On the way to the Ninja Academy, Tendo finally understood why his female superior had come knocking so early in the morning.
It turned out that yesterday, after Mizuki had provoked a fight and gotten beaten, he hadn't chosen to swallow his anger.
Instead, he went straight to complain to his superior—who happened to be Tendo's superior, Inuzuka Akita.
In Mizuki's retelling, he became a pure, innocent victim, constantly enduring Tendo's provocations.
Even when he was finally beaten, he claimed it was because he had considered Lady Inuzuka Akita's reputation and held back from retaliating.
The reason he was complaining to Inuzuka Akita, he said, was because he worried that Tendo's flamboyant behavior might lead to significant losses for her in the future.
I, Mizuki, am truly worried sick about Tendo-kun.
In short, that was roughly what he meant.
According to his plan, it would be best if he could sow discord between Inuzuka Akita and Tendo.
Even if Inuzuka Akita chose to protect her subordinate and kick Mizuki out, he could take the opportunity to spread rumors and ruin both of their reputations.
However, what Mizuki didn't expect was that among the notoriously impulsive Inuzuka clan, there was an anomaly like Inuzuka Akita.
This woman was not only broad-minded but also exceptionally intelligent and quick-witted.
She didn't blindly believe Mizuki's one-sided story but still politely saw him out, promising to come to the Ninja Academy tomorrow to clarify the situation.
It wasn't until she heard the truth from Tendo that she angrily rebuked him.
"That insidious villain, he truly harbors ill intentions..."
"He also said he wanted to invite you to the upcoming Ninja Academy graduation ceremony to fight against Hyuga Neji, the top student in his year."
"I really thought he had some misunderstanding with you and wanted to reconcile through this method."
"Now it seems he definitely has ulterior motives."
[Latest Mission: Accept the challenge and defeat the Hyuga Clan's prodigy, Hyuga Neji.]
[Mission Reward: Byakugan (Purity: Normal)]
Tendo looked at the mission prompt before him, his expression somewhat subtle.
He felt that he should join his superior in reprimanding Mizuki, that insidious villain, but the man had simply given him too many missions.
Tendo also knew a little about Hyuga Neji, the famous prodigy of the ninja world.
In the early stages, he clearly had the reputation of a genius on the same level as Sasuke.
But in the later stages, he became a well-known background character, his life ending prematurely.
One could say he lived a life of grievance and died a suffocating death.
Mizuki had his reasons for choosing him to fight Tendo.
At this stage, as a genius of the Hyuga clan, Hyuga Neji had just passed the genin qualification exam.
His strength could already be considered a notch higher than Mizuki's and other chunin who had only climbed the ranks through seniority.
Even if Tendo ultimately won, Hyuga Neji was still from the Hyuga clan and held the title of their top genius of the new generation.
Slapping the Hyuga clan in the face would be enough to give Tendo a hard time in the village.
This was Mizuki's intricate scheme.
It had to be said that as a villain, Mizuki still had some brains.
Tendo's attitude towards this was simple: let the Hyuga come, it's a good chance for me to test the system's limits.
Tendo smiled calmly.
His smile carried three parts disdain, three parts confidence, and four parts arrogance.
"Knowing your usual style, I thought you would refuse outright."
"I didn't expect you to accept."
Inuzuka Akita gave Tendo a meaningful look.
"Tendo-kun, it seems you have other secrets I don't know about."
However, she didn't press him further.
Secrets make women more charming, and the same applies to men.
And a wise woman like Inuzuka Akita naturally understood that constantly pressuring a man wouldn't work.
One needed to know when to push and when to pull, mastering the rhythm to make a man willingly reveal his secrets.
The Ninja Academy.
A ninja education institution founded by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Its original intention was to cultivate civilian ninja, breaking the ninja clans' monopoly on knowledge.
It was one of the Second Hokage's few benevolent policies.
Tendo's feelings towards Senju Tobirama were complex.
Although his policies led to the Uchiha clan's inability to integrate into the Konoha village, ultimately resulting in their extermination.
But in another sense, if the Uchiha clan hadn't been exterminated, Tendo's system might never have awakened.
From this perspective, Senju Tobirama was not Tendo's enemy, but rather his benefactor.
In that case, all of Konoha's high-ranking officials were Tendo's benefactors.
Yes, indeed. All benefactors, no enemies.
Soon, Tendo met another one of his benefactors.
Tendo hadn't held back his punch yesterday.
Even though he was wrapped in bandages, it was clear from Mizuki's grimacing expression when he spoke that he wasn't feeling well.
However, it must be said that when people do bad things, their initiative is always very strong.
Hearing that Tendo had accepted the battle against Hyuga Neji, Mizuki instantly seemed to forget the pain in his face.
Fearing that Tendo would go back on his word, he immediately took the two of them to the training ground in the academy.
Konoha highly valued the Ninja Academy.
The site was chosen near the Hokage Building, surrounded by various important village institutions, to facilitate quick protection and evacuation of the students in case of emergencies.
Similarly, the Ninja Academy's training ground occupied a considerable area in the center of the village, where land was extremely valuable.
At this time, there were two classes active on the training ground.
One was Neji's class, which had already passed the ninja qualification exam and was free to train.
The other was the class led by Iruka Umino.
"Hey!"
"Aren't you the big brother who caught me yesterday?"
As soon as Tendo arrived at the training ground, a boisterous voice instantly rang out.
It was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, whom Tendo had tackled to the ground the day before.
"Hello there, Naruto-kun."
Tendo greeted Naruto with a smile, then scanned his surroundings.
Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka...
He had seen almost all of Konoha's Twelve Rookies this time.
The twelve individuals had varied appearances and personalities.
Seeing Tendo's gaze, some smiled politely, some shyly tried to hide behind others, and some were more concerned with the snacks in their hands.
And of course, some were infatuated.
"Sakura, look, look!"
"This new handsome guy is so cool!"
The blonde girl, Ino Yamanaka, stared wide-eyed at Tendo.
She used to think Uchiha Sasuke or Hyuga Neji from the next class were top-notch handsome guys.
But she never expected someone could be even better-looking.
"No way, Ino-pig."
"Sasuke-kun is still the coolest."
The pink-haired Sakura Haruno, standing beside her, softly retorted.
Though her words lacked conviction and confidence.
"Kiba, don't you know how to greet your older cousin?"
Inuzuka Akita also smiled as she called out to her younger cousin.
Inuzuka Kiba, who was always bossed around by his cousin, could only stop his attempt to shield everyone and dutifully greeted her.
And of course, he also greeted Tendo, the older brother who was always by his cousin's side.
Inuzuka Kiba had always admired Tendo.
To be able to tame a tigress like her, Tendo was truly an incredible man.
Inuzuka Kiba couldn't help but look at Tendo with admiration.
Mizuki gathered Neji's class and announced the demonstration battle between Tendo and Hyuga Neji.
The reason he gave was grand and righteous.
After passing the graduation exam, students would soon be performing actual missions.
They would inevitably encounter ninja from other villages, and even some rogue ninja.
Conflict would be unavoidable.
The teacher had originally planned to personally fight Neji to demonstrate for you all.
But unfortunately, he was injured unexpectedly yesterday.
Fortunately, Tendo-kun stepped forward.
Blah, blah, blah.
It had to be said that his reasoning was quite convincing.
Tendo almost thought he had misunderstood Mizuki's good intentions.
Of course, Mizuki later praised Tendo's strength to the skies.
He told Neji not to hold back and to fight with all his might, and not to worry about Tendo getting injured.
This also served to strongly reverse his reputation, which was just about to become positive.