The Assessment

Faced with Matsushita's assessment, Nawaki shrugged casually. "A monster? This is what I've achieved after countless days and nights of nonstop hard work! It wasn't something I could accomplish with talent alone! Teacher Matsushita, you're just like everyone else—you see what a genius has achieved, but not the hardship and sweat behind it! But it doesn't matter. Genius or monster, as long as I can protect the village, that's all that matters."

Matsushita Ida looked ashamed. "The hard work behind a genius's success? I'm sorry. As a teacher, I understand the path to success less than my own student does. You've taught me another lesson, Nawaki! I hereby declare Senju Nawaki's Three Basic Techniques score perfect. From now on, he won't need to take any more assessments."

Even he, a Chunin, had been shaken by it. Afraid the other students would grow discouraged under the pressure of Nawaki's achievements, he simply announced that Nawaki would no longer be tested on the Three Basic Techniques.

"All that sweat and hardship? Nawaki-kun has worked so hard! Nawaki-kun looks even more handsome when he's serious!" The girls gazed at him with pity in their eyes. Hyuga Setsuna's little face was red too; she looked just like Hinata.

"His belief in protecting the village must be what matters most." The Hyuga brothers were sinking deeper and deeper. They might never get out for the rest of their lives.

"This brat works that hard? No way—I absolutely can't let him surpass me!" Of course, this was Big Pillar, but even he had gained a new respect for Nawaki.

Nawaki had successfully used his talk-no-jutsu again, reaping another haul of Wish Power and prestige. He felt that his prestige was close to reaching 100 points, but the million Wish Power needed to perfectly acquire the Sharingan or Byakugan bloodline was still a distant dream.

A perfect exchange didn't mean directly acquiring the Eternal Mangekyo or Tenseigan. It meant gaining a bloodline like Fuqiu's or Baizu's. To improve further, he would have to develop it himself or spend more Wish Power on another exchange. Either of those ultimate ocular techniques cost 200 million Wish Power. In the short term, Nawaki couldn't even scrape together a million, let alone 200 million.

If he had enough Wish Power, he planned to exchange for the Sharingan first. He ranked the Byakugan below even merging with the Senju Clan's bloodline. Because of the obsession his mother had left him, Nawaki had the potential to awaken the Mangekyo. Besides, the Sharingan was far more powerful than the Byakugan. With the Asura Bloodline, even if Nawaki awakened the Mangekyo, he could quickly recover his eyesight and wouldn't risk going blind.

The Byakugan, meanwhile, had obvious features that were difficult to hide, and offered only Gentle Fist and sensory abilities. Those two functions overlapped with the Six Powers and the Uzumaki Clan's Sensory Technique, so Nawaki wasn't in any hurry to obtain the Byakugan.

After half a year of training, Nawaki's chakra reserves had grown exponentially. They were now on par with those of an ordinary Chunin, enough to support a powerful, wide-ranging B-rank jutsu. However, he could only cast one before he had to rely on Taijutsu.

So in a conventional fight, he could only use C- and D-rank jutsu like an ordinary Chunin if he wanted to last. He could also use A-rank techniques like Shadow Clone and Rasengan, but he could only bring them out as trump cards during battle.

He had also mastered one-handed Hand Seals and had used them during the exam just now. He was simply so fast that Matsushita hadn't noticed.

With his current abilities, he could easily apply for early graduation, but he had no plans to do so. After graduating, he would have to complete missions endlessly, and might not have much time to train. So he planned to apply after the assessment at the end of next semester, once he had completed a year of studies—when he was three years old.

By then, he expected his chakra reserves to have reached the level of an elite Chunin, enough to support the casting of more than two B-rank jutsu. That was about how much chakra Kakashi had when he fought Zabuza. Since Kakashi couldn't deactivate his Sharingan, his reserves at the time were probably around the level of an elite Chunin.

Of course, this didn't mean Nawaki had the abilities of an elite Chunin, let alone someone like Kakashi. He had almost no combat experience. No matter how perfect his fundamentals were, he still needed to be tested in the field before he could grow and gain the corresponding combat strength. Otherwise, he'd be like the Uchiha Clan in the original story: despite having nearly a hundred clan members with Three Tomoe who should have possessed elite Jonin-level strength, and thousands of Chunin and Jonin to support them, they couldn't bring their full strength to bear because they lacked experience. It took only Itachi, at Kage Level, to wipe them all out.

The second assessment, on Shurikenjutsu, began soon after. Since Nawaki's astonishing performance in the previous test had thrown off the students scheduled after him, Matsushita arranged for him to go last.

The student to finish before Nawaki was Uchiha Fugaku. The Uchiha Clan was skilled at Shurikenjutsu thanks to their Sharingan, so he completed the test quickly, scoring a perfect 100. As he walked off, he smugly raised his chin at Nawaki. "Hmph!"

He was just as tsundere as Uchiha Sasuke.

To show off his overwhelming 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 a shower of petals. Then he fired the kunai in his right hand at incredible speed.

A rapid series of "clang, clang" rang out. After a complex chain of midair collisions, the ten kunai changed their flight paths in astonishing ways—and each one struck the center of a different target.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, leaving everyone present dazzled and once again shattering their common sense.

Fortunately, after the previous assessment, they were somewhat prepared, so they weren't too shocked. Nawaki was a genius, after all—and a hardworking one at that. It made perfect sense.

"Like hell it does! The Three Basic Techniques are one thing, but even a Jonin probably couldn't pull off Shurikenjutsu this miraculous! You can't explain this with hard work alone!" Teacher Matsushita raged inwardly. Being a genius's teacher wasn't easy. Unless he was a genius himself, he needed extraordinary mental fortitude to withstand every blow.

Of course, Matsushita couldn't say what he really thought. With a lifeless expression and dead-fish eyes, he said evenly, "Excellent. Nawaki gets a perfect score in Shurikenjutsu! He won't need to take this test again!"

Matsushita watched as the students looked at Nawaki with excitement and adoration, then sighed inwardly. Sometimes, knowing less was a good thing. Because of their limited perspective, and thanks to Nawaki's earlier encouragement—or rather, his convincing lies—they all thought that if they worked hard enough, they could become like him someday. It was like Nawaki in his previous life, who 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 entirely different things.

The next assessment was a practical sparring test between students in the same grade. Matsushita led them to the training ground for the final event.