The written exam covers basic ninja knowledge, including hand signs, coded language, ninja concepts, tactical formations, history, cultural knowledge, and even subjects like physics and mathematics, though the scores for these are not very high.
Led by Teacher Qingshan, they entered a building specifically prepared for the ninja graduation exam. They found the testing instructor and received a numbered badge.
"According to the number on your badge, go upstairs to find your classroom and seat to prepare for the written exam!"
The instructor handing out the exam badges gave Tōshirō a wooden badge about six or seven centimeters wide and fifteen centimeters long. He glanced at Tōshirō expressionlessly and then ignored him.
Teacher Qingshan, who had accompanied Tōshirō, looked at his student about to enter the exam room and couldn't help but say, "Good luck, Tōshirō, all of us—teachers and classmates—believe you can succeed!"
"Thank you, Teacher Qingshan! I've got this!"
As he spoke, he made an 'OK' hand gesture.
Tōshirō thought to himself, "Teacher Qingshan never paid this much attention to me before. Now that I'm about to graduate, he does something like this..."
While thinking about these things, he walked towards the stairs at the corner, glancing at the badge in his hand.
"This is..."
With one look, Tōshirō noticed something subtle. The badge had two rows of numbers: the top read "201" and the bottom read "12," indicating Room 201 on the second floor, seat 12. But something felt off...
A quick look revealed a simple confusing illusion on the wooden badge.
The illusion was so simple that it couldn't be called a full illusion, just enough to cause some confusion. Even a slightly attentive ninja academy student could see through it.
This was one of the questions prepared by the ninja school. If a student couldn't see through such a simple illusion, becoming a ninja would be as good as courting death.
"I didn't expect the ninja graduation exam to surprise me like this!"
"It's somewhat reminiscent of the Chūnin Exams in the original work!"
Upstairs, he found Room 201 directly opposite on the left, with Rooms 202, 203, and others on the right. Room 201 already had quite a few people, with several arguing over their seats.
"These idiots are going to be eliminated. If they can't even notice repeated seat numbers, their intelligence is questionable!"
Ignoring Room 201 on his left, he turned right into Room 202. Entering the classroom, he found about 40 people already inside.
He found seat 21, where a white paper and a pencil were already placed, presumably the exam materials.
To his left, near the wall, sat a familiar-looking kid with white hair and a mask.
"Yo, Kakashi, long time no see! Didn't expect to meet you here in the exam!"
Kakashi Hatake turned his head indifferently at hearing his name. Without saying a word, he gave Tōshirō a dead fish-eye look and then turned away.
"So, he already has that expression now?"
"Must be the impact of Sakumo Hatake's situation. It's worse than I imagined!"
Tōshirō wasn't upset by Kakashi's cold demeanor. After all, Kakashi was indeed a pitiful figure. Losing his parents at a young age, starting his ninja career at five or six, finding a good friend only to lose him saving Kakashi, then later killing a comrade he vowed to protect for life. Even his teacher, known as the Yellow Flash, the fastest in the ninja world, died on the night of the Nine-Tails attack.
Kakashi had experienced all the death, killing, pain, and tears that a ninja goes through, all by his childhood.
He didn't have to wait long, about ten minutes later, five people walked into the classroom. Four sat in the corners, each with a clipboard, ready to proctor the exam.
"Okay, let's go over the exam rules. Anyone caught cheating will immediately be disqualified!"
The remaining instructor briefly introduced the exam rules and handed out the papers for students to pass around.
"The rules are straightforward: cheat and be disqualified. Hmm! Passing the papers now seems like an opportunity for cheating?"
Looking at the students in the classroom, some pretending to be calm, some worried, and others nonchalant, Tōshirō thought to himself.
"Ninjas are indeed a profession full of poor students!"
Looking at the many blank spaces on his exam paper, Tōshirō sighed. There were indeed many points to cover.
He skimmed through the front and back of the exam paper, then, with a clear understanding, picked up his pencil to start answering.
Calculate the shuriken's flight path given specific momentum, angle, and ignoring wind speed?
List all the fatal areas of the human body?
What are the temperatures of different colored flames?
Looking at the various questions on the exam paper gave Tōshirō a sense of being back in a high school exam room in his previous life, fervently writing away.
Those dark, endless days of studying. Even in another world, another life, he could still deeply feel that agony.
In less than 30 minutes, he had filled in all the blank spaces on both sides of the exam paper. After checking his name and answers, Tōshirō stood up to hand in his paper early.
At this point, the exam had just reached its halfway mark, with very few students having completed half the questions. His early submission drew quite some attention.
Many who had barely scratched the surface of their papers looked at him with gritted teeth.
Ignoring the looks from those 'poor students', he was surprised to see that less than a minute after leaving the classroom, another figure emerged, having also finished and handed in their paper early. It was none other than Kakashi Hatake, who, at under six years of age, had also completed the ninja exam.
(End of this chapter)