Chapter 57: Exam Begins Before Entry

The physical training was far more grueling than Shisui had imagined.

Before this, he usually only exercised by running, and rarely pushed himself to the point of exhaustion.

But today was different—Shisui went through almost every type of exercise targeting different parts of the body.

After completing eight hundred push-ups, his arms felt like they no longer belonged to him; after eight hundred squats, his legs were as heavy as lead; after eight hundred sit-ups, his abdomen ached and swelled.

After finishing all these basic exercises, Shisui leaned against a tree, feeling like he had lost control of his body.

Watching Might Guy train so hard every day had never felt like much, but now that he was doing it himself, he realized how awful it was.

Toward the end, he was barely holding on through sheer willpower—his physical sensations had become vague, and he was just mechanically repeating the movements by sheer determination.

Shisui almost couldn't help wanting to use chakra to assist with the exercises; it was just too exhausting.

Imagine this: sweat keeps streaming down and blurring your eyes, the salt in it stings your eyes, every movement of your heavy limbs is a test of will and strength, but you can't stop because you haven't reached the training goal yet.

"Four hundred twelve, four hundred thirteen …"

Watching Might Guy still doing frog jumps not far away, Shisui couldn't help feeling admiration.

They had started training at almost the same time, but Might Guy's exercises were even harder. Shisui just did regular push-ups, while Might Guy did weighted push-ups with a stone on his back.

Even so, in the same amount of time, Might Guy completed more repetitions, and after Shisui was completely exhausted, Might Guy still had the energy to continue training.

In pure taijutsu combat, Shisui wouldn't lose to Might Guy—in fact, he might be better—but when it came to pure physical strength, he was far behind Might Guy.

During Might Guy's rest, Shisui couldn't help asking, "Guy, you've been training like this for a long time, haven't you? You can handle this huge amount of training."

Might Guy nodded and replied, "I started even before entering the ninja academy. My father took me to train."

Hearing Might Guy's words, Shisui felt a pang of melancholy and envy, because at that age, he no longer had parents.

Shisui believed that if his parents had still been alive back then, they would have taught him ninja knowledge too.

"Shisui, do you find it too exhausting to finish? I have a training secret—do you want to hear it?" Might Guy decided to share the training method his father had taught him with Shisui.

Unlike the clan bond between Obito and Shisui, he and Shisui didn't interact much, but after training and eating together regularly, Might Guy already considered Shisui a trustworthy comrade.

"What secret?" Shisui became interested.

"Self-discipline. Treat completing these training targets as a challenge. If you fail the challenge, you accept punishment. For example, if you don't finish three thousand push-ups on time, you punish yourself by doing five hundred more." Might Guy said.

"Forcing yourself by putting shackles on yourself—that really is a good training method." Shisui thought for a moment and replied.

He felt that Might Guy's method was similar in principle to Muyue's combat training exercises.

Shisui hadn't expected that Might Guy, who seemed so rough around the edges, could come up with a way to motivate himself like this.

"Pretty good, right? My father taught me this. Every time I face a challenge that's hard to complete, I use self-discipline." Might Guy scratched his head and laughed.

"Then your father must be a very strong jonin." Shisui praised.

Since he could raise a son like Might Guy, Shisui thought his father couldn't be weak.

"Haha, he's only a genin, but I think he's amazing." Might Guy laughed loudly.

Even if he was just a perennial genin, that didn't stop Might Guy from believing in his father's strength.

"A genin …" Shisui looked a little surprised, and became even more curious about Might Guy's father.

Given Might Guy's age, his father must have been at least twenty-eight, and thirty-something was normal. To still be a genin at that age was very rare.

"I have a chakra application technique related to taijutsu—let's discuss it." Shisui returned the favor.

…

Inside the classroom of Class 1, Year 1 at the Ninja Academy.

"That concludes the first installment of Ninjutsu Theory class. There are still two weeks until the final exams. Now, review well and prepare for the finals." Muyue said.

Originally, it could have been finished a week ago, but Muyue taught relatively quickly, so he left two weeks for review.

"Teacher Muyue, don't forget my rice dumplings." Anko spoke up.

"As long as you do well on the exam, the dumplings won't be missing." Muyue replied with a smile.

"Teacher Muyue, I want snacks." Kotetsu raised his hand.

"Prepare well for the exam, and there will be rewards." Mu Yue said as she sorted the teaching materials.

Ring ring ring, the class bell soon rang, and along with it came the system message.

【Lecture Complete】

【Evaluation: A】

【Reward obtained: Fire Release · Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson】

Mu Yue picked up the lesson plan and nodded inwardly; this was a moderately practical fire release ninjutsu.

"Having to review for two weeks—just thinking about it feels so tiring." Kotetsu complained.

"Then don't review. It's not like you weren't listening in class anyway." Izumo suggested.

Because Kotetsu was unreliable, Izumo felt he had to find a girlfriend on his own. He had already found out that the girl next door was also attending the ninja academy, in Class 1-6.

He planned to get first place in the theory exam and then approach her as the top student.

Although Kotetsu scored a few points lower than him last time, their recent mock exams were almost identical. Izumo felt Kotetsu was a strong rival for first place, so he wanted to make Kotetsu give up reviewing.

"Not reviewing. That sounds good too. My senior cousin said sometimes not reviewing and facing the exam with a more relaxed attitude actually yields better results." Kotetsu nodded.

Actually, Kotetsu's first complaint was just a setup for this line; he wanted Izumo to give up reviewing so that he could take first place.

Because he had boasted to Miharu that he would get first place in theory, and Izumo was his main rival for that.

"Eh, is that really true?" Anko felt tempted; she thought reviewing for two weeks was too tiring.

Kotetsu and Izumo both nodded in agreement.

"Shisui, do you usually review for exams?" Anko asked Shisui behind her.

Shisui shook his head; he remembered everything from class.

Seeing that even Shisui, the last theory exam's top scorer, said so, Anko's eyes lit up, feeling she really didn't need to review.

"Then let's go out and play this weekend." Anko invited her two good friends.

"No, I have something at home this weekend." Kotetsu shook his head. He didn't want to play; he only wanted to study and review to get first place.

"And you, Izumo?" Anko looked at Izumo.

Izumo also shook his head and said, "There's a lot going on at my house lately, I can't go either."

Having finally tricked them into not reviewing, he certainly had to stay home and study hard.

"I see. Then I'll find someone else to play with." Anko didn't suspect their words.

The real competition had already begun off the field, and Anko was already out.