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~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +18 this weekend!
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"OK class." Iruka called as he stood up. "It's time for your taijutsu and Shurikenjutsu tests. Follow Mizuki and me outside so we can conduct them."
Those two tests were only worth ten points or so each to your overall grade, so most had just half-assed it the previous two times Naruto had taken the exam, at least with the latter test.
Taijutsu was a vital survival skill for a shinobi, however, so no one in their right mind had ever skimped on it, save a few who claimed they were going to be jutsu experts.
Tenten had drilled him on his throwing technique though, so Naruto had no desire to draw her wrath by getting any less than full marks for the Shurikenjutsu test. The couple of times that he had seen her really angry since he had befriended the aspiring Weapons Mistress made the young blond very eager to avoid having that rage turned on him for any reason.
Out of all of his classmates, the only person to get a perfect score of ten out of ten in vital locations on the target during the Shurikenjutsu test was Sasuke, with Hinata and, surprisingly, Shikamaru coming in second with nine. Shino, Kiba, Ino and Sakura got a respectable eight out of ten. Kiba and Chōji scored seven and six respectively.
So when, with practiced ease just short of Sasuke's own, Naruto also scored a perfect ten out of ten, there was loud muttering from the class. Sasuke looked shocked for a moment before smirking and letting out an ambivalent grunt. Iruka also looked impressed.
You have gained +200 Reputation with [Uchiha Sasuke]!
You have gained +200 Reputation with [Umino Iruka]!
Stifling a pleased expression, Naruto moved away to let the rest of the civilian genin-aspirants have a turn at throwing. He had reached [Honoured] status with Iruka a while back, which had led to the chunin giving him supplementary lessons once Asuma-sensei had to stop because he went back on active duty. His Shurikenjutsu and other general ninja skills had all risen by quite a large amount thanks to that.
When the taijutsu portion came up, Naruto was really, really tempted to lay into Mizuki, who was in charge of this portion of the exam, with his [Advanced Hakage Taijutsu], but forced himself not to act out. Long term pranking beat short-term satisfaction, he reminded himself sternly. As much as it pained him to admit it, the blond orphan had still never beaten Sasuke in a taijutsu match, although the number of times that they faced one another had dropped sharply, only happening once or twice a month rather than occurring nearly every other time they had spars.
He supposed that Iruka-sensei and his Jiji had cracked down on Mizuki enough that the blue-haired man couldn't dare interfere too much…at least, not beyond the increasingly frequent unsubtle looks of hatred the man sent him when Iruka wasn't looking and most of his classmates were distracted. The man was going to do something stupid, Naruto could tell.
For making an accurate prediction based on prior experience and logic, you are awarded +2 WIS!
An irked vein on his forehead pulsed slightly before Naruto calmed down. His power had become very snarky and sarcastic recently, sending verbal (written?) jabs at him whenever he gained stats and generally being a bit of a pain in the ass.
Mentally shrugging, the Uzumaki boy focused his attention onto the confirmation that Mizuki was indeed going to do something stupid, probably to do with him. He'd have to make preparations.
Fighting Mizuki in a taijutsu spar was…challenging. Thanks to altering his diet to include food other than ramen and the increased amount of exercise, Naruto was a good three inches taller than he had been when he received his [Gamer] abilities, and he was fairly muscled as well, but Mizuki, unfortunately, had both reach and experience on him, as well as the fact that he knew the standard Hakage taijutsu style inside and out and could thus predict with reasonable certainty exactly what Naruto was going to do even as he did it.
Still, with Iruka watching, the blue-haired man had to act like a teacher and thus curtail his actions to the same level as he had with the other spars. With those limits holding him back, the man wasn't prepared for the punch to the gut that Naruto opened up with, or for the attempted knee to the face that was the follow up. He was still a chunin though, so he was able to dodge the second attack, albeit by a thinner margin than he would have preferred.
Grimacing as his attack failed, Naruto quickly retreated to await Mizuki's inevitable counterattack. It came swiftly, a low kick designed to break his stance and leave him open to punches while he was distracted.
The blond boy leapt into the air, vaulting over Mizuki's leg, which was moving at mid-genin-level speed, and kicked the man in the face. The look of utter shock on the chunin's face was priceless.
Naruto followed up with a chop to the side of the neck before kicking off of Mizuki and retreating again.
The blue-haired chunin was both amazed and furious that Naruto was fighting so well. He was definitely at least mid-genin level, perhaps a hair stronger, which was truly amazing considering he had barely been worthy of being called a street brawler ten months ago.
'The damn Demon Brat must be drawing on that power!' the man thought bitterly. 'It's stopped using the flawed taijutsu style I taught it and is using the advanced level of the Hakage style. No ordinary person could learn a style so quickly without the Sharingan or something similar, and it's no Uchiha! He must be using its powers somehow!'
Several people across the village sneezed for no reason, all of them very good taijutsu practitioners who learned quicker than Naruto. They felt annoyed for some reason too…
'Very impressive. Even if Mizuki's lowering his abilities to mid-genin at the moment, he's still got a longer reach than Naruto, and he's far more experienced. Yet Naruto's still holding him off easily.' Iruka thought with a smile, very proud of the boy. 'I'll have to treat him to Ichiraku's after class today as a reward for his hard work…'
"You pass, Naruto-kun." Mizuki said, hiding his reluctance behind a practiced smile.
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