While the soulless husk that was Tsunade dragged itself away, Shiki proceeded into the building until he reached his assigned classroom.
To no one's surprise, every single person in the classroom, sensei and students, had their eyes pinned on him.
They had all seen him take the practical exam but finding out just how high the actual evaluation was? Still a great shock!
No one expects one of their fellow graduates to shatter the academy record by such a large gap that every future prodigy will be competing for the second highest graduation scores.
And to make things worse, his theory exam was just as outrageous.
How did he even have time to study? Reaching that level of practical skill ought to mean most of Shiki's time was spent on hard training right?
They were indeed correct.
But even a short time spent memorizing the material was enough for the white haired boy to fully integrate it and by comparing it with the more factual material he studied in Mito's library, he even managed to deduce just what kind of answers the higher ups wanted to read.
His stars of excellence in theory had likely come majorly from Will of Fire and History, the former for obvious reasons and the latter because he might have chosen to attribute several excellent strategic decisions and lucky events to Lord Hokage and his advisors' wisdom and foresight.
Shiki guessed his highly advanced knowledge in Shinobi Theory might have gotten him something as well but it should have been that big in comparison.
In the end, this unbeatable flawless performance got every eye in the classroom and plenty beyond it, focused right on him.
Moving to the same seat he had taken before, right beside Uchiha Mei, Shiki found the girl cutely glaring daggers at him.
'How adorable.' He thought.
If it leaked to Mei, her anger would have no doubt exploded but thankfully, Shiki did not let these kids of rage inducing opinion and thoughts show on his face . . . Unless he purposefully wanted to piss somebody off.
"Good morning." The white haired boy greeted.
"Humph!" Was the only response he got from the bespectacled girl as she turned her head away.
His expression unchanged, Shiki sat down anyway.
He would not take the envy and feather light resentment of a child seriously.
A few moments later . . .
"Hey . . ." Mei called out to the white haired boy without turning his way.
"Hey Shiki-kun." She called out again, sneakily glancing his way this time but silence was still her only response.
The black haired girl fully turned in the white haired boy's direction but he was just observing the rest of the classroom, clearly not distracted . . . And definitely pretending not to hear her.
Just because he would not take Mei's previous attitude seriously, it did not mean he would not be petty about it.
'You have to show children actions have consequences so they can learn.' The boy thought.
'It's for her own good!'
With this self righteous attitude, Shiki proceeded to ignore Mei, leading to the glaring while cutely gritting her teeth as if she wanted to bite him.
Soon enough however, every student had arrived and it was time for the teams to be announced.
After four teams of unimportant side characters, actually useful teams started getting called.
"Team 5!" The teacher called out.
"Uchiha Ryuuto."
A handsome boy with somewhat wild black hair and straight bangs framing his face, looked up with a confident smirk.
His eyes filled with confidence bordering on arrogance.
"Fuma Kai."
Short, spiky, dark gray hair, a roguish face a bit older than his previously announced teammate and a seemingly ever present cocky smirk. He casually smacked Ryuuto on the shoulder who returned the action with just a little more force.
It was clear the two were well acquainted.
"Izuno Amagi."
A cute girl with warm brown hair cut into a short neat bob with clean cut bangs forming a soft curve above her face and covering her forehead.
"Team 6!"
"Aburame Shinka."
The vaguely human shaped pile of clothes showed no discernable reaction.
"Uchiha Mei."
The only bespectacled Uchiha in Konoha raised her head with an earnest expression and determined posture, adjusting her red rimmed glasses, her short, pixie cut black hair being meticulously styled into place.
"Ryumon Shiki."
The main character watched it all happen with a calm and collected expression and posture while inwardly deriding the shameless groupings.
"Team 7!"
"Hyuga Yuno."
With long straight, soft and brown hair, long bangs framing his face, the signature white eyes of his clan and a proudly displayed clear forehead.
This genius of the Hyuga main branch faced his future with a serene yet eager smile.
"Inuzuka Seiga."
A wild boy with dark brown wild hair that had been let grow to a bit less than shoulder length displayed a savage, unchild-like grin on his face.
"Sarutobi Idate."
With a neat and short haircut, the black haired boy from the Third Hokage's rising clan showed supreme confidence with his posture.
'Fair and balanced team assignments, they said . . .' Shiki thought to himself.
'Putting fairness aside, I suppose one can say teams are meticulously balanced indeed.' The boy internally praised in the most derisive way possible.
'Team 7 has the students ranked 3rd, 5th, and 7th.'
'Team 6 has myself, the 1st ranked student, along with the 4th rank and the purposefully lowkey 8th rank.'
Shiki had noticed Aburame Shinka's skills were greatly undersold in class, another point towards her identity as a possible root operative.
'Team 5 has the 2nd, 6th and 9th ranked students.'
But in Shiki's opinion, while not balanced for equally capable teams, it allowed the village to focus its resources on the greatest prospects while the others were relegated to the Genin Corps.
That was where the genin who failed to earn Elite status in their Academy days lived out their pitiful lives in obscurity or miraculously climbed their way up.
'Just a matter of efficiency, equality of opportunity, the best kind of equality. Whoever made the most out of their given opportunity would get the corresponding attention and resources.' The white haired boy mused in his thoughts.
'The issue lies in the "balancing" of identities. That's where the higher ups' sinister intent begins showing.' Shiki internally sneered.
Team 5 was built around exploiting him for his connection to Mito, it was a sort of above board scheme that everyone acquiesced to.
Teams 4 and 5 on the other hand . . .
Putting the top Uchiha prospect in a team with a Fuma clan member, a smaller clan with generational ties to the Uchiha that go way back, long before Konoha was even founded.
The Uchiha and Fuma were happy with the familiar team up but it was obvious to Shiki that it was a part of the effort to isolate the clan and its allies, making them even more insular than they already were.
Adding a member of the Izuno clan, a clan that never produced a shinobi above Elite Chunin in recorded history, a girl that was the weakest out of the top 9 genin?
It was begging for the boys to discriminate, which self respecting Uchiha would give the time of day to the likes of the Izuno clan?
It was a small, nearly insignificant arrangement aimed at increasing civilian and small clans borne towards the Uchiha.
Alone, it accomplished nothing but together with all the other small insignificant things going on at the same time?
It was a death by a thousand cuts.
And it was not like anything was really being done against the Uchiha, not any particular incident the clan could use as a pretext to complain or fight back.
As for Team 7, it was the leadership trying to reinforce relations to the Hyuga
Putting a Sarutobi and an Inuzuka, a clan loyal to the Hokage faction, in a team with a main branch clan member of the Hyuga was like extending an olive branch, saying:
"Don't worry, we will definitely not suppress you once your role in counterbalancing the Uchiha is done."
'Or maybe I'm just being paranoid but the Team arrangements certainly fit very well to my theory.' Shiki thought with boredom.
Their Jonin sensei would be picking them up from the classroom so he was just having mental exercises with his paranoia, until they arrived.
"Damn you, you white haired brat!" A loud voice suddenly dragged Shiki out of his thoughts.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -