19 Monthly Assessment

Hinata took some time before she was able to digest that information. From the moment she saw Minato, she already knew that she had arrived in an alternate universe. Still, it looked like she really wasn't as prepared as she thought she would be because she froze for some time just to process what she had heard. Eventually, she then accepted it. There was also a point where Hinata noticed that nothing was said about Orochimaru. Her first thought was that Orochimaru was still a traitor in this universe but Hiroshi didn't say anything about the Snake Sannin leaving.

"Hiroshi-sensei, wasn't there also a Snake Sannin? What about him?", Hinata couldn't help but ask due to her curiosity. Meanwhile, Hiroshi was surprised.

"Ah, someone actually knows the Snake Sannin from the younger generation. Well, about him, that's another topic for another day. It's nearly the monthly assessment so we'll take every chance we got to prepare you for it. We'll be having a short break and after this, we'll do some basic training."

...

A few days later, the most awaited monthly assessment had finally arrived and got everyone from the class pumped up. This was considered one of the rare days where the children were allowed to fully show off their abilities and fight after being cooped up in their classes. No matter how exciting practical lessons are, they can never replace real fights.

The calmest were Hinata and Shikamaru. Hinata already knew her strength and she was pretty confident that she could thrash all of the Year 2 students with one hand. Shikamaru on the other hand was just too lazy to care.

During this month though, Hinata and the others were allowed to check for information on the Year 2 students so that they could practice their information-gathering skills and Hinata found something that gave her a little excitement for the upcoming assessment.

There were actually barely any good ones in the Year 2 classes even from the Class 2-A which is only below the Elite Classes. Neji should have been originally part of it but because this Elite Class program existed, he would surely be one of the Elites. That leaves Tenten and Lee who were his teammates originally in the anime. She wasn't particularly interested in Tenten because strong as she might be, she wasn't anything special in Hinata's eyes. Lee, on the other hand, she knew how strong he actually is. She didn't actually know how strong Lee is currently but she knew how hardworking he was so she was looking forward to meeting him. Besides, Lee was probably the only one who could come close to her physical strength besides Choji.

First thing in the morning, the whole class gathered together first for a short orientation on how they should behave, how should they show respect, how should they act before and after matches, and things like those. The kids were too eager that they just let the words enter one ear and pass through the other and nodded frantically so that they could move on faster. The teacher just sighed sadly that all of his efforts in explaining were wasted but didn't think about it any further. Anyway, they would learn as they go on.

After the orientation, they were taken to a training ground much wider than they usually used. After they arrived, Hinata and the others quickly discovered that they were the last to arrive since it was pretty crowded. As soon as they arrived, the surroundings fell into silence as they became the center of attention.

Hinata momentarily thought that the scene where some dumbass would go and provoke them for no reason would be acted out but was instead surprised to see trepidation present in most people's faces. What Hinata didn't know was that teachers had been repeatedly hammering the fact that the Elites are better than they are because even their lessons alone are more advanced than theirs. They probably already know more than they do.

Hinata would probably curse those teachers if she knew. She's basically destroying their enthusiasm by breaking their self-confidence to compete and basically went against the intention of nurturing talents better than before. Hinata sighed because although most times, it was the higher-ups messing up, it was the people at the bottom who kinda messed up here. No matter how good the reforms of the higher-ups are, there will sometimes be people at the bottom that would just destroy it.

Just from auras alone, Hinata could spot more than ten that could beat Ino who was actually the weakest of the Elites. However, while she was the weakest, she was one of the most arrogant so people couldn't help but think that she was one of the strong ones. So people would just back away from her despite being a free ticket to the Elite Classes.

Hiroshi then greeted the other teachers and students then asked his own students to introduce themselves.

"Hinata Hyuga"

"Sasuke Uchiha"

"Choji Akimichi"

"Shino Aburame"

"Kiba Inuzuka"

"Ino Yamanaka"

"Shikamaru Nara"

They basically introduced themselves according to their general rankings after a month of being together in class. Naturally, our MC had to be top whereas Sasuke beat Choji by a little because he was a little faster than him and could do long-ranged attacks while Choji is mostly a close combat specialist. The day where Choji would actually outrun the Uchiha wasn't that far. Just a few more training sessions.

After that, were warm-ups which actually consisted of a race and an obstacle course. Even though it was a warm-up for the upcoming fights, everyone was still pretty competitive. In the end, the Elites still dominated the rankings with the exception of Shikamaru and Ino.

After that were the challenges and naturally, Shikamaru the dead last was the most challenged. Unfortunately for them, Shikamaru played with them and won landslide victories. This made others fear the higher ranking members which indirectly help Ino. Because of Shikamaru, she looked scarier way more than she should be and barely anyone challenged her. Those who did lost not to Ino but to themselves because they were too nervous that Ino was able to thrash them with her weak strength.

Because of that, nobody really had the courage to challenge the Elites any more. All of their hopes of entering that special class were extinguished.

(A/N: You can probably notice how I'm pulling down Ino to the ground but before you hate me, hear me out.

There is a saying that "It's lonely at the top." In this case, "It's lonely at the bottom😂" because Sakura needs a friend at the bottom when everyone else is on top.

Don't worry though, I won't make them stay that way forever. It's just that they're young and immature. So yeah that's it. You can hate me now if you are still dissatisfied with that.)