"Statistically speaking, you should have a one-in-three chance of passing," Shiro said casually, leaning against his desk.
If the test topic drawn was the Transformation Jutsu, Shiro honestly believed Naruto had a decent shot at pulling it off. However, if he drew the Clone Jutsu or the Substitution Jutsu... well, it was game over.
The massive, chaotic chakra of the Nine-Tails sealed within Naruto caused severe interference, making it nearly impossible for him to perform delicate chakra control techniques like the standard E-rank Clone Jutsu.
"Really?!" Naruto's gloomy expression instantly brightened upon hearing the odds. "A one-in-three chance? That's not too bad!"
"I'm definitely going to pass and become a Genin!" Naruto declared, his signature confidence rapidly returning thanks to Shiro's nonchalant encouragement. After all, with a one-in-three chance, he just had to get lucky and avoid drawing the Clone Jutsu.
"Naruto Uzumaki! Step forward. Your examination topic is... the Clone Jutsu!"
"Heh..." Shiro had to cover his mouth to stifle a laugh.
*As expected,* Shiro thought, his eyes narrowing slightly. *Someone is actively pulling strings behind the scenes.*
Shiro's enhanced perception had caught the subtle sleight of hand. The instructor drawing the lots for this session was Mizuki—the very man who was destined to manipulate Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Seals.
Shiro had clearly seen that the slip Mizuki initially pulled read 'Transformation Jutsu', but the silver-haired chunin had smoothly swapped it for a 'Clone Jutsu' slip hidden in his sleeve. Such a rudimentary parlor trick naturally couldn't escape Shiro's Heaven-Defying Comprehension.
On the classroom floor, Naruto stood frozen like a statue, staring blankly at Mizuki as if he had just been struck by lightning.
"Next... Sasuke Uchiha. Your topic is also the Clone Jutsu!"
Iruka frowned slightly, glancing at his clipboard. "Wait. Shiro, your assigned topic is also... the Clone Jutsu?"
Iruka looked up, a bit puzzled. Aside from the very first student, the last three consecutive draws had all been the exact same topic. He couldn't help but wonder about the bizarre statistical probability.
"Sasuke, since you're ready, why don't you go first," Iruka suggested, hoping to give a devastated Naruto a few extra minutes to mentally prepare himself.
Before stepping up to the testing area at the front of the room, Sasuke shot a pointed, arrogant glare in Shiro's direction. *Watch closely,* his eyes seemed to say.
Sasuke rapidly wove the three required hand seals.
"Clone Jutsu!"
*Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!*
Four perfect, incorporeal illusions of Sasuke materialized in a row beside him.
The classroom immediately broke into awed whispers.
"Whoa! That's amazing! He made four flawless clones at once!"
"As expected of the *former* Rookie of the Year! He's still incredible!"
Hearing the word 'former' thrown around by his classmates caused a flash of intense irritation to spike in Sasuke's chest. However, he quickly suppressed it, a confident smirk touching his lips. He was certain that this flawless display of fundamental control would prove his superiority.
Sasuke turned and leveled a cold, challenging look directly at Shiro.
"Excellent work, Sasuke! Flawless execution," Iruka praised, genuinely impressed. It was quite extraordinary for an academy student to consistently produce four stable clones under pressure.
"Sasuke Uchiha, Clone Jutsu: Perfect score. You pass!" Iruka announced, eagerly marking an 'A+' on Sasuke's evaluation sheet.
"Next up... Shiro!"
Iruka looked at the dark-haired boy who had recently turned his entire worldview upside down. The rest of the classroom instantly fell dead silent, every single pair of eyes swiveling to lock onto Shiro.
Ever since the incident in the training ground, Shiro was universally recognized by the student body as an absolute monster. Everyone was burning with curiosity to see how many clones the 'hidden genius' would produce to flex on Sasuke.
"Hey, Shikamaru," Choji whispered, crunching loudly on a potato chip. "How many clones do you think Shiro's gonna make?"
"Who knows. But knowing him, it won't be that simple," Shikamaru replied lazily, resting his chin on his hand. Shikamaru had analyzed Shiro's personality. Shiro wasn't the petty type to just make ten clones simply because Sasuke made four. He would do something entirely unexpected.
"Hmph! I bet Shiro can easily make at least a dozen!" Sakura declared proudly to anyone listening.
"Don't be stupid, Sakura. He'll make at least twenty!" Ino argued back, instantly sparking another petty rivalry over Shiro's hypothetical achievements.
Up at the examiner's desk, Iruka leaned over to Mizuki. "Mizuki, you were away on a long-term mission until recently, so you missed it. But Shiro... he's arguably the strongest talent this academy has ever seen."
"Is that so? The strongest..." Mizuki replied, maintaining a polite, friendly smile on the outside, while his internal thoughts raced frantically, calculating how this new variable might interfere with his treasonous plans for tonight.
Down on the floor, Shiro didn't bother weaving any hand seals. He simply clapped his hands together casually.
"External Incarnation."
*Poof.*
A single, small cloud of smoke cleared to reveal a second Shiro standing right beside the original.
"Huh? Just one?" Iruka blinked in surprise, leaning forward over his desk. During the spar with Sasuke, Shiro had effortlessly produced over a dozen solid Shadow Clones. Why was he only producing a single, basic illusion now?
"What's going on?"
"Did he mess up?"
The students began to whisper among themselves in confusion.
"Iruka-sensei, I'm over here," a calm voice called out from the back of the room.
Everyone whipped their heads around. To their absolute astonishment, a third Shiro was currently leaning casually against the open windowsill at the back of the classroom, enjoying the breeze.
"Wait... Two? Three? Which one is the real Shiro?!" Iruka stammered, his eyes darting frantically between the figure at the front, the figure beside it, and the figure at the window.
Iruka was an experienced Chunin, yet he was completely bewildered. When Sasuke had performed his jutsu, Iruka's trained eyes could instantly differentiate the solid original from the slightly translucent, chakra-less illusions.
But looking at the three Shiros... they were entirely identical. They all cast shadows. They all possessed mass. And terrifyingly, when Iruka flared his chakra to sense them, they all radiated the exact same, impossibly dense chakra signature.
There was absolutely no difference.
"Shiro... which one of you is the original?" Iruka asked helplessly, pointing between the three boys.
Before Shiro could answer, the classroom door slid open with a sharp clatter.
"Lord Hokage!"
Iruka and Mizuki immediately bolted upright, snapping into rigid salutes as Hiruzen Sarutobi strolled into the room, his signature pipe clamped between his teeth.
"At ease, at ease. No need to panic, gentlemen," Hiruzen chuckled warmly, waving his hand. "I was merely taking a stroll and decided to drop by to observe the next generation."
Naturally, the Hokage omitted the fact that he had been furiously scrying the classroom through his Crystal Ball jutsu and had practically sprinted over from the Hokage Tower the moment he saw Shiro perform an unrecognizable, high-level cloning technique.
---
"It is an immense honor to have you observe the examinations, Lord Hokage!" Iruka bowed respectfully.
Mizuki also bowed low, hiding a scowl of pure frustration. *Damn it all!* Was his meticulously crafted plan to steal the scroll going to fall apart before it even began because the Hokage decided to play inspector today?
Ignoring the instructors, Hiruzen walked straight past the podium and approached the two Shiros standing at the front of the room. The aged leader leaned in close, his sharp eyes scrutinizing the 'clone'.
"Incredible..." Hiruzen muttered, his pipe nearly slipping from his mouth. "It is entirely flawless. It possesses a physical body, its own independent chakra circulatory system, and a distinct consciousness... Even with my decades of experience, I truly cannot tell the difference between the original and the copy."
"W-What?!"
"No way! Even the Hokage-sama can't tell them apart?!"
A collective gasp echoed through the classroom. For these aspiring academy students, the Third Hokage was the literal God of Shinobi—an omniscient, all-powerful figure. To hear him openly admit he couldn't see through a classmate's jutsu shattered their understanding of reality.
"Disperse," the Shiro standing by the window commanded softly.
*Poof.* *Poof.*
Without any hand seals or dramatic gestures, the two Shiros standing near the Hokage instantly vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. The original Shiro smoothly hopped down from the windowsill and walked to the front.
"Fascinating," Hiruzen stroked his goatee, his eyes gleaming with intense appreciation. "This technique you just utilized... it is definitively not the standard Shadow Clone Jutsu, is it?"
"Third Grandpa?" Naruto spoke up, tilting his head in genuine confusion. "What's a Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
The rest of the class looked equally bewildered. In their curriculum, they only possessed the concept of the E-rank Clone Jutsu—an intangible optical illusion. At their age, classified, high-level physical cloning techniques weren't even mentioned in textbooks.
"The Shadow Clone Jutsu is a highly advanced, B-rank ninjutsu created by the Second Hokage," Hiruzen explained patiently, taking on his beloved role as a teacher. "Unlike the basic Clone Jutsu, it creates solid, physical copies of the user by dividing their chakra evenly among the clones."
Naruto only understood one thing: *B-rank meant it was super high-level and awesome.*
"However..." Hiruzen's tone shifted, becoming incredibly serious as he looked back at Shiro. "The jutsu Shiro just demonstrated is structurally far more advanced and infinitely more complex than even the B-rank Shadow Clone."
The classroom fell into a stunned silence.
"More advanced than a B-rank?" Shikamaru whispered to Choji, his lazy eyes wide open for once. "You've got to be kidding me. Does that mean it's an A-rank... or even an S-rank forbidden jutsu?"
The realization hit the students like a physical blow. Shiro, a boy exactly their age, sitting in the exact same classroom, had already casually mastered a technique that surpassed the difficulty of a Jonin-level jutsu.
The person who took the revelation the hardest, however, was Sasuke.
Sasuke stood rigidly near the front desks, his face burning with a mixture of profound shame and intense humiliation.
He suddenly realized that his arrogant display of creating four basic, optical illusions just moments ago must have looked like a pathetic monkey performing cheap parlor tricks in Shiro's eyes. It was no wonder Shiro never bothered to engage in his petty rivalries or acknowledge his challenges. Eagles do not concern themselves with the buzzing of flies.
The more Sasuke analyzed the sheer, insurmountable gap in their abilities, the more his pride fractured.
"But wait," Shikamaru frowned, voicing the question that was plaguing the more analytical minds in the room. "If this jutsu is that incredibly advanced... where on earth did Shiro learn it?"
It was a valid point. If even the Professor, the Hokage himself, couldn't see through it or immediately identify its mechanics, who in all of Konoha could have possibly taught it to an orphaned academy student?
"Shiro, my boy," Hiruzen asked gently, his curiosity burning bright. "This unique ninjutsu... where did you acquire it?"