Chapter – 5 Foolish Little Children! (Patreon)

The atmosphere of the Ninja Academy was quite lively, a large banner with the characters ‘Konoha Ninja Academy Entrance Ceremony’ was on the display, and many five, six, and seven-year-old children were gathered in groups, talking, laughing, and arguing.

From the manner these children were interacting, it wasn’t difficult to distinguish which child belonged to some noble shinobi clan, and which child is a commoner.

The children with civilian backgrounds and no connection to the Shinobi life appeared to be curious about everything, they were nervous and kept talking about irrelevant things.

For these children, becoming a shinobi would mean being able to stand out, get a different status from other folks, become strong, and live a better life by earning more money.

These children are ignorant of the dangers of the shinobi world, and perhaps no one has told them about it. After all, most of these children are orphans who have no way of knowing the hard truth of a Shinobi’s life, because of the glorified way the shinobi are represented in the village, and because of how much reverence shinobi get from the common folks, these children think that becoming a Shinobi is a noble profession.

“Poor Cannon fodder,” Tatsumi muttered and shook his head.

Going by the system’s standard, most of these children are at Level 0 in all the attributes, some are even worse. However, some of these children will enter successfully pass this assessment and enrol in the academy. They will train for a few years, and after graduation, they will become the noble cannon fodder ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Village and the Will of Fire.

Yes, most of them will die, this is no surprise. After all, not everyone can stand out as Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Namikaze Minato did.

This is the cruel truth of this world, unless someone has something special within them, they are mere cannon fodder.

Anyway, putting his attention off of the cannon fodder crowd, Tatsumi looked at the children from noble shinobi clans who were standing sparsely, and quietly.

There was not much pressure on these children. Unlike children with no background, they aren’t worried about failing the assessment, they are confident and for them, this entrance test is just a formality.

Because they are very clear about these things, so they have a sense of superiority over the commoners.

Moreover, most of the children with noble backgrounds have already undergone basic physical training.

According to the system’s standard, Tatsumi judged that most of these children are on Level 1, while some talented ones are on Level 2.

After a short while, a burly-black-faced shinobi wearing Konoha’s forehead protector walked in and began leading the children.

Although no children are restricted to enroll in the Ninja academy, regardless of their background, this doesn’t mean that anyone will be accepted. If you want to enrol in the academy, you have to pass the assessment. The main purpose of the assessment is to eliminate people who aren’t even worthy of becoming cannon fodder.

After all, not everyone is qualified to become cannon fodder, even cannon fodder must fulfil a basic standard of cannon fodder otherwise it would be of no use.

Now coming to the assessment.

The assessment is very simple. All the children have to run 200 laps around the playground of the academy, the first 100 children who can complete 200 laps within the specified time will pass the test.

200 laps around the playground are not too much in Tatsumi’s opinion.

For ordinary people, it may be too much, but for people aspiring to become cannon fodder, it is appropriate. After all, this is a magical world. The physique of the Shinobi is transformed with chakra.

130 trillion cells in our body make up the physical energy required for condensing chakra, so having a stronger body is very important, especially considering the fact that shinobi have to often engage in combat with enemies.

These 200 laps around the playground will test the physical strength, endurance, and mental fortitude of all children. The ones who have any of these qualities in them will pass, while the rest will fail.

After a short while, all the children lined up at the starting line under the burly-black-faced Shinobi’s instruction, Tatsumi and Mikoto are also among these children.

Obviously, Tatsumi plans to get first place and win by a huge advantage, only then he will become the star of this assessment and his name will resound in the ears of all the higher-ups.

With such a thought in mind, Tatsumi got ready.

Just before the whistle was blown, Mikoto looked at him and said, “Tatsumi-kun, all the best… I know you can win this!”

Tatsumi smirked, “Yes, I will win this thing!” and said, “And as for you, don’t fail this thing Mikoto.”

Mikoto nodded with a smile, “I will do my best.”

“Well then, see you after the race.” Said Tatsumi as he got ready to dash at full speed.

Whistle!

As soon as the whistle was blown, he rushed to the front.

Running at the front of the group. Tatsumi looked at the boy next to him. The other person is a five or six-year-old boy with short-light-brown hair, hazel eyes, and distinct blushes on his cheeks. He was wearing a dark teal poncho top and light green pants. On his poncho top, Tatsumi was able to see the emblem of the Senju clan, and couldn’t help but think, ‘Someone from the Senju Clan?’

Although the boy’s appearance is nothing compared to Tatsumi’s handsomeness, he had an energetic and naughty vibe on him, if you look closely, there is the shadow of Shodaime Hokage on the boy.

As Tatsumi looked at the boy closely, he suddenly realized, ‘Right… he must be Nawaki, Senju Nawaki! I didn’t expect to see him, but I guess this is only natural, after all, Nawaki was also of the same generation as Mikoto.’

Realizing that Senju Nawaki is also taking part in the assessment, he felt that if he restrains himself, winning would be a bit difficult.

And if doesn’t restrain himself, it would be too much show-off. After a while of considering, Tatsumi smirked, ‘Who cares?’ and decided to go all out.

His situation is not very good in the clan. The current Patriarch doesn’t favour him at all, so no matter how well he performs, he will only become an eyesore in the current Patriarch’s eyes therefore, he must look for the other option.

Moreover, Tatsumi doesn’t want to become part of a Jonin squad led by Jonins of the Uchiha Clan, because, in that scenario, the scope of his future development will be limited.

If you compare Konoha to a multinational company, then Hokage is the CEO of the company. Although Uchiha Clan has a lot of shares in Konoha, they are not enough to change the CEO. Since Hokage is the CEO, then he must stand on the side of the CEO to get promotions and all the bonuses.

And to get the promotion, naturally, he has to show his talent, otherwise, why would the CEO and other members of the Board pay any attention to him?

To break the chain of Nepotism and rise in the Konoha Conglomerate, Tatsumi decided to perform better than the legitimate heir.

‘The orphan of the Uchiha Clan defeated the grandson of First Hokage and got first place in the entrance exam.’ Is there a better topic of conversation during evening tea for melon-eating people?

If you think about it, Nawaki has a lot of advantages over Tatsumi.

Firstly, Nawaki deserves to be a member of the Senju Clan, not to mention his huge chakra reserves at such a young age, even his physique seems to be very strong. Even if he didn’t inherit the Sage body of his grandfather, his body is still far better than Uchihas.

Second, unlike Tatsumi, Nawaki is the prince of the Senju Clan and has been taken care of since childhood. Even if Senju Clan doesn’t have many people clansmen left, the ones left still take care of him and train him.

He has his sister Tsunade, and their friends Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. There is still a legend from the Warring States Era, Uzumaki Mito.

This is what you call luck and talent. And Nawaki was born with these advantages, if Tatsumi wants to become the star of the academy, then getting the first ranking in the entrance exam by defeating someone like Nawaki is the best choice.

Keeping this in mind, he put in more effort.

If it was yesterday before Tatsumi had added levelled up his Physical Index, he might not have been Nawaki’s opponent, however, today is a completely different scenario, as the current Tatsumi is undefeatable.

With just some added effort, Tatsumi crossed Nawaki.

Seeing the black-haired kid pass him suddenly, Nawaki was taken aback and speeded up. He was relying on burning his large chakra reserves to keep up with Tatsumi.

As the two kids speeded up all of a sudden and the distance with the rest of the crowd increased, the children from the major shinobi clans were reconciled.

It’s okay to lose, they were never here to win in the first place, however, they can’t be defeated by a very big gap, otherwise, it will wound their pride and also make them less valuable for their clans.

Subconsciously understanding this, they also increased their effort and speeded up to catch up with Nawaki and Tatsumi.

The burly-black-faced shinobi noticed that suddenly the overall speed of children began increasing, and muttered, “Well… well… this is fun, it seems this year is seeming to be quite promising.”

Back to the race, as time passed the distance between Tatsumi and Nawaki not only not decreased but continued to increase. Initially, Nawaki could still keep up with Tatsumi using his large chakra reserves, however, after his chakra reserves began to exhaust, he started to fall behind.

Although Nawaki’s physique is very good, however, Tatsumi’s physique is not bad either, the best thing is that his physical index is Level 3 meaning, his endurance, agility, stamina, and speed, all these things are also at Level 3, obviously, Nawaki couldn’t compete against someone so advance and began to fall behind halfway.

Nawaki gritted his teeth to catch up but fell more and more behind and could only stay in the second position.

No matter how hard he tried, he found that the black-haired kid from the Uchiha Clan was still ahead of him.

Every time he tried to accelerate and catch up, the other guy would also increase his speed.

‘Damn it, is he running on drugs?!’ Nawaki couldn’t help but think inwardly.

Tatsumi smirked and speeded up again. He was enjoying this entire test, he felt like he has never been so fast, it was almost like he is flying!

Suddenly, Tatsumi had an idea, he turned around and while looking at the ugly faces of children chasing him, he said in a deep tone of voice, “Foolish little children if you want to defeat me. Hate me, detest me, and run in an unsightly way. Run. Run and cling to your breath. Foster your stamina and endurance and cling to your wretched speed. And one day, when you have the same speed as I do, come before me.”