Chapter 731: Result And its Effect
“Why are so many people gathered here?”
Shisui said with a smile, “Kuroto-san, have you forgotten? Today is the day, the results of the previous exam are posted on the Academy’s Bulletin Board… Iruka-san should have already shown you the results and the progress report of all the students the day before yesterday, right?”
Kuroto nodded, realizing, “Oh yes, it slipped my mind.”
Since Kuroto became the Principal of the Ninja Academy, a new set of rules has been established, once a month, an exam will be conducted, and the result of all the exams will be publicly announced. And today happens to be the announcement day, so it makes sense that the Bulletin Board at the Academy’s gate is heavily crowded, since all the students and parents of a few students want to see the result and progress of their children.
As Kuroto passed the crowd, he swept his gaze at the Bulletin Board and noted the last name on it, it was none other than Uzumaki Naruto who came last in this exam.
It stands to reason that with Naruto’s strength, he would never come last after all, there are a lot of children who are weaker than him in his class, however, this is the case here, and the only thing responsible for this is Naruto’s poor luck.
In the first match, Naruto’s opponent turned out to be Uchiha Sasuke, there is no need to question the result of the first match, Naruto lost within three moves. Although he was frustrated, Naruto hadn’t given up, and in the second round, his opponent was none other than Rock Lee. Although Rock Lee is talentless when it comes to Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and most of the other shinobi arts, and if the exam was related to any of those Shinobi Arts, Naruto would have undoubtedly defeated Rock Lee, however, it was a combat exam, so it was like anything goes, and Rock Lee’s Taijutsu prowess is quite good upon being trained by Might Guy, so when facing Rock Lee, the result was an unsurprising defeat for Naruto.
In the third round, Naruto’s luck was not good either, his opponent was Akimichi Choji who was just defeated by Neji, although Naruto put a hard fight, in the end, he was still defeated.
In the fourth round, Naruto’s luck got better, his opponent turned out to be Kurama Yakumo. However, when facing the sick and weak girl from his class, Naruto didn’t feel very good, he also thought that beating the sick Yakumo would make others hate him, so he voluntarily conceded the match to her. ‘Ah, the noble heart…!’
In his fifth and final match, Naruto’s opponent turned out to be Inuzuka Kiba.
Both children knew that they can’t lose anymore, else they will come last, and fought fiercely, however, the strength of both children was relatively the same, however, Kiba had the advantage of receiving formal training from his clan, so he overwhelmed Naruto with his skill and won the match. In the end, Naruto became the only child to have lost all five matches and came last.
Kuroto muttered, “Poor Naruto-kun…” but when Shisui heard Kuroto say this, he didn’t find any sign of pity in his tone, and couldn’t help but ask with an awkward expression, “Kuroto-san… don’t you think Naruto is going through a bit too much… on top of what he goes through if there is another pressure like this… he might just give up everything.”
Kuroto shook his head, “No… he won’t give up no matter what!”
Shisui was surprised by Kuroto’s confidence in Naruto, and couldn’t help but ask, “What makes you so sure?”
Kuroto chuckled, “Because he is Uzumaki Naruto!”
…
In the Classroom
As Naruto learned that he came last, he was frustrated and directly challenged the person who ranked first, “Sasuke… fight me!”
“I am not interested in fighting the person who came last.” Sasuke contemptuously said to Naruto, then shushed him, “Now shush…” and walked away.
Seeing that Sasuke didn’t accept his challenge, Naruto changed his target, and went to the person who came second “Neji… I want to challenge you!”
Neji gave no reply to Naruto and walked away while ignoring his challenge.
Seeing that both Sasuke and Neji ignored his challenge, Naruto shouted, “You two… how dare you to ignore me!”
Rock Lee saw Naruto’s frustration, he walked over, patted Naruto’s shoulder, and said, “Naruto-kun, although we are not as talented as them we don’t have to give up… Guy-sensei told me hard work can overcome the lack of talent and help us catch up with the geniuses… So, don’t give up and work hard!”
Although happy that someone was willing to console him, Naruto was dissatisfied that Rock Lee called him talentless, “Bushy-brow, don’t put me in the same category as you without asking me… I am not talentless! White Snake Sage and Ichikishimahime said that I am a rare genius! They won’t lie to me!” he said, and then ran away from the classroom.
…
Principles Office
A few seconds after Kuroto came to his office, Neji walked in with a frustrated expression.
Seeing Neji’s expression, Kuroto couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the matter?”
Neji bowed to Kuroto, and said in a guilty tone, “Sensei… this time I embarrassed you and the Hyuga Clan… please forgive me.”
In the exam this month, Neji lost to Sasuke because of a small mistake, this was beyond many’s expectations, even Neji didn’t expect that he would lose to Sasuke, therefore, he is very guilty.
Kuroto was stunned by Neji’s actions, and sighed, “Neji-kun… I have already told you several times, the result of one or two matches at this early in the game is irrelevant. You don’t have to worry about this defeat, nor do you have to take it to heart, and you certainly didn’t disappoint me or the Hyuga Clan.”
Neji didn’t lift his head and said with a sullen tone, “You don’t have to comfort me Sensei, I know I have disappointed everyone this time!”
If he had lost to Sasuke because of differences in their strength, Neji wouldn’t be so depressed, however, that’s not the case, he lost, not because of the difference in their strength but because of the small mistake he made, so Neji is unable to accept this defeat.
Looking at Neji’s attitude, Kuruto shook his head and chose to remain silent.
Kuroto is clear that this is also the result of his actions. Because of the system he has introduced in the academy, the current Ninja Academy is no longer the same. The system of publicly publishing the result and posting it on the bulletin board with the possibility of the entire village seeing it puts a lot of pressure not only on all the students but also on the people behind those students, that is their parents or their clans.
Kuroto is very clear, almost all the Shinobi Clans are getting strict training from their clans just so that those children don’t affect the reputation of their clans.
It won’t even be wrong to say that these children have now become the face of their families and clans, and when they are competing in the academy’s monthly exams, they aren’t just competing for themselves, but also to save the reputation of their clans. After all, no clan would want the children of their clan to perform badly, because this will affect their reputation when the results are posted for the entire village to see.
This is also the reason why Naruto was defeated by Akimichi Choji and Inuzuka Kiba. If not for their clans giving them strict training, there was no way they could have managed to defeat Naruto.
This defeat of Neji (Hyuga Clan) at the hands of Sasuke (Uchiha Clan) is likely to become a hot topic of discussion amongst the villagers, and this is also the reason why Neji took this defeat more seriously than Kuroto want him to.
After a while of silence, Kuroto broke the silence, “If you feel guilty then train hard and perform better in the next exam. The next exam is going to be a real-world simulation.”
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter