The morning air was crisp as he made his way toward the shinobi academy. Konoha's streets were alive with activity—merchants calling out to advertise fresh produce, shinobi leaping across rooftops on early patrol, and civilians bustling about their daily routines.
On the surface, it looked like any other peaceful day. But beneath that normalcy lay a world forever changed from its canon counterpart by the incidents that started to occur more than a decade ago.
He paused slightly in his footsteps as he spotted his friend up ahead. His distinctive bowl-cut hair impossible to mistake.
Normally, Rock Lee carried himself with boisterous energy, eager to proclaim his undying flames of youth to anyone who would listen. Today, however, his posture was tense, his brows furrowed, and his steps noticeably heavier.
"Lee," he called out, catching up to his friend.
"Hey, Ken." Lee replied, as he tried to muster his usual trademark smile but failed to hide the strain around his eyes.
"You look tense." He said, throwing an arm around Lee's shoulder to comfort him. "Don't worry about it. It's just an exam."
"Not just an exam. It's the final exams. What if I don't do well enough?" Lee asked, his voice quieter than usual. "What if I fail?"
"You won't." He assured the boy. "With how hard you train, if even you fail, then I believe that only Neji will be able to pass from our entire batch."
The mention of his rival brought a faint smile on Lee's face. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right. Hey, tell you what. How about we do a bit of revision. The test will have more than just kunai-throwing, after all." He said, more to distract Lee from his downward spiral than anything else.
Lee blinked, surprised, then nodded earnestly. "Yes… yes, that would help."
He smiled and decided to began with the most basic questions first. "Okay. Well, let's start with a simple question. When did the Gates first appear?"
"Twelve years ago," Lee answered quickly, "a few months after the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha."
"Correct. Where did the first Gate appear?"
"In the Land of Water."
"And its class?"
"S-class," Lee said, his tone going a bit quieter. "The strongest one of its kind ever classified."
"What impact did it have on the Land of Water?"
"The country was destroyed," Lee recited, his earlier nervousness giving way to grim focus. "Entire cities worth of population were swallowed by monsters. Islands sunk into the water. Even the entirety of Kiri couldn't stop their advance for long. In the end, the entire country was destroyed, and survivors scattered across the seas."
He gave a small nod. "And how did that affect the Land of Fire?"
"Refugees poured across borders," Lee said. "Countless civilians… and shinobi. Violence spread, crime rose, and smaller nations grew bold, thinking they could strike while the great powers were distracted."
"And what about Konoha? How did the S-class gate impact our shinobi village?"
Lee's eyes narrowed with concentration. "Kirigakure was wiped out. Those shinobi who lived became scattered. Many were accepted into Konoha, though quite a few others refused. Many went rogue, and even now, the village still has to allocate manpower to hunt them down."
"Good. Next question. How many S-class Gates have appeared since then?"
"None," Lee answered firmly. "Only the first. For twelve years, no other Gate of that scale has opened. Though countless weaker ones have."
By the end of their quick-fire review, Lee's shoulders were straighter, and his usual spark had returned to his eyes. He exhaled deeply, determination rekindled. "Thank you, my friend. My flames of youth shall not dim this day!"
He allowed himself a faint smile. Not really bothered by Lee's strange form of speaking after having spent the past six years as his friend. "Glad to hear it."
Eventually, they arrived at the academy.
It's gates crowded with children their age. Subdued laughter, and nerves filled the air as groups of students hurried inside.
With how strict graduation criteria has become in the past few years, many of the students looked much older. Some ranging from 16-17 years old. He and Lee, being only 13 were the exception nowadays, not the norm.
Apparently, you get a total of 5 tries to pass the exam. That means five more years of preparation. And only if you fail 5 times in a row does the academy actually kick you out.
Of course, he himself meant to pass with flying colours in his first try. And being the second strongest in class, he was fairly confident that he would succeed. But that didn't mean he wasn't nervous either.
In another world, these finals were just another step toward becoming genin. But for them—raised in a world of Gates and monsters—every step forward meant fighting for their survival.
Side by side, he and Rock Lee entered the academy together.
—————
He stepped out of the classroom, the quiet scratching of brushes on paper replaced by the noise of dozens of students spilling into the academy courtyard.
The theoretical exam was finally over. His answers had come to him easily enough—dates, events, and details that he had drilled into his memory over years of study. Still, he could not shake the anxious weight in his stomach.
The final test of the graduation exam was yet to come: the practical test.
He glanced around, hoping to spot Rock Lee, but the crowd offered no sign of him. They had been separated into different batches, so Lee must have been in another group.
His batch, nearly a hundred students, was herded out of the academy grounds and into a wide training field surrounded by wooden walls and observation platforms.
The chatter among the students grew uneasy as they spotted the shapes hidden beneath heavy tarps at the far end of the field. Rows of iron cages stood silently, each draped in rough cloth, but even through the covers came the faint sound of low growls and rattling chains.
He knew what was inside. Everyone did. The academy didn't bother hiding the nature of the practical exam. But knowing didn't make it any easier to face.
"Line up!" the examiner barked. The man's flak jacket was worn, his face alone was covered in three different gruesome scars. A hardened veteran. The chatter died instantly as the children shuffled into straight lines.
With a deliberate motion, the examiner pulled the tarp from the first cage.
Inside, a creature glared back at them with eyes full of feral hatred. It resembled a twisted mockery of a man, its hunched form covered in mottled fur, its limbs corded with wiry muscle.
A wolf's muzzle snapped open to reveal jagged teeth, saliva dripping onto the cage floor. Its claws scraped sparks against the iron bars as it snarled at the rows of academy students.
He stiffened. It looked just like the drawings in their textbooks— but so much worse now that he was seeing it in real life.
An E-class monster. A wolf-human hybrid. The kind collectively called as kobold.
The examiner's voice carried across the training ground. "This is a basic low level monster, taken from an E-class Gate. As genins of Konoha, one of your main tasks would be to clear E-class Gates regularly. And each E-class gate will have dozens, of such creatures." The examiner paused, giving them time to let the words sink in before he continued. "If you cannot defeat even one of these, you have no chance of surviving as a shinobi in the world beyond these walls. Fail to defeat it, and you fail the exam."
A murmur rippled through the line, quickly silenced by the examiner's sharp gaze.
He continued, "You will come forward one at a time. The kobold will be released. You will fight. Two instructors and a medic will observe. If you risk death, the fight will be stopped. And you will be failed. The only way to pass this exam, is by killing the Kobold. Understood?"
The students looked at each other uneasily.
"I said. AM I UNDERSTOOD!?"
"Yes Sir!" The students replied in a chorus.
"Good." The examiner said as he picked up a scroll and opened it.
The first name was called. And the latch holding the cage shut was released.
A boy stepped forward, visibly trembling. The cage door creaked open, and the kobold lunged into the field with a guttural snarl.
The student, despite is nerves and clear inexperience, reacted quickly, flinging kunai and shuriken as he moved back to keep his distance.
The weapons struck home, embedding into the kobold's hide, but the creature only grew angrier. Its muscles bunched, and in the blink of an eye it closed the distance.
The fight devolved into chaos from there. Steel clashed with claws, the boy swinging wildly, the kobold slashing with murderous intent. Blood sprayed, staining the dirt as both scored hits on the other. The student's breathing turned ragged, his guard faltering under the monster's relentless assault.
At the last moment, the examiner flashed forward, driving the kobold to the ground with practiced ease. He bound its limbs with wire, yanked the boy's bloodied kunai from its chest, and threw the snarling creature back into its cage.
When he looked back, the healer was already at the student's side, chakra glowing faintly as wounds began to close. The boy looked pale, his eyes wide open in terror.
His gaze then went back to the cage, his eyes narrowing at the sight. The kobold's wounds were already knitting closed, its breath steadying.
Not every monster could heal, but some possessed that rare ability. Of course the academy would use such creatures. Self-healing monsters could be dragged out again and again to fight terrified students.
"Failed," the examiner announced flatly. His tone held no sympathy, only cold finality. "Better luck next time kid."
The boy was carried away, still dazed, as the examiner's eyes swept over the remaining students.
"Next!"
—————
Most of the students failed. A few passed. But as he watched, he began to notice a pattern.
Those who succeeded more often than not looked older—at least fifteen, sometimes sixteen. Their bodies were stronger, their chakra more refined. For the younger ones, victory came down to luck and desperation, more than their actual skills.
Then came Hyūga Neji's turn.
Unlike the others, Neji showed no sign of fear as he stepped. His pale eyes held no hesitation, only calm confidence as he stepped into the ring. The cage door creaked open, and the kobold charged forward with its usual frenzy.
Neji did not flinch. He moved with elegance, his footwork light, his body flowing like water. The kobold slashed and snapped at him, but Neji weaved past every strike with effortless precision, as though all the creature's movements had already been seen through before the fight even began.
Then, with a single step forward, he struck. A chakra-laced palm shot out and landed squarely against the monster's chest—exactly where he thought its heart would be.
The kobold froze, then convulsed. Blood poured from its mouth in rivulets as its body crumpled to the ground. For all its self-healing ability, a destroyed heart seemed to be beyond recovery. Within seconds, it was dead.
Silence fell over the training ground. Dozens of students stared in wide-eyed disbelief. Neji's expression remained neutral, but he thought—just for an instant—that he caught the barest flicker of a smile. And then it was gone, replaced by the cold mask of composure once more.
That was… truly impressive.
For all his pride in being the second-ranked student in their class, he knew there was a vast gulf between himself and Neji. There was a very good reason why the Hyūga prodigy was called a genius, and he was not.
He used to scoff at the title in his past life, dismissing it by pointing out that Neji only reached jōnin at sixteen, while true prodigies like Itachi and Kakashi had earned the rank at twelve. But that comparison did not diminish what he had just seen.
Neji was truly in a league of his own. And that made him feel small in a way that he didn't like at all.
"Passed," the examiner said flatly, kicking the kobold's corpse aside with the casualness of a man discarding trash. Without pause, he scribbled in his notepad, brought out anther cage with a fresh monster and called the next student forward.
One by one, the line dwindled. A dozen more entered the ring. Most failed. A few scraped by.
Then it was his turn.
He stepped forward, heart pounding, forcing deep breaths to steady himself. His palms itched with sweat, but he clenched them tight and faced the cage. The door creaked open, and the kobold lunged at him instantly.
He moved without hesitation.
The monster was stronger and faster than an average genin, but it was not intelligent. That was its weakness.
With a puff of smoke, he split into multiple clones. The kobold barreled through them, shredding illusions apart with a howl. At the same time as the monster was attacking his illusion clones, he transformed, his features twisting until his body mirrored the snarling form of the kobold itself.
The creature turned to face him after dealing with his clones, and froze, blinking in confusion as it looked at him. For a brief moment, uncertainty flickered in its eyes—friend or foe? Enemy or packmate?
That hesitation was all he needed.
His blade flashed. The kobold's throat opened in a red spray before it could react, its body collapsing in a twitching heap.
He had won.
The entire fight had lasted no more than ten seconds.
He had passed. Easily. Yet as he stood over the monster's corpse, he couldn't help but feel hollow. His clever use of jutsu had carried him through, yes—but compared to Neji's single, devastating strike, his own victory felt cheap. Severely lacking.
"Passed." The examiner grunted, and at that moment, his eyes flew wide open in shock and jubilation.
Not because of anything the examiner said. But because of the blue panel that suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
1 Kobold killed!
You've gained 8 experience points!
Level 0 (Next level up: 8/100)
Finally, after 13 years of living in this world, he finally got his system.
It seems his future wouldn't be so bleak after all.