Chapter 25: Midterm Exam

"Mom, I'm back," Natsuwari called out as he pushed open the door.

"You're back. You're all sweaty again. Go wash up first. Mom has some questions for you." Sana had already prepared Natsuwari's clothes and said, looking at his sweat-drenched appearance.

Sana was used to Natsuwari coming back at this time every day, and every time he came back, he was drenched in sweat.

"Okay." Natsuwari took the clean clothes and headed to the bathroom.

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

Sana looked at her son, her eyes lighting up. Although he usually looked ordinary, it was actually because of his attire. Now, fresh from the bath, one could see that he would definitely be handsome when he grew up, at least much more handsome than his father.

"What's the matter?" Natsuwari looked at his mother. She had said she had something to ask him earlier, but he had been standing there for a while, and she hadn't said anything.

Sana came back to her senses and said with a smile, "Didn't you have your midterm exams recently? Mom wants to ask how your results were."

"The exams? They should be pretty good." Natsuwari suddenly realized. There was no parent who wouldn't care about their child's grades, even in the Naruto world, it was inevitable.

But speaking of the midterm exams, the first-year exams were really nothing special. They just tested some basic knowledge and basic physical fitness. Natsuwari estimated that he should have gotten full marks.

"Pretty good? That's good." Sana didn't ask too much. She didn't expect that Natsuwari's "pretty good" meant full marks.

The next day, when Iruka announced the results, Natsuwari's score was, as expected, full marks.

Moreover, because Natsuwari had set the standard for physical fitness scoring a bit high, in comparison, others' physical scores were a bit miserable.

"Congratulations, Natsuwari. Keep up the good work." Iruka handed the paper to Natsuwari, then looked around and said, "Everyone should learn more from Natsuwari in the future."

"Learn from him how to sleep sitting up?"

The people below started discussing. Many were dissatisfied with Natsuwari's results. After all, in school, Natsuwari's performance was too unremarkable. Apart from being famous for sleeping sitting up...

Uchiha Sasuke also stared at Natsuwari, gritting his teeth. He wasn't resentful of Natsuwari's excellence but was blaming himself for falling so far behind. How could he catch up to his brother's footsteps like this? More importantly, he wouldn't get his brother's praise this way. Damn it!

Moreover, not only that guy who slept sitting up, but even that pink-haired wallflower had surpassed him. As a member of the prestigious Uchiha clan, and the son of the clan head, with a very outstanding older brother, was he really that bad?

Uchiha Sasuke continued to grit his teeth.

Actually, the culprit behind Sakura's overall score surpassing Sasuke's was also Natsuwari. His physical fitness scores had pulled the standard too high, resulting in Sasuke's physical score not being much higher than Sakura's despite being much better physically. On the other hand, Sakura's theoretical knowledge was significantly better than Sasuke's, hence this situation.

Yamanaka Ino looked at Natsuwari curiously, who still had an indifferent expression despite getting first place. Although she greeted him every day, their interaction was basically limited to that.

Natsuwari had never actively approached Yamanaka Ino, and Yamanaka Ino gradually stopped paying attention to him. But this exam made Ino look at him in a new light.

She never expected that Natsuwari, who had always been inconspicuous like a wallflower, was actually so outstanding. Ino listened to the discussions around her. Although some were不服气, there were also many exclamations of admiration. After all, Natsuwari had gotten full marks and was far ahead of the second place. It was truly impressive.

At this moment, although in the eyes of most girls, Natsuwari still wasn't as handsome as Sasuke, the distance between them seemed to have narrowed invisibly.

"Haha, Natsuwari, you're so awesome!" Naruto was more direct. He shouted at Natsuwari as he walked back.

"Naruto! We're in class, don't shout! And Natsuwari being awesome doesn't mean you're awesome. Your theoretical knowledge is at the bottom!" Iruka couldn't help but roar. Didn't he see that even if others were discussing, they were doing it quietly? Shouting so loudly, he really didn't take him, the teacher, seriously!

Naruto scratched his head after hearing this and looked at his score, feeling a bit dejected.

Natsuwari looked at Naruto's score. Well, Naruto's physical score had pulled up his overall score quite a bit, so he wasn't at the very bottom yet. But if they started teaching ninjutsu later, and ninjutsu had the highest weightage, then if Naruto was still at this level, he would really become the dead last.

"Come on, Naruto, I believe you can do it." Natsuwari thought for a moment and still encouraged him.

"Hehe, I also think I can do it. After all, I'm the man who's going to become Hokage!" Naruto smiled happily after hearing this.

"What a drag." Shikamaru, who was originally lying down beside them, was woken up by Naruto's voice. He looked at them with a bit of a headache and couldn't help but complain after hearing Naruto's words.

"Hey, you're not much better! You only barely passed!" Naruto glared at Shikamaru. Although Natsuwari had said it before, he still couldn't quite see eye to eye with him.

Shikamaru yawned, looked at Natsuwari, and then saw that many people's gazes were subtly falling on Natsuwari. He couldn't help but sigh. As expected, being first place was troublesome. But he had controlled his theoretical knowledge score, but his physical fitness...

Shikamaru really almost failed, and the culprit was this guy in front of him. It was truly a headache. The number of troublesome people had increased, and he was right next to him!

This was still during class. If it were after class, Shikamaru didn't dare to imagine.

As expected, when class ended, the originally empty space around Natsuwari was now crowded. After all, although Natsuwari wasn't as handsome as Sasuke, he was still above average in looks, and he was so outstanding!

Naruto, who was squeezed out, couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded. What should he do?

And Shikamaru, he had already foreseen this scene, so he left his seat as soon as class ended. Seeing Naruto who was also squeezed out, he couldn't help but be glad for his decision.

"Ah, you were squeezed out too!" Naruto pointed at Shikamaru and said.

"I wasn't." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Haha, don't deny it. I didn't expect Natsuwari to be so popular." Naruto, seeing that Shikamaru had the same experience, suddenly felt much better about him.

"What a drag. Should we switch seats?" Shikamaru looked at the scene and also pondered.

As for Natsuwari, who was surrounded, whether in his past or present life, this was the first time he had encountered such a situation. He was a bit at a loss at first, but then he felt it was indeed troublesome. He frowned and remembered that Sasuke in the original work seemed to ignore these people. He could learn from that.

So, Natsuwari didn't respond to anyone and read the book in his hand as if no one was around.

Suddenly, it became quiet around Natsuwari. Had they finally left?

Natsuwari looked up and saw that the surroundings were still crowded. But the person standing in front of him now was... Uchiha Sasuke. And the people around them probably stopped their commotion after seeing this scene, right?

The clash between the most handsome Sasuke and the handsome top student, they were all a bit excited now.

PS: Finally successfully signed the contract. It was quite troublesome, mainly because I used a family member's phone number, and the owner of the number wasn't me, which made it impossible to sign the electronic version. I didn't want to get a new card that I wouldn't use at all, it would be a pure waste, so I signed the paper version. My condition has finally improved today.

Then, there's the update schedule. I originally wanted to try updating twice a day, but I have to work, and I'm not a fast writer, so let's do three updates every two days. Two updates today, one tomorrow, two the day after tomorrow, and so on. I'll see about updating twice a day after it's officially released.

The update times are fixed: the first chapter at 9:30 AM and the second chapter at 8:30 PM.

Also, please collect and vote~

Oh, and also, thank you to Ba Si for sending the first monthly ticket for this book. Thank you~

That's all.

(End of Chapter)