Assessment

Facing Matsushita's assessment, Nawaki shrugged nonchalantly. "A monster, you say? This is the result of hundreds of days and nights of unceasing, bitter training! It isn't something achieved by talent alone. Like most people, Teacher Matsushita, you only see the fruits of a genius's labor without understanding the hardship and sweat behind them. But it doesn't matter. Whether I am a genius or a monster, as long as I can protect the village, that is enough."

Matsushita Ida's face flushed with shame upon hearing this. "The effort behind a genius, is it? I am truly sorry. As a teacher, I understand the path to success even less than my own student. You have taught me a lesson today, Nawaki! I hereby declare Senju Nawaki's Three Basic Techniques a perfect score; you need not participate in any future assessments."

Even he, a Chunin, felt the blow to his pride. Fearing that the other students might develop a defeatist attitude under the pressure of Nawaki's presence, he simply decided to exempt him from further testing in the Three Basic Techniques.

"Sweat and hardship, huh? Nawaki-kun has sacrificed so much! A serious Nawaki-kun is even more handsome!" The girls looked at him with eyes full of pity. Hyuga Setsuna's face turned bright red, looking exactly like Hinata.

"The most important thing should be the conviction to protect the village." The Hyuga brothers were falling deeper and deeper into his influence; it seemed they would never be able to climb out for the rest of their lives.

"This brat is actually this hardworking? No, I absolutely cannot let him surpass me!" This was, of course, Big Pillar, though he too began to look at Nawaki with newfound respect.

Nawaki had successfully used his "Talk-no-Jutsu" once again to harvest a wave of Wish Power and reputation. He felt his reputation was not far from the 100-point mark, yet the 1 million Wish Power required for a perfect exchange of the Sharingan or Byakugan bloodline remained a distant, unreachable goal.

A "perfect exchange" here did not mean directly obtaining an Eternal Mangekyo or a Tenseigan, but rather possessing a bloodline equivalent to that of Fuqiu or Baizu. To progress further, he would still need to develop it himself or spend more Wish Power. Both of these ultimate ocular powers required 200 million Wish Power points. In the short term, Nawaki couldn't even scrape together 1 million, let alone 200 million.

If he had enough Wish Power, he planned to prioritize the Sharingan. As for the Byakugan, it ranked lower in his mind than integrating the Senju Clan's bloodline. Because of the obsession his mother left behind, Nawaki possessed the aptitude to awaken the Mangekyo. Furthermore, the power of the Sharingan far exceeded that of the Byakugan, and combined with his Asura Bloodline, Nawaki could rapidly recover his ocular power even after awakening the Mangekyo, without the risk of going blind.

Moreover, the Byakugan had obvious physical traits that were difficult to hide, and it offered only Gentle Fist taijutsu and sensory capabilities—both of which were redundant given his Six Powers and the Uzumaki Clan's sensory secret arts. Thus, Nawaki had no urgent need for the Byakugan.

After half a year of training, Nawaki's chakra reserves had grown geometrically. He now possessed chakra equivalent to an average Chunin, enough to support the use of a B-rank ninjutsu with significant power and range, though he could only cast one before having to rely on taijutsu.

Therefore, in conventional combat, he could only fight like a standard Chunin using C-rank and D-rank ninjutsu to maintain stamina. He could use A-rank ninjutsu like the Shadow Clone and Rasengan, but they would have to remain his trump cards in battle.

At the same time, he had already mastered one-handed seals. He had even used them during the recent exam, though his speed was so fast that Matsushita hadn't noticed.

With his current strength, he could easily apply for early graduation, but he didn't intend to do so. Graduation meant endless missions, which might leave him with little time to train. He planned to apply for graduation at the end of the next semester, once he had completed one year of schooling at the age of three.

By then, he estimated his chakra levels would reach the level of an elite Chunin, capable of supporting the release of two or more B-rank ninjutsu. This was roughly the chakra level Kakashi had during his fight with Zabuza—since the Sharingan could not be deactivated, Kakashi's chakra at that time was likely around the level of an elite Chunin.

Of course, this did not mean he possessed the strength of an elite Chunin or even Kakashi, as his combat experience was nearly zero. No matter how perfect his foundation was, he needed to be tempered through experience to develop actual combat capability. Otherwise, he would end up like the Uchiha Clan in the original story, who were wiped out by Itachi alone. Despite having nearly a hundred members who had awakened the Three Tomoe—who should have possessed elite Jonin strength—and thousands of others at the Chunin and Jonin levels, they lacked the experience to exert their maximum combat power and were easily slaughtered by Itachi, who was at the Kage level.

The second assessment, shurikenjutsu, began shortly after. Due to Nawaki's astonishing performance in the previous test, the candidates following him were somewhat rattled, so Matsushita specifically arranged for him to go last.

The student who completed the assessment before Nawaki was Uchiha Fugaku. Thanks to the Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan was naturally skilled at throwing weapons, so he quickly finished his turn and achieved a score of 100 rings. As he stepped down, he tilted his chin at Nawaki with a smug expression. "Hmph!"

He really was just as tsundere as Second Pillar.

To demonstrate his absolute strength, Nawaki decided to use the prerequisite technique for the "Infinite": the Two-Stage Deflection Throw.

Nawaki took nine kunai in his left hand and tossed them into the air like scattering flowers, then fired the kunai in his right hand at extreme speed.

After a rapid series of "clinking" sounds, the ten kunai completed a complex series of collisions in mid-air, their flight trajectories changing in a miraculous fashion until they finally struck their respective bullseyes.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye, leaving everyone present dazzled and once again shattering their worldview.

Fortunately, having been mentally prepared by the previous test, they didn't suffer too much of a shock. Nawaki was a genius, after all—a hardworking genius—so this was only natural.

Natural, my foot! The Three Basic Techniques were one thing, but this kind of miraculous throwing technique is something even a Jonin probably couldn't do! This can no longer be explained by mere hard work! Teacher Matsushita roared internally. It seemed being a teacher to a genius wasn't easy; if you weren't a genius yourself, you had to have extraordinary mental fortitude to withstand any blow.

Matsushita, of course, couldn't voice his true thoughts. With a dead-fish-eyed expression and a look of existential despair, he said flatly, "Very good. Nawaki's throwing technique is a perfect score! You don't need to be tested on this again, either."

Watching the students look at Nawaki with excitement and adoration, Matsushita sighed in his heart. Sometimes, knowing less was a blessing. Limited by their own perspective and bolstered by Nawaki's earlier encouragement (or rather, his sweet-talking), the other students all believed that as long as they worked hard, they could be like Nawaki in the future—much like how Nawaki in his past life thought he could become a scientist. Once they truly grew up, they would understand that wanting to do something and actually doing it were two completely different things.

The next assessment was a live combat test between students of the same grade, and Matsushita led them to the training ground for the final item.