At the Third Hokage's insistence, Tahm began living a peaceful life raising children in Konoha. The elementary school tutoring classes that had been suspended for a while also resumed, though this time, Karin joined Tahm's class.
After Konoha's extensive publicity campaign, Tahm's reputation was gradually cleared. At least in Konoha, he had once again become something of a hero, rather than someone who could scare children just by walking down the street.
Several peaceful days passed before a small ripple finally disturbed their lives.
"Wait, what? An Academy Tournament?" Tahm exclaimed.
"What is an Academy Tournament?" Iruka asked in bewilderment after just announcing the teaching plan to everyone. "I said we were going to begin practical combat testing."
"Then an Academy Tournament is exactly what it is." Tahm stubbornly insisted on giving the practical test a new name.
Iruka's face darkened. Ignoring the troublemaking Tahm, he continued, "You've all been studying at the Ninja Academy for more than half a year now. As future ninja, practical combat is essential."
The hot-blooded Naruto had already begun rubbing his fists together and shouting, "The time has finally come for me to show what I can do! I've already claimed first place!"
Sakura and Ino couldn't help but rub their foreheads at Naruto's exaggerated reaction, but they had to admit it really was possible. Having trained alongside Tahm, they knew just how strong Naruto had become after learning the Shadow Clone from him.
Everyone else, however, looked at Naruto with disdain. His scores in theoretical classes were at the bottom of the entire class, and even though Tahm's teaching had finally gotten him to listen seriously in class, it still couldn't save those terrible grades.
The handsome young Sasuke wore the characteristic disdainful expression of a Uchiha genius and said, "First place definitely