In a greenery scene marked by towering trees that stretched skyward, their lush green foliage intertwined to form a natural canopy that filtered sunlight into intricate patterns below, a young boy held a sharp stone as he stared above in a firm stance.

As he took a deep breath, his eyes focused on the net above. With a motion, his arms launched the stone in a quick movement with pinpoint accuracy. The object approached one of the corners of the string that attached the net filled with rocks to two trees.

Raijin stood focused above as the stone cut through the string and the small rocks descended. With his mind working at full energy, he managed to somehow map the trajectories of the majority of the falling rocks. 'Now!'

As they descended, he made swift movements with his body. Infusing chakra onto his soles and arms when necessary to make his maneuvers faster and to waste less chakra while dodging the incoming rocks that were, at times, a few centimeters from cutting through his skin.

After a few seconds, the barrage of falling objects came to an end with Raijin standing at its center. With a few deep breaths, his cold and focused look changed to an unsatisfied expression.

Looking at his shoulder and legs, he noticed some scratches. 'As expected…'

As he finished his training session for the day, he removed his five-kilogram weight on each leg as a green leaf fell from his nape. 'I need to improve my dodging ability. If even with these restrictions I can't remain unscathed, then in a real battle…'

He didn't complete his thought process as he slumped on the floor. He wasn't exhausted or anything, he just felt like relaxing for a bit. 'Well, but still, I've improved a lot since the Nine-Tails incident.'

And he wasn't wrong. With his stamina, now he could run for an amount of distance he wasn't sure of himself since he wouldn't get exhausted for a long time. 

That was one of the main reasons why he introduced weights to his training seeing as how his stamina had been more and more difficult to train without weights.

His calligraphy skills were, while not his main focus of all, pretty good as well. While he didn't have another skilled person to compare with, his drawings made his peers in his orphanage come to admire him as an artist.

His chakra control exercises were also pretty solid for the time he spent training them. While he still couldn't walk confidently on raging waters, on pretty much any surface he decided to experiment on, he would have an easy time. This skill cost him numerous falls and grazes on his body, so he had to be careful during that time since no one was watching over him in case he got badly injured.

Also, his chakra control exercise created to improve his command over his water elemental chakra was pretty much mastered. While not for Raijin's standards, since he would only be able to get to forty-nine minutes while having water crawl over his body, now he had at least some experience on his element before using any jutsu.

That's right. The worst thing that Raijin expected to happen had taken place. He couldn't have access to any jutsu until he was in the ninja academy. While that may be reasonable considering village security and protocols, he just felt unhappy to not be able to conjure any jutsu since his arrival in the Naruto world.

Despite already having normal Genin chakra reserves, he couldn't make complete use of it for the time being. With a sigh, Raijin thought, 'My growth has only been delayed until now… But today is the day that this will change!'

Getting up, he started to walk in the direction of the ninja academy with expectant eyes and a slight grin.

~~

With a frown, a man wearing a chunin vest walked to the door of the academy. With a paper in his hand, he observed more than one hundred children waiting for the entrance exam to start.

Some kids had parents with them, while others were alone or in groups but without any adults. Something worthy of noticing was that the number of parents decreased considerably since the last admission test.

With a gesture to be recognized by the crowd, the man promptly said in a loud voice, "Everyone, I ask for your attention!"

With that out of the way, he continued. "I will say the names of the ones who will be evaluated in this batch and they can follow me. The remaining of you can stand here until we're done."

Following that, he started to list all of the kids to join the first batch of the Academy entrance exam. "Torifu Hashike, Raijin Shunsui, Aketoshi Nara, …"

Hearing his name, Raijin promptly made his way to the line that formed in front of the speaker with a calm and confident demeanor.

When the chunin finally ended the list, he followed with more instructions to the kids in front of him. "Follow me, I will show you the way."

With that said, they started to pace around the Academy. The six-year-olds were admiring the insides of the building that had just been rebuilt from the ground up in the past year. The classrooms were tidy and all the furniture was clean and new.

Arriving at their destination, they stopped at the Academy training ground. It had a running track and some other features such as some targets in trees and weapons lying inside boxes for the students to take and use to practice.

Positioning himself in a strategic position for all the candidates to see him, the chunin stated with a strong voice. "You guys will now participate in the entrance exam of the Ninja Academy of Konohagakure. You won't be allowed cheating as there is no way to cheat.

The exam will be presided inside this training ground with the tests being here as well. All of you, is that clear?"

All of the kids chanted in unison, "Yes, sir!".

Recognizing the confirmation tone, the proctor explained the first test. "The first exam will be on the running track before you. All of you are assigned to run for four kilometers in the least time manageable. We will note the results and have you evaluated considering on how each of you performs."

And, without wasting any time, the proctor snapped his hands and started the timer on his hand. "You can start now!"

Suddenly, a hoard of kids started to run to the running track to complete their laps. Raijin wasn't excluded, as he led the hoard by positioning himself closer to the running track before the chunin even explained the test. 

He just had an inkling that running would be involved in this test since it was one of the most optimal ways to test the limits of one's body.

With a firm gaze, Raijin continued to run at a steady pace. It was not his maximum limit nor his minimum, just sufficient to excel his peers. 'While I plan to be in the first position, there is no point in overdoing it since I will surely get into the best class by getting first place anyway.'

As things went, the kids went for another twenty to twenty-five minutes, with some only completing the four-kilometer mark in thirty minutes. The rest of them had resigned or passed out due to exhaustion, both being disqualification situations.

For Raijin, though, he didn't even break a sweat while running this distance since his training was much more intense than this. So, he easily achieved first place.

With a frown, he looked at other kids who also completed the track close to him. 'These clan kids… They are more tough than I expected them to be.' 

Despite them not being in crystal clear condition such as Raijin, he reckoned that they had also put some effort in training in their clan compounds with a capable teacher to guide them.

While he was dozing off thinking about the discrepancy in the number of orphans and clan kids in the top ten of the competition, the proctor clapped his hands once to attract everyone's attention once again. "Great! Since you guys ended the first test, let's announce the next one."

All of the remaining candidates took notice of what the chunin proctor had to say. "It's very straightforward, really. You just have to agree to participate in the third test."

After a few moments, one of the clan kids inquired in a rushed tone. "What do you mean? We just have to agree to take the third test?"

The proctor looked at the one who asked the question. With a nod, he replied, "Yes, precisely."

With a doubtful look, the kid rebutted, "But isn't that too easy?!"

The proctor couldn't contain his grin when asked that question. He replied without pause, "Well, it might be. But you'll just have to consider one thing — if you agree to take the third test, you might not be able to come back alive."

When Raijin heard this, he felt like he had a Déjà-vu. 'Chunin exams…? Is Konoha really that uncreative?'

~~

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A/N:

Hey! It's the author checking in once again.

I've diligently kept up with daily updates, but I'm particularly eager to ensure that my grammar meets your standards, dear readers.

I find myself concerned about encountering the same issues that plague certain fanfics—poor grammar and formatting hindering readability.

Thank you for your continuous support. Without further ado, it's back to work for me. Peace!