Chapter 24: Graduation Exam

In the 3rd year, Genki had focused entirely on the basic skills. It made this year a lot more fun. After having taught one skill entirely, he used to come up with games so that everyone would get used to using it.

For instance, after teaching how to move stealthily. He gave everyone 29 tags with their roll numbers written on it. Everyone had to put these tags on the backs of other 29 students and avoid others putting those tags on their own back. Thanks to Fujin being a sensor, no one managed to put any tag on his back. The few who tried to sneak up, got a punch or an elbow to their face.

While hunting wild animals had resulted in most students making some really funny faces. Killing an animal didn't create an issue for everyone, though Fujin did sigh thinking, 'I never thought that my first kill in this world would be a freaking rabbit!' The fun part according to Genki, which he enjoyed the most, was having everyone cut open the animal they hunted, clean it and prepare it for cooking. An act that disgusted most of the students, including Fujin as he had never done anything like this in his earlier life. Only Nobu was completely unaffected.

And in order to make everyone learn cooking properly, Genki banned bringing lunch to the academy for a few days. Their lunch was the wild animal they cooked!

Later in the year, he also introduced tree climbing as a chakra control exercise for his students.

In this manner, the year progressed. 1 week before the final exams, Genki dropped the news that surprised Fujin. He thought, 'While I did know about it, for the announcement to be made this suddenly is surprising!'

Genki had announced, 'If there is anyone among you who wants to attempt the graduation exam, then let me know within the next 3 days.'

However, by the end of the day, Genki did regret announcing that right in the morning. He sighed, 'Damn, I should have announced it when the lectures ended. No one paid attention to today's lectures!'

After going home, Fujin thought hard about it. On analyzing, he concluded, 'There's still a lot more for me to learn. Right now my wind jutsus, basic jutsus, shadow clones, body flicker, shuriken throwing and Taijutsu has progressed to the level that I'm satisfied with. But I still have to learn Earth release jutsus. And also need to work on sword skills and Genjutsu. As for Fuinjutsu, though it has been coming along well, I still haven't started on the intermediate level seals which are available in section D of the library. And there's also Rasengan still left to master.

Also, while graduating will ensure that I won't have to waste time in the academy, but since Konoha currently is suffering a shortage of ninjas, I suppose my free time might be curtailed rather than getting more time to train. Also the missions might have more risk than usual, especially with the 3rd war still fresh in everyone's minds.

Alright then, I won't participate in it. While the top scorer not attempting the graduation exam might raise questions, it's better than dying on some rank C mission gone wrong.'

However, unlike Fujin, the other kids from his class, were perfectly brainwashed by the Will of Fire. And hence many were interested in participating in the graduation exam. However, knowing that they won't be able to pass, many parents didn't allow their children to take part in the exams.

In the end, there were 7 students who decided to participate in the Graduation exam. Yori, Nobu, Teru, Hoka, a civilian kid, and the two from Aburame and Hatake clans decided to attempt the exam. Fujin did see that Genki was a bit disappointed in him not attempting the Graduation exam. But he was relieved as Genki didn't talk with him on the matter.

The graduation exam was around a week after the 3rd year exam. The 3rd year exam went as usual. A few more parameters were added to the exam based on the skills that Genki had taught in this year.

This year, the reward from the Hokage was also dependent on the graduation exam performance. That pretty much meant that Fujin won't get any rewards for rank 1. So he decreased his performance slightly in the written exam and once again didn't give his all in the Ninjutsu exam. So in the end, he only ranked 4th. Teru ranked 1st, followed by Nobu and then Hana.

Fujin was actually very grateful that Hana wasn't attempting the graduation exam. While he wasn't aware of the reason, it meant that he wasn't the only one with high scores who wasn't attempting the graduation exam. Unknown to him however, Hana was extremely upset that her parents didn't allow her to become a ninja so soon.

A week later, the graduation exam was conducted. For the students from the elite classes, the exam was very similar to normal exams. Only, it was more comprehensive.

The main addition to the exam was a 50 point exam that provided students with various scenarios that they would face and asked what they would do in those scenarios. Except Nobu, everyone else struggled in this exam.

In Taijutsu, only Hoka and Teru performed above par, while Yori and Nobu were barely average.

In Ninjutsu however, Teru, Yori and Nobu displayed why exactly they deserved to be genins. Yori perfectly displayed two rank C jutsus, Fireball jutsu and Phoenix Sage Fire jutsu. Teru was able to perform jutsus of two different elements. He was able to perform one rank C Water Gunshot jutsu and three rank D jutsus, Ground Shaking Jutsu, Headhunter jutsu and Stone Shuriken jutsu.

Nobu, showed off his variety by performing 1 rank E jutsu of each of the 5 elements. In addition, he was also able to perform higher ranked jutsus of fire nature, which was his affinity. He performed two rank C jutsus, Fire Dragon jutsu and Flame Bullet jutsu.

After all the tests were conducted, the performance of all students were analyzed. From Fujin's class, only Teru, Yori and Nobu graduated and became Genins. Due to his better performance than Nobu and Yori in Taijutsu, he ranked first in his class. From the batch which was one year senior to Fujin, 11 students graduated and 28 of their senior's graduated as well.

However, Fujin was oblivious to all these developments. As soon as the summer vacation began, Fujin went back to his Ninjutsu training. He was satisfied with his progress in wind release and decided to start training earth release jutsus and hence visited the library.

[A/N : This is probably the last time during the academy when it'll be theory-heavy. But since the previous feedback mentioned that there was too much theory, so I won't go into explanation of each and every jutsu. If Fujin or someone else decides to learn them later, I'll explain the jutsu then]

He looked at every Earth release jutsu in section E and section D and made a list. The first thing he noticed was that Konoha had a lot more Earth release jutsus as compared to Wind. Though it wasn't really surprising considering the low number of Wind release users.

The list of Earth release jutsus he created was :

Rock Throw jutsu (E)

Rock Shield jutsu (E)

Stone Bracers jutsu (E)

Swift Earth jutsu (E)

Earth Release: Transformation jutsu (E)

Trapping jutsu (E)

Mud Moat jutsu (D)

Earth Clone jutsu (D)

Rock thorn bed jutsu (D)

Stone Shuriken jutsu (D)

Headhunter jutsu (D)

Pebble Barrage (D)

Ground shaking jutsu (D)

Earth Tremor Sense jutsu (D)

Earth Mound Creation jutsu (D)

Mud Interceptor jutsu (D)

Earth Military Movement jutsu (D)

Stone Breastplate jutsu (D)

Mud Weight jutsu (D)

Earth Release Camp jutsu (D)

Earth Release Note jutsu (D)

His first thoughts were, 'Hmm, no Earth Wall jutsu? That's a rather simple jutsu, to be ranked higher. Even the Iron Skin jutsu of Kakuzu isn't here. I hope it is there in higher sections.'

He then began reading each and every jutsu and started analyzing them. It took him around 2 hours to go through each and everyone of them. He concluded, 'The Earth release jutsus are more comprehensive than the wind release jutsus. The only point where it is bad is that the offense is lacking a bit. Surprisingly many of the jutsus in this list have a similar potential like Wind ones. However, there is one big drawback. Most of the earth release jutsus, especially the ones with high potential, will be severely restrained if the fight is over a water body. Now that I think about it, Iwa is pretty lucky to not share any border with Kiri. Otherwise they'd be in very passive situations in the wars.

Anyways, I can ignore all offense oriented Earth release jutsus. For defense, Rock Shield jutsu is a good option. It probably is an inferior version of Earth Wall jutsu. So it can be upgraded later. I also wonder if I could use the Hard Seal to make the shield more durable.

For trapping, Mud Moat jutsu is a good option. It creates a 6 feet deep moat with 6 feet radius around the user. It should serve as a base for that Rank A swamp jutsu which Jiraiya had. I don't recall the name though.

As for movement, Earth Military Movement jutsu is a must learn. It allows travelling through the ground for short distances. Having another way to escape is always good.

Earth Release: Camp jutsu is pretty handy too. It can make a cave within mountains. There are a few small hills in the village, like the one where there is a waterfall. I could try this jutsu somewhere near there.

Also, these 4 jutsus make a neat combo. I could use Camp jutsu to build a cave within a mountain. Then use Rock Shield jutsu to hide the entrance. Prepare a moat around the mountain, and if anyone manages to find the cave, then I can escape with Earth Military Movement jutsu.'

He began his training for the Earth release jutsus. While he hadn't honed his Earth nature as much as Wind nature, he still had honed it a lot. He could crumble boulders to dust in just a few seconds. That's why he managed to learn them very quickly. However, they were a bit tougher to learn when compared to Wind release jutsus.

He learnt Rock Shield jutsu within a few minutes and then spent a couple of days on it to increase the size and durability of the rock shield that he used to raise from the ground. He also attempted to apply the Hard Seal on the rock shield he raised. It increased the durability of the shield. However applying the seal and activating it took around 1.5 seconds to pull off, something he might not have in a fight.

The Camp jutsu was learnt within a day. Though the cave was a bit dusty, he could just use Breakthrough jutsu to clean up all the dust. He could also use the Rock Shield jutsu to cover up the entrance if he wanted to hide. Though he had to leave a small space open in order for air to circulate. He didn't bother perfecting this jutsu as there was no need for it right now.

The next was the mud Moat jutsu. It had an aspect of Water nature as well. So it took him close to a week to learn it. He would need to improve his water nature if he had to improve this jutsu further. So he decided to leave this matter for his future self.

And lastly, he practiced Earth Military Movement jutsu. This one was quite difficult to learn. The jutsu involved moving through the ground like he is swimming. So he had to soften the ground a lot to be able to do that. It took him 11 days to pull it off successfully for the first time. It took another 2 weeks for him to be able to move around more freely. He was only limited by the amount of oxygen he had underground. The softening of the ground resulted in some oxygen entering underground, however it was very limited. He stopped when he was able to move 100 metres.

He thought, 'Alright, the earth release jutsus have been learnt. Though I still need to work more on Rock Shield jutsu and Earth Military Movement jutsu. However, I can do that slowly over the next year. Next, I need to learn chakra flow.'

He went to the library to learn about it.