Inside the principal's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded with satisfaction after observing each class through his crystal ball.
His lips curled into a grin around his smoking pipe as he switched the crystal ball to a different scene.
This time, the image was not of classrooms—but of the women's bathhouse in Konoha, shrouded in mist.
Just as Hiruzen let out a pervy "hehehe" while staring at the silhouettes in the steam, the office door was suddenly kicked open with a loud bang.
Startled by the sudden intrusion, Hiruzen hastily cut off his Telescope Technique and was just about to compose himself when a familiar voice rang out:
"Enough already. Cut the crap. Everyone knows exactly what you were doing."
Hiruzen looked up at the two intruders, and despite his aged appearance, a warm smile formed on his face.
"You two finally made it. Sit down."
Hoshiyomi flopped into a chair without ceremony.
Minato, meanwhile, gave Hiruzen a polite bow before sitting properly.
Looking at these two—the Guardians of Konoha—Hiruzen's heart filled with pride and relief.
He had never been more grateful for his decision to retire early.
Life now truly matched that old saying:
"You'll never know how wonderful life is until you stop being Hokage."
Lost in nostalgic thoughts for a moment, Hiruzen snapped back to reality.
Without wasting words, he bent down, pulled out a thick stack of documents from the drawer under his desk, and placed them on the table.
"This is all of them. Based on my assessment, these should be the students likely to pass this year's graduation exam."
Hoshiyomi grabbed the stack and skimmed through it, raising his eyebrows.
"This many?"
Back when they attended the academy, only about thirty students could pass the graduation exam.
But now, judging from the documents Hiruzen had brought out, there were nearly a hundred.
Hiruzen's wrinkled face blossomed with another smile.
"That's all thanks to you two.
With fewer wars and more funding for Konoha, the children's physical condition has improved a great deal.
These ninety-three students are the ones who passed after I raised the graduation standards.
If we used the wartime criteria from your generation, at least two hundred could graduate this year.
But since the two of you pushed for the 'elite shinobi policy,' I filtered them carefully.
Among these ninety-three, if the jōnin instructors are strict with their evaluations, roughly sixty should reach chūnin level in the future."
Hoshiyomi was genuinely shocked.
In the original story, Naruto's class had only about thirty graduates, and only nine went on to participate in the Chūnin Exams.
Compared to that, the graduation rate had increased by several fold.
Of course, none of that was the real reason they were gathered today.
They weren't here for the masses of ordinary genin or potential chūnin.
They were here to arrange the team placements for this year's elite students.
When Hiruzen noticed that neither of them even bothered to look at the rest of the files, and instead kept staring at him, he let out a bitter smile.
"Fine, fine. I guess I'm doomed to be the one doing all the work."
He picked up the stack himself and sorted through them, eventually pulling out fifteen specific files.
"These are the ones. In my opinion, they're the most gifted students of this generation."
At those words, Minato and Hoshiyomi finally exchanged a meaningful look and reached for the files.
Hoshiyomi took the set and scanned through them—
and immediately raised an eyebrow.
No wonder—most of the names were familiar.
More than half were the faces of what the original story called the Konoha 12.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino.
These nine students—along with Neji, the later-added Sai—thirteen in total—occupy more than seventy percent of the entire Naruto storyline.
They are also the core of Hoshiyomi's youth memories.
The remaining six students were unfamiliar to Hoshiyomi.
Four were children from civilian families, and the other two were from the Senju and Uzumaki clans.
Most likely, their presence in this world was another result of the butterfly effect caused by Hoshiyomi's existence.
Normally, during past years' "genius class" team assignments, Hoshiyomi only observed and seldom voiced his opinions—occasionally offering minor suggestions.
But this year, Hoshiyomi was unusually proactive.
After all, he absolutely did not want to see his most familiar and beloved combinations broken up.
Even if his presence meant that these children might not experience most of the missions and events from the original story, he still wanted to preserve their bonds as much as possible.
And since his influence had caused these children to already know each other to some extent, grouping them together wouldn't feel unnatural.
Thus, this year's elite team assignments were decided almost entirely by Hoshiyomi alone.
Same formula.
Same nostalgic flavor.
Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke.
Team 8: Hyūga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba.
Team 10: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chōji.
The remaining six were placed in Team 9 and Team 11.
Whether they would be able to form stable teams would depend on their own luck.
After finalizing the roster, the next thing to do was simply wait for Naruto's class to take their graduation exam.
The exam itself wasn't worth elaborating on.
All of the designated prodigies passed without issue—including Naruto.
Because Kushina was still alive in this timeline, the Nine-Tails would never cause trouble for Naruto the way it did in the original story—not even out of respect for Kushina alone.
The initial relationship between the tailed beast and its jinchūriki was far better than in the original.
Without the negative influence of Kurama's chakra, Naruto may not have been very smart, but performing a basic Clone and Transformation Technique was no problem at all.
One notable detail:
Naruto's exam proctors were still Iruka and Mizuki.
However, because the plot had changed drastically, their attitudes toward Naruto were also vastly different.
Iruka was always a kind teacher, and that would never change regardless of Naruto's background.
Although their bond was not as deep as in the original, their relationship was still very good.
Mizuki, on the other hand, had undergone a complete 180-degree shift.
Because Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage—a top-tier "official second generation"—Mizuki now fawned over him with all his might.
Just looking at Mizuki's current attitude, one could easily believe he was Naruto's loyal bootlicker.
It was hard to imagine that in another world, this same Mizuki—who bent over backwards to please Naruto—considered him trash and manipulated him into stealing the Scroll of Seals.
In this world, Mizuki was simply a vain, narrow-minded man who happened to be an "ordinary winner in life."
Seeing Mizuki's beautiful fiancée, Hoshiyomi couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
How did such a good girl end up blind?
While Hoshiyomi was thinking this, Naruto suddenly spotted him and rushed over with a big grin:
"Uncle Hoshiyomi! Look, starting today, I'm a shinobi too! I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage!"
Seeing Naruto yelling with excitement, Hoshiyomi chuckled.
He reached into his robe and pulled out a scroll.
"Here. Your father told me to give you this as your graduation gift."
Naruto's eyes lit up and he quickly unrolled it.
At the start of the scroll were large, bold characters:
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
...
Drop some POWERSTONES to push the story forward!
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin