characters in the air.
"Stop staring. Do your homework."
Obito unconsciously read the fiery words out loud.
Only then did he realize Makoto was staring at him with a very "friendly" smile.
Obito jumped in fright.
"I was just tired, so I looked up at the sky for a bit!"
He glanced sideways and noticed that Guy—who had been staring with him just moments ago—had already grabbed his pen and started writing again with lightning speed.
"So," Makoto asked calmly, "have you looked enough?"
"Yes! Yes, I have!" Obito quickly lowered his head and resumed working.
After writing for a while, however, he couldn't hold back his curiosity.
"Teacher Hosokawa … what exactly is your relationship with Shisui?"
"Teacher and student," Makoto replied while glancing at Guy's test paper. "What else would it be?"
"Hehe… I thought so too," Obito said awkwardly, wisely keeping his earlier guess about them being relatives to himself.
"Teacher Hosokawa , if I pass the exam, will you teach me the jutsu you just used?"
In Obito's mind, he had already imagined showing off the new technique in front of Nohara Rin.
In other words…
he was already preparing to celebrate victory early.
"Of course," Makoto nodded.
"Really?!" Obito looked overjoyed.
"Really."
"Teacher Hosokawa , what kind of taijutsu do you know?" Guy asked excitedly.
Although he also thought Makoto looked cool when using the Dragon Flame Technique, Guy had a clear goal.
He would focus only on taijutsu.
Makoto didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he walked to a nearby tree.
He concentrated chakra into his legs, his muscles tightening.
Then—
He unleashed a whirlwind kick at incredible speed.
Crack!
The large tree instantly snapped and collapsed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Makoto lowered his leg, brushed the dust off his clothes, and smiled at Guy.
"Do you like this taijutsu?"