Chapter 9: A Genin Who Can Stand on Their Own
Konoha Year 44, late March. Cherry blossoms were falling again, and graduation season had arrived on schedule.
Word had gotten out early that someone in Year Two, Class A was graduating ahead of schedule. After Hatake Kakashi, another prodigy had emerged, quietly affirming the village's strength.
What made it especially notable was that this student came from a commoner ninja family. With the village quietly spreading the news, even the incoming students preparing for enrollment felt a surge of excitement.
Maybe the children simply didn't want to fall behind their peers, but for many families, knowing that talent would be recognized and rewarded meant that a path upward was opening for them too.
The graduation exam was presided over once again by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Might Duy, for his part, was a bundle of nerves, pacing back and forth outside the gate.
Might Guy understood his father's feelings. In two years, he had completely shed the dead last label.
Even his theoretical knowledge had stabilized in the top ten of the class. Furukawa Osamu's wrong-answer notebook method had served him well.
"No need to be nervous, Guy. Everyone acknowledges your hard work. All that's left now is the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique."
"And I can tell you right now, you've already passed the written portion of the exam."
Homeroom teacher Kimura Ryosuke stood beside the Hokage, his pride plain on his face. Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled warmly and looked at the nervous young student in front of him:
"Show us what you've been working toward. I've heard Ryosuke sing your praises more than once."
"Yes, sir! Hokage-sama! Ryosuke-sensei!"
For this day, Might Guy had put on the brand new green jumpsuit his father had prepared for him. Bandages wrapped his hands. He answered at full volume, then launched straight into the jutsu.
No surprises. Two years of daily practice had given him complete mastery over the lower-ranked jutsu.
His transformation into an exact copy of the homeroom teacher was flawless. The Clone Technique that followed was equally clean.
Guy knew exactly how far behind Furukawa Osamu and Kakashi he was when it came to chakra control. Getting through the exam without a single mistake made him grin without meaning to.
"Well done!"
The Third Hokage's praise rang out clearly. The four people standing nearby straightened up at the sight of the Hokage's smile. Kimura Ryosuke immediately produced the headband he had prepared, and with both hands, placed it solemnly before Might Guy:
"Guy, from today you are a ninja who can stand on his own."
"Genin life is tough. Don't let up, keep pushing."
"And one more thing, your registration photo needs to be retaken. Don't forget that. Now go share this good news with your father."
Might Guy received the headband with a deep, formal bow. Then he turned to face the people in front of him and made his declaration at full volume, his fighting spirit blazing:
"My youth will burn until my final breath! I will become an outstanding ninja!"
"..."
While Might Guy and his father were sharing a passionate embrace at the school gates, both of them crying tears of joy, Furukawa Osamu's rather different examination was drawing to a close.
Out on the training grounds behind the Academy, the earth was cracked open in great jagged lines. Chunks of rock and cratered soil were scattered all around.
Tsunade, wearing her green jonin vest, rose slowly from one of the craters. The shadow clone that had just vanished in front of her didn't surprise her at all. She straightened up and continued in a measured tone:
"Even in fights between jonin, ninjutsu is often not the best option."
"You should understand what I mean. The amount of chakra any ninja can extract at one time is quite limited, and most don't have particularly strong talent in that area."
"As you get older, your total chakra reserves will eventually surpass mine. Combined with the level of control you already have..."
Tsunade stopped mid-sentence. A sound reached her, the shrieking cry of a thousand birds, and then a crack of impact.
Boom!
Crackle... crackle...
Speed surging all at once, driving forward in a straight line, Furukawa Osamu's right hand crackled with a concentrated current that screamed through the air. The visible blue chakra drew a look of genuine surprise from Tsunade for the first time.
The piercing thrust closed the distance in an instant. She shifted sideways, extending her right hand, dodging the attack, and in the same motion, flicked her middle finger against Furukawa Osamu's forehead.
Thud.
He flew backward faster than he'd come forward, tumbled into the grass at the edge of the tree line, rolled twice, and ended up flat on his back in a spread-eagle on the ground, breathing hard.
"So that's ninjutsu talent. I'll admit it, you're a genuine genius in that area."
"Not bad at all, Osamu. Nature transformation and shape transformation of lightning-natured chakra, and the technique's execution is at a very high level."
"Generating a large volume of chakra to stimulate the cells, achieving a single physical activation, then squeezing those activated cells to produce an even greater volume of chakra."
Tsunade folded her arms and came to stand beside him, running through the questions he had brought her over the months and working out most of the technique's underlying principle from that alone.
As she talked it through, something puzzled her. By her estimate, Furukawa Osamu should have been completely spent. She crouched down and looked more carefully, then nodded with appreciation:
"I'm impressed. A few months and you've grown again."
"I'll take back some of what I said before. If your medical ninjutsu progress keeps satisfying me, I'll open up some of my personal collection for you, and I can have that Orochimaru guide your ninjutsu development as well."
Osamu let out a quiet sigh at the view in front of him. At least she had finally agreed to let him keep developing his ninjutsu.
In truth, he had taken one of his secret compounds before throwing the clone. Timing the integration had still cost him a little, but the jutsu's power had climbed considerably because of it.
"Was Tsunade-sensei trying to kill me? That much force against a genin is a bit much, isn't it?"
"That strike split the training ground in half. The village is going to have complaints about the damage."
Furukawa Osamu sat up with a wry smile. He had felt that kick firsthand, and honestly, it was absurd.
Thinking back to the Uchiha he remembered from the anime and what that chakra could do, Osamu felt his curiosity about chakra as an energy deepen even further. That kind of superhuman power was something he found genuinely fascinating.
"Stop complaining."
"Congratulations on passing my test. You are now a genin who can stand on your own."
Tsunade pulled Furukawa Osamu to his feet, then crouched in front of him and tied the ninja headband onto his head herself. She stepped back, gave him a long look, and added a teasing remark:
"No wonder Shizune says you're very popular at school."
"..."
Furukawa Osamu reached up and adjusted the Leaf Village headband sitting on his forehead. When he saw Shizune jogging over with a huge smile on her face, he did the only thing that felt right. He gave a thumbs up, just like Guy.
He was no Uchiha Obito. He preferred maturity.
"Let's go. I need to have a word with the old man. This year's batch has a lot of exceptional children. He should be pleased."
"And remember, don't use that technique casually. Even with your sensory abilities and your dynamic vision and reflexes being what they are, it's still very dangerous."
Tsunade turned her head and gave him that reminder with a smile, then caught Shizune's arm and kept walking, her golden twin-tails swaying as she kept thinking and adding more:
"At your age the priority is still building a solid foundation. I'll hand off some of the compounding work to you. The herbs you cultivated last year were a real help."
"Your three-person team's instructor hasn't been decided yet. I'll discuss it with the old man."
"You still need more real combat experience. Almost forgot, what's the name of that technique? Do you need me to come up with something better?"
She seemed particularly pleased with her student's talent. Tsunade stopped walking and looked at Furukawa Osamu with genuine anticipation.
"Chidori."
Furukawa Osamu said the name of the lightning jutsu with a smile. A memory surfaced somewhere in the back of his mind, middle school students copying hand signs and chasing each other around.
The name caught her off guard as a good one. Tsunade seemed to make some connection in her head, laughed out loud, and said:
"Surprisingly fitting!"
"Looks like your naming sense is considerably better than Jiraiya's student. What else would you expect from a genius I raised myself!"
"..."