Chapter 12: Blowing the competition away

Kodama cleared his throat before talking.

"The first part of the exam will be a written exam; you have 1 hour to complete it. After that, we have a shuriken throwing competition, a leaf exercise competition, and a taijutsu tournament. The written exam counts for 100 points; shuriken throwing for 20; leaf exercise and taijutsu competition for 40 each. Because you are the students we trust to become powerful shinobi in the future, the hokage will personally fulfill the highest scorer's request, so do your best."

A grin could be seen on Kaminari's face. He was elated that if he managed to score the highest, he could ask the Hokage anything he wanted. He already had something in mind; now he just needed to do his best after explaining some rules. Kodama handed the written exam papers to the class. Once the exam paper got to everyone's desk, Kodama signaled the start of the exams.

Luckily, he was an electrician in his former life. Difficult exams are nothing new to Kaminari. With the help of Hayami drilling the theory into his skull, he managed to successfully complete the exam in 40 minutes. He gazed to his right and saw Adachi struggling with the last question. An evil smile appeared on Kaminari's face. 'Serves you right for annoying me and not paying attention in class' His eyes shifted to the left. He saw Noya. She finished within 20 minutes. 'Damn, she is good at memorizing things fast'

After a while, he pondered his points tally: 'I can get a maximum of 100 points on the exam, thanks to Hayami. I certainly got enough points, although I already know one person who definitely got the 100 points' Staring straight at Noya in envy for her brain, he sighed, 'Next is the shuriken throwing competition. I'm not good at that at all. The most I can be happy with is 10 points. As for the taijutsu and leaf concentration exams, I will not hold back. If I break Itachi's record of 2 hours, they will definitely take note of me, and that will definitely have its upsides and downsides'.

Kaminari was conflicted about his choice, but for the request he wanted, he needed to score the highest. At last, he decided to go with his choice.

A few minutes later, everyone had finished. Kodama came and collected all the papers. He handed them to a few older ninjas to grade. In the mean time, he signaled everyone to follow him outside to begin the shuriken throwing competition. After an hour, everyone finished. Kaminari managed to at least hit the target and even hit a bullseye! Both the Uchihas got perfect marks, which was to be expected.

They all went back inside. Kodama gave everyone a leaf and signaled for the class of 16 to start the exercise. In 5 minutes, 4 students had already dropped their leaves. In the 12th minute, 7 dropped their leaves. This included Adachi and Noya, unfortunately.

5 were still competing after 17 minutes; this included Hyuga Kaminari, Nara Sosuke, Uchiha Rie, Uchiha Hideo, and Hatake Yuki. On the 20th minute mark, Rie could be seen fuming; she had lost to her rival Yuki by losing concentration. Kaminari was sure that the rest couldn't go beyond 25 minutes. It's as if the heavens heard his thoughts because on the 21st minute, both Hideo and Sosuke dropped their leaves, although Kaminari suspected Sosuke of dropping it too early because the Nara were very lazy people.

Now it was just him and Yuki battling it out. He didn't even bother paying attention to her; he could easily keep the leaf on his forehead for more than 4 hours. 25 minutes in, and Yuki dropped the leaf. All eyes were on Kaminari now.

'Very impressive. This kid doesn't even like participating in class activities that much. He seems lazy. Guess I was wrong' Kodama had a proud look on his face. He definitely believed that Kaminari had immense talent; he just needed to exploit it to make him a strong shinobi.

2 hours in, everyone except Kaminari ate some food. When they came back, they expected him to have failed, but they were in for a rude awakening. He sat there unbothered, talking to the teacher that was left behind to monitor him. "Kaminari, how long can you hold this for? You already broke Itachi's record last year. You can stop now. We have one more exam to go." Sweat drops fell on Kodama's face.

He nodded before opening his mouth and speaking, "Sensei, I can hold this for 4 hours uninterrupted, but since I already broke Itachi's record, I will stop for now or else my stomach might kill me." Kaminari was very hungry; he hadn't even eaten breakfast yet.

When those words escaped his mouth, everyone's jaw almost dislocated from the shock and surprise. Everyone except Noya and Adachi thought the same thing: 'No way he can hold it that long, he has to be bluffing' Kodama composed himself to the best of his abilities: 'I underestimated this kid; he might be more talented than Itachi; heck, he might even be more talented than Lord Fourth!'

Everyone except Yuki congratulated him. Her name really paid homage to her cold personality. After Kaminari ate some food, Kodama led everyone to the training ground to start the taijutsu competition. Kaminari was hellbent on scoring the highest; he even decided to deactivate his seal. 'This might be overkill for these guys, but I can't afford anything funny to happen'

There was even a special someone watching them; that person was none other than the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. While Kaminari ate some food, Kodama informed him of Kaminari. With the Hokage watching, everyone was pumped to show their best.

Like he predicted, it was a clear-sweeping victory for him; he ranked first in the competition. Hideo 2nd ,Sosuke 3rd, Yuki 4th and lastly Noya was 5th. His quarterfinal fight was against Rie, Hyuga versus Uchiha. Sadly, the fight was one-sided, with the seal deactivated. Rie couldn't keep up with Kaminari. His semifinal fight was against Yuki. She analyzed his fight with Rie and tried to keep a bit of distance, but alas, that didn't even matter because he removed the distance between them every time she tried it. Kaminari decided to target her lower body with a kick to her shin. When the kick landed, Yuki dropped to the ground. She gritted her teeth, trying to stand up, but it hurt, so she gave up.

Hiruzen was very impressed with Kaminari. His speed was very good for his age. Combine that with the gentle fist, and you have a strong fighter.

The final was, to say the least, generic, with Kaminari not getting hit once and Hideo being a bit tired. It was a very quick fight, and the fight for third place was forfeited. Yuki's leg still hurt a lot. The teachers were compelling with the scores and gave everyone a 10-minute break.

Kaminari felt bad, so he walked towards her. She sat against a tree with her leg bandaged. Once she saw him, she got mad. "What do you want from me?" Kaminari sheepishly scratched his hair. "I wanted to apologize to you; I didn't mean to hurt you like that," he bowed a bit. "I couldn't care less about what you have to say, just leave me alone," her cold tone sent shivers through his spine. "Well, if your leg still hurts, please come to my aunt; she knows someone who specializes in healing people." He walked away with sweat dripping down his face. 'Damn, are all Hatake's like this?' This thought alone sent another shiver down his spine. The long, silver-haired girl thought nothing of it and continued whatever she was doing.

Kaminari was pondering something. 'Next time I'm not deactivating the seal, I would have still put up a good fight, but it wouldn't be that easy. Besides, I don't want anyone creepy like Danzo or Orochimaru, the pervert snake, taking an interest in me.' His spine shivered for the third time while thinking about Orochimaru and his weird obsession with Sasuke.

He made his way to Noya and Adachi, who congratulated him on winning the taijutsu tournament. They talked for a bit before their attention got taken away.

"Alright, everyone, gather inside; we have the results." Kodama was positively impressed with everyone's scores once he saw the written exam scores.