Next Day, 4:58 AM…
The spring sun had already risen over the horizon, painting the sky and the clouds in red and orange hues. The birds were chirping and flying in the sky, announcing the beginning of another spring day in Konoha.
The roads were relatively quiet, but the people of Konoha, whether they were civilians or ninjas, had already gotten up.
Back in the Senju compound, the gentle sunlight traveled through the glass window and fell directly on the sleeping face of a handsome, snow-white-haired boy, who was about to enter his teens in little over a year.
The sunlight on his face and the welcomed brightness made the lids of his closed eyes flutter.
In less than a few seconds, the boy slowly opened his eyes, revealing jewel-like, ocean-blue irises with lively, bright white, tendril-like flower patterns that rotated slowly around his pupils.
The boy squinted his eyes a bit and turned his head toward the window.
And before long, he slowly made his upper body rise up from the comfort of his pillow and mattress.
He sat on the bed and cocked his head to the wall clock to check the time.
"4:59 AM."
"I have plenty of time. I just need to be present in the Anti-Personnel division before the dial hits 8 AM, anyway."
"I prepared most of the things last night. But to avoid an accident, I should recheck everything before heading to the Academy."
"Who knows what kind of test those lunatics will make us go through?"
Yawn~
The boy yawned with one eye closed, set the blanket aside, and jumped off the bed.
"But before everything else, I need to brush and get some breakfast."
The boy made up his mind and entered the attached bathroom to brush his teeth and have a bath.
Yes, this boy was none other than Otsutsuki Seimei. And his day was just about to start.
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Roughly one hour later, Seimei had already finished his bath and breakfast.
He sat at his table and read an open scroll, which contained a detailed record of all the previous practical exams conducted by the Central Ninja Academy in the last five years.
Yes. The record of every single practical exam conducted in the last five years, including practical evaluations of the S-class students.
After a few minutes, he closed the scroll, put it down on the table, and fell into deep thought.
He put his right elbow on the smooth surface of his wooden table and supported his chin on the back of his hand.
"It's not difficult to understand or guess the approximate content of the Anti-Personnel Division's practical evaluation."
"The clue is in the name itself. The goal of the test is to evaluate how skilled a student is in fighting against enemy ninjas, samurai, or very intelligent humanoid chakra beasts."
"Obviously, the students will be pitted against official ninjas or against each other for one or more fully armed duels."
"Since medical support is always available during the exam, the teachers encourage us to go all out."
Seimei lifted his chin and rubbed it with his thumb and index fingers.
"However, the theme of the exam is very unpredictable. It changes every year—there's almost no pattern."
Seimei couldn't help but frown.
It wasn't that he was afraid of facing a powerful ninja. But the practical exam was truly unpredictable.
And he couldn't even predict the teacher's behavior.
In the last five years, the format of the Anti-Personnel Division's practical exam went like this:
Year 011: Students fought against each other in one-on-one combat. The final result was calculated after a student fought three other students.
Year 012: Students fought against the official Konoha Elite Chunins.
Year 013: Students participated in an open battle royale until only eight students remained. And those remaining eight students participated in several rounds of knock-out matches.
Year 014: Some teachers had truly gone mad and grabbed a few imprisoned Sunagakure puppet masters from the Konoha jail to make them fight the students.
Year 015: The teachers threw all S-class students inside an enclosed, circular rain forest with an average radius of twenty kilometers. The students had to spend three days there and find and eliminate (not literally) as many students as they could within the time limit. And the most ridiculous part? The academy teachers didn't even give the students the time to prepare extra supplies. They had to enter the forest with whatever supplies and weapons they were carrying. What? Are you not carrying any supplies? Well, uh…good luck then. The forest had plenty of edible stuff, anyway.
Truly outrageous.
Who knew what kind of madness the students would have to face this time?
Seimei didn't know.
So, he could only prepare for the worst.
At this moment, Seimei finally understood why Tony Stark, the famed Iron Man from the Marvel franchise, always acted paranoid.
Oh no, wrong words.
He wasn't paranoid. Tony Stark was just cautious, so he liked to stay prepared for all kinds of city-destroying, world-collapsing, universe-sundering bullshits.
That man understood one very fundamental truth of life: An unprepared man was bound to die…oops, too bloody…cough…he meant an unprepared man was bound to fail.
Anyway, things were pretty much the same in the ninja world.
To survive in this world, a ninja should always be prepared to handle all kinds of dangerous and tricky situations.
In a nutshell, in the Shinobi continent, as long as you were prepared for the worst-case scenario, you would survive. Probably.
Seimei sighed. "In the end, what I have to do is quite simple."
"Prepare. Prepare. And prepare some more."
"Prepare like the world is about to collapse the very next day."
Oh no…I don't even have the next day. The practical evaluations will begin today, after all.
Seimei thought inwardly.
With that in his mind, Seimei quickly checked his storage seal bracelet once more.
Shurikens and senbon? Check.
Fuma shurikens? Check.
Kunai with hidden Flying Thunder God Marks? Check.
Explosive tags? Check.
Smoke bombs, flash bombs, and ninja wires? Check.
Ninjato? Check.
Additional knives and short swords? Check.
Metallic chakra conductive gloves? Check.
Chakra-conductive defensive inner armor? Check.
Foods, dry rations, and military nutrient pills for at least one week? Check.
Healing potions, blood-replenishing pills, poison, and other necessary potions? Check.
Antidotes? Check.
Trap-setting materials? Check.
Additional storage scrolls? Check.
Only after making sure that he had equipped himself with all kinds of ninja supplies for various situations did Seimei finally nod with satisfaction.
"Whatever. I have packed everything that can be packed. I have prepared for almost all situations I need to prepare for."
"Now, no matter what comes at me, I will just deal with it one step at a time."
Seimei looked at the wall clock once more.
It was 6:24 AM.
Seimei scratched the back of his head and muttered, "It's still too early. I have more than one hour of free time. What should I do?"
Seimei thought for a while before making a decision.
Let's meditate and feel the natural energy again. As long as I practice diligently, I should be able to develop a Sage Mode that is perfectly compatible with me within a few years…uh…within a decade or two.
If Seimei practiced the Sage Modes of one of the three sacred places, he was confident that he could master Sage Mode within a year, considering his talent for sensing natural energy.
But as his summoning beast, Shirayuki mentioned earlier, those Sage Modes, although they could provide humans with incredible power, were inherently flawed.
Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode was perfect for the toads. The Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode was perfect for the slugs. The Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode was perfect for the snakes.
But they weren't entirely compatible with humans.
And Seimei didn't intend to satisfy himself with those flawed Sage Mode techniques that had an inherently poor compatibility with the human physique.
No matter whether it took a few years or a few decades, Seimei was determined to create a technique that perfectly matched his physique.
"But before that, I should set up an alarm seal. Otherwise, I will lose track of time during deep meditation and miss the exam."
"That would be really bad."
With that, Seimei quickly set an alarm seal and immersed himself in a deep meditation to sense the natural energy floating around him.
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