On the graduation day.
Naruto walked into the classroom with a forehead protector.
"Naruto what are you doing here?"
"Only those who passed can come in here."
"Hey. Can't you see this forehead protector?"
Naruto pointed to his forehead.
"So he passed too," Shiro said as he looked at Naruto from the latest row.
He was genuinely surprised since Naruto is considered to be the worst student.
"What the? What is happening right now? Are they kissing each other?" Shiro said as he saw an unbelievable scene of Sasuke and Naruto touching lips.
It seems to be an accident but it still seems horrific to look at.
Iruka walked into the class with a sheet of paper in his hands.
"Begining today you all are real Ninjas. But remember you are still Rookie Genins. The hardest part has just started. Now you will be assigned duty by the village. So starting today we will be creating three-man teams. And each team will have a Jonin sensei."
"You will follow Jonin's instructions while you complete your missions," Iruka explained.
"We tried to balance each team's strength."
The class started to become unsettled after Iruka's words.
Top students were unhappy as they might be paired with what they deemed as losers.
Students who were bottom of the rankings are happy that they were paired with someone who might be competent.
"Tsurugi(Tsu-ru-gi), Tate(Ta-te) and Shiro. Team 1," Iruka said.
Shiro looked at the girl named Tsurigi who had long black hair and the boy called Tate who had a buzz cut.
Shiro was a top student so he was paired with a middle-rank student in Tsurigi and the lowest-rank student in Tate.
But he does not care. He already knows that teammates do not matter.
If he was able to perform it would be good enough.
"Team 7. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."
Naruto looked dejected as he did not want to have Sasuke in the team while Sakura was happy.
"Team 8. Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata and Aburame Shino."
"Haa. Why does it have to be him?" the guy with the sunglasses that is covering his mouth said as he looked at Kiba.
"Huh. What do you mean by that?"
"Uhmmm. Please don't fight here..." the girl with the white eye said to Kiba and Shino as she inserted in between the two to stop them from engaging in a fight.
"In the afternoon we will introduce Jonin senseis. So take a break until then." Iruka said as he looked at the noisy classroom.
"Umm. It's nice to be in a team with you." Tsurigi said to Shiro.
"Likewise," Shiro said while smiling at her.
"And I am Tate. Someone who dreams of becoming a shinobi that the Akimichi Clan acknowledges." Tate said.
The girl seems normal while the boy is kind of strange. Shiro thought.
"But why Akimichi clan? Aren't the Hyuga the strongest in the village?"
"Girls won't get it. The Akimichi clan symbolizes strength, unlike the Hyuga clan which is just pretentious people."
"Pretentious?" Shiro was interested in what Tate meant by that.
"I met this Shinobi called Neji. And he is the most annoying person that I have ever seen. Always saying things like how greatness is predetermined and hard work is useless if you lack talents."
He is right though. Shiro somewhat agreed with Neji. But not wanting to stir up an argument he nodded at Tate's words.
"Team 1. Your Jonin sensei is here." Iruka said as he entered the room with a man.
He is a tall man with long dark grey hair that is held in a ponytail. He wore a standard Konoha shinobi outfit along with a pair of fingerless gloves.
He was also carrying a Katana strapped horizontally on his back.
His most noticeable feature was a scar running down the right side of his mouth and pronounced tear-throughs under his eyes.
"I am Shirakumo Hayama." He introduced himself.
"He is chosen specifically since team 1 has two kenjutsu users. This sensei here is a master swordsman." Iruka said.
Two of us. Shiro thought in his mind as he looked at his two teammates.
The girl was carrying a tanto so he realized that she was the other sword user.
So, They chose him by totally ignoring the Tate guy. I almost feel kind of bad for him. He thought in his mind.
Iruka noticed that Shiro was taking small glances at Tate. And Tate looked a bit disappointed.
"Don't worry. Kenjutsu is his speciality but he is also proficient at using techniques such as body flicker technique, and profocient in hand to hand combat and is a master strategist." Iruka said.
But Shiro noticed that he was wearing fingerless gloves so he was sure that the sensei's hand-to-hand combat might just be an add-on and not his speciality.
"And this one might be the Ace among them," Hayama said as he noticed that Shiro was examining him carefully.
"What do you think Hayama Sensei? Can I leave them in your hands?" Iruka asked.
"I will see what they are capable of. Who knows they might have to give up being on Shinobis or might be able to participate in the next Chunin exam." He said.
"Meet me at 5 in the evening the next day. I have a personal test waiting for you three. A test to see if you are qualified to serve the village." He said.
Shiro and his teammates nodded.
"And bring your weapons if you use them."
He said while looking at Shiro.
"Tenko Shiro. Do you have time after this? I need to talk to you about something."
"Yes," Shiro replied.
"What a great mindset. I have great expectations for you compared to the others."
It was blunt favouritism.
But no one complained because everyone knew that the students with the most talents were considered to be more valuable to the village than those without talents.
And despite Shiro not being the top student when it comes to academics some of his combat skills were considered to be even Superior to the Uchiha boy by those who have seen him sparring.
And he has never shown his enhanced form to anyone other than Hayate.
Not even Yugao has seen his enhance form so most people who considered him to have higher combat power than Sasuke have not even seen his full power.