During Taijutsu class on the Ninja Academy training ground, Masahiko stood with a young boy beside him. He smiled and addressed the class, "Let me introduce everyone. This student is transferring from another class to ours. His name is Sai. Please get along with him from now on."
Everyone's eyes immediately drifted over. Because the young Sai had yet to experience the traumatic death match with Shin in Root, his facial expressions were still relatively intact. His gaze held a flicker of genuine curiosity, especially... when it landed on Sasuke.
'So this is Uchiha Sasuke? He doesn't look like anything special,' Sai thought.
To make his transfer appear seamless and to protect Yakumo's group from a closer vantage point, Sai had intentionally scaled back his Root training over the past month to attend regular Academy classes. Even among Root operatives, Sai's scores were exceptional; acing the Academy curriculum was a trivial matter. Ironically, deliberately sandbagging his grades had been his biggest struggle. After a month of quiet observation, he finally pinpointed his classmates' learning progress and power levels, allowing him to accurately simulate test scores that were just slightly above average. Yesterday, his transfer application was finally approved, placing him directly into Masahiko's class.
Yakumo remained outwardly impassive, but her mind spun with suspicion. She had seen this boy before. No—not just seen him. He seemed to constantly hover around her periphery. She cast a few more scrutinizing glances his way.
"Alright, no sparring today," Masahiko announced, clapping his hands to draw their attention. "I'm going to cover how to respond in chaotic situations."
He delivered a concise, practical lecture on survival and evasion tactics during a sudden crisis, even calling up a few students to demonstrate the maneuvers. Once the demonstrations concluded, his tone shifted to something far more serious. "Starting today, the Academy will be conducting unannounced attack drills. I expect everyone to take what I've taught you today to heart."
Simultaneously, across every classroom in the Academy, the other instructors were delivering the exact same warning.
Second period.
Naruto was sprawled across his desk, yawning loudly. It was a culture class. He propped his chin on his hands, straining to pay attention, but the gaps in his foundational knowledge were simply too vast. Nothing made sense, and the harder he tried to listen, the heavier his eyelids became.
Yet, a closer look revealed he wasn't the only one suffering. The vast majority of the students around him were drowsy, fighting off a wave of unnatural lethargy.
Two seconds later... Kurama Yakumo abruptly sat bolt upright. A quick sweep of the room told her everything she needed to know. She immediately poked Ino while whipping out her drawing board and brush. "Ino, something's not right!"
"Huh?!" Ino jerked awake, instantly snapping into a textbook 'good student' posture. "What's not... Ah?!!" Ino's eyes widened in sheer shock as she took in the classroom. In a panic, her instincts kicked in, and she slapped the person sitting next to her—Shikamaru, the childhood friend she trusted most in a crisis.
Jolted from his daze, Shikamaru thought Iruka had caught him sleeping and flinched violently. When he realized it was just Ino, he shot her a venomous glare.
"Shikamaru, l-look! What's going on here?" she whispered frantically.
"Hmm?" Shikamaru rubbed his eyes, his drowsiness vanishing in an instant.
Down at the podium, Iruka was lecturing passionately, gesturing as if addressing a room full of eager scholars. But the reality of the classroom was entirely different. Everyone was out cold! Even the notoriously diligent Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke were slumped over their desks, fast asleep.
Right at that moment, Sasuke's head snapped up. He shot to his feet. "It's a Genjutsu! Everyone—"
Before Sasuke could yell the warning, Shikamaru cut him off with a low hiss, "It's the unannounced attack drill the teacher warned us about! Yakumo, find a way to wake everyone up. Including the teacher..."
Sasuke exhaled a sharp breath of relief. His eyes darted around the room to assess the situation before he sprinted to the back corner to prepare escape ropes.
Yakumo's brush flew across her canvas. In a single second, a localized rainstorm manifested from thin air, pouring directly from the classroom ceiling. The chakra-infused droplets quickly washed the sleep from the students' eyes. Soaked and shivering, the immediate reaction of the masses was pure, vocal annoyance. Only a select few instantly snapped into a combat-ready stance.
Down at the front, the sudden downpour finally snapped Iruka out of the illusion. A hot flush of embarrassment hit him. As an experienced Chunin instructor, he hadn't even been the first to notice the Genjutsu.
But training took over, and he immediately began barking orders. "Enemy attack! Evacuate through the windows and doors in an orderly fashion! Do not push or panic!"
As he shouted, he rapidly uncoiled a length of wire rope attached to a kunai, embedding it securely before tossing the line out the window. "Everyone by the windows, do as I do—"
"Go down!" Sasuke commanded, cutting Iruka off. He was already holding a massive bundle of pre-cut ropes, tossing them with pinpoint accuracy to the students stationed at every window on his side of the room. Securing his own line to a window frame, Sasuke seamlessly repelled down the side of the building.
Iruka stood there, feeling intensely awkward. His students were simply too competent, rendering his role as their protector somewhat redundant. To hide his embarrassment, he turned his exasperation on a more familiar target. "Naruto, you idiot!"
Instead of using a rope, Naruto had simply vaulted out the window into the corridor, then leaped directly from the balcony down to the first floor. While a second-story drop wasn't likely to kill a ninja-in-training, it completely violated protocol—and not everyone shared Naruto's freakish physical durability.
Iruka anxiously leaned out to direct the stragglers, thankful he at least didn't have to worry about Sasuke and Shikamaru's half of the room.
Up on the rooftop, Kurenai Yuhi released her hand sign, a faint sheen of sweat on her brow.
Masahiko offered a smooth smile. "As expected of Kurenai. I'm afraid you're the only one in the village capable of casting a Genjutsu of this scale and precision."
"They're just a bunch of children. As long as I focused the brunt of the illusion on the Chunin instructors, it wasn't anything worth bragging about..." Kurenai replied with a soft, melancholic sigh.
The Academy possessed multiple teaching blocks. Kurenai was assigned to blanket the lower-year district with Genjutsu, while the upper-year district was subjected to a simulated, full-scale ninja assault.
And the situation over there was far more traumatizing!
In the upper-year district, a dense, unnatural fog had completely swallowed the classrooms. It was the Hidden Mist Jutsu!
"Throat, spine, heart... where would you like me to strike?" a chilling voice echoed from the white void, dripping with suffocating killing intent.
In the next second, a bloodcurdling scream tore through the silence from the corner of the room. Splatters of crimson sprayed across the desks, splashing warmly onto the faces of the nearby students.
"Ahhh!! Murder!"
Panic erupted. The entire classroom dissolved into blind, disorganized chaos as students trampled over each other to escape.
Hidden within the mist, Kakashi let out a helpless, internal sigh. 'It's just fake animal blood...' Just as he suspected, an attack of this caliber was still too extreme for sheltered Academy kids. But it had to be done. It was the only way to ensure that when a real blade swung for their necks, a few more of them might actually survive.
"Everyone run! I'll hold them off!" the homeroom instructor roared heroically, gripping a kunai as he charged blindly into the thickest part of the mist.
Bang!
With a single Body Flicker and a swift chop to the neck, Kakashi struck the teacher down. He didn't pause, immediately turning his single visible eye toward a group of trembling students.
Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu!
The students shrieked as their worst fears materialized before them, fainting dead away on the floor. Kakashi wasn't acting alone. Several Hyuga clan ninjas had been brought in for the exercise, utilizing their Gentle Fist to perfectly seal the students' chakra points while coordinating with Genjutsu specialists to simulate a brutal, overwhelming invasion.
The entire building was an absolute madhouse!
Kakashi's mouth twitched slightly beneath his mask, but he ruthlessly continued his "pursuit," perfectly playing the role of a bloodthirsty assassin. This wasn't just some glorified fire drill. It was vital preparation for the unpredictable variables that could arise during the upcoming Branching Operation... and for the very real attacks that could fall upon Konoha at any moment!
Besides, back in his day, twelve-year-olds were already slaughtering each other on the battlefield.
Hardening his resolve, Kakashi swung his sheathed sword, smacking the scabbard bluntly against another student's body to knock them out cold.