An unexpected "bolt from the blue"!
Well, calling it a calamity was admittedly a bit much, but being targeted by this sensitive, calculating young girl really was no good thing for Kei. Wasn't there a saying that put it perfectly?
Beautiful women were always the most "troublesome"!
Mei Terumi clearly belonged to that category.
And with Mei Terumi's attitude and stance, she was absolutely going to stir things up during the graduation exam. That was what gave Kei the biggest headache.
He could take the initiative to back off a little.
But there was nothing stopping her from exercising her own freedom to force her way toward him. As mentioned before, Kirigakure's graduation exam was different from the almost laughably trivial exam Konoha had shown in the original story. It was a genuine "combat assessment"!
Although some adjustments were made each year, the overall framework remained the same. As long as this classmate, Mei Terumi, had the inclination and took a little initiative, she would have far too many opportunities and methods to force a confrontation with him.
Unless he could rig up some kind of "super radar," and have incredible luck to boot, completing the graduation exam's requirements in the shortest possible time before she caught up, he was definitely going to get cornered!
And nearly all those conditions were very difficult to fulfill!
"Sigh, I'll just take things one step at a time. Hopefully this girl won't go too crazy..."
Kei shook his head helplessly, then likewise strode out of the Ninja Academy and headed home. The graduation exam was less than a month away. Previously, he hadn't needed to worry about anything.
But now that Mei Terumi had set her sights on him.
Kei still needed to make some preparations in advance.
He certainly didn't want some major mishap to actually happen when the time came!
This really is such a pain...
As Kei's figure slowly receded into the distance, another helpless sigh drifted away on the wind.
A month was neither long nor short.
The Ninja Academy students who intended to graduate early in the coming year.
Also seized this final month.
One after another, they submitted graduation applications to their teachers.
Because the war had ended, the number of Ninja Academy students graduating over the past two years had plummeted. After all, with the war over, the village no longer needed so much cannon fodder. Even those with the poorest aptitude would certainly become somewhat stronger with more time spent training.
On this point, Kirigakure couldn't possibly go its own way either.
Thus, not only had the number of graduates over the past two years dropped to barely under two hundred, but almost all of them had been over ten years old.
This year, however, the number of students taking the graduation exam suddenly climbed back up to over three hundred!
Those graduating early accounted for a third of them.
And almost all were members of the various clans, led by the three great clans: the Minazuki Clan, Kaguya, and the Hozuki Clan!
The oldest among them was only ten.
The vast majority of the rest were still just eight or nine.
That age gap might not have seemed particularly striking.
But in reality, it already did a great deal to show the differences between these youngsters!
The earlier in childhood a small gap appeared, the more pronounced it would become later on!
The gap between geniuses and ordinary people was not so easily closed, because that required not only several times the effort from ordinary people, but also the geniuses themselves to slack off. Otherwise, when both worked about equally hard, or one worked only a tiny bit harder than the other.
The differences in talent and the resources available to them.
Were an insurmountable chasm between them!
The world was fair, yet at the same time, it was profoundly unfair!
Having lived two lives, Kei understood the truth contained in those words all the better!
And precisely because of that.
Kei had to work even harder!
He wanted to survive in this world, then become someone who could control every fate!
And now, Kei was about to face the first small challenge of his own life-the Ninja Academy's graduation exam!
January, Konoha Year 41, at the beginning of the new year.
On the morning of January 8, the second day after the holiday ended!
In the forest west of Kirigakure.
At eight in the morning.
Unlike its usual deserted state.
Today, several hundred figures had gathered here. More than half of them were small figures-the students taking this year's Ninja Academy graduation exam.
Kei stood among them, dressed in a fitted blue-and-white outfit.
At the front, several dozen Mist Ninja wearing Kirigakure's standard-issue flak jackets stood on either side!
They were all Ninja Academy staff!
Every one of them had the strength of a Chunin.
Although the four or five people leading them did not openly reveal their auras, Kei could still vaguely sense an extremely faint hint of danger!
There was a very good chance these people were Jonin!
In particular, the middle-aged man standing in the center with a hooked scar on his left cheek was the vice principal in charge of the Ninja Academy's daily operations-Koshimizu Tsuki. He had once been publicly recognized as one of Kirigakure's strongest Jonin.
He was also a trusted confidant of the Third Mizukage, which was why he could serve as the Ninja Academy's vice principal. Since every successive principal concurrently held the office of Mizukage, Vice Principal Koshimizu was effectively the person in charge of the Ninja Academy!
On a day like today, the Ninja Academy's most important day, Vice Principal Koshimizu naturally needed to appear and preside over the exam.
Ordinarily, the newly appointed Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, would also have made an appearance. But the situation in the Shinobi World had recently grown somewhat dangerous again. Several days earlier, Karatachi Yagura had been summoned to the capital for a meeting with the Land of Water's daimyo, so naturally, he couldn't attend.
This disappointed some of the students.
These boys and girls, with their adolescent delusions of grandeur, had wanted to put on a good performance before their Mizukage and earn Karatachi Yagura's recognition and regard!
"Lord Koshimizu, three hundred and seventeen students were expected for this exam, and all three hundred and seventeen are present. Every candidate has been accounted for!"
After the staff finished counting the candidates.
A red-haired young man stepped up beside Koshimizu Tsuki and reported to his vice principal with a composed expression.
"Hmm?"
As the red-haired young man's words fell, Koshimizu Tsuki opened the eyes he had kept narrowed in rest, his seemingly casual gaze sweeping across the more than three hundred students below.
Yet every youngster who met Koshimizu Tsuki's gaze couldn't help shivering!
A battle-hardened Jonin who could practically be said to have fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood carried an intense aura. Even without deliberately rousing it, he could easily affect ordinary people, including these youngsters before him who didn't even qualify as Genin yet.
Not to mention that Koshimizu Tsuki was now making a slight, deliberate effort to intimidate these candidates with his gaze.
Because the Mist Ninja could accept weak people with little talent.
But they could never accept cowards!
Such people did not deserve to bear the great name of Mist Ninja!
At least, to a Mist Ninja like Koshimizu Tsuki, that was how it ought to be!