Midterm Exam

Midterm Exam

"Mom, I'm home." Ayato pushed open the front door and called out.

"You're back. You're soaked in sweat again, so go wash up first. Mom has a few questions for you." Sinai had already prepared Ayato's clothes. Seeing him drenched in sweat, she spoke.

Sinai had grown used to Ayato coming home at this time every day, looking completely soaked in sweat each time.

"Okay." Ayato took the clean clothes and headed for the bathroom.

Soon, Ayato came out, rubbing his wet short hair with a dry towel.

Sinai looked at her son, her eyes lighting up. He usually looked rather ordinary, but that was only because of how he dressed. Now that he had just come out of the bath, it was clear that he would definitely grow into a handsome man—at the very least, much more handsome than his father.

"Is there something you wanted?" Ayato looked at his mother. She had said earlier that she wanted to talk to him, yet he had been standing here for a while and she still had not said anything.

Sinai came back to herself and said with a smile, "Didn't you have the Midterm Exam recently? Mom wanted to ask how it went."

"The exam? It should have gone pretty well." Ayato understood at once. What parent did not care about their child's grades? Even in the Naruto World, that was unavoidable.

But speaking of the Midterm Exam, First Grade exams really were nothing much. They only tested basic knowledge and basic physical fitness. Ayato figured he had probably gotten full marks in everything.

"Pretty well? That's good, then." Sinai did not press him for details. She had not expected Ayato's "pretty well" to mean full marks.

The next day, when Iruka announced the results, Ayato's score was, as expected, perfect.

Moreover, because Ayato had raised the standards for physical fitness scoring rather high, everyone else's physical education scores looked downright miserable in comparison.

"Congratulations, Ayato. Keep working hard in the future." After handing Ayato his paper, Iruka looked around the classroom and said, "Everyone should learn more from Ayato from now on."

"Learn how to sleep while sitting up?"

The students below began discussing it. Quite a few were unconvinced by Ayato's grades. After all, his presence at school had been far too inconspicuous, aside from becoming known for sleeping while sitting up...

Sasuke Uchiha was staring at Ayato as well, gritting his teeth. He did not hate Ayato for being outstanding; he was blaming himself for falling so far behind. How was he supposed to catch up to his brother at this rate? More importantly, he would not receive his brother's praise. Damn it!

And it was not just that guy who slept while sitting up. That pink-haired inconspicuous girl over there had surpassed him too. As an outstanding member of the Uchiha Clan, the Clan Head's son, and the younger brother of someone so exceptional, was he really that inadequate?

Sasuke Uchiha continued grinding his teeth.

In truth, Ayato was also the main culprit behind Sakura's overall score surpassing Sasuke's. He had raised the physical education standards too high, so although Sasuke's physical ability was far better than Sakura's, the difference in their scores had not widened. Meanwhile, Sakura had pulled far ahead in theoretical knowledge, resulting in this scene.

Yamanaka Ino curiously watched Ayato, who had taken first place yet still looked completely calm. Though they greeted each other whenever they met, that was all there was between them.

Ayato had never taken the initiative to approach Yamanaka Ino, and she had gradually stopped paying attention to him as well. But this exam made Ino see him in a new light.

She had never imagined that Ayato, who had always been quietly inconspicuous, was actually so outstanding. Listening to the discussions around her, she heard some dissatisfaction, but also plenty of amazement. After all, Ayato had gotten full marks and was far ahead of second place. He was truly amazing.

At that moment, although most girls still thought Ayato was not as handsome as Sasuke, the distance between them seemed to have narrowed considerably.

"Haha, Ayato, you're amazing!" Naruto was much more straightforward. Seeing Ayato return to his seat, he shouted directly.

"Naruto! We're in class, so don't shout! And Ayato being amazing doesn't mean you are! Your theoretical knowledge score is at the bottom!" Iruka could not help roaring. Could Naruto not see that even those discussing it were keeping their voices down? He was shouting so loudly, as if he had no respect for his teacher at all!

Naruto scratched his head, looked at his score, and became somewhat dejected.

Ayato looked at Naruto's score. How should he put it? Naruto's physical education score had pulled him up by quite a bit, so he was not last from the bottom. But once they started learning ninjutsu, which carried the highest proportion of the score, if Naruto remained at this level, he really would become the Good-for-nothing.

"Keep it up, Naruto. I believe you can do it," Ayato said after thinking it over.

"Hehe, I think I can do it too. After all, I'm the man who's going to become Hokage!" Naruto grinned happily.

"What a drag." Shikamaru had been lying beside them, but Naruto's voice woke him up. He looked over with a headache and could not help commenting after hearing Naruto's words.

"Hey, you're not much better than me! You only barely passed!" Naruto glared at Shikamaru. Even though Ayato had said something earlier, Naruto still could not help finding Shikamaru irritating.

After yawning, Shikamaru looked at Ayato, then noticed that quite a few people around them were subtly directing their attention toward Ayato. He could not help sighing. As expected, being first place was troublesome. He had controlled his theoretical knowledge score himself, but his physical education score...

Shikamaru had genuinely almost failed, and the culprit was the guy right in front of him. What a headache. Another troublesome person had appeared, and he was even sitting right beside him!

This was still class. If it were recess, Shikamaru did not even dare imagine it.

Sure enough, once class ended, the space around Ayato that had originally been empty was now packed full. Ayato might not have been as handsome as Sasuke, but he was still a handsome guy by any standard, and he was so outstanding too!

Naruto, who had been squeezed out, could not help staring blankly. What was he supposed to do?

As for Shikamaru, he had already anticipated this, so he left his seat the instant class ended. Seeing Naruto get squeezed out, he could not help feeling fortunate about his decision.

"Ah, you got squeezed out too!" Naruto pointed at Shikamaru.

"I did not." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Haha, don't deny it. I never thought Ayato would be this popular." Seeing that Shikamaru had gone through the same thing, Naruto suddenly found him much more agreeable.

"What a drag. Should I change seats?" Shikamaru watched the scene and began considering it.

As for Ayato, this was the first time in both his previous life and this one that he had encountered such a situation. At first, he was somewhat at a loss. Then he found it truly troublesome, frowned, and remembered that Sasuke in the original story seemed to treat these people as if they did not exist. That was something he could learn from.

So Ayato ignored everyone and read the book in his hands as though no one else was there.

Suddenly, it became quiet beside Ayato's ears. Had they finally all left?

Ayato looked up and saw that the area around him was still completely blocked. However, standing before him now was... Sasuke Uchiha. The people around them must have stopped making noise because they had seen this scene, right?

The collision between the most handsome Sasuke and the handsome top student made them all look forward to what would happen.

PS: I finally managed to sign the contract. It was quite troublesome, mainly because I was using a family-plan number, and the phone number was not registered under my name, so I could not sign electronically. I did not want to get a card I would never use and keep paying for it just to maintain it, so that would have been a waste. Therefore, I signed a paper contract instead. The status was finally updated today.

As for the update schedule, I originally considered doing two updates a day, but I have to work, and I do not write very fast, so I'll do three updates every two days. Two today, one tomorrow, two the day after, and so on. After it goes premium, I'll see whether I can do two updates a day.

The update times are fixed: the first chapter at 9:30 in the morning, and the second at 8:30 in the evening.

Also, please bookmark the story and send votes~

Oh, and thanks to Ba Si for sending this book's first monthly vote. Thank you~

That's all.