Chapter 18: Second Year Exams

As Fujin had expected, the whole marking system for their class had been revamped. He wondered if the same also happened for other elite batches. As for the overall exams, the written exam had 100 points, leaf concentration competition had 20 points, shuriken throwing competition had 20 points, each of the 3 Ninjutsu had 10 points each, and the Taijutsu tournament had 30 points.

In the written exam, he noticed that it had 5 divisions among itself. Each being more difficult than the previous. While it wasn't very hard for him, he had no doubt that 8 year olds from his previous world wouldn't even pass this exam. Seeing how difficult the exam was, he purposefully made a mistake in 2 questions worth 2 marks each.

For leaf concentration, the same marking system as the previous year followed. Yori, Hoka, crossed 45 minutes, Nobu dropped at 56th minute, Teru at 59th minute. Hana crossed 1 hour and held it for another 4 minutes. Fujin, knowing that the written exam this year was tougher and not expecting anyone to score full, dropped his leaf after 1 hour 11 minutes.

The shuriken exam also had multiple layers like the written exam. The first was to throw 8 shurikens at a stationary target board. The second was to run alternately to the right and left to a circle drawn on the ground and throw from the circle while running. The third was to hit at the target board that was hanging and swinging like a pendulum. Each of these stages were worth 4 points each. The last stage, worth 8 points, had white plates being launched in the air by Genki. The plates were spinning incredibly fast causing them to not move at a set path and deviating slightly.

Yori, Teru, Fujin, Nobu, Hoka scored max in the first 3 rounds. Hana struggled in the 2nd round, while scoring full in 1st and 3rd. The 4th round however was tough. 19 students didn't manage to hit even one. And 6, including Hana, managed to hit just 1, Fujin guessed that most of them just scored a lucky hit. Fujin had been observing the plates all the time to try and see a pattern in them. He got some hints, but not enough and it resulted in him wishing, 'Damn, if only I had a sharingan!'

Hoka and Fujin just hit 2. Nobu hit 3 plates, Teru managed to hit 4 and Yori managed to hit 7 of the 8 plates thrown by Genki. Fujin was quite impressed by Yori's performance, especially considering that he hadn't yet awakened his sharingans. After the competition, Yori returned to his smug self.

In Ninjutsu exams, transformation and substitution jutsu were analysed and marked by Genki. For clone jutsu, they were marked depending upon the maximum number of acceptable clones anyone made. Teru made 5 clones and looking at his chakra, Fujin was confident no one else would exceed him. So he created 4 clones. Fujin hid his skills in this exam as he knew that Hana wasn't very good in this aspect and no one apart from her would come close to his score in written exams.

The Taijutsu tournament was similar to the previous year. Only major differences being the Inuzukas performing much better and Fujin having a much stronger body. Right now he could have the seal apply 5.3% of its max pressure. It had improved his physique a lot. He trashed through the majority of his opponents. This time, he ran into Teru in the semifinals and managed to beat him. While Hoka beat Hana in his fight. Yori beat Nobu for rank 5, whereas Teru beat Hana for rank 3.

Against Hoka, the fight was very intense. To Fujin's surprise, his advantage in physique wasn't that great. In the end, he still lost to Hoka. He thought, 'Is he too using seals or something similar to strengthen his body? His performance in Ninjutsu isn't as good as his Taijutsu, and it's better to not talk of his performance in written exams looking at previous year's scores. Sigh, I guess all he does is train in Taijutsu. And my main focus has been on Ninjutsu. Little wonder that I can't beat him.'

After the scores were tallied, the results of the top 5 were

Fujin : 96+20+14+23+29=182

Teru : 81+17+16+30+28=172

Nobu : 86+16+15+28+25=170

Hana : 91+18+12+21+27=169

Yori : 79+14+19+28+26=166

After looking at the results, Genki thought, 'Hmm, this is pretty similar to last year. Only difference is that instead of the leaf concentration competition, Fujin built his lead in the written exam. How much does this kid study exactly? The last 20 marks were quite tough to get. As for the rest, Teru was the one who performed the best overall. Except for the written exam, he is in the top 3 of every exam. Leaf concentration competition is still dominated by Fujin. But with the performance of the others, I can start tree walking exercise next year. In the shuriken throwing competition, Yori was in a league of his own. Same with Hoka in the Taijutsu tournament. Though that seal did help Fujin a lot. I guess I should suggest to Teru's parents to get that seal for him as well. It will help him a lot. In Ninjutsu, Teru, Yori and Nobu are all excellent. Just that Teru has more chakra than the other 2. And I'm pretty sure that they do know more jutsus as well.

This class has performed really well. The top 8-12 students are all very good. Lord Third should be very happy with their performance.' After he was done thinking, he put up the results on display.

Looking at it, everyone had mixed reactions. Since the exam markings were made to ensure that the ones who perform well stand out, the ones who didn't work hard scored very low. A few still struggled to hit a stationary target board with shuriken, so there was no way they could do much in the remaining three rounds. There were a few who didn't manage to learn even one Ninjutsu properly. And the majority didn't get all the 3 Ninjutsu down. There were only 12 students who could do that. The written exams were very tough too. The last 20 marks being very difficult to get and even the 20 marks before that being significantly difficult.

Fujin did note the disappointed expressions of the ones who scored very bad. It reminded him of how much worse the life of the kids here was when compared to his previous world. And even then these were considered to be very good conditions. At least they didn't have to fight in a war.

Among the toppers, Yori was upset thinking, 'Why am I still ranked only 5th! Still I have at least shown everyone how good the Uchiha are at shuriken technique. But that's not enough!'

Hana was incredibly upset with tears almost forming in her eyes. She was upset at her rank dropping from 2nd to 4th.

Nobu didn't show any emotions, however, even he was upset at not being able to top the exam.

Teru sighed looking at the scores, 'Last year it was the leaf concentration competition, and this time the written exam! Sucks to not be rank 1 due to the written exams. Still at least I'm the best when it comes to the skills required on the field. Not to mention, that the exam didn't consider the water style jutsus I know.'

Fujin looked at the results showing a happy expression. His thoughts were, 'Well this went as expected. Though I'm surprised that some guys scored over 80 on the written exam. I guess the brains of the kids here develop faster. My shuriken still requires some work, but that's fine. In Taijutsu I doubt I'll be able to surpass Hoka unless he slacks off. In Ninjutsu I'm on par with Teru and others. Heck, I could have made 8 clones and decreased their scores if I wanted to, but there was no need for it. So it's going good. Next I should focus on elemental jutsus.'

However, then he frowned mentally thinking, 'Still, the performance of the kids in this exam has been so good that I'm worried they may make a few of us graduate early! I'm glad that Genki hasn't started teaching about all the other important stuff yet. I guess his plan was to allow everyone to learn Ninjutsu and fighting skills first so that they can keep improving them over the years. Though with the pace at which he has been going, it makes me wonder if he wants to make us graduate early or teach us more complicated stuff.'

Genki looked at the expression of all his students and sighed. He noticed that only Fujin had a happy expression, Nobu was expressionless as always and Teru just looked a bit down. Almost everyone else was incredibly upset. He sighed, 'I got excited and made the marking system really in favour of the geniuses. Last year's results made them more competitive, however this year's might have a detrimental effect. I'll need to talk individually with everyone in order to pacify and cheer them up, so that they take this exam results as a motivation to do better in the future.' He then glanced at the Inuzuka kids, 'I guess I should call their parents too.'

The exams ended with another brainwashing speech by Hiruzen. He called Fujin forward and asked him what reward he wanted this time. Fujin stepped forward and said, "Lord Hokage, could I get to learn the Shadow Clone jutsu?"

Hiruzen was really surprised by this request. He asked, "Where did you hear about the shadow clone jutsu? And why do you want to learn it?"

Fujin showed an excited expression and said, "Lord Hokage, we were told that the 2nd Hokage had started this academy. So I became quite interested in him and hence read a lot about his life and everything he did. On understanding more about him, I was very inspired by him. And when I read that he had created the shadow clone jutsu, I became very interested in it. Also, the jutsu seems very useful. Having a clone that can actually do something will be very helpful."

He then looked at Hiruzen with expectations. Hiruzen looked at the excitement shown by the young student in front of him. Looking at the respect he had shown to his sensei, he emotionally thought, 'Sensei, even after being dead for decades, your will of fire still inspires the kids in Konoha!'

Hiruzen had sensed his chakra level during the Taijutsu tournament. Fujin, wanting to ask for the Shadow clone jutsu, didn't bother hiding his real chakra level. Hiruzen thought, 'His chakra level is sufficient to be barely able to form 1 shadow clone. Fine, I'll give it to him, but I need to warn him about the dangers of that technique.'

Hiruzen nodded and said, "Alright, I'll prepare the scroll for you. Come to my office tomorrow at noon."

Fujin showed that he was even more excited on hearing that and thanked him immediately. However on the inside, he was quite shocked. He thought, 'That's it? A few good words about Tobirama and he agreed? Should I have asked for Flying Thunder God or Impure World Resurrection?'

He sighed internally and further thought, 'Then again, Shadow clone isn't really a very complex jutsu. It is just B rank and even elite chuunins can easily access it from the library. Also, my respect for Tobirama was genuine. Unlike Hiruzen, he did do his job properly. Though how he died in war despite knowing Flying Thunder God is a mystery to me. So Hiruzen wouldn't be able to pick up on anything. And Tobirama creating that jutsu, is written down in scrolls about him in the library. So I guess there wasn't much to be suspicious about.'

With those thoughts, he walked back to his fellow students. Genki then announced about meeting with everyone personally tomorrow, and gave everyone a timeslot. He asked them to bring at least one parent along.