The Konoha Ninja Academy.
"Good morning, Hagoromo!"
"Morning."
With a gentle tone, Hagoromo returned greetings to his classmates as he walked through the academy grounds. Outwardly calm, inwardly he was deeply annoyed. The kind of treatment he was receiving was almost on par with that expressionless guy Sasuke—except Hagoromo hadn't done anything at all. Thanks to this face of his, he had inexplicably become popular among the girls at school.
Seriously—does the Looks Association pay you people salaries or something?
Hagoromo absolutely loathed his own luck. Truly hated it. His luck was too good.
Back when he had died in an accident—courtesy of some unlucky twist involving a ridiculously chuuni(chuunibyou) "God of Reincarnation"—he had been granted a second life. Not only reincarnation, but bonuses as well. Three lottery draws.
The first draw gave him an E-rank item: the "skin" of a certain anime character.
That alone was amazing. With that appearance and the unwavering support of the Looks Association, he could have thrived in any slice-of-life world. At the very least, he could've lived like Makoto Itou—
Ahem.
Correction: he could have peacefully enjoyed a youthful romantic comedy.
Then came disaster.
With hands cursed by fate, he drew an A-rank skill and an S-rank talent.
Even worse, the so-called god did not accept returns.
And so, based on his abilities, he was promptly thrown into a high-risk world—
The world of Naruto.
Hey, hey, this wasn't fair at all. He wasn't even that familiar with Naruto! During his peak chuuni(chuunibyou) years, he'd been firmly on the One Piece side. Sure, he'd spent plenty of time online arguing with Naruto fans, but when it came to the actual plot, he only knew bits and pieces.
That said, he was fairly familiar with the characters—at least the major ones who had appeared. This was mostly thanks to his embarrassing past, where he used to write absurd comparison essays like "A Study on the Practicality, Destructive Power, and Energy Efficiency of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit Versus Lightning Release."
Those black-history documents had nearly driven him to bury himself alive. He'd sealed them deep in his memory… and yet now, of all times, they were proving useful.
"…Graduation already."
Standing before the gates of the Konoha Ninja Academy, Kamishiro Hagoromo couldn't help but feel emotional. Ten years in this world. Entered the academy at age seven. And now, graduation—followed by the battlefield.
Kamishiro Hagoromo.
That was the name he'd inherited from his parents in this world.
According to the universal law of transmigrators—parents present at first, then conveniently absent—Hagoromo was an orphan.
His background was simple enough.
His father had been an ordinary chūnin, killed early in the current war. His mother was a medical-nin, summoned back to the front lines shortly after giving birth to him—and never returned.
In truth, across multiple wars, the nations had gradually reached a grim consensus: field hospitals were priority targets. As the value of medical-nin became increasingly apparent, they naturally became both high-value assets—and high-priority kill targets.
That was right.
This was the era of the Third Great Ninja War.
A war where death was not only real, but constant.
Every Great Ninja War had been a chaotic free-for-all, and the irony was that the Land of Fire, home to the strongest hidden village, was always the one facing attacks from multiple fronts.
The Land of Earth.
The Land of Lightning.
The Land of Water.
The Land of Wind.
Iwagakure.
Kumogakure.
Kirigakure.
Sunagakure.
Forced into multi-front warfare, Konoha and the Land of Fire were severely understaffed. As a result, the Ninja Academy's curriculum was compressed into just three years, and the minimum enrollment age restriction was removed entirely.
The famously talented Hatake Kakashi had enrolled in the same year as Hagoromo—at only five years old—and after just six months, he had already graduated early and been sent straight to the battlefield.
As for why Hagoromo had joined the academy in the first place—why he wanted to become a ninja?
Because being alone was boring.
He was someone from another world—arguably an alien, a time traveler, and a superpowered being all at once—and yet he still found life dull.
Honestly, the world he should have been sent to wasn't Naruto at all, but the SOS Corps, the organization dedicated to "making the world more interesting."
"Hey, Hagoromo! What're you spacing out for? Feeling confident about the graduation exam?"
Someone clapped him on the shoulder from behind.
There was no need to turn around. Even without looking, Hagoromo could tell who it was.
Might Guy—one of the academy's perennial bottom-rankers. A future taijutsu master, currently just a minor taijutsu enthusiast.
Uchiha Obito—the other perennial bottom-ranker. Self-proclaimed elite ninja. In reality, his grades and combat ability were even worse than Guy's. After his unrequited love met a tragic end, he would eventually lose his mind over love and become one of the final bosses of the era.
These things, at least, Hagoromo knew.
One ranked last. One second-to-last. His own grades were never something they needed to worry about.
"I'm definitely more confident than you two," Hagoromo replied, tilting his head and giving them a dead-fish stare—especially Obito.
He genuinely didn't understand how someone like Obito could go mad for love. Did he even have the mental capacity for that?
"Shouldn't you be worrying about yourselves instead of me?" he added mercilessly.
There were eight classes in Hagoromo's academy year, each with thirty students. Quite a few names stood out to him: Ebisu, Shiranui Genma, Mitarashi Anko, Yūhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Nohara Rin, Might Guy, Uchiha Obito, and of course, the Son of the White Fang who had already graduated—Hatake Kakashi.
Naturally, they weren't all in the same class. The only ones Hagoromo was truly familiar with were Guy, Obito, and Rin. That was mainly because Guy and Obito were overly friendly by nature, and Obito was always dragging them over to Rin.
Otherwise, with Hagoromo's near non-existent presence among the boys—on par with a certain "Great Teacher" level of invisibility—there was no way he'd have any friends at all.
"We'll definitely graduate!" Might Guy declared confidently. "As long as the exam doesn't include ninjutsu or genjutsu!"
What kind of confidence was that supposed to be? Was he hoping the graduation exam would be taijutsu-only?
"Hagoromo's so annoying," Obito grumbled. "Especially his hair. It reminds me of some smug know-it-all!"
The smug one here is clearly you, Hagoromo thought.
You think I wanted this limited-edition white hair? This was the will of God, okay? God said, "Let there be light," so there was light. God said, "You shall go gray early," and so here he was.
What was he supposed to do—spit in the God of Reincarnation's face?
…Not that he hadn't tried.
Would he tell them that the god's face was about as absorbent as a lotus leaf, so nothing stuck to it anyway? Of course not.
After entering the academy grounds, the group didn't head to their classrooms. Instead, they gathered in the small plaza at the front of the school.
The graduation exam was going to be held outdoors.