The Land of Fire, Konoha Village.
At the northernmost tip of the Village stood a tall cliff. The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and Uchiha Madara once stood at the top of this cliff, gazing at the southern plains, envisioning a paradise without slaughter or hatred, where children could shed their armor, discard their swords, and play freely with smiles on their faces.
The two abandoned their conflict and jointly established the Ninja World's largest Village, Konoha Village. Afterwards, the Second Hokage, upholding the First's will, built a Ninja Academy below the cliff.
The faces of the Hokage—the First, Second, Third, and Fourth—were vividly carved into the rock face, their expressions solemn. Villagers occasionally looked up to see the Hokage Rock of the four Hokage, and their respect for their leaders was heartfelt.
With half a year left until the graduation exam, the teachers at the Ninja Academy were doing their best to impart more knowledge to their students.
To gauge the students' actual level, tests were, of course, indispensable.
"Oh, I'm doomed."
"This is too hard."
"Haha, you actually think it's hard? I can't even understand the questions!"
The students wailed in unison, all finding the questions too difficult, with blank papers being commonplace.
A few top students discussed in low voices, believing that at least three of the ten questions belonged to the Chunin Exams category. For heaven's sake, they weren't even Genin yet.
Yamanaka Ino, with blonde hair, blue eyes, a fringe covering her right eye, and wearing a white long-sleeved jacket with the character "Hai" (hai) in blue-green stripes on each arm, seemed a bit odd in the eyes of her classmates because she was an existence somewhere between a top student and a struggling one.
After handing in her paper, her actions and expression appeared unusually heavy.
"Ino, did you also not do well?" a familiar female classmate whispered.
"It's just... sigh, it's a long story. I did so poorly this time, I'm definitely going to fail. I made mistakes in several places, and my head is completely muddled right now." Ino was full of dejection, looking as if she was about to cry at any moment.
"It's okay, it's just a mock exam."
"Yeah, one mistake doesn't count for anything."
A few of her 'fair-weather' friends held her hand, comforting her.
Before long, Iruka, the young teacher wearing a Chunin vest and with a distinct scar on the bridge of his nose, finished grading the papers and announced the results on the spot.
"Ino, 95 points, first place!"
"Haruno Sakura, 94 points, second place."
"."
The few struggling female classmates stiffened their necks, their gazes towards Ino changing. Looking at her expression just now, they had been ready to offer superficial comfort while secretly mocking her. The result? First place? You've got to be kidding me!
Ino secretly felt pleased. You all played in class and played at home. I played in class, but I studied hard at home. How could that be the same?
As a freelancer who had applied for sales to buy a house, then became an intern at a renovation company after getting an internal discount, and later moved to a furniture store as a sales assistant, she had worked hard for half a year. Just as she was about to move into her new home, she suddenly transmigrated to the perilous Naruto World. Her heart was utterly broken.
She didn't know who would end up benefiting from that house, and the thought of it always made her feel a huge loss.
Ino looked out the window. Several dark figures flashed past her eyes at an extremely fast speed, disappearing from view in less than two seconds. She knew clearly that they were Ninja from the Village.
Everyone was accustomed to it.
"Supermen" who could jump eight meters high and break a tree with one punch were everywhere in the Village. Not taking the perfectly good main roads and insisting on jumping over other people's rooftops was a "basic operation" for many Ninja. After going through panic, surprise, anxiety, and carefulness, she slowly got used to it.
Since she couldn't change the world, she could only try to change herself.
Studying—whether it was useful or not—she delved deeply into all the knowledge she could learn in the Academy. Even the "will of fire" series of books, often criticized by transmigrators, she found the Third Hokage's handwritten copies in the Academy and read them very carefully from beginning to end twice.
Unfortunately, this thing wasn't the Lankavatara Sutra; there were no martial arts secrets between the lines.
To become stronger, she studied diligently. To avoid being isolated by her classmates, she also had to pretend to be a struggling student. Ultimately, it all came down to a lack of security.
Everyone received their papers, and Iruka Sensei began explaining the questions.
"Question nine: Ether containing a certain aromatic hydrocarbon. First, add dilute hydrochloric acid, then add sodium hydroxide solution, stir, and separate the layers. What is the compound in the ether layer at the end?"
"What is it?" Without expecting a student to answer, he began writing on the blackboard.
"This is a problem that Ninja often encounter during missions. Because some necessary conditions are lacking, we must make reasonable assumptions and analyses. If this aromatic hydrocarbon contains an amino group, it will react before hydrogen chloride. In that case, we need to make an analysis."
He began listing several possible scenarios. After each assumption, he would write out the specific analysis process and results, filling the entire blackboard densely. Only then was the question completely solved.
"What is a Ninja? Only someone with a calm mind in battle and who can analyze intelligence can be called a Ninja," Iruka said earnestly. He looked at his blackboard writing, the analysis reasonable, the explanation clear, and his tone and intonation when speaking were quite encouraging. He scanned the classroom with the corner of his eye, and his heart sank directly to the bottom of the sea, because... hardly anyone was listening.
"Bang!" Iruka Sensei slapped the blackboard, his voice suddenly rising: "You are the worst class I have ever taught! What are you spacing out for? Write all of this down! This question might be on the exam! Write it all down!"
"Okay."
"Yes."
"Got it."
Except for a few genuinely good students who were diligently writing, ninety percent of the remaining students responded in a listless tone. The pencils in their hands perfunctorily scribbled a couple of times, counting as having completed the notes. Judging purely by their performance, these guys were definitely a bunch of struggling students.
Ino continued to maintain her role as a pseudo-struggling, true top student. Her left hand propped up her chin, occasionally looking up and scanning the board, recording a simple and concise portion of the content on the blackboard with a somewhat lazy posture.
On the podium, Iruka Sensei was still yelling at a room full of struggling students. To be fair, he really was a good teacher—diligent, responsible, patient, and meticulous. The virtues of the teaching profession could mostly be seen in this 22-year-old man.
However, for many 12-year-olds, this content was truly difficult to learn.
There were no specialized math, chemistry, or physics courses here. The Ninja Academy only had five subjects: theory, training, insights, history, and practical application.
A large amount of knowledge from mathematics, chemistry, physics, and geography was integrated into the single subject of theory, making it naturally difficult for students to learn.
If she hadn't had the foundation of higher education from her previous life, it wouldn't have been so easy for Ino to learn either.