Iwabee Yuino

is a Konohagakure Academy student. While a standout during his entire time enrolled in the Academy, his poor academic test grades lead him to be held back repeatedly.

Background
Dreaming of becoming a mighty and famous ninja, Iwabee soon enrolled in the Academy. While consistently scoring top marks in all his various ninja classes, his aversion/dislike of book studies not related to ninjutsu but still curriculum required lead him to get equal consistence poor written grades. This made him fail the graduation exams twice and ultimately forgotten by his former friends who went on to become full-fledged ninja. Blaming the new shinobi era's pursuit of both studies and physical skills for him being held back, Iwabee became rebellious. He would regularly skip classes completely and become harsh if not confrontational with the younger students.

Personality
Valuing strength above all else, Iwabee shows a very blunt and domineering attitude, openly proclaiming that strong people can do as they please. While raised in an era of peace, he admires the warring era, believing its constant struggles were the key to forging mighty ninja. He has shown a strong admiration of Naruto Uzumaki, who became the arguably the strongest ninja in history despite his harsh start. He also views the Academy students as weak and lazy, taking advantage of the peaceful times and only becoming ninja by name alone. Desiring recognition, Iwabee despises being looked-down upon. He also has a very high opinion of himself, viewing other students as beneath him is very bossy towards them, demanding to give him privacy. He is also shown to be fairly short-tempered, as upon his views being challenged, he can get very aggressive if not violent. Being older than his classmates and more focused on actual combat, Iwabee is more conditioned for the practice, able to make quick and decisive decisions in battle. He also has shown a very tactical nature, able to use various basic techniques to outwit his foes. Given his desire to be strong, he appears to greatly prefer strong taijutsu tactics in combat, admiring those who have such skill.

His attitude stems from his misfortune in being held back in the Academy. While hardworking, his single-minded nature on becoming a ninja lead him to slack off on his other required studies, which ultimately became the key reason he failed the graduation exams twice. Unable to improve this area of training but unable to accept it, he took his anger out on others.

This attitude changed after meeting Boruto Uzumaki. While having an especial disdain for him, seeing him as an overly-privileged son of the Seventh Hokage who took advantage of his lineage for special treatment, he was amazed to see how strong-willed Boruto was in his refusal to give up. Ironically, Boruto helped Iwabee see that he was being a hypocrite at trying to avoid his problems. Afterwards, Iwabee became much more civil to Boruto and his other classmates; even his teacher, Shino Aburame, noted a considerably more positive attitude since. His loyalty to his new friends has since become apparent, even going out of his way to help them succeed. Even more, he is shown making a serious effort to learn his academics during his free time, albeit he still struggles and requires help from his friends.

Appearance
As an older student, Iwabee is noticeably taller than his classmates. He is lean in built with a tanned-complexion, stern onyx-coloured eyes, and straight, black hair. He wears a red cap covering his ears and secured by a blue string that holds up all his hair excluding a single bang that hangs between his eyes. He also wears a white sleeveless shirt and bandages on his wrists, along with a dull green long flowing vest, baggy pants, black sandals. He carries a jō with him which is bandaged at the top.

Abilities
Despite being held back in the Academy for two years, he has a remarkable aptitude for all the physical performances in ninja combat, constantly scoring the highest in all areas. His performance has also gained special attention from the instructors. He is also shown to be an effective tutor in ninja skills.

Taijutsu
Fitting his aggressive nature, Iwabee is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant. Having noticeable high scores for the Academy, he was able to quickly pressure Boruto with his might and likewise able to repel his shadow clone assault. He seems to prefer smashing kicks and powerful throws while in combat. As noted by Boruto, Iwabee has considerable raw strength.

Ninjutsu
Excelling in the physical area of ninjutsu, Iwabee can use all of the Academy-level techniques to superb effect. With the Body Replacement Technique, Cloak of Invisibility Technique, and such, he is very stealthy. At the same time, he has shown similar proficiency in more advanced skills such as using his chakra to scale walls. Despite his low overall scores on written tests, he is knowledgeable in the usage of techniques, such as the exchange of one's chakra to perform them. For more advanced techniques, Iwabee is very proficient in Earth Release, able to create weapons and walls from the surrounding ground.

Bukijutsu
Iwabee is a proficient melee-combatant, effective with both shurikenjutsu and is likewise able to deflect such an assault with a kunai. His preferred weapon of choice is a jō, which he is able to strike with noticeable might, cracking the surface he hits in the process. He is also able to use his staff in conjunction with Earth Release, augmenting his staff into a more versatile weapon. He can also use his jō as a medium to quickly perform his Earth Release techniques without hand seals.

Academy Arc
During the start of the new semester, Iwabee attended the opening ceremony, only for it to be ruined when Boruto derailed a train and drove it into the Hokage Rock. About two weeks into the semester, after once again scoring the highest in the practice run, Iwabee decided to skip the rest of his classes, telling the other students to have their lunch elsewhere. As the last of the students prepare to leave, Boruto shows up, asking to join them for their meal in the room. After learning who he is, Boruto attempts to make friends with him, who quickly brushes him off, while antagonising him over being the Hokage's son. When Denki Kaminarimon speaks in Boruto's defence, Iwabee grabs him fiercely, to which Boruto stops the latter. When Boruto ridicules Iwabee for his beliefs, he demands that Boruto prove his worth in a fight, which the latter agrees to.

In a training room, with the rest of the class watching, Iwabee confidently proclaims he won't use his staff. While both both are impressed with each other's skills, Iwabee's experience soon takes the advantage, pressuring Boruto. As the fight progressing and Iwabee continues to voice his dismay at needing to study things that are unrelated to ninja skills to graduate, Boruto points out how Iwabee's nature is contradicting his views, noting that he never really tried to improve in such areas of study and instead focuses all his anger on other people when he should strive to overcome his problems. Throwing Iwabee into experiencing mixed feelings, Boruto was able to land a decisive assault on him. Furious at Boruto, Iwabee grabs his staff and begins using Earth Release attacks. Before he could do any serious damage, Inojin Yamanaka takes the hammer out of his reach with his drawing technique, pointing out Iwabee broke his own rule on not using his staff. Realising the errors he's been making in the path he set for himself, Iwabee forfeits the fight to Boruto. The following day, Iwabee begins attending classes again and is much more civil to everyone.

Later, during a shurikenjutsu practice session, Boruto found Iwabee's fūma shuriken and decided to try it out. After causing a recuse with it, Boruto, along with Iwabee as he wasn't allowed to have such tools on Academy grounds, were forced to do community work on help repairing the Seventh Hoakge's stone face. During a class introducing students to summoning techniques, Boruto got into another argument with Sarada, which spared a similar argument between all the girls and boys. Ultimately, Shino decided to have the boys and girls settle things with a race challenge for a flag. The challenge quickly got heated, with Iwabee getting knocked out when Chōchō Akimichi demolished Iwabee's Earth Release wall. In the end, the girls won the contest, but despite their victory, the girls made peace with the boys.

Later, an expelled Academy student, who was being possessed, began going on a rampage in the village. Iwabee, along with Boruto and Shikdai went into action, only to instead find the destructive ex-student getting defeated by a mysterious youth. The following day at class, the mysterious youth was revealed to be a new transfer student from Otogakure named Mitsuki. During a sparring session, Iwabee was amazed by the younger student's extremely advanced taijutsu prowess, who got too serious and began strangling Iwabee, nearly killing him if not for the intervention of Boruto. After a scolding from Boruto, Mitsuki apologised for his excessive force. The following day, wanting the students to warm up to Mitsuki, Shino organised a welcoming party for the new student. When Shino's efforts for the party backfired with his insects, the class began to freak out, with Denki begging someone to make the insects go away, which Mitsuki did with his Wind Release: Breakthrough, causing even more damage to the Academy. The chaos caused Shikadai along with other students to absentmindedly belittle Shino's credibility as a ninja and teacher, making him take the day off. Later, one of the repairmen went on a rampage, being possessed by the same presence from before. Iwabee joined his friends in stopping him from destroying the Academy. While Sarada gave a distraction, Shikadai subdued him long enough for Iwabee to strike him down. Despite the initially success, the man quickly recovered and continued his rampage. Ultimately, the combined effort of Boruto and Mitsuki ended the madness.

Later, the class was assigned by Shino to split into groups of three and each tail a different workplace for a few days to better understand non-shinobi life. Iwabee convinced Denki to join him in going to the fireworks factory. While simple at first, Iwabee's over-eagerness caused several fireworks to go off. After learning that some of their friends were hospitalised and checking on them, Denki and Iwabee were soon recruited by Shikadai to help stop the culprit. They met up with their friends at the post office to discuss their plan. After leaving to patrol the village, the culprit attacked the empty post office, unleashing the spectre on the post chief Komame. However, Denki's team anticipated this, realising that they were being spied on before and corned the masked culprit. While half the group pursued the culprit, Denki's half stayed to save the possessed Komame. While ultimately saving the post chief, the spectre and culprit ultimately got away.

Several weeks later, Shino decided to change up the three-man teams for their next challenge to determine the optimum pairings for graduation, where Iwabee insisted to team up with Denki. During the challenges, Shino was then called aside concerning Sumire. As the class began discussing rumours that Sumire was being transferred to a different school, they were relieved to see her return to their class.

When the class began learning the Tree Climbing Practice, Denki was the only one in the class unable to effectively perform it. Worried that he would have to repeat the class as it was key to passing the year's final exam, a distraught Denki unintentionally compared himself to Iwabee's reputation. While Denki was ashamed of his statement, Iwabee merely brushed it off. As Iwabee continued to struggle with his academic studies, his friends attempted to tutor him, only to be left further confused. Later, he saw Denki continue to struggle with the chakra-induced climbing skill. Not wanting Denki to fall behind and lose friends like he did, Iwabee gave his friend some pointers. As Denki gradually improved, he learned that Iwabee wa still struggling with his academics. The two than decided to tutor the other in their respective shortcomings. On the day of the final exam, the two came across a burning building with children trapped inside. The two used their climbing skills to get inside and save the kids. Despite arriving too late for the test, Shino was moved by how effectively they used their climbing skills to save people, deciding to still pass them.