Chapter 155: Rin Nohara's Astonishing Performance

On Monday, after washing up, Obito split off a Shadow Clone and quickly said:

"Go to school already, you'll be late."

"Heh, you think you can trick me into taking the exam while you slack off? Do you think I don't know today is the final exam?" the Shadow Clone sneered coldly.

Being the same Obito, he didn't need a second to guess what the original was thinking.

"Anyway, you usually go to school, so the written exam is yours." Seeing that the trick failed, Obito stated his stance.

"Going to school is out of respect for Muyue-sensei, but the exam? Forget it." The Shadow Clone also stated its position—there was no way it would do the test papers.

"If I go to the exam, then both of us will suffer, but if you go, only one person will suffer." The Shadow Clone analyzed logically.

For a moment, Obito felt he was convinced—that did make some sense.

Obito had no choice but to cancel the Shadow Clone, then said gloomily: "Damn Tobirama Senju, this Shadow Clone is completely useless!"

With the clone-taking-the-exam plan foiled, Obito had to eat breakfast and head to school for the exam.

On the way, Obito ran into a few first-year juniors he vaguely remembered. Since they were students in Muyue's class and had participated together in summer special training, he remembered some of them.

"Good morning, Obito-senpai." Kotetsu, Izumo, and Anko greeted Obito.

"Good morning to you all too." Obito smiled and greeted them back.

"Obito-senpai, you don't seem very happy. Did something happen?" Izumo asked.

"Could it be because of today's exam?" Kotetsu guessed.

"Sort of. I'm not very good at the written exam." Obito nodded.

"Eh, you're not good at theory either, Obito-senpai? Same here." Anko looked like she had found a kindred spirit.

"Those theoretical knowledge points are so hard to memorize; not being good at them is normal." Obito felt he saw his own shadow in Anko, and a sense of closeness arose.

"Actually, we also..." Kotetsu and Izumo tried to join in.

"Obito-senpai, don't be fooled by these two scammers. Their theory scores are great—they got full marks the exam before last, and last time they got ninety-eight and ninety-seven." Anko ruthlessly exposed their lies.

"Full marks? Are you two geniuses?" Obito was shocked. Those things could actually be gotten full marks on? The human limit should be sixty, right?

"No, no, we just reviewed a bit more than usual." Kotetsu said honestly. It was Shisui who was a true genius.

"These two are awful, always picking on me for my low theory scores." Anko put her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks.

"Obito-senpai, what scores do you usually get? Should be above eighty, right?" Anko asked. She thought Obito couldn't be as bad as her, who only could score seventy-eight.

"Uh... what's your usual score?" Obito felt something was off with this kindred slacker spirit; his sense of similarity and closeness vanished instantly.

"Don't laugh when I tell you, Obito-senpai. My grades are really bad, and they keep dropping. The first time I only got eighty, and last time I even fell to seventy-eight." Anko sighed.

There really weren't many students in Muyue's class with scores as low as hers, so Anko thought that no matter how low the score, it couldn't possibly be below seventy-eight.

"I think I see an acquaintance ahead. Let's talk later." After hearing this, Obito glanced around and immediately jogged forward.

"Guy, wait for me!" Obito really didn't want to stay around Anko and the others a moment longer. Every extra second felt like a kunai piercing his heart.

Eighty points was "terrible," reviewing a bit more got full marks—hearing this, Obito nearly got the illusion that exams were easy. If he hadn't never scored above seventy, he might have believed it.

"My first exam score was only twenty!" Obito silently compared his initial result, roaring inside. If he ever got eighty, he would pin the paper to his clothes and announce it everywhere.

"Another morning full of youth!" Might Guy gave Obito a thumbs-up and said with a warm smile.

"Guy, are you feeling confident about this exam?" Seeing Might Guy in such good shape, Obito asked.

"Oh, right, today is the exam." Might Guy's raised thumb instantly drooped weakly, and the smile on his face froze.

Seeing Might Guy like this, Obito breathed a sigh of relief and showed a gratified smile. That's more like it—those first-year juniors were completely abnormal.

On the first day of the written exam, although Muyue didn't participate in proctoring, he strolled through the exam hall a few times. On the second day of the written exam, Muyue went to the exam room of Class 4-2, which was Obito and Rin Nohara's class.

Muyue's main purpose was to check on Rin Nohara's practical exam performance.

Among Muyue's disciples, Rin Nohara was the weakest, significantly behind Might Guy and Obito, and couldn't even beat some students in her own class.

Now Muyue had taught Rin Nohara the Chakra-Enhanced Strength technique and also strengthened her taijutsu. He felt that Rin's performance should improve and that she should no longer lose to anyone other than Might Guy and Obito.

Rin Nohara became Muyue's disciple during summer special training, and it has been about five months since then.

"Teacher Muyue." Aya Ueda greeted Muyue. This time, she was in charge of invigilating Class 2 of Year 4.

"Director Muyue." Another invigilating teacher was not as familiar with Muyue, so they added Muyue's title.

Muyue smiled and nodded in reply, "I came to check on the students I'm responsible for during the break."

"Muyue, you were also selected as an internship advisor teacher?" Aya Ueda asked curiously.

This was no secret among the teachers; almost everyone knew it already.

"Mm." Muyue nodded.

"Which students are you in charge of? Should be Might Guy and Obito, right?" Aya Ueda speculated.

After all, Muyue's teaching ability was strong; Aya Ueda felt the school would definitely arrange the best students for Muyue to lead.

"For Class 2, it's those two." Muyue replied.

"Examinee No. 1 Rin Nohara and examinee No. 2 Tekka Uchiha, prepare for the exam." The invigilating teacher announced.

When the exam began, Aya Ueda picked up the scoring sheet and stopped chatting with Muyue, preparing to score seriously.

"Rin Nohara is unlucky this time. If she hadn't met Tekka, she might have made it to the top four." The Class 2 students started murmuring.

Since the last special training ended, Rin Nohara had also performed quite well in class. In the last exam, apart from Obito and Might Guy who were firmly in the top two, only Tekka Uchiha could reliably defeat Rin Nohara.

So they thought the situation should be about the same this time.

"After all, Tekka was in Group A from the very start during the special training, while Rin Nohara only advanced to Group A near the end, right?"

Most students favored Tekka Uchiha more, feeling that Tekka Uchiha was even stronger than many students participating in the grade-level practical combat. It was just that only two students per class could be selected, and Might Guy and Obito were too overwhelmingly strong.

"Xiao Lin, you'd better hold back later. Don't punch that guy to death with one blow." Obito said with an exaggerated expression.

He didn't think Tekka Uchiha could defeat Rin Nohara.

"It's not as exaggerated as you say, Obito." Rin Nohara felt that her image in Obito's mind seemed to have changed somehow.

"Hehe." Obito chuckled without replying, then pumped his fist to cheer for Rin Nohara, "Go for it, Xiao Lin!"

Rin Nohara smiled gently, walked to the combat area, formed the Seal of Confrontation, and waited for the battle to start.

Tekka Uchiha also quickly entered the arena and assumed his stance, but he didn't take this battle seriously; instead, he was thinking about how much gap remained between him and Obito and Might Guy.

"I don't know how Obito Uchiha trains. The harder I try, the bigger the gap seems to get." Recalling his fight with Obito Uchiha in the last exam, Tekka Uchiha felt somewhat frustrated.

"Battle start!" Seeing both had taken their stances, the invigilating teacher announced.

The moment the invigilating teacher's voice fell, with a whoosh, Rin Nohara instantly vanished from Tekka Uchiha's sight and appeared at his side.

"Such a fast Body Flicker Technique!" Tekka Uchiha's pupils sharply contracted, extremely surprised inside.

But what surprised Tekka Uchiha even more was Rin Nohara's taijutsu that followed.

Caught off guard, Tekka Uchiha had no time to dodge and could only raise his arms to block Rin Nohara's seemingly delicate little fist.

Bang!!

With a loud sound, Tekka Uchiha was sent flying backward by Rin Nohara's punch, crashing heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Feeling the sharp pain in his arm, Tekka Uchiha was dumbfounded, staring at Rin Nohara's slender arm with a face full of question marks.

If it had been Might Guy fighting him, Tekka Uchiha wouldn't have been surprised, but the one fighting him was Rin Nohara. He hadn't expected her taijutsu to become that strong.

Tekka Uchiha wanted to endure the pain and form hand seals to cast a ninjutsu, but his injured arm slowed him down. Soon Rin Nohara charged at him again, forcing Tekka Uchiha into a close-quarters scuffle with Rin Nohara.

But Tekka Uchiha, already in poor condition, was no match for Rin Nohara. After two more moves, he was sent flying and fell to the ground, unable to get up.

The surrounding students fell silent. Even Obito broke out in a cold sweat watching Tekka Uchiha being knocked back and forth.

"Is Rin Nohara's taijutsu this strong?" The watching students were dumbfounded. It was completely different from what they had thought. Not only did Tekka Uchiha not win, he didn't even put up much of a fight and lost, losing miserably.

"Rin Nohara wins!" The invigilating teacher announced after finishing the scoring.

"Teacher, please have someone take me to the medical room." The lying Tekka Uchiha felt he was about to collapse.

"You two continue invigilating. I'll take him to the medical room." Muyue adjusted his glasses and said with a smile.

He came mainly to see Nohara Rin's performance; he could come back when the second round of battles started.

Mu Yue carried Uchiha Tekka on his back and sent Uchiha Tekka to the ninja school infirmary for treatment.

"Thank you, Teacher Mu Yue," Uchiha Tekka, having recovered, said in thanks.

"It's nothing. As a teacher, this is my duty," Mu Yue replied warmly.

"Teacher Mu Yue, am I the kind of person without talent?" Uchiha Tekka suddenly asked.

Being eliminated in the first round by Nohara Rin today made Uchiha Tekka a bit withdrawn. Although there was an element of being careless at the start, after reflecting, Uchiha Tekka knew that even if he hadn't been careless, he would only have lost a bit slower.

He accepted losing to Uchiha Obito; being fellow Uchiha, Obito might have burst out with potential.

He also accepted losing to Might Guy; after all, Might Guy's hard work was almost abnormal.

He really hadn't expected to lose to Nohara Rin. Although Nohara Rin's theoretical scores were good, her practical skills had always been average, mediocre, the type that Uchiha Tekka couldn't even be bothered to remember the name of.

From being first in the class at the start to being cleanly defeated by Nohara Rin, Uchiha Tekka's confidence was completely shattered.

"How could that be? The fact that you were placed in Group A from the start during the special training shows that you are ahead of many people."

"Don't deny yourself because of a temporary failure. You've been defeated, but haven't you defeated them before? Believe in yourself," Mu Yue, who was about to leave, turned around and comforted him.

Hearing Mu Yue say this, Uchiha Tekka felt much better. Indeed, Obito and the others had only been stronger than him for two semesters, while he had been stronger than them for three years!

"Rest well. I have other matters to attend to." Mu Yue smiled, turned, and left, heading to the training ground where the practical exam was being held.

Mu Yue felt that if giving motivational speeches had levels, he should be close to mastery; just now he started speaking almost subconsciously.

The first round of battles was the longest; Mu Yue wasn't in a rush to go to the exam venue of Class 2, Year 4, so he returned to his own class for a while.

In Mu Yue's class, things were still about the same as before. Shisui was the strongest, unshakeable. Anko was basically second as long as she didn't encounter Shisui early. Meanwhile, Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane were in the third tier.

The remaining students weren't weak, but the ones ahead had already surpassed the current grade level.

"Head Instructor Mu Yue, the average level of the students in your class is too high. Picking a few at random to go to other first-year classes would guarantee them top four or top two," the proctor praised.

Every teacher who came to proctor Class 1, Year 1 was shocked by the average level of the class. Having a few genius students was normal; Konoha never lacked genius ninjas.

But an entire class being at an excellent level—that was incredible. It wasn't possible for a whole class to be little geniuses, right?

Mu Yue made a few modest remarks and then had an idea: what if he suggested to the Third Hokage to modify the grade-level practical exam rules, changing from two per class to having the whole grade compete in practical scores?

Then there would be sixteen people in the grade practical exam, and maybe twelve of them would be from Mu Yue's class. After the first round, it would basically be an internal battle of Mu Yue's class.

But this didn't mean much to Mu Yue; it would only show that his class was very strong and awesome, and the system wouldn't give extra rewards.

Actually, comparing the average practical scores of each class could reveal the strength of his class. In the last exam, the average practical score of Mu Yue's class was twice that of other classes.

When the first round of Mu Yue's class was almost over, Mu Yue went to the exam venue of Class 2, Year 4. Nohara Rin was examinee number one, and she would be the first to start in the second round as well.

There is still more later.