{Academy Training ground, Konohagakure}
{11:59 AM, 18th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Seeing that his chance to squeak out a win was disappearing Ren jumped back and sent a burst of chakra through both of his resistance seals releasing the final debuff. Akihiko didn't seem to have sensed anything so Ren took a deep breath making it seem like he was recollecting his breath.
"That was fun, I was not expecting one of you brats to be this fast..." The relaxed look returned on his face but Ren could see his muscles were still tense. He wanted to wait for an opportunity to present itself but it seemed like Akihiko had seen enough, he dashed towards Ren who hurriedly dodged the blow and threw a jab back, he deliberately controlled his jab to be a little slower than his previous speed before he twisted his upper body and used his max speed to complete the surprise attack.
...
Akihiko's eyes widened in surprise and he tried to duck under the jab but the blow still clocked him on his temple, having gained an opening Ren kicked upwards targeting Akihiko's tumbling body but the Chunin once again used his hands to block the kick while jumping backward using the momentum of his kick to disengage from Ren.
Ren rushed forward trying desperately to maintain his advantage but although Akihiko stumbled a little he still managed to recover before Ren arrived in front of him, his attacks were slowly dismantled again before Akihiko got a good opportunity and managed to throw Ren out of the sparring ring with a hard kick.
Ren landed on the ground and used chakra to stabilize his footing, he was a little upset at not gaining any advantage against Akihiko. Iruka stared at Ren suppressing his amazed expression, "The Seal of Reconciliation" he reminded the two of them. Ren nodded although in his mind he was still going over the spar that he had just now he still stepped forward and extended his hand to form a seal The Seal of Reconciliation.
As Ren walked back Akihiko stopped him, "Hey brat, what's your name."
Ren stopped and looked back, Akihiko still had an arrogant grin on his face but Ren still replied, "Ren"
He walked back and he could feel his face was stiff, he put his resistance seals back on and set them at level 1. Ino immediately noticed his stiff face while Choji and Shikamaru were looking at him with wide eyes.
"Are you okay?" Ino asked and Ren nodded absentmindedly he walked away and leaned against a nearby tree.
'I tried every standard move and even tried mixing in some grapples but nothing worked, the only opening I managed to create was when I faked fatigue and released the resistance seal. At the very least my idea of hiding my full speed at first worked, I wouldn't have managed that hit otherwise.'
Ren was a bit disappointed by the fight, he looked at his stats again and compared them with Akihiko's stats. The difference stat-wise wasn't much but only after he fought he realized that not everything could be represented by those numbers. Although his max speed was almost equal to Akihiko the difference in the match was entirely due to the difference in taijutsu experience between them as Akihiko also only used the Academy taijutsu style.
'The difference would have been larger if he used the Inuzuka taijutsu style that Kiba was bragging about.'
While Ren was focused on recalling his spar quite a lot of people were observing the reclusive Rookie of the Year candidate of their class. Sasuke was one of them, he knew his name would be among the last few to be called up so he focused on quite possibly his only acquaintance at the academy. The two of them had a tentative understanding, they both knew that they were just using each other to get stronger.
Ren taught Sasuke the tree walking exercise in return Sasuke gave Ren the scroll for the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, at this moment though Sasuke was a little pissed. They had sparred countless times both in and out of the academy and not one time Ren had shown speed anywhere near of what he moved right now. He had tried to observe the spar closely and realized that he had trouble tracking the spar, he hadn't felt so outclassed since that night 5 years ago.
'Why, why him again, how is he so strong...' He glared at Ren who noticed his piercing stare as he opened his eyes.
Ren looked at the fuming Uchiha and then ignored him, it wasn't his job to coddle the last Uchiha. The names were called and one by one everyone went through the physical portion of the exam, Ren was a little worried as even after half an hour of waiting the sub-quest related to the physical portion wasn't completed.
'Do I have to wait till the end of the taijutsu exam...'
That being the only logical option left Ren closed his eyes once again as the spars continued. Among the rest of the class, only 4 more people challenged Akihiko. Sasuke managed to resist for 5 minutes before Akihiko manhandled him out of the sparring ring. Along with Sasuke, Naruto, Ino, and Kiba also challenged Akihiko. Among them, Kiba lasted the longest before he was thrown out of the ring by Akihiko for using the Inuzuka Taijutsu style. Ino survived for 3 minutes while Naruto managed to get a passing grade of 2 minutes.
After the spars were completed the subquest was still marked as incomplete making Ren more confused, he carefully looked at Akihiko and tried sneaking a look into the scores but sometime between his spar and the end of the exam the principal of the academy had arrived and the exam results were in his hands.
'What is he hoping for, does he want to meddle with the grades?'
...
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{Academy Training ground, Konohagakure}
{1:15 PM, 18th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Tiger → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger
Ren flashed through the hand signs as he molded almost half of his chakra, he brought his finger to his lips and blew upwards into the air. A small stream of fire left his mouth which he immediately bloomed into a 1 m wide fireball. The fireball zoomed into the air traveling for around 100m before exploding into a 5m wide explosion. Ren stared at the result of his jutsu in satisfaction, he had somehow managed to control the jutsu enough that it shouldn't look bigger than Sasuke's fireball.
'Sasuke should be able to create a bigger fireball right...' Ren thought as he nodded to Iruka's response that he passed and as he backed away, a blue block appeared in front of him.
...
~Ding!~
...
[UNIQUE STORY QUEST Generated!]
[Rookie of the Year!]
[The "Rookie of the Year" refers to the ninjas who showed exceptional skill and potential among their peers during their days in the academy. The title is mainly granted to the student with the highest marks in their final year of the Academy.]
[Main Quest: Get the Highest cumulative marks in the graduation exam.]
[Side Quest I: Get the Highest marks in the written portion of the graduation exam.]
[Side Quest II: Get the Highest marks in the accuracy portion of the graduation exam.]
[Side Quest III: Get the Highest marks in the Taijutsu portion of the graduation exam.]
[Side Quest IV: Get the Highest marks in the Ninjutsu portion of the graduation exam.]
[Hidden Quest: Break at least one Academy Record.]
[Rewards:]
[Main Quest: [Rookie of the Year] Title, +10,000 EXP. {Collect}]
[Side Quest I: Gain Perk: [Enhanced Focus], Gain {Chakra Scalpel Jutsu}, +5000 EXP, +100 Reputation [Iruka], +100 Reputation [Rookie 9]. {Collect}]
[Side Quest II: Gain Perk: [Dead eye], Gain {Advanced Shurikenjutsu Skill Scroll}, +5000 EXP,+100 Reputation [Iruka], +100 Reputation [Rookie 9]. {Collect}]
[Side Quest III: Gain Perk: [Hard Worker], Gain {Advanced Academy Taijutsu Skill Scroll}, +5000 EXP, +100 Reputation [Iruka], +100 Reputation [Rookie 9]. {Collect}]
[Side Quest IV: Gain Perk: [Greater Chakra Control], Gain {Shunshin no Jutsu Skill Scroll}, +5000 EXP, +100 Reputation [Iruka], +100 Reputation [Rookie 9]. {Collect}]
[Hidden Quest: Rewards depend on Record Broken (ShurikenJutsu),+10,000 EXP, +{Uchiha Shurikenjutsu Skill Scrol}. {Collect}]
==================================
...
"Wow..." Several of his classmates exclaimed as Ren walked back to one corner of the training ground again, the problem though was that there was a lot more attention on him now compared to before.
"When did you learn that?" Ino asked with an angry tone, earlier she was worried that this idiot would be sabotaged by some clan that was working behind the scenes but he didn't even have the courtesy to tell her that he knew elemental ninjutsu, and when did he even have time to learn this skill.
"After our spars when you go for clan training," Ren shrugged, he had a couple of other scrolls from the bounty system and although he did learn them he had only ever practiced the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu because he was able to trade the tree walking exercise for it from Sasuke.
Ren received Ino's glare without even batting an eye, she sighed as she thought, '...at least now no one would dare to try and take Ren-kun's title away from him.' She smiled at that thought before glaring at Ren one more time.
"Will you stop glaring at me Ino-chan?" Ren opened his left eye and looked at her, he was once again leaning against a tree. He always felt at peace under the shade of one and it has slowly become a habit for him.
"Whatever," Ino grumbled as Sasuke stepped up once again and another 1m large fireball exploded into the sky. Ren opened his eyes and stared at the exploding fireball it wasn't much larger than his own jutsu although even that one jutsu consumed almost half of his chakra reserves. Ren looked through his skills page and found the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu.
...
[Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu – C Rank: Lvl Max (-)]
[A fire-based technique that allows the user to exhale a massive fireball from their mouth, inflicting substantial damage upon their target and the surrounding area.
The Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu is a versatile offensive technique, capable of causing widespread destruction and overwhelming opponents. Its destructive power makes it a formidable tool in battle, capable of incinerating obstacles, structures, and even adversaries.
However, like any other technique, it has its limitations. The Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu requires a considerable amount of chakra, and maintaining control over such a massive fireball can be physically and mentally taxing. Additionally, skilled opponents can employ defensive measures to counter or evade the attack, making it important for the user to strategize and exploit their opponent's weaknesses.]
[Uses 75 CP per use]
[Can be supercharged with up to 4 times the base chakra.]
[Seals Requiered: Tiger]
...
After practicing this jutsu 4 times a day every day for almost 3 months he managed to finally master this jutsu. Initially, he had to use all five seals to do the jutsu but the requirements went down to just 3 seals at level 5 and just to one seal at MAX level. Still, he had decided to hide his proficiency with the skill for now, although he had to expose his speed and physical capabilities, that didn't mean he would expose all of his trump cards easily.
'After being assigned a genin squad my physical capabilities would have been difficult to hide, so it is better to just get a better grade and secure the Rookie of the Year title while relying on my stats. My Ninjutsu skills however could easily be hidden, although it would be better if I could gain access to someplace where I can train and get every skill to a higher level...'
Iruka looked at everyone around the class, "Everyone who passed come up and collect your headband."
An excited chatter went through the class, everyone almost jumped at each other trying to be the first one to grab a headband. There were 28 headbands gleaming on the table, Iruka passed a brand new one to Ren. He grabbed the shiny new headband with a complicated look on his face.
'...do they have to shine so much?'
He gripped the headband hard and put it into his jacket, he turned around to see Ino tying the headband on her waist.
"How do I look?" She gave him a bright smile and just for a moment Ren felt okay. He let go of the headband and walked towards her.
'This time I'll pass the true exam and only then will I wear the headband...'
...
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AN- There it is, every chapter from now on would be around 2 - 2.5k words. I would still try to upload daily but no guarantees!
P.S - 7 extra chapters on P.atreon at -p.atreon.com/Version_401