Chapter 6: The Unexpected Reveal
Naruto had only meant to quietly assess Sasuke's abilities, to measure the gap between them. He hadn't intended to voice his thoughts out loud.
Now, because of that careless whisper, the entire classroom was looking at him with barely contained hostility. The fangirls glared as if they wanted to tear him apart, while Sasuke's face had darkened to a stormy scowl. Those who secretly resented Sasuke's effortless superiority now looked at Naruto with mocking smirks, enjoying the impending spectacle.
If anyone else had said it, perhaps the reaction wouldn't have been so fierce. But coming from the class dead-last—the boy everyone considered useless—it was nothing short of outrageous. To their minds, Naruto had just dared to belittle a genius while being unable to produce even a single clone himself. Sasuke had created three perfect copies, the highest in the class, and the bottom-ranked failure had the nerve to scoff.
"Naruto, how dare you talk about Sasuke like that! You can't even make one clone!"
"That's right! You're not even a tenth as good as Sasuke!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Sasuke, humiliated by the insult coming from someone so far beneath him, let out a cold, sharp snort, his dark eyes promising retaliation.
"QUIET! ENOUGH!"
Iruka slapped his hand against the desk, his head beginning to ache from the noise. Yet even his authority couldn't fully quell the glowering stares of the fangirls or the sneers of the boys.
Helplessly, Iruka shook his head and sighed. He glanced at his clipboard and called the next name, his voice resigned.
"Next… Uzumaki Naruto."
The reaction was immediate. The classroom erupted again, but this time it wasn't cheers of support. It was a cacophony of jeers and anticipation—everyone eager to see the clown embarrass himself. All eyes locked onto Naruto, hungry for failure.
Let's see how many this dead-last can produce after mocking Sasuke's three!
They all wanted to see him squirm.
"Do you think he can even make one?"
"I bet he can't even make half of one!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Humph. Let's see how someone who looks down on Sasuke performs!"
Under the weight of their malicious, expectant gazes, Naruto rose from his seat with a deliberately reluctant shrug. He stepped up to the front of the classroom, his expression carefully guarded.
Iruka looked at him with a complicated mixture of hope and dread. He wanted Naruto to succeed, yet part of him feared what it would mean if the boy became a ninja. With a heavy heart, he nodded. "Begin."
Naruto raised his hands and formed a single seal.
Bang.
The initial impact was sharp, singular. But then—
Chakra exploded outward. A massive surge of power, raw and overwhelming, flooded the room. Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of clones manifesting ripped through the air like a string of firecrackers, one after another after another.
Shadow Clones—solid, real, combat-ready copies—materialized in every available space. They filled the aisles, the corners, the front of the room. They stood shoulder to shoulder, rows upon rows, until the classroom was completely packed with Naruto's grinning faces.
And when the room could hold no more, the clones spilled out the door and lined the hallway outside. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands. Far too many to count at a glance. And each one was perfect, more defined and stable than Sasuke's three had ever been.
The classroom went absolutely silent.
Jaws dropped. Eyes bulged. The fangirls who had been sharpening their glares a moment before sat frozen, their hands clapped over their mouths in disbelief. The boys who had been sneering looked like they had seen a ghost. Even Iruka stood paralyzed, his clipboard hanging forgotten in his grip.
"This… this is impossible!" someone finally choked out, their voice cracking.
Others could only stare at the calm, unruffled Naruto standing amidst his legion of clones. The dead-last. The failure. The boy they had mocked and dismissed for years. Naruto Uzumaki, who couldn't even perform a basic Clone Technique…
He had just produced thousands.
Uchiha Sasuke, the class genius, had summoned three.
The contrast was staggering, humiliatingly vast. If this was the tail of the crane, then what did that make everyone else? What did that make Sasuke?
The fangirls, who had been so quick to defend Sasuke's honor, now sat in stunned silence, their faces cycling through shades of shock and embarrassment.
Naruto allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. He turned to Iruka, his voice light and innocent.
"Iruka-sensei… did I pass?"
The question snapped Iruka out of his stupor. He blinked rapidly, looked from the dozens of clones still crammed in the room, and nodded—perhaps a bit too vigorously.
"P-pass! You pass! Naruto, please… please dispel them now!"
Naruto nodded and released his chakra. In an instant, all the clones vanished in a collective puff of smoke, leaving the classroom feeling strangely empty. The students slowly returned to their senses, murmurs and exclamations rippling through the crowd.
"Was that… really Naruto?"
"I can't believe my eyes…"
"How many clones did he just make? That's even more than some Jōnin I've seen!"
Eyes that had always held contempt or indifference now held something else entirely—shock, confusion, and a dawning, uncomfortable respect. A few people glanced at Sasuke, noticing that his already dark expression had curdled into something far uglier.
Naruto ignored them all. He walked calmly back to his seat, settling into the corner as if nothing had happened.
He had a reason for showing his hand this way. The Shadow Clone Technique was exactly what the Third Hokage had wanted him to learn from the fake Scroll of Seals last night. By demonstrating it now, Naruto was simply meeting the old man's expectations. It was a controlled reveal, one that would not raise suspicion. The village would think the trick worked. They would believe Naruto had learned his only worthwhile jutsu from the decoy scroll.
The deception held.
After giving Naruto one last, long look filled with newfound admiration, Iruka cleared his throat and continued the exam. The rest of the students were called one by one, but the atmosphere had irrevocably shifted. No one could quite shake the image of Naruto's army of clones.
Soon, the final candidate finished. Iruka separated the graduates from the failures. Those who passed remained in their seats, waiting for team assignments. Those who failed were to follow Iruka outside.
As he reached the door, Iruka paused and looked back at the blond boy in the corner.
"Naruto," he called out, his voice softer than before. "Come with me."