Ding, Received Sasuke's Shock Value +99

"Uchiha Kei, Uzumaki Naruto, you have failed the examination. The rest of you have passed."

The examiner shook his head.

He had originally thought he was about to witness the birth of another genius, but who would have guessed that Kei would turn out to be just as much of a dead weight as Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hahahahaha..."

The surrounding peers burst into raucous laughter, casting mocking glares at the two of them.

"Teacher, I think you should give us another chance!"

Uchiha Kei held his head high, his face etched with defiance.

"Yeah, that's right! You should give us another chance!"

Although he didn't know why Uchiha Kei wanted to try again, as his only friend, Uzumaki Naruto felt he should support him.

"It'll be the same no matter how many times you try. Why bother making a fool of yourselves?"

"Exactly. Isn't embarrassing yourselves once enough?"

"I think he'd be better suited as a comedian. What a joke."

Their peers pointed and jeered at them, treating them like monkeys in a cage.

Uchiha Sasuke was also deeply displeased. He strode over to Uchiha Kei's side and snapped, "Uchiha Kei, haven't you embarrassed the Uchiha clan enough? Get back home right now!"

Uchiha Kei glanced at him sideways. "Tell me, Master Sasuke, it may be true that your father is the clan head, but that doesn't give you the right to meddle in my business, does it?"

"Yeah, exactly! What right do you have to boss us around?"

Uzumaki Naruto, clearly hoping to stir up more trouble, fanned the flames from the sidelines.

"You—you are a member of the Uchiha clan! When you embarrass yourself, you embarrass the Uchiha! Why wouldn't I have the right to stop you!" Uchiha Sasuke retorted, his face turning red with indignation.

"Tch."

Uchiha Kei ignored him completely and turned back to the examiner. "Teacher, what do you think? Should you give us another chance?"

"This..."

The examiner was in a difficult position. After all, the strength—or lack thereof—that the two had displayed earlier was plain for all to see; a few more attempts would yield the same result.

"Get your butt home right now!"

Seeing Uchiha Kei ignore him, Sasuke completely lost his temper and grabbed him, intending to drag him away by force.

Uchiha Kei's gaze turned cold. A kunai appeared in his hand as if by magic, and with a swift, blurred motion, he pressed the blade directly against Sasuke's throat.

"Listen here, Erzhu-zi, you don't get to make decisions for me. Do you understand?"

Sasuke stared at the kunai, his expression a mix of shock and uncertainty.

"Alright, fine. I'll give you one more chance for a make-up exam."

Seeing the scene unfold, the examiner hurriedly stepped in to mediate.

There was no harm in letting them try again; at worst, they would just embarrass themselves a second time. It wasn't as if he were the one losing face.

Uchiha Kei lowered the kunai and flashed a victory sign at Naruto.

Naruto was the first to step up.

All eyes were fixed on Naruto, which made him feel uncomfortable after a lifetime of being ostracized, causing his movements to stiffen.

"Don't be nervous, Naruto. Just pretend these people are all tombstones, and that it's just you and me left here," Uchiha Kei shouted to reassure him.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Everyone's faces darkened. They were all tombstones?

Was that something a human being would actually say?

Pah, how ominous!

Naruto nodded heavily and took a deep, steadying breath.

"Whoosh!"

The shuriken left his hand, tracing an irregular arc through the air.

"Pfft, what kind of throwing technique is that?"

"Is this a joke? That trajectory is clearly just a random toss!"

"Hahahaha, I told them not to bother. They just had to come back and embarrass themselves again."

Watching the shuriken in the air, the crowd below all wore mocking smiles.

All except Uchiha Kei.

Ever since he had acquired the Ninjutsu Mastery skill, he had developed an intuitive understanding of shurikenjutsu.

The moment the shuriken left Naruto's hand, he knew it would hit the target!

It was a bit of a close call.

"Clang!"

The sound of iron striking wood rang out, stunning the crowd.

The shuriken was pinned precariously to the very edge of the target; had it been even a hair's breadth further, it would have missed entirely.

"I hit it! I hit it! I actually hit it!"

Naruto stared at the target in disbelief.

"Congratulations, Naruto!"

Uchiha Kei stepped forward and gave Naruto a big hug.

Naruto felt like crying, clutching him tightly in return.

"Uzumaki Naruto... uh, target hit. Pass."

The examiner looked at the target, speechless.

How you looked at it... it was pure luck, right?

Next up was Uchiha Kei.

Fiddling with the shuriken in his hand, Uchiha Kei's mind raced.

Since he could gain ninjutsu by earning shock points, shouldn't he take this golden opportunity to harvest a wave of them?

"Can you hurry up?"

Sasuke, standing to the side, grew impatient and couldn't help but urge him on.

Hearing that voice, a plan formed in Uchiha Kei's mind.

"Erzhuzi, do you want to guess if I can hit the target?"

Uchiha Kei lowered his hand and turned to look at Sasuke.

"I don't care if you hit it or not," Sasuke said, turning his head away with a haughty sniff.

"How about this, why don't we make a bet?"

Uchiha Kei looked like a creepy uncle luring a minor, a smile plastered on his face.

"A bet?" Sasuke paused. "What do you want to bet on?"

"Let's bet on whether I can hit the bullseye!"

"I'll use three shuriken. If I hit three bullseyes at once, I win. If I don't, you win. How about it?"

"Three bullseyes?"

Sasuke blinked, then burst into laughter. "You're on! You only hit the target by luck, and you think you can hit three bullseyes at once? Hahahaha!"

The other children their age sneered as well.

Had this guy lost his mind?

He actually wanted to hit three bullseyes at once?

"If I lose, I'll acknowledge you as my big brother."

"If I lose, I'll acknowledge you as my big brother too!"

Sasuke, self-taught in the art of the comeback, followed Uchiha Kei's lead and sealed the bet.

"Deal!"

Uchiha Kei flashed a strange smile. Three shuriken appeared in his hand instantly, and without even looking at the targets, he tossed them out casually.

"Hahaha, is he just giving up now?"

"I think so. If he hits those, I'll eat a pile of crap right here on the spot!"

"+1!"

In their eyes, the thrown shuriken were limp and weak, and their flight paths were erratic; there was no way they could hit the targets, let alone the bullseyes.

A flash of light crossed Uchiha Kei's eyes as he watched the three shuriken in silence.

Just as the three shuriken were about to fly past the targets, one of them shifted its trajectory in a bizarre way, colliding with another shuriken.

"Clang, clang."

Two crisp sounds rang out, forcibly altering the flight paths of all three shuriken.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Three sounds of iron piercing wood echoed through the air.

The training ground fell into instant silence.

Everyone stood with their mouths agape, staring at the three targets in disbelief.

There, pinned firmly to the targets, were the three shuriken.

Each one was dead center in the bullseye!

"Holy crap!"

"Holy crap!"

"Ho... holy crap!!!"

Everyone rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

Did... did he hit it?

Three shots, all dead center!

"Ding, shock received from Tanaka Koya, shock value +20."

"Ding, shock received from Naruto, shock value +99."

"Ding, shock received from Uchiha Kei, shock value +99."

"..."

In an instant, Uchiha Kei had reaped 1,000 shock value.

Naruto and Sasuke alone had contributed nearly 200 of it!