"See you after school, Hikaru-kun."
Muranaka Hikaru waved good-bye to his sister, Ayako, before heading to the academy. He feels relieved that another embarrassing moment has finally passed, and he quickly walks towards his classroom for the second day of the year-end exam.
His sister also came to send him to school for another day, which still flustered him quite a bit. Although he is still considered young for his age and appearance, his mind is already an adult. Spending time with her was great, but he still preferred to do it together at a different place.
Hikaru massages his head a little as he walks along with many other students to the classroom for the first practical exam.
A Leaf Concentration Technique exam.
Koji sensei began calling out three students' names in front of the class, and each of the three had to complete the exercise at the same time. They only need to complete the exercise within the thirty-minute mark to consider passing, which Hikaru has no problem with, as he could hold it as long as he wanted.
Hikaru, one of the first three, completed the test without any problems. Koji sensei then instructed all the students who had completed the part to leave the classroom first and wait at the training ground for the others.
In the meantime, Hikaru went to the restroom to wash his face, feeling worn out due to the hot weather, and then strolled towards the exam area after finishing.
Seeing that no one had arrived in the area yet, he chose a place to sit near the tree and wait for the test to begin.
Feeling the sweat from his shirt, Hikaru pulled out a small flask of water from his ninja gear pouch and poured it down his throat to relieve the heat. The weather is really hot, which is not to his liking.
The weather here in Konoha is really abnormal.
The temperature dropped significantly during winter, but there was no sign of snow, and you could feel the chill as the wind blew against your face. Instead, in summer, it becomes unbearably hot, akin to living in a hotpot.
The good thing is that there are plenty of trees nearby for cover, as well as a hot spring that he hasn't tried yet.
Hikaru sat in silence for awhile as time passed and other classmates began to flock in before catching a glimpse of Kajiwara Ryōta and both sensei talking as they slowly arrived from afar. Seeing Ryōta only nod as he listened on the way, Hikaru could only wonder what they discussed.
"Alright, everyone, gather here." Takayama Koji sensei started talking as he arrived with Teshima Yumi sensei, signaling Ryōta by his side to gather with the classmate.
Hikaru greets the chubby boy with a nod once Ryōta sees him. The boy hesitated for a second before returning with the same gesture and coming to stand near him, waiting for the exam to start.
After everyone gathers as instructed, Koji sensei starts to explain, "The first practical exam is simple; you need to show your proficiency with your shurikenjutsu (concealed hand blade technique)."
"Anyone who hits the center target under six will not pass." As he glanced around to see that everyone understood so far, Koji sensei added, "Any above six or equal will be graded accordingly."
"We will conduct two sets of tests: one involving a moving target, under the supervision of Yumi sensei, and another involving a non-movable target, which I will oversee," said Koji sensei as he then turned to look at his colleague.
Yumi sensei then said, "You'll only need to hit the moving target five times out of ten, and it will consider passing."
"Any name-calling by me will involve a test with me first; after that, you will return to follow up with another test with Koji sensei." After explaining the rules, Yumi sensei starts calling student names to follow her to the other exam area.
While Hikaru was paying attention to hear his name calling, Ryōta voice spoke out to him. "Do you still think I'm being hasty?"
Hikaru tightened his eyebrow as he heard the question and responded lightly: "You already made a decision; I can't stop you now."
Ryōta said as he clenched his fist and said, "You and sensei speak the same thing; everyone thinks I was being too rushed."
Hikaru scratched his cheek as he felt a bit sorry for the boy. He organized his words in his mind for a few moments and said, "To be honest, I still think that it is too soon."
"But it could be a good experience for you."
"I will show you." Ryōta whispered as he paid attention to Yumi sensei.
"Show me... what?" Hikaru inquired, as he didn't hear what the boy said.
Ryōta turned his head toward Hikaru and spoke with a determined look, "I will show you that you should never give up," before following Yumi sensei as she called his name.
His final words continued to echo in Hikaru's mind, leaving him stunned. Even though everyone has an opinion against him, the boy was still so determined to fight that he couldn't help but admire his courage.
'I'm not exactly giving up; I'm just choosing the right plan for myself.' Hikaru argued in his heart while he contemplated his own situation, but then felt a sense of relief upon hearing his friend express such attitudes. 'His attitude is similar to Naruto's.'
'Although I said it was too soon, surely my reason is different than Koji sensei'
Looking at his friend's glimpses from afar, Hikaru whispers to himself, "I hope it turns out fine."
Koji sensei marks the point for the first students, then calls out to the next student, "Hikaru-kun!" After a few seconds of seeing no one respond, Koji sensei takes his eye off the exam record and looks for his student.
"It's your turn, Hikaru-kun!" Once he found him, Koji sensei repeated his words in a furious tone to catch his attention.
Hikaru looked up and saw that everyone was looking at him; he couldn't help but stick out his tongue in embarrassment and say, "I'm coming, Koji sensei."
Koji sensei only gave him a deadpan expression because he thought Hikaru wasn't paying attention to the exam.
Hikaru then positioned himself, prepared his gear, and contemplated in his mind. 'Should I throw one at a time or all of them at once?', Hikaru asks himself, glances at his sensei for a signal, and concludes, 'I guess I should throw all of them since he already saw me do it the last time.'
'Doing anything less might make him think I'm doing it on purpose.'
Once Hikaru saw the signal, he concentrated, aimed at all the targets for a few seconds, and threw the shurikens all at the same time. Ten shurikens flew from his hand in the curve path, spinning toward the target's center.
eight out of ten
Hikaru could only sweat at the results as he turned to look at Koji sensei, thinking, 'Crap! I swear, this is my real skill; I did my best.'
Koji sensei gritted his teeth, said, "Next," and marked up the point on his sheet for Hikaru's performance, thinking, 'isn't he being too obvious?'
Once Hikaru noticed that Koji sensei had not said anything about his performance, he went to the other exam area with Yumi sensei to take another test.
Yumi sensei summoned ten birds for the moving target test, and they immediately flew in different directions upon their appearance. Hikaru only missed the three targets by one bit, so he didn't feel too awful about himself.
He also passed this test without issue, with an accuracy of seven out of ten.
After everyone completes the shurikenjutsu exam, all students gather back in front of both sensei. Upon seeing all the students in the area, Koji sensei declared, "This part will involve solely Taijutsu, but it will take place at the training hall."
"This area will be occupied by other students in later years; everyone, follow me now." Koji and Yumi sensei then guided all students to the other venue for the exam.
The training hall is a one-story building standing next to the academy building. The floor is about the size of a tennis court with a high ceiling.
After everyone gathered at the place, Koji sensei then proceeded to explain the second part of the exam.
Essentially, it is like a competition between students in class; each of them had to partner with the person arranged by their sensei and compete against one another until the final ranking was determined.
Sensei arranged for Hikaru to compete with other students, and he won all his opponents, advanced to the final three, and then faced the Inuzuka boy.
Seeing the look on the boy's pleased face, Hikaru couldn't help but worry.
As expected after the two fights only in Taijutsu, Hikaru lost against Inuzuka Seiji this time.
He lost due to the opponent's higher stamina. Hikaru could hold on and deal with Seiji's speed for awhile, but his stamina couldn't keep up with him, so he decided to withdraw first. This action infuriated Seiji somewhat, causing him to curse Hikaru so much that Koji sensei had to intervene.
He wants to beat Hikaru and win, not in this way.
As for the match against his friend Ryōta, Hikaru gave up. He didn't need to go all out, as it was unnecessary. Third place should already give him a good position for the grade. His excuse was that he ran out of stamina, which is partially true.
Hikaru really did give it everything when he was fighting the Inuzuka boy.
But Ryōta hasn't given up; his next opponent was Seiji.
After Koji sensei let Seiji rest for fifteen minutes before giving a signal to continue, both of them looked at each other and performed a seal of confrontation before commencing the fight.
Hikaru watched the fight with anticipation; he would like to know how much Ryōta has improved since the day the two were last training together.
'Ryōta performs a well-prepared defense against the Seiji attack.' Hikaru thought as he watched the on-going fight, 'He did listen to my advice with regard to Seiji's impulsive characters.'
'But he won't last long if he doesn't respond or counter the attack.'
Hikaru furrows his eyebrow as he watches the fight intensify. Both parties engage in combat with each other as if they were enemies from a different village. Their commitment to the fight goes beyond what Hikaru could understand.
Hikaru's body could feel twitchy from witnessing the fight. Although he didn't want to join in because he doesn't have a lot of stamina left, his body seems to think otherwise. The sensational feeling from watching the fight really drove Hikaru this time.
The fight appears to be nearing an end as both parties begin to feel exhausted from the ongoing battle. Seiji decided to end the fight by sprinting forward and executing a horizontal claw attack.
Ryōta also knew this was his last attempt, so he took his step back and did a sweep ground attack with his left foot.
Seiji jumps to dodge his opponent's sweep kick but can't dodge the second attack in time. The first sweep kick from Ryōta was a feint; the real attack was another foot that kicked straight up to Seiji as he jumped and dodged the first one.
The second kick connected with his chest and pushed Seiji back to the ground.
Ryōta won against Seiji, unexpectedly from everyone.
Despite Seiji's stamina largely depleting during his battle with Hikaru, a win remains a win.
Koji sensei finds this fight amusing for a moment before calling this fight an end and declaring the winner to Ryōta.
Seiji, once again, was not pleased with the outcome.
Hikaru glanced at his friend's smiling face after the win, appearing to be breathing heavily. Ryōta stood up and walked back towards him slowly. Hikaru raised his fist in response to his fist bump, lightly tapped one another, and said, "Nice job! You won this time."
Ryōta lightly nodded and replied, "The real fight is tomorrow." He looked at Hikaru with a determined face and said, "I will prove it to you this time!"
Hikaru clearly understands the meaning of his sentence and couldn't help but think.
'Maybe...I was wrong?'