Living a second life, Qiyun had grown much softer toward the little runts around him. The conversation had started because Rin initiated it, and Qiyun had politely chatted with her for a bit, only to discover that her plans for the future were entirely accidental.
Still, to have such a clear vision of the future at such a tender age and to start working toward it right now meant Rin's potential was immeasurable.
Qiyun sighed inwardly at the child's precociousness; when he was her age, he had been an annoying little hellion everyone loved to hate.
When Qiyun returned to his seat, he found Kakashi and Obito giving him intensely complicated looks.
"Huh? What's going on?" Qiyun naturally slid into his seat between the two of them.
Unlike Obito, who was tangled in his own feelings, Kakashi asked with total candor, "Nii-san, do you like Rin?"
"Ha?" Qiyun blinked, looking completely bewildered. "Why would you guys think that?"
"Didn't you two look like you were having a great time chatting..." Obito crossed his arms, turning his head away with his cheeks puffed out in an obvious pout.
Left speechless at being suspected of having something going on with a six-year-old girl, Qiyun said, "You guys are overthinking this."
How the tables had turned. Earlier, he had been teasing Obito and Rin about their relationship, and now the spotlight had landed on him.
"Rin's a pretty good person, though," Kakashi remarked.
Obito whipped his head around, glaring at Kakashi like a traitor. "Kakashi, how can you be so nonchalant about this?!"
Kakashi gave Obito a baffling, deadpan look. "Why shouldn't I be? I just said Rin is a good girl. If Nii-san likes her, it wouldn't be bad if they got together."
As a younger brother, he would be genuinely happy if Qiyun found happiness.
Obito had never hated his own overactive imagination so much. The moment Kakashi finished speaking, his mind conjured an image of Qiyun and Rin getting married, both of them smiling happily, while he was just a miserable rat lurking in a dark corner, completely unable to intrude upon their world.
He did NOT want a future like that!
Obito was about to have his mental defenses shattered by his own daydreams.
Verging on tears, he grabbed the hem of Qiyun's shirt and whimpered, "Qiyun, Qiyun, please tell me you don't like Rin!"
"Didn't I just say there's no such thing?!" Qiyun's forehead sprouted veins. "I'm not even—" He had wanted to say *a pedophile*, but remembering the age of his current body, he quickly corrected himself. "Anyway, stop overthinking things!"
At that, Qiyun gave Obito a light smack on the head, exasperated. "Do you guys spend all day just running wild with these thoughts? If you're kids, act like it and go study properly!"
"Ow... I get it now!" Even though Obito rubbed his head in pain, having received the reassurance, he couldn't help the curve of his lips and couldn't resist double-checking, "Qiyun, Qiyun, you promise?"
"Yeah, yeah, how many times do you want me to say it?" Qiyun shook his head with a sigh. "I'm not considering that kind of thing anytime soon."
What was there to like about brats this young anyway? He certainly hadn't been like this at their age; his head had been entirely filled with thoughts of playing games.
"Looks like someone actually has feelings for Rin himself," Kakashi said coolly. "I advise you to go after her yourself instead of plotting how to eliminate your rivals. That won't get you anywhere."
"True. If you really like someone, it's better to confess your feelings sooner rather than later."
Though Qiyun still didn't think children this age understood true love, perhaps he was just ill-informed? It looked like Obito genuinely liked Rin, even stooping to acting spoiled with him. They really were overthinking things.
"Ah... huh?" Obito pointed at himself blankly. "Me...?"
Realizing belatedly what the two of them meant, his young face rapidly flushed a brilliant red, and he waved his hands frantically. "N-No, I can't... Confessing to Rin and stuff, I could never..."
Such a precocious little brat, Qiyun muttered inwardly. Seeing that Obito's entire face looked ready to boil water, he finally let him off the hook.
"Fine, fine, whatever you say."
Qiyun had no interest in the Shinobi World's textbooks; the material taught in them was far too superficial. Even if he didn't pay attention at all, he could still score a hundred just by looking at those basics of the basics, which left him with absolutely nothing to do at the academy.
Kakashi, who had been driven to work harder by Qiyun, shared the sentiment. Ninjutsu went without saying—the Three Body Techniques were skills he had already mastered long ago. As for academic subjects, they weren't even as difficult as the random math problems Qiyun sketched out for fun.
Such stellar performance naturally attracted the attention of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He kept a close eye on the growth of the outstanding children in the academy, and the Hatake brothers, who had risen like dark horses, were naturally the most eye-catching of all.
During the academy's final examinations, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in his Hokage office, observing the test through a crystal ball.
Because Namikaze Minato used the Flying Thunder God with such proficient skill, Hiruzen held high expectations for the transmission of this forbidden jutsu. While the young man Minato was already quite exceptional, naturally, the more people who could master the Flying Thunder God, the better.
Remembering Qiyun's flawless test papers, a glimmer of anticipation flashed in Hiruzen's eyes. *Child of the Hatake household, just how far can you go?*
Teacher Yamamoto, who had previewed the test papers beforehand, was in a agonizing bind. The first half of the exam was normal enough, but what in the world were those questions in the second half?! Even he, a teacher, didn't know how to solve them! Was it really okay to give these to the kids?!
Panicking, Teacher Yamamoto couldn't help but ask the young shinobi who had delivered the exams.
"Is this difficulty level really okay, Jonin Namikaze?"
Namikaze Minato scratched his head and smiled. "This is an order from the Third Hokage. And by the way, I'm the one who wrote the test."
"T-The Third Hokage's... order?"
As soon as Minato mentioned it was Hiruzen's command, Teacher Yamamoto's doubts vanished. "I see. The Third Hokage must have profound intentions behind this."
"Mhm, mhm." Minato maintained a gentle smile, his blue eyes flashing with eager anticipation.
Barely in his teens, Minato was already an elite Jonin and even had a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki girlfriend, Uzumaki Kushina. Because he was so young and still needed to accumulate achievements and influence, he had been constantly rushing around on various high-difficulty missions—until the Third Hokage suddenly summoned him.
"Minato, you can now use the Flying Thunder God Technique quite skillfully, correct?"
"Yes, Third Hokage."
"Mm... Excellent. If I need you to create a test paper to screen for students with the talent to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique, can you do it?"
Hiruzen's words caused even Minato, who was kneeling on one knee, to look up in surprise. "Third Hokage..."
"Can you do it?" Hiruzen asked again.
"Yes!" Minato agreed, though he hesitated for a few seconds. "However, learning the Flying Thunder God Technique requires some additional innate talent..."
As a proficient user of the Flying Thunder God, Minato understood the difficulty of learning it better than anyone. Not only did one need to maintain calm reasoning during high-speed combat, but spatial talent was also crucially important. If someone couldn't even perceive the existence of space itself, how could they ever find a spatial anchor point?
Hiruzen looked at Minato—Jiraiya's disciple and his own grand-student—and spoke. "There is an exceptionally brilliant student in this year's cohort whom I believe is worth cultivating. He's the child of the Hatake household."
"Eh? Sakumo-senpai's child?"
Hiruzen nodded. "Sakumo wants to step back to the second line. He proposed a condition to me: his child is very interested in the Flying Thunder God. But the Flying Thunder God is, after all, a forbidden jutsu of the village, so the child needs to pass a little test. It's also a good opportunity for us to see the overall level of this year's students."
Hearing this, Minato understood Hiruzen's meaning. The threshold for entering the Flying Thunder God was extremely high; leaving aside spatial talent, calculation ability was also a vital assessment standard.
"I understand, Third Hokage."
He never imagined the day would come when he would take on a disciple of his own.
Minato looked through the glass at the silver-haired boy below. *I wonder if you possess the aptitude for it, Hatake Qiyun.*
Inside the examination hall.
Qiyun quickly scanned through the test paper the moment he received it, and when he reached the latter half, he couldn't help letting out a soft "huh."
If the first half of the paper consisted of elementary school math problems, the second half leaped straight to advanced calculus.
*...Isn't it a bit too early to use this for screening? Besides, these topics haven't even been taught in class, right? Are they seriously testing us with this? Well, though it's simple enough for me, anyway.*
Confident, Qiyun set his brush to paper without needing to ponder deeply.
The other children soon noticed the high difficulty of the second half, and the previously quiet classroom began to stir with murmurs.
"What is going on with these questions?"
"I... I completely don't get it..."
"I'm doomed, I don't know a single one..."
"Quiet! Quiet!" Teacher Yamamoto naturally saw the children's panicked expressions. "This is an exam! No whispering to each other!"
Asuma's gaze drifted toward Yuhi Kurenai, whose eyes were red with anxiety, until he finally couldn't help raising his hand. "Teacher, there's something wrong with the difficulty of this test! We haven't even learned these subjects!"
*Of course I know that, kid!* Teacher Yamamoto thought.
Asuma was, after all, the Hokage's son, and the children needed to be placated; losing their confidence right now would be bad.
Teacher Yamamoto gave a light cough. "This test paper was sent over from the Hokage's Mansion. Grades don't matter, just do as much as you can."
Having received this answer, Asuma still remained thoroughly annoyed. *What on earth is that old man playing at?* Was he deliberately making things difficult for him?
"So... is this a test from the Hokage-sama?" someone couldn't help whispering.
As soon as those words were spoken, they immediately gained support from multiple directions.
"If I can solve these, will I get the Hokage-sama's attention?!"
With that, everyone began to immerse themselves in solving the problems. Securing the Hokage's favor held an irresistible attraction for the children.
In truth, Minato knew full well that the academy did not teach the calculation of spatial coordinates, which was why he had included the formulas directly in the design of the questions. If someone read them carefully, even with a shallow foundation, they could still find the answers.
After all, comprehension ability was also a crucial component, especially for a ninjutsu with such exceptionally high theoretical demands like the Flying Thunder God.
Kakashi swiftly finished the first half's childish problems and advanced to tackling the second half. Known as a genius, Kakashi naturally noticed the trace of pity coming from Minato, and coupled with Qiyun's deliberate training on ordinary days, even though his solving speed was slow, he gradually conquered the problems one by one.
As for Obito, he stared at the test paper with a completely blank expression, his eyes turning into dizzy spirals.
*What is this? And what is that talking about? My brain feels stuffed with paste.*
Subconsciously, he glanced over at Qiyun. Sitting at a distance, he could only vaguely make out a test paper that was already nearly finished.
*...As expected of Qiyun.*
He then looked toward Kakashi's direction. Although the paper was blocked from view, he could see Kakashi's hand constantly moving as he wrote.
*Damn it! Does Kakashi know how to do all of them too?!*
Defeated, Obito slumped face-down onto his desk, glaring at the incomprehensible questions until he went cross-eyed.
Qiyun put down his brush, then raised his hand. "I'm finished."
The exam hall instantly plunged into silence.
"C... C-Are you kidding me?" Asuma widened his eyes, looked down at his own test paper, and confirmed with a glance that these were definitely problems he couldn't solve.
"Even if it's Hatake Qiyun, that genius..."
Teacher Yamamoto was also stunned, but he quickly snapped out of it, walking over to Qiyun's side to look at his concise test paper. "Qiyun, are you sure you want to turn it in?"
These problems were things Qiyun could see the answers to at a glance, so he had simply written down the solutions directly, making it look as though he had just guessed everything at random.
"I'm sure." Qiyun stood up, hands shoved into his pockets, and walked out of the exam hall. As he stepped out the classroom door, his peripheral vision caught a flash of gold.
He turned his head and spotted a young shinobi with blonde hair and blue eyes.
*...A bit familiar.*
Meeting Qiyun's gaze, Minato tilted his head, a flash of sudden realization dawning on his face as he offered a cheerful greeting, "Yo."
Qiyun didn't respond immediately, searching his memory instead.
*Blonde hair, blue eyes, blonde hair, blue eyes... Ah, isn't this Namikaze Minato, who's been making a name for himself lately? The Third Hokage's grand-student, a young genius rising up from the commoners... But still, this has nothing to do with me.*
Qiyun gave Minato a polite nod, then turned and left the area.
Minato watched Qiyun's retreating figure gradually disappear, the corners of his mouth curving upward. "As expected of Sakumo-senpai's child. Interesting."
Precisely because of his own arduous journey in learning the Flying Thunder God, Minato understood its difficulty all too well, which was why he hadn't held high hopes initially. But if it was that kid from just now, perhaps he really could pull it off.
"Next, I'll just need to check his calculation skills."
Minato effortlessly retrieved Qiyun's test paper from Teacher Yamamoto.
"Let me see... Oh?"
Seeing that every single problem only had the final answer written down, Minato blinked. "Judging by this, Qiyun's calculation ability must be exceptionally strong."
Even for him, back when he was first learning, he had needed to fill numerous sheets of scrap paper before gradually growing proficient enough to complete the calculation process entirely in his head until he could arrive directly at the answer.
Minato had been observing Qiyun the whole time; he could tell the boy hadn't seemed to hesitate at all before putting pen to paper, as if he had known the answers all along.
The test questions hadn't changed hands from the moment he created them to the time they reached the school, so there was no possibility of a leak. The only explanation was that Qiyun had deduced the answers in a single instant.
"All correct. No wonder he was so confident." Minato rubbed his chin and smiled. "Having a little disciple wouldn't be bad either. Ah~ I should go share this good news with Kushina."