{Academy Training ground, Konohagakure}
{11:13 AM, 18th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
"You missed one because you tried to speed up too much," Ino commented as soon as he arrived beside her, he shrugged as he looked at her surprised gaze. He had never practiced the shurikenjutsu with her nearby. After the physical training, they sparred sometimes, and that too only during the last couple of months when Ino had some spare energy after the physical conditioning.
"It's math, they changed the rules a little so I went for speed, normally the exam would have had extra points for finishing in between ranges of time. Last year the time limits were a little different, if you managed to hit all targets within 2 seconds you got 50 bonus points. But since the difference between dividing 200 points by 2 and 200 points by 1 is a lot I figured they devised this exam to encourage quicker draw times and fire rate." Ren reasoned.
"It's more real like this anyway it's not like in an actual fight you would have more than a split second to throw a kunai anyway so I think this is a good idea," Ren spoke, hinting at Ino to do the same.
'Though there could be another reason for them changing all of these exams.' Ren looked at the academy instructors once again as the conclusion was quite obvious to him.
'To award points for an additional jutsu and then to even tweak the accuracy exam to focus more on speed since Sasuke had shown to be able to handle 10 shurikens and kunai at a time, their target could not be more obvious. Now the important question is why is someone trying this hard to give the Rookie of the Year title to Sasuke...'
Something like this wasn't according to Ren's plan, since he had taken part in last year's graduation exam, so he expected most of the exam to be the same. He felt a little indignant but then again the graduation exam was a measure of strength, and for some reason, the academy principal did not want him to graduate at the top of the elite class.
'Did some clan pressure him to it.'
Ren's thoughts bounced between the possible scenarios as it was finally Sasuke's turn to take the test, Ren focused on him a little as Sasuke also, possibly because of Ren's performance, decided to go with the quick approach. Then again he always chucked 10 shurikens and 10 kunai simultaneously, but this time his draw was faster.
"1.32 seconds..." Iruka noticed and Ren stopped focusing on him, he looked through his quest block again and sure enough, he completed another sub-quest.
...
[Side Quest II: Gain Perk: [Dead eye], Gain {Advanced Shurikenjutsu Skill Scrol}, +5000 EXP,+100 Reputation [Iruka], +100 Reputation [Rookie 9]]
...
'I should have an advantage in the taijutsu portion too and thanks to Sasuke I'll probably get the highest marks for the ninjutsu portion. The only thing left would be the hidden quest, I don't know what it is so I can only do my best and hopefully it will work out. At least I got enough EXP for 1 level-'
"Ino Yamanaka," Iruka sensei called out the next name on his list.
Ren gave her a small nod and said, "Good luck, and make sure to go as quickly as possible without losing focus."
"I got it," Ino left with a confident nod, after checking her weapons she got ready at the throwing line and threw 6 shurikens at a time. Her draw was quick so she didn't take that much time taking out more weapons from her pouch.
"4.35 seconds" Iruka noted, his shout was followed by Mizuki speaking, "195 points..."
Ino's score has improved a lot from her first try this year, Ren didn't remember what it was but Ino did. She stared at the 2 kunai and 3 shurikens that were a little off their mark and then turned back to walk toward Ren.
"I could have gotten a full score," Ino pouted.
"You would have to throw 3 at a time for that, that means at least 2 extra throws which equals 3 extra seconds." Ren pointed out. In the original scoring method, she would have gotten 20 bonus points for completing the task in under 10 seconds.
"I know," she sighed and then turned around once again and looked at Sakura who was staring at her with a complicated look on her face.
"You still got a decent score, 3rd highest in our class till now so you don't have to worry too much." Ren pointed out.
"It would have been better if you didn't do that, doesn't your score exceed the maximum 200 marks? Just from this exam, the difference between our scores is somewhere around 160 points..." Ino was speechless after she completed her calculations.
'Somehow whoever made these rules to target me managed to screw the clan kids it seems...'
A small part of Ren felt satisfied but then again the difference between his and Sasuke's store wasn't much. In the Taijutsu portion, probably both Ren and Sasuke would end up having the same score. So the final result would depend on the Ninjutsu exam.
'Let's not think about so far ahead,' Ren thought as he watched the rest of the shurikenjutsu exam.
He opened his jacket and removed his resistance seal preparations, he started applying the bandages on both his arms.
"You're not planning to fight a chunin while under resistance seals are you?" Ino asked with a frown on her face.
"I'll deactivate them when I fight, I got used to fighting with stress bandages..." Ren shrugged. The bandages that Ren used to inscribe his fuinjutsu seal into were stress bandages, there were two reasons for his doing so. Firstly, even while the seal is deactivated the bandages are tightly wrapped around his forearm giving his muscles a soft cushion when he goes for a heavy attack.
'And the other fact was that the stress bandage could handle a seal inscribed for a long time...'
As Ren experimented more with fuinjutsu, he quickly realized that not all materials could handle a seal inscribed onto them and that inscribing seals onto your or someone else's skin or body was even more difficult.
"Alright that concludes the accuracy exam," Iruka spoke bringing Ren out of his thoughts, "Let's move on to the taijutsu range..." The class followed Iruka, Ren's gaze was instantly focused on the 2 chunin standing in two of the three circles in the middle of the training ground.
...
'Observe...'
...
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AN- Next Chapter is the Taijutsu exam!
P.S - 13 extra chapters on P.atreon at -p.atreon.com/Version_401