-4- Test starts

"Alright, line up! It's time for the test to start," one of the teachers announced, his voice booming across the courtyard.

The children quickly scrambled to form a line, their nervous energy visible. Facing the teachers, they stood rigidly, anticipation etched on their young faces.

There were 50 different teachers standing in front of them, each in a black vest similar to the green one from the Hidden Leaf in the show, the only difference was the lead teacher had a white band that was about 4 inches wide on his upper left arm.

"Now we're going to separate you! If you have already unlocked your chakra, step forward and walk to your right. If you haven't unlocked your chakra, take a step back and walk to your left!" the lead teacher's authoritative voice cut through the whispers and shuffling.

Renji watched as Nobu, along with 90% of the kids, confidently took a step forward while he and the others took a step back.

After walking to the left and getting back in line, the teachers put a 10-meter gap between the kids who had unlocked their chakra and those who hadn't.

"Alright, the group on the right with 5,233 kids will now be taken to the testing grounds while the other group with 467 kids will now have their chakra unlocked!" the lead teacher announced, then quietly said, "Nice, we have an even 5,700."

Renji watched Nobu and the others being led away by forty of the teachers, disappearing behind the school. The teacher with the white band stepped closer to Renji's group, his presence commanding attention.

"Alright, now step forward if your parents are ninjas," he instructed, his gaze scanning the small crowd.

Surprisingly to Renji, of the 467 kids, only one took a step forward.

"Okay," the lead teacher nodded, looking down at his clipboard. "You can take a step back, son."

The kid did as told, then the teacher said, "Now we're going to unlock your chakra, and as long as you don't have a terribly small amount, we will send you to start your test. Any questions?"

Renji was curious and didn't think it would hurt to be inquisitive, so he stepped forward. "Sir, will we be taking the same test as the other kids?"

The lead teacher looked at Renji with a neutral expression—not angry, happy, or really anything—and said, "No, since you guys will have just unlocked your chakra, your test will be a little easier because you're not used to using it yet. But we've been testing kids for a long time, so the elimination rate is about the same for all the kids without ninja parents, whether you've already unlocked your chakra or not. The only main difference between this group and the other is most of those kids have parents who are ninjas and have already trained them some, and as you can see, most of you come from civilian backgrounds."

"Now, if that's it, let's begin," he said, waiting for another question. But there wasn't another one, so the ten teachers walked forward, with the lead teacher with the white band and two others activating a Byakugan.

'Wow, my first Byakugan,' Renji thought, 'and it looks way cooler than in the show.'

One of the teachers approached Renji. "Alright, just stand there. I'll do the rest," he said calmly.

The teacher placed his hand on Renji's sternum, and then Renji felt something weird. Before long, he could sense this energy coursing through him, and he was surprised at the amount his body was holding.

'Is this chakra? And is this what it feels like to have a ton of chakra? I'm so glad I'm an Uzumaki. The only clans I could think would be better would be the Uchiha or the Hyuga, but who knows, maybe there are different clans in this world as well. Besides, the only way being an Uchiha would be better than an Uzumaki is if my parents or brother were to die, and I'd rather them be alive than have a Mangekyou,' Renji thought.

The teachers moved through the children methodically, completing their task in just 25 minutes.

'Wow, that was quick,' Renji thought.

The teachers only had to touch the kids for a handful of seconds, making the process go by quickly.

"Alright, now I'm going to walk down the line. If I touch you, take a step back," the lead teacher with the Byakugan instructed.

He then started at the front of the line all the way to the right and began making his way down the line, occasionally touching a kid and making him take a step back.

The closer he got to Renji, the more nervous he got.

'I bet those are the kids that have too little chakra, so there's no need for me to be nervous. I'm an Uzumaki and a Namikaze; I come from two major clans,' he told himself, but it barely calmed his nerves.

After another 15 seconds that felt like an eternity, the teacher walked by him, and he let go of the breath he was holding.

"Phew," he let out silently.

The teacher finished his inspection and returned to the front, joining the other teachers. Renji noted the kids who had stepped back were sweating; out of 467, only 6 had been singled out, a little over 1%.

The lead teacher's voice, though attempting to be gentle, delivered a harsh blow to the young hopefuls. "Alright, I'm sorry to say, but if I asked you to take a step back, you just don't have enough chakra to be a ninja, and you likely never will. So, I'm going to have to ask you to leave and go over to the civilian academy."

The kids' heads immediately dropped in embarrassment and sadness as they were told that they would never become shinobi.

'I guess they never heard of Guy Sensei or Rock Lee. Don't they know you can still be a good or even great ninja without a ton of chakra if you train hard enough? But then again, with this world's population being so big, I imagine there's no shortage of ninjas, so they probably see no need to train ninjas who aren't naturally talented. That really sucks for them though.'

Renji's mind spiraled into a frenzy. 'I couldn't imagine what I'd do if I couldn't become a ninja. How would I meet my brother? Would he think I died or lost my memories, or worse, that I no longer cared for him? Would I never be able to leave this mystic realm?'

Desperation gripped him, but he forced himself to refocus. 'Stop! There's no need to think of that. You're going to be a ninja,' he yelled in his mind. Yet, the pragmatic voice in the back of his head, the one everyone hated for its cold logic, whispered, 'As long as you can pass the test, that is.'

'Dammit! Stop it.'

"Okay, guys, it's time for the test to start. We're already a little behind the other group, so we always start with a run. Try to keep up; if you can't make it to the end, you fail," the lead teacher announced as he took off toward the testing ground where the other kids who had unlocked their chakra had already started their test.

Renji took a deep breath, rallying his resolve. 'Okay, this isn't so bad. I can keep this up. It's all willpower, and I've got plenty of it.' His thoughts flickered to his past life on Earth, a tough existence with no one to care for him and his brother. Dying, being reborn, and coming to terms with this new, crazy reality had forged his willpower, or at least that's what he thought—he didn't really have anybody to compare to.

Renji was a little nervous about the test because his parents, not expecting him to be a ninja, never really made—or 'let' would be a better word—him work out, so he wasn't in the best shape he could be in if he worked hard every day.

The only time he got to work out was when his parents let him go outside to play with the neighborhood kids, but he could never make it obvious that he was training because he knew his parents would get suspicious. His entire plan accounted for the fact that his parents didn't even think he wanted to be a ninja. If they did think that, there's no way they would have let him go to the academy by himself.

It would be one thing if they still lived in the Empire of Whirling Tides, but since they lived in the Obsidian Hand and his parents had always been taught that it was a terrorist organization, he knew they would never willingly let him be a ninja.

Renji wasn't the biggest fan of the idea of working for a terrorist organization, but for his brother, he really didn't give a damn. He would do whatever it took to get back to his brother.

He loved his new parents, especially since he and his brother grew up as orphans in their previous lives, but his brother would always hold a special place in his heart.

They had quickly made it to the testing grounds and were now doing laps around the field.

After running at 75% speed for 15 minutes, the doubts of him not being able to make it started to creep back in.

'Come on, you have to do this,' he urged himself. 'You've made it this far, you can keep going.'

He had noticed that a couple of kids had already bowed out, and he was still in shock that his little body could run this fast for this long, but he assumed it had to do with the chakra.

'I'm not actively using my chakra. I should figure out how to do that, but I'm guessing that my body had chakra before; I just couldn't use it. And since I've always had it, it's probably made my body much stronger than it would be otherwise.'

'I've never really thought about it, but my body does seem a lot stronger than it should be for my age. I mean, my muscles and tendons feel like they're made of steel.'

He gritted his teeth, pushing his body harder. His thoughts turned to his brother, driving him forward. This was his chance, and he wouldn't let anything stand in his way.