A few months in, I've gotten much better at taijutsu. Nothing extraordinary, but at least I don't drop like a log after coming home. Or that's what I want most people to think.

 Seeing children beat you at basic training is quite motivating, if not a bit petty. 

Hence, I have also started weight training like might guy. Okay, maybe not as intensive as him, but still, this has been very productive. I reckon if I removed my weights I would be the best at taijutsu in my entire class, maybe even the entire school.

I'm nowhere near the level of a chunin, but I'm better than the average genin. 

I have also had to have a talk with my parents. I don't want them worrying about the training I'm doing and also because I can't afford decent weights without their support.

After hours of convincing, debating and not a little bit of sobbing, they finally agreed to help me become a ninja. 

I guess it is hard for a parent to allow their only child to join a profession with the death rate of a mayfly.

But I convinced them that I wouldn't join the military or anything of the sort. That I just wanted to be as good as my classmates and I just wanted to learn self defence.

On that note, the boys that bullied me on the first day of school hadn't bothered me again, by virtue of being too busy with schoolwork. 

As I said earlier, the school in Yugakure was the best but also the most rigorous and comprehensive curriculum. 

This gave children virtually no time to waste on extra curriculars.

All in all, things were moving along just fine.

Until it was time for the seniors graduation exam. 

This was a whole event here. There were food carts, hawkers, vendors, you name it. It was almost like watching a football game live in the stadium.

It was also, the event that broke my delusions of grandeur. I was far from good at taijutsu. At least when compared to literal monsters and prodigies, the likes of which I witnessed this day.