The boys followed Amaya Sensei back to the village in silence, partly due to their fatigue and partly because they were filled with apprehension. She hadn’t told them anything except that they would have a debriefing after she got her shoulder wound patched up. While she was in the hospital, they sat in the waiting room.

“Argh! I hate this waiting! I wish she would have just told us what’s going on and got it over with!” Kazuki grumbled. “Do you think she will say that we cheated by cutting up the flag?”

“Maybe,” Reito answered. “But if doing that or visiting the site ahead of the test was against the rules, she should have made it clear.”

“I feel bad about injuring her,” asked Yuji.

Reito frowned in frustration. “Don’t,” he said a little testily. “The medics will take care of her, and she wouldn’t have been injured in the first place had she not underestimated us. Even at the end, she wasn’t taking me seriously. She may have got my flag at the last second, but she could have taken it sooner had she not toyed with me.”

Yuji and Kazuki observed Reito with concerned expressions, which he tried not to notice. They were surely feeling conflicted about passing the test when he hadn’t. They had done so using his strategy, after all. Then again, Amaya Sensei hadn’t confirmed the results one way or the other.

Just then, their teacher emerged from around the corner with her arm in a sling. Reito also noticed that the usual crease in her brow had softened considerably.

“Are you okay, Sensei?” asked Yuji when she reached them.

“Huh? Oh, this?” Amaya Sensei responded, looking at the sling. “It was only a flesh wound; it’s mostly healed already with Medical Ninjutsu. I told you to come at me with killing intent, but you didn’t throw hard enough to do any real damage. In the field, that sort of mistake could cost you.”

Yuji lowered his head in shame. Apparently, he had held back.

“So, let’s get to it,” the teacher announced, causing each of the boys to straighten up in their seat. “My explanation of the exam… As it seems you have already deduced, I wasn’t entirely honest with you.”

“First off, I would like to apologize for my rudeness upfront. I’m not quite as stern as I made out. Since you were unaware of my personality when we met, I took the opportunity to test your emotional resilience. Judging by the difference between your initial reactions and the composure you demonstrated this morning, you realized this.”

“Reito thought you might be trying to provoke us,” Yuji confirmed. “He suggested lots of other things you might say, so we were prepared.”

“Good. Keeping your cool under fire and analyzing information with a level head are important skills for a ninja,” Amaya Sensei nodded approvingly. “Secondly, I can confirm now that I was telling the truth about the purpose of the exam. It is used as a means to evaluate and determine which graduates are most suitable to become Genin.”

Reito distinctly heard Kazuki gulp in the seat next to him.

“However, I mislead you about the number of graduates that would be selected. This was to sow the seeds of uncertainty and division, which, again, you seemed to have picked up on if your unity was any indication. Truthfully, there is no set number. Nine is the average number of students who pass based on previous years. Moreover, it’s not nine students, so much as three teams. Students either pass or fail this stage of the process together.”

Reito’s stomach fell. He had been worried about this. Only two members of his team had passed the test, as Amaya Sensei had originally explained it. Did that mean his failure would prevent Yuji and Kazuki from passing?

“Thirdly,” the teacher continued, “regarding your grouping…”

Reito shifted in his seat at this point.

“I did indeed review your files before our meeting. I also discussed you with your teachers, barring Mizuki, of course.”

Reito raised an eyebrow with intrigue at the teacher’s statement and the little chuckle that followed.

“Err, forget I said that,” corrected Amaya Sensei. “Anyway, based on the information available to me, it was with total honesty that I told you to quit being a ninja.”

The boys flinched as one at this, but Reito caught himself and placed a hand on Kazuki’s knee before his friend jumped out of his seat.

Amaya Sensei smiled. “My assessment of you was premature,” she admitted. “Had I had any inkling of your true capabilities… Well, I would have said the same thing in order to provoke you, but I would have been more interested in seeing what you could do.”

Feeling Kazuki relax, Reito withdrew his hand.

“You three were definitely this year’s underdogs, but you weren’t grouped to set you up to fail. That was another fib of mine.”

“So why were we grouped?” Reito asked, impatient to know the answer to this niggling question.

“Your teachers recognized that in the last couple of years, your work ethic and performance have improved due to your cooperation. You’ve motivated each other. The teams were assigned to be balanced, not just in terms of skill but to give you all a fair opportunity to pass the exam. In your case, your key advantage wasn’t your skill levels but your existing relationship, and from what I observed this morning, you capitalized on it.”

Reito was pleasantly surprised. Team Four’s grouping had been intentional and not as a way to weed out the competition. Iruka Sensei and the other teachers had noticed their hard work and seen the value in their bond.

“That said, even after the surprises you showed me this morning, you three have a long way to go. You’re still behind in terms of ability,” said Amaya Sensei. “Your Chakra levels and control are a problem. And that brings me to your performance in the exam itself.”

The teacher sat down in a chair opposite them at that point, and the boys leaned in to listen.

“Yuji Saito,” Amaya Sensei began, “You showed promise with the bō staff and were able to adapt your fighting style to compensate for your teammate’s projectile attacks. You also revealed some interesting Jutsu, which show promise but have a lot of room for development.”

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Yuji nodded affirmatively.

“Kazuki Torimoto. Your skill with the bow impressed me. Yuji mentioned you had employed a visual Jutsu to complement it?”

“Yeah, my dad’s Eagle Eye Jutsu,” said Kazuki proudly. “He invented it while working with the birds at our aviary. It doesn’t compare to the Hyuga Clan’s Byakugan…but it improves my visual range and acuity by a lot, so it pairs well with my archery.”

“Indeed,” Amaya Sensei remarked with a warm smile. “Your aim and timing were perfect. However, employing a bow from sniping distance as you did won’t always be possible. You’ll need to work on your Taijutsu, so you can respond effectively to ambush or situations in confined spaces.”

Kazuki nodded fervently, aware of his need to improve his close combat skills.

“Finally, Reito Tsu. Your Shuriken Jutsu is above average, but you lack overall combat ability, owing primarily to your poor command of Chakra. That said, you made up for your shortcomings with smart use of ninja tools, high-level tactical analysis, and a clever strategy that you and your teammates pulled off to great effect.

“You saw through my attempts at deception and provocation and prepared accordingly. You made use of every opportunity available to you within the guidelines I set, including scoping out the battlefield and planning and researching how to make use of it. You devised a strategy that could work in numerous situations, used it to lower my guard, and then made your move with the strict time limit in mind. You planned for all this in advance without even knowing the exact test parameters…”

Reito felt himself blush.

“While you perform well on academy intelligence tests, you’re no genius. Even so, you seem to have a knack for the mental requirements of ninja life. You made the best possible use of the information available to you and did everything we could expect of a graduate in such circumstances. The only thing you didn’t do…was hold on to your piece of the flag!”

Feeling as though he had been punched in the gut, Reito dropped his head.

Addressing all the boys now, the teacher went on, “That said, there was one final lie in my explanation of the exam. Passing or failing was never about possessing the flag. Your success is based entirely on my discretion, and I’ve failed almost all the teams I’ve assessed over the years. In fact, I think Kakashi is the only Jonin with a worse pass rate than me now.”

As Amaya Sensei reflected on this statement, Reito remembered that Kakashi was the name of Team Seven’s Jonin instructor, the one Iruka Sensei had mentioned, the one who hadn’t shown up to orientation. Apparently, Naruto’s team were in for a rude awakening. But what about their team?

Getting to her feet again, the teacher concluded, “In my experience, most students show up to the final exam without any preparation at all, usually terrified of what’s to come after my introduction. While many are confident in their abilities, they fail to recognize the criteria they are being assessed on.”

Waiting on tenterhooks, the boys blinked in confusion. Had they missed something? What was it?

“Teamwork!” roared Amaya Sensei. “We assess you in three-man teams to see how you work as a unit! While your individual talents are lacking, you displayed perfect synergy. As a result, not just one but all three of you came very close to beating my little exercise, something that has never happened before.”

Reito’s heart was fit to burst.

“Therefore, I, Jonin Amaya Daigo, hereby recommend Team Four for Genin status!”

The boys jumped out of their seats, erupting into cheers. They passed. They actually passed, Reito included. The whooping and hollering continued until they had to be hushed by a nurse at the hospital reception desk.

“Congratulations!” said Amaya Sensei, popping a toothpick into her smiling mouth. “You three have a lot of hard work ahead of you, but I’m confident that you will give it your all.”

***

After spending the afternoon celebrating their victory, Reito, Kazuki, and Yuji arrived at the Fire Estate the following morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to begin their lives as ninjas.

Amaya Sensei greeted them outside the Administration Building, then led them inside to a large room, where she informed them Mission Meetings—for allocating and reviewing missions—and other gatherings were regularly held. First, though, there would be a brief ceremony of sorts, where she would present her team to the Hokage for his approval.

The room was empty except for a table with two chairs, where a man was sitting, rifling through a pile of papers. In front of the table stood the Hokage himself with his hands held behind his back. He was a very old man now with a white-gray chin beard, dressed head to toe in his formal white and red robes, which included an oversized hat bearing the symbol of the Land of Fire, the country to whom Konoha owed its allegiance.

Reito wondered, as he often had, how practical an ensemble it was for the village’s supposed strongest ninja. If the man had to go into battle dressed as he was, such a hat would limit visibility, and the robes would surely be a trip hazard.

“Good morning, Amaya,” the wizened village leader said in a tone of surprise as the Jonin lined up the three boys and took her place at the head. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“Neither was I,” Amaya Sensei responded, looking round at the boys with a knowing glance.

“How many are we expecting?” the Hokage asked the man at the table.

“Four teams in total, Lord Hokage,” the man responded.

Just then, the door to the room slid open, and two more groups entered. A burly, bearded, dark-haired man led in Team Ten. Following them, the young female Jonin Reito remembered from the orientation meeting, owing to her unusual red eyes and lack of uniform, led Team Eight into the room.

As the two teams lined up beside them, some of the students showing clear signs of surprise to see him, Reito laughed to himself, shaking his head. It was typical… Despite Amaya Sensei’s assurances that all the teams were balanced to give them a fair opportunity at passing, including theirs, Team Eight and Team Ten were here, the two teams that he had noted were chock full of clan kids.

Reito wracked his brain, trying to figure out which of the remaining teams from the orientation meeting were last to arrive. Team Two, he decided, was the most likely choice. It had three students with middling ability levels, including one from the Hino Clan, who were strong Taijutsu users known for operating the village’s volunteer fire brigade.

After three minutes of silence, the Hokage announced, “Perhaps we should begin,” and nodded in Team Eight’s direction.

The female Jonin stepped forward, and her students lined up beside her in front of the Hokage. “I, Jonin Kurenai Yūhi, present Team Eight for your approval, Lord Hokage: Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga.”

At the mention of their name, each student bowed. Afterward, the Hokage inclined his head in acknowledgment, and Kurenai Sensei led them away.

The burly Jonin stepped forward next and announced, “I, Jonin Asuma Sarutobi, present Team Ten for your approval, Lord Hokage: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi.”

When Choji, a rather overweight boy, bowed respectfully, a sealed bag of potato chips fell out of his pocket and onto the floor.

“Choji!” Ino chastised, while Shikamaru lazily raised a hand to his face, and Kazuki and Kiba stifled laughter without much success.

“Err, sorry,” the boy answered, blushing as he crammed the bag noisily into his pocket.

“Oh, aren’t they the limited-edition scrambled egg flavor?” asked the Hokage with what sounded to Reito like genuine interest. However, when the male Jonin cleared his throat pointedly, the Hokage did the same, then dismissed the team with a nod.

Team Four stepped forward next. “I, Jonin Amaya Daigo, present Team Four for your approval, Lord Hokage,” she announced, but before she could call their names, there was a ruckus in the direction of the door, including several thumps, as if someone was trying to kick it in.

“Take your hand off me,” a low voice threatened menacingly.

“Don’t push Sasuke, you idiot!” a second voice spoke considerably louder.

Just then, there was another, louder thump on the door before it slid open forcefully with a bang, revealing Naruto making a thumbs-up gesture. “The hero always arrives just in the nick of time,” he said loudly, then quickly changed his tone when he saw that the ceremony had begun, “Hey, old man, don’t start without us!”

Reito’s jaw dropped at the boy’s sudden appearance and disrespectful manner. More than that, though, he was shocked by what it suggested. Had Naruto passed the exam?

“Naruto! I told you to let Sasuke go in first!” Sakura snapped, smacking the boy on the back of the head.

Sasuke was standing behind her, his arms crossed, his brows furrowed, as was a male Jonin with spiky silver hair, a mask over his mouth and nose, and his headband skewed to cover his left eye. “Sorry we’re late,” the man said innocently. “Kakashi and Team Seven, reporting for duty!”