"Hello, everyone. My name is Iruka Umino. From today onward, I'll be your homeroom teacher."
As the school bell rang, a young man wearing a green flak jacket walked into the classroom. Standing at the podium, he introduced himself to Izanami and the others, then smiled.
"Before we begin class, let's introduce ourselves. We'll start with the student in the first row on the left."
"My name is—"
"Hello, everyone. My name is Ino Yamanaka. Please take care of me from now on."
"My name is Shino Aburame."
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! Remember it—I'm the man who's going to become Hokage!"
"..."
Each student's introduction reflected their personality.
Among them, the most eye-catching was Uzumaki Naruto—who, at this point, was still someone Iruka Umino disliked.
Since they had just met, Naruto's loud and arrogant declaration didn't immediately draw ridicule from the class.
When it was Hinata's turn, she spoke softly and haltingly.
"M-my name is Hinata Hyuga. P-please take care of me."
Her timid demeanor stood in stark contrast to the bright and outgoing Ino Yamanaka.
Fortunately, this wasn't an ordinary world. Otherwise, such a shy girl would likely have been isolated and bullied.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Izanami."
Izanami stood up and calmly stated his name—an utterly plain self-introduction.
However, his delicate features, no less attractive than Uchiha Sasuke's, immediately caught the attention of many girls.
Even though Izanami already knew that girls in this world matured far earlier than normal, he still couldn't help clicking his tongue inwardly when he felt those burning gazes.
Living independently at the age of three.
Understanding love and affection at five or six.
Going to the battlefield before twelve during wartime.
Becoming a savior at sixteen or seventeen…
This world really was absurd.
And precisely because of that, the title of genius carried an exceptionally high value in the ninja world.
Once the self-introductions ended, the class quickly moved on to a segment Izanami found all too familiar.
Handing out textbooks.
But after receiving them, the corner of Izanami's mouth twitched slightly.
Language and mathematics were fine.
But biology, medicine, and chemistry?
Izanami suddenly understood why children in this world developed emotionally so early—it seemed this kind of "precocious education" was extremely common.
In addition to the textbooks, Iruka Umino handed each student a scroll.
Inside was the method for extracting chakra.
"Chakra is a special form of energy created by proportionally combining physical energy extracted from the body's 130 trillion cells with spiritual energy," Iruka explained. "It's also the foundation for becoming a ninja."
"The entrance exam exists to screen students whose physical and spiritual energy both meet the minimum standard, and who have a high probability of becoming ninjas."
"Studying and physical training can both increase these energies. Students who haven't successfully extracted chakra yet must work hard. Otherwise, when the observation period ends, you may be advised to withdraw."
Hearing this, some students from civilian families who hadn't yet extracted chakra immediately grew nervous.
It was foreseeable that for a long time to come, they would become Iruka Umino's most diligent—and favorite—students.
Izanami didn't bother reminding them that they were overthinking it.
Although the Academy didn't explicitly separate students into elite and remedial classes, anyone who made it into First Grade, Class A—aside from members of ninja clans—were civilians with outstanding talent.
A quick glance told Izanami everything.
Every student possessed at least a white-tier base aptitude, and many even had green-tier Chunin Aptitude.
This meant that even if they failed the graduation exam, they would still reach genin-level strength in the future.
Those with green-tier aptitude, as long as they didn't die young, would eventually become chūnin.
As for Ino Yamanaka and the other clan heirs, all of them possessed blue-tier Jōnin Aptitude.
However, Sakura Haruno's attributes caught Izanami's attention.
Her ninja aptitude was only green-tier Chunin Aptitude.
Yet her Chakra Control talent had reached purple-tier—on par with a Bloodline Limit.
With chakra control at such a high level, her future ceiling was still only chūnin.
It was similar to Hinata's situation—her Byakugan Princess trait was clearly red, yet her aptitude was only jōnin-level.
Without changing fate itself, chūnin would be Sakura Haruno's limit.
But once she succeeded in defying fate—
She would become one of the new generation's Sannin.
After distributing the textbooks and chakra extraction scrolls, Iruka Umino gave them no time to rest and immediately began lessons.
Mornings were reserved for theory classes.
Afternoons were for physical training.
During physical education, aside from basic conditioning, students were also given small stones to practice throwing accuracy.
Techniques such as the Three Basic Techniques, the Body Flicker Technique, the Hiding in Surface Technique, as well as kunai, shuriken, and taijutsu sparring, were naturally not taught.
Clearly, the first semester of the first year focused entirely on building a solid foundation—knowledge and physical fitness.
At first, Izanami participated normally.
But after confirming that there would be no taijutsu sparring at this stage, he stopped sending his main body to the Academy.
After obtaining the Ōtsutsuki Bloodline at the age of three, Izanami's chakra reserves had already become absurd.
Leaving aside Uzumaki Naruto—who still couldn't even extract chakra— even Kakashi Hatake, who in the original story could use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique in class at five or six years old, was inferior to him.
Whether in duration or durability, Izanami's Shadow Clones far surpassed even Uchiha Itachi's.
Thus, he left a Shadow Clone to attend classes in his place.
Meanwhile, his true body used the Transformation Technique to disguise himself as a teenager and headed to an abandoned training ground in the wilderness to practice ninjutsu.
"Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm!"
In the open clearing, Izanami deliberately formed hand seals, compressing wind chakra into his palm until it formed a vortex—then released it in a single strike, unleashing a violent gale that sent dust and debris flying.
Yes.
Deliberately forming hand seals.
Because Izanami didn't actually need them.
More precisely, aside from auxiliary techniques like the Three Basic Techniques and the Shadow Clone Technique, Izanami could already perform Five Nature Transformations without hand seals.
There were clearly differences even among red-tier traits.
The red-tier Ōtsutsuki Bloodline was a higher-level existence than the Sage's Body, Sage's Eye, or Byakugan Princess.
Not only was his chakra vast beyond measure, his talent for ninjutsu was equally outrageous.
Just like the Ōtsutsuki clan members before Indra invented hand seals, Izanami could cast Five Nature ninjutsu freely, without seals.
Even Senju Hashirama needed to clap his hands and shout before techniques manifested.
Izanami didn't.
This wasn't just overwhelming ninjutsu talent—
It was also a lethal trump card.
When an enemy thought Izanami was still forming hand seals—
He would already have released the technique.
And they would never see it coming.