Chapter 232: Shocking Facts
The first day back at the Ninja School was a theory exam. Before it began, the students who hadn't gone on internships crowded around the interns, full of curiosity.
"Obito, what do interns usually do? Is it like a regular ninja?" a classmate asked.
"It's pretty similar," Obito said after thinking it over. "We take assigned missions, and when we're not on missions, we train with our teacher. Even if they're all assignments, each one's a little different. We go to different countries and see different scenery."
He genuinely liked going out on missions. Even though there had been danger last time, they pushed through and solved it together. That rush of success after hard effort was thrilling from head to toe.
"They even went outside!" The nearby students stared, shocked and envious. Most had never even left Konoha.
"Interns can go outside? What a shame I wasn't picked."
"We'll have our turn soon. Two months from now, after the graduation exam, we'll be official."
The chatter swelled—some now burning to graduate, others daydreaming about foreign lands.
"Which countries did you visit? How are they different from the Land of Fire?" one asked.
Before Obito could answer, Tekka, who'd overheard, raised a skeptical brow. "Interns only take D-Rank missions, right? Those are all in-village. How could you go abroad?"
He'd interned too—and all his missions were chores like catching cats and picking up trash.
"Yeah, I interned as well. We just did odd jobs—trash, farm work, that kind of thing," another added.
There were thirty fourth-grade interns in total, with three to four chosen per class. Class 2 had four.
With two classmates flatly contradicting him, several students eyed Obito in puzzlement—some with doubt. As brilliant as Obito had been this year, his earlier record made exaggeration seem possible.
"Generally, intern teams can only take D-Ranks," Obito admitted calmly, not angered by their suspicion.
Seeing him nod, Tekka relaxed a little. At least Obito wasn't completely out of touch—lots of the class had interned.
"Then why say you went abroad?" a believer asked, frowning. They'd expected an explanation; now it sounded like he was confessing to a lie.
"We're not just any intern team. The Third Hokage saw we were exceptionally strong and gave us special permission to take C-Rank missions."
A proud smile tugged at Obito's lips. That permission was their unique privilege.
Normally he'd hate being misunderstood, but this time he felt it was fair—intern teams weren't allowed above D-Rank, and the mission desk had told them the same. They'd been allowed to take C-Ranks because they'd proven they could handle it. Their teacher was Mugetsu, who was far stronger than most, and he, Guy, and Kakashi were well ahead of their peers.
"Hokage-sama's special permission!" the room erupted. The Hokage was everyone's idol.
Tekka froze. Bringing the Hokage into it sounded even more far-fetched than going abroad—but taken together, it felt strangely plausible.
"So how many C-Ranks did you complete? And how many countries?" someone pressed.
"I've been to two countries—once to the Land of Rice Fields and twice to the Land of Rivers. But completed C-Ranks? Not even one."
"Huh? Did they all fail?" Confusion rippled again. All three, failures?
"They didn't fail. Unexpected situations came up each time, so they were upgraded. We accepted them as C-Ranks, but turned them in as B- and A-Ranks," Obito said matter-of-factly.
Most students didn't really grasp what B- and A-Ranks meant, but "mission upgrades" sounded impressive enough. Gasps and whispers followed.
Tekka and another intern, who knew a bit more, still didn't buy it. If Obito hadn't tossed in A- and B-Ranks, they might have given him the benefit of the doubt. A-Ranks were jobs even most chunin didn't touch.
"Forget it. I'm not arguing. He'll learn after graduation," Tekka thought, letting it drop. Arguing would be a chore, and people might just call him jealous. Thankless work.
If they'd had the strength to intern, they wouldn't be fooled by a story like that anyway.
"The Land of Rivers looks nothing like the Land of Fire. You see deserts for miles—nothing but sand, no green trees at all..." Obito went on, rhapsodizing about mission scenery.
Basking in the envious stares, he felt wonderfully satisfied.
Only when the proctor entered did Obito stop, reluctantly heading to his seat.
But when the papers landed on his desk, the fearless storyteller wilted at the sea of black ink on white. After a handful of questions, his eyes wandered—and there was Guy, writing diligently.
"Uh-oh. Was Guy secretly studying?" Obito swallowed. Guy hadn't said a word.
He buckled down. Once the results came out, their mission record would stun everyone. It would be humiliating if either he or Guy had the lowest academic score.
At noon, a knot of interns traded stories. Obito and Guy drifted over to join the noise.
"A ninja's life isn't easy," Genma sighed. "It's way more tiring than school. It's either odd jobs or training."
"Indeed," another intern agreed. "I heard that even newly graduated genin mostly do odd jobs. I wonder how long that lasts."
"It's not bad," Obito said with a chuckle. "I actually think the internship life is pretty good."
"Of course you do. Your supervising teacher is Teacher Mugetsu," Genma teased, nudging him with a grin.
"So Teacher Mugetsu also supervises interns now? Obito, you're so lucky!" The surrounding interns looked at him with envy.
Except for Hyuga Homura, every intern present had joined Mugetsu's summer special training. They all knew how much better his teaching was compared to the other instructors—it was a completely different experience.
"That's because Obito's at the top of the class, right?" Ebisu said thoughtfully. "He's from the Uchiha clan and the best in his grade, so it's only natural he'd be under the best teacher."
"That's true," Genma nodded. "In that case, it makes sense for Guy to be interning with him. Ever since the end of the first semester, it's always been Obito and Guy competing for first place."
"By the way, who's your other teammate? Is it Hyuga Homura?" Genma asked curiously, realizing Homura wasn't around.
In terms of ability, he assumed Homura would be the most likely candidate. After all, Homura had taken first place in the Fourth Grade combat exam and held that spot for years.
Both Obito and Guy shook their heads.
"Eh? It's not Homura? Then who is it?" Genma leaned forward, intrigued.
The students nearby turned their attention to them as well, eager to know who the "third member" of the strongest intern team was.
"It's Kakashi," Guy said honestly.
The room fell silent for a moment.
"What? Kakashi? But he graduated ages ago! I think he became a chunin back when we were in second grade," Genma said in disbelief.
He'd expected someone like Hyuga Homura, Uchiha Tekka, or Shizune—but a full-fledged chunin? That didn't even make sense.
"That's right! This is an internship, so why are you teamed up with an official ninja?" another student blurted out.
Everyone knew Kakashi's name. He'd been a prodigy from their own generation—even those who hadn't spoken to him had heard about his genius.
"I'm not sure," Guy said with a bright smile and a thumbs-up. "Maybe it's destiny—the bond between best friends!"
Genma fell silent.
He turned to Obito, who nodded in agreement. He didn't fully understand why either, but it was true—Kakashi, a chunin, was their teammate.
"Then your team composition is insane!" one student exclaimed. "Teacher Mugetsu's a Special Jonin, Kakashi's a chunin, and you two are the strongest in your class. Doing odd jobs seems beneath you!"
"You guessed right," Obito said proudly. "Hokage-sama saw that we were too strong and gave us special permission to take C-Rank missions."
Gasps spread through the group. No one doubted him this time—the team setup itself sounded too impressive to be false.
If a chunin teacher had said that, it might've sounded fake, but their lineup was ridiculous: a Special Jonin instructor, a genius chunin, and two top-tier students who'd beaten official genin during summer training.
"Your treatment makes my internship feel fake," Genma muttered, thinking of the last two months of chores. Comparing himself to them only made it worse.
"Quickly, tell us about those C-Rank missions! What kind of enemies did you fight?"
"C-Rank missions are usually escorting clients, dealing with wild beasts, or taking down bandits," Obito explained, trying to hide the pride in his tone.
Compared to Kakashi, he was still a novice, but compared to his classmates, he felt like a seasoned veteran.
"As for enemies," he continued, "it depends on luck. If you're unlucky, you might run into other ninja. If there's a jonin, it's usually upgraded to an A-Rank. If it's a chunin, then B-Rank. Our luck's been bad—we met jonin enemies twice."
"What?! You encountered jonin?! Twice?!"
The group exploded in shock. Some even looked at him doubtfully.
Even as students, they knew what a jonin was. They rarely saw one at school—and while Mugetsu often worked with them, he himself was a Special Jonin, a rank below.
Anyone from a ninja family understood even better—jonin were rare and powerful.
"You ran into jonin and survived? No, you even finished the missions and came back alive? But Teacher Mugetsu's only a Special Jonin," one intern said skeptically.
It wasn't that he thought Obito was lying—just that the claim sounded impossible.
"Jonin are strong, but not unbeatable," Guy said, grinning wide. His teeth gleamed in the sunlight.
The memory of that fight flashed in his mind. They had truly faced death that day. Even opening the Second Gate and using Total Concentration Breathing hadn't been enough. Only by joining forces with Obito, who'd activated his Sharingan, had they survived.
"Rank doesn't define strength," Obito said firmly. "I haven't even graduated, but I've already beaten official genin. And while Teacher Mugetsu's a Special Jonin, normal jonin can't compare to him."
"That might be true," Genma admitted. "I can believe Teacher Mugetsu could do it."
"That's different," another student countered. "A real jonin is extremely powerful. I like Teacher Mugetsu too, but that's a little hard to believe."
His parents were both chunin, so he knew exactly how rare jonin were. Reaching that rank required flawless skill and a record of major achievements.
Obito wanted to argue further, but the preparatory bell rang.
"Whether you believe it or not, you'll see soon enough," he said confidently. "When the results come out, Guy and I will both have two A-Rank missions on record—both from encounters with jonin."
With that, Obito and Guy hurried back to their seats.
The skeptical student frowned, unsettled. Obito had sounded so sure of himself.
He did know one thing—the mission completion records would be announced with the exam results, since teachers often used them to encourage competition.
Still, he told himself, If Teacher Mugetsu were really that strong, he wouldn't still be teaching at the Academy.
It was a reasonable conclusion, one that calmed him—believing that Mugetsu's strength lay not in battle, but in teaching and nurturing. After all, he was a Special Jonin at the Ninja Academy, not a battlefield commander.
<><><><><>
[Check Out My Patreon For +40 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Every 100 Power Stones = +1 Bonus Chapter]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]