Naruto: Farming Emotions with Multiple Identities in Naruto — Chapter 207

Chapter 207: Kakashi, Now is the Time for the Son to Repay the Father’s Debt

The shrill ring of the academy bell signaled the end of another grueling day. Outside the gates, a sea of expectant parents waited to herd their exhausted children home. Only a sparse handful of students handled the bustling streets alone. Stelle finally managed to peel a whining, reluctant Obito off her sleeve, offering him a practiced, timid wave before turning toward the eastern district of the village.

Up ahead, she spotted Kakashi. The silver-haired boy was currently attempting to project an aura of aloof coolness as he trailed behind his father, Sakumo. Spotting an opportunity to reinforce her persona, Stelle quickened her pace. She closed the distance in a few light steps, offered Kakashi a deep, perfectly executed bow of gratitude, and scurried off before he could formulate a response.

“It seems you are getting along quite well with your classmates,” Sakumo noted, a warm tone of relief coloring his voice. He watched the retreating back of the shy girl, then dropped his large, calloused hand squarely onto his son’s silver hair. “Going to the academy must be an interesting experience for you.”

Kakashi scowled behind his mask. He jerked his head back and forth, trying to dislodge the heavy weight of his father’s affection. After three failed attempts, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“It is not interesting at all,” Kakashi muttered, his dead-fish eyes staring straight ahead. “It is entirely boring. The curriculum is insultingly simple. If the rules allowed it, I would submit my graduation request this very year.”

A flicker of worry crossed Sakumo’s weathered features. His son was undeniably a prodigy. Merely by studying the casual training notes Sakumo left around the house, the boy had achieved terrifying results. Kakashi possessed the combat lethality of a Genin at age five. Now, at barely six years old, his chakra reserves and tactical acumen were already brushing against Chunin standards.

But this overwhelming brilliance came with a heavy toll. Kakashi was far too precocious, utterly isolated from his peers, and entirely friendless. He drifted through the academy like a ghost, completely out of sync with the loud, messy reality of normal children. Sakumo knew this solitary path would eventually break him.

“The Ninja Academy has strict regulations for a reason,” Sakumo said gently. “Unless the village is plunged into wartime, a student cannot graduate until the age of twelve. Besides… do you not enjoy playing with the others?”

Kakashi stiffened. He resolutely clamped down on the tiny, traitorous part of his brain that admitted he actually did enjoy the chaotic playground games—strictly on rare occasions. Very rare occasions.

“Why do those arbitrary rules even exist?” Kakashi countered, crossing his arms. “Clearly, those who prove themselves outstanding should be permitted to advance early.”

“Do not let arrogance blind you, Kakashi,” Sakumo warned, his voice losing its playful edge. “You still have much to learn about this world. Individual human strength has absolute limits. No matter how brilliant a shinobi might be, they will inevitably face a wall they cannot climb alone. You need companions to advance together.”

As the White Fang spoke, a heavy, lingering sadness seeped into his tone, carrying the weight of old ghosts.

Returning to the ramen shop they called home, Sakumo bypassed the kitchen entirely. Instead of preparing dinner, he climbed the narrow wooden stairs to the second-floor lounge. He knelt before a heavy, iron-bound cabinet, unlocking it with a sharp click. After a few moments of rummaging through dusty relics, his fingers brushed against a thick, sealed scroll. It was an old assignment cache—the very same one the Fourth Hokage had handed down to him during his active mission days.

The scroll was stuffed to the brim, containing an ungodly number of advanced theoretical test papers. Back in his prime, Sakumo had invented every excuse under the sun to procrastinate on completing them, leaving a massive pile of blank exams untouched. By the time he finally found the motivation to finish the coursework, the person meant to grade them was already gone.

His dark eyes turned vacant, lost in the dust of the past. Shaking off the memory, Sakumo extracted two pristine test papers, descended the stairs, and slapped them down on the table in front of his son.

“These are the exact theory exams I was assigned when I attended the Elite Class,” Sakumo stated. “They were personally designed by the Fourth Hokage. Once you officially join the Elite Class and can perfectly solve these problems, then you may consider discussing early graduation with me.”

“Leave it to me,” Kakashi replied smoothly, snatching the papers with supreme confidence.

He glanced down at the first page. His calm demeanor shattered instantly. The trademark dead-fish eyes blew wide open, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as his brain attempted to process the absolute nightmare printed on the parchment.

Question 1: Ninja A is executing a reconnaissance mission at the peak of a 30-degree slope with a vertical height of 10 meters. They must transmit an intelligence scroll to an operative at the base. Ninja A throws a shuriken infused with Wind Release chakra at an initial velocity of 20 meters per second, angled at 45 degrees relative to the slope. The infused chakra is timed to detonate after exactly 2 seconds of flight, granting the projectile an additional horizontal forward acceleration of 3m/s². Given the presence of a 5-meter-wide toxic mist zone at the bottom of the slope, and ignoring standard air resistance and buoyancy, calculate whether the shuriken will successfully clear the hazard zone. You must show all kinematic motion decomposition steps for the phases both before and after the chakra activation.

This question… this absolute monstrosity of a question… he had absolutely no idea where to even begin.

Kakashi inhaled his dinner in record time. Abandoning his usual cool facade, he scrambled out the window, bounded onto the rooftops, and sprinted back to his own room with the frantic energy of a startled grasshopper. Slamming his door shut, he spread the papers across his low desk, gripped a pencil, and went to war. He stared at the equations for half the night, burning through his mental stamina, yet he failed to complete even the second question.

Miles away, in the dead of night, Stelle was sleeping soundly. Suddenly, the sterile, mechanical chime of the system echoed directly into her brain.

[Mood value from Kakashi +50,000]

Stelle’s golden eyes snapped open in the darkness. She stared blankly at the ceiling. What in the world was that silver-haired brat doing at two in the morning to generate such a massive spike in emotional distress?

‘Don’t tell me my shuriken throwing was that bad,’she mused, a dry smirk tugging at her lips.’Did I traumatize the poor kid? Is he having a cold-sweat nightmare about being forced to tutor me for the rest of his natural life without me ever hitting the target?’

The following morning, Kakashi dragged himself into the academy classroom looking like a reanimated corpse. Deep, bruised bags hung under his eyes, a clear indicator of a sleepless, agonizing night. He slumped into his seat, yawning so widely his jaw popped. Stelle cast several covert, highly amused glances in his direction.

When the mid-morning break arrived, Stelle slipped out of the room to stretch her legs. Upon returning to her desk, she noticed an unfamiliar, densely packed test paper resting neatly on her wooden desk.

‘Instructor Naoto just ran us through a brutal combat assessment yesterday,’she thought, sliding into her chair.’Is he springing a surprise theory exam on us today?’

Stelle pulled the parchment closer, her eyes scanning the text. Her brow furrowed. These questions were pulled directly from the advanced Elite Class curriculum. In fact, judging by the sheer sadism of the physics equations, only a genius on the verge of graduating from the Elite Class would stand a chance at solving them. Where on earth did this come from?

While the problems were designed to break the minds of child soldiers, for someone with her background, the math was as easy as breathing. She quickly formulated a plan. Since her “A-Mu” persona was currently ranked dead last in practical combat, she needed to establish absolute dominance in theoretical academics. A perfectly balanced disguise required her to excel in at least one specific niche; otherwise, she would just be dismissed as entirely useless, losing her value as a background character. Besides, she spent hours in the academy library every single day—she had the perfect, airtight alibi for possessing this level of knowledge.

Tapping the shoulder of the boy sitting in front of her, Stelle politely borrowed a pen from Genma. Without a second thought, she pressed the ink to the paper.

Question 1: Ninja C is conducting a raid on an enemy encampment during a torrential downpour. The enemy forces deploy Water Release: Rain Array, causing the precipitation to fall vertically at a constant 8m/s while simultaneously generating a horizontal backward airflow that applies an additional negative acceleration of 1.5m/s². Ninja C is positioned on a mobile platform moving at a constant velocity of 12m/s. They must throw a shuriken infused with Earth Release chakra—which stabilizes the weapon in a fixed horizontal posture—through an enemy window located 30 meters away and 5 meters below their current elevation. The shuriken’s initial release speed is 30m/s. To guarantee the projectile breaches the window perfectly parallel to the horizontal plane, at what exact angle relative to the horizontal must it be thrown?

Stelle didn’t even bother writing out the initial formulas. She ran the kinematic calculations flawlessly in her head, the pen flying across the page as she scribbled down the complex motion decomposition steps.

Sitting just ahead of her, Genma chewed lazily on his trademark senbon. He glanced back, noticing his painfully shy classmate—the one who constantly kept her face buried in a thick scarf—furiously writing on a strange document. Driven by mild curiosity, he leaned over her desk.

The moment his eyes registered the dense physics equations, the senbon nearly fell out of his mouth.

‘Wait a minute… where in the world did that psychotic test paper come from?’ Genma stared in absolute shock at the timid girl, watching her hand blur as she solved the impossible math.

“A-Mu,” Genma whispered, his voice cracking slightly. “You actually know how to do those questions?”

Instantly slipping into character, Stelle’s shoulders hiked up to her ears. She painted a flawless, anxious expression across her visible features, shrinking back like a startled rabbit facing a predator. She gave a small, shy nod. “Y-Yes… didn’t you finish yours already?”

“How could I possibly solve that kind of nightmare?” Genma hissed, gesturing wildly at the paper. “I just started at the academy! Wait a second… you just started too.”

Genma paused, his eyes narrowing as suspicion crept into his gaze. He scrutinized the complex diagrams she was drawing. “You’re not just scribbling random nonsense to look smart, are you?”

Stelle forced a furious blush to her cheeks, ducking her head sheepishly. “I… I don’t really know if my answers are correct,” she stammered softly. “I was planning to ask Instructor Naoto to check them later.”

Genma just stared at her, utterly baffled. Ignoring his gaze, Stelle returned to the paper. In less than ten minutes, she had completely dismantled all five advanced questions.

At that exact moment, Kakashi trudged back into the classroom. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, another massive yawn tearing at his jaw. However, his elite shinobi vision immediately locked onto his desk. He saw his notoriously weak seatmate furiously scribbling directly onto his precious, agonizing test paper, drawing an audience in the process.

The exhaustion vanished from Kakashi’s face, instantly replaced by a dark, stormy scowl.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Kakashi barked, his voice cracking like a whip across the noisy room. “Who gave you permission to write on my exam?!” He surged forward, closing the distance to the desk in a blur of motion.

Ah. So that was why the silver-haired brat had been hemorrhaging mood value at two in the morning.

Stelle stood up abruptly, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. She took several rapid, timid steps backward, pressing herself against the wall. As Kakashi loomed over her, she drained the color from her face, executing a picture-perfect mask of sheer terror. Her hands trembled violently as she held the completed test paper out to him.

“I-I’m so s-sorry!” she squeaked, her voice trembling with unshed tears. “I thought… I thought it was a surprise assignment handed out by the instructor! I just started writing on it!”

“As if you could possibly solve a single one of those questions!” Kakashi snapped, snatching the parchment from her trembling grip. He smoothed out the crumpled edges, fully expecting to see his father’s sacred assignment ruined by childish doodles.

He looked down. His breath hitched in his throat.

The handwriting was immaculate. The kinematic formulas were laid out with brutal efficiency, the motion decomposition steps drawn with razor-sharp clarity. Every single variable was accounted for. Every single impossible question had been solved.

His eyes darted to the third question—the only relatively simple one on the page, and the only one he had managed to crack during his agonizing all-nighter. He checked the final integer. It was a flawless match to his own conclusion, but her methodology was vastly superior, cutting out three unnecessary steps.

Kakashi couldn’t verify if the other four answers were correct, but one terrifying truth slammed into his pride like a physical blow: his painfully timid, practically useless seatmate was an absolute monster at theoretical physics. She was leagues better than him.

Kakashi slowly lowered the paper, his visible eye locking onto the shivering girl in a completely new, deeply unsettled light.

[Mood value from Kakashi +50,000]