On Friday morning, Kotetsu woke up early and headed to the Ninja Academy.
"Anko, good morning," he greeted.
Although they occasionally argued, the three of them got along well.
"Morning!" Anko replied with a bright smile.
"Hehe, today's breakfast is red bean soup and sweet bread—really good," she hummed an unknown tune as she shared her food with Kotetsu, clearly in high spirits.
"Today's a good day," Kotetsu said. "We'll get to see the results of our exam later."
"The results are out today?" Anko's smile slowly faded.
Although she had planned to review, she'd only actually started the night before. She felt she'd done well after the exam, but her previous two tests had taught her that her gut feeling wasn't exactly reliable.
"Isn't it great the results are out? We can ask Mugetsu-sensei for rewards again," Kotetsu said with a sly smile.
While Anko was better than him in practical combat, when it came to written exams, he could crush her completely.
"Anko, you look so happy—you must have done really well, huh? When you tell Mugetsu-sensei, he'll definitely reward you with dango," Kotetsu teased.
Anko stayed silent. She really wasn't sure how she'd done. If she'd slipped like last time, not only would she not get dango—her head might take a hit instead.
"Kotetsu, Anko, good morning!" Izumo walked up and greeted them.
"Sigh… I feel like I might have done well, but my feelings don't seem very trustworthy," Anko admitted.
"Don't think too much. I thought this exam wasn't very hard. You'll definitely score higher than last time," Izumo said with a grin.
He was lying, of course. The exam had been a bit tougher than last semester's final. There hadn't been much time to review, and even he doubted he'd keep a perfect score this time.
"I haven't forgotten the humiliation from summer training," Izumo thought to himself.
There had been no written exams during special training, and Anko had mocked him and Kotetsu for their lack of strength. Now, it was only natural to get some payback.
Kotetsu instantly understood Izumo's game. The two exchanged glances, and Kotetsu nodded, saying, "Yeah, this exam was actually pretty easy. Your feeling must be right. You might score really high this time—maybe even in the nineties."
"Really? You two think you did well too?" Anko's eyes lit up.
These two tricksters usually scored in the high nineties or even perfect marks, even when they claimed they hadn't done well. Now that they were saying they had done well, it sounded like a perfect score was a given. Maybe the test really wasn't so hard.
"Mm," the two replied with smiles.
"Hmph, then let's walk faster and check the results," Anko said, grinning again.
"Mugetsu-sensei, good morning!"
The three ran into their teacher on the way.
"Morning," Mugetsu nodded.
"Sensei, if I improve this time, will there be a reward?" Anko asked with a cheerful smile.
"Oh? Confident about your score?" he asked.
"Not bad—I think I can get at least ten more points than last time," she said, playing it safe.
"Alright. If you improve by five points, I'll give you one serving of dango. Ten points gets you two. If you don't improve…" Mugetsu raised two fingers.
Anko instinctively touched her head, instantly understanding.
Still, she wasn't worried. Last time she'd only scored seventy-eight. If the exam had been as easy as the boys claimed, she should at least hit eighty-three for one serving of dango.
"Izumo, Kotetsu, why are you two smiling like that?" she asked, noticing their grins were even wider than hers.
"Of course we're happy for you. You might score over ninety and get three servings of dango," Kotetsu laughed.
"Yeah, unlike us, we have no room for improvement," Izumo added.
"A perfect score leaves no room, huh…" Anko wanted to punch him for bragging, but she let it slide since she was in a good mood.
When they reached school, they went straight to the bulletin board to check the scores.
Using their agility, they quickly squeezed to the front.
"Anko…" she muttered while scanning for her name.
"Eh? What? Did I read that wrong?" she blinked, feeling a strange sense of disbelief.
"You guys check mine," she said, rubbing her eyes.
"Seventy-seven," Kotetsu said with a grin.
He hadn't even looked for his own score first. The moment he saw hers, he knew it was over—a guaranteed beating.
"Mm, I see seventy-seven too," Izumo confirmed.
"That's not right… Why seventy-seven? Didn't you say the exam was easy?" she asked in confusion.
"It's over… No dango, and Mugetsu-sensei's definitely going to knock me on the head when we get back," Anko groaned.
"Maybe I should ask for leave. I'm feeling a little dizzy—probably sick," she tried to dodge her fate.
"I doubt sensei will believe you," Kotetsu said, trying to suppress his laughter but failing.
The thought of her bold confidence earlier, compared to what awaited her now, was just too funny.
Anko glanced at Kotetsu's smirk, then at Izumo. Something was off. "What are your scores?"
"Ninety-eight," Izumo said.
"Ninety-seven," Kotetsu replied.
"Didn't you say it was simple? Why are your scores lower than last time?" she growled, rubbing her fists together.
It was clear—they'd tricked her from the start.
"This exam was based on this semester's material. It's not directly comparable to last time's scores," Izumo tried to explain, stepping back—only to realize Kotetsu had already fled.
"Izumo, show some spirit! The person in front of you is just someone who got eliminated in the first round of the practical exam!" Kotetsu called from a safe distance.
"This Kotetsu is truly unrighteous. How about we team up and punish him first?" Izumo said with a straight face.
Anko didn't bother answering verbally—she simply grabbed him by the neck and gave him several sharp flicks to the forehead before sprinting after Kotetsu.
After exacting revenge on the two tricksters, she walked into the classroom, trying to act as though nothing had happened. But the moment her eyes fell on the test papers sitting on the desk, she knew it was pointless.
"Mugetsu-sensei, go ahead. I'm ready," Anko said with resignation.
Whack!
Mugetsu tapped her lightly on the head, exactly as she had expected.
"You didn't review again, did you?" he asked.
"Hehe, I did review… just not for very long," Anko chuckled, brightening up when she realized Mugetsu only hit her once. In her mind, she'd come out ahead—one light tap for her, versus three solid flicks each for Kotetsu and Izumo earlier.
Kotetsu and Izumo sighed. To them, Mugetsu's punishment was far too lenient; if it were them, he'd have smacked them ten times.
That morning was Ninjutsu class, so Mugetsu didn't review the test papers right away. They were originally meant to be handed out in the afternoon theory lesson, but since this was his class, he decided to bring them along.
[Disciple Uchiha Shisui diligently cultivated and achieved a perfect score in the academic assessment, receiving reward: Chakra +300, Skill Proficiency Scroll]
[Disciple Uchiha Obito diligently cultivated and achieved an excellent score in the academic assessment, receiving reward: Chakra +250]
[Disciple Might Guy diligently cultivated and achieved a good score in the academic assessment, receiving reward: Chakra +200]
Exam rewards settled: another 750 Chakra and one Skill Proficiency Scroll.
Mugetsu glanced at his updated panel.
[Name: Hayate Mugetsu]
[Chakra: 20030]
His Chakra had successfully passed 20,000.
By the time the morning classes ended, 20030 had become 20050. It wasn't a huge change, but the steady stream of positive feedback was enough to keep him motivated.
In the afternoon, Mugetsu called out names and scores for students to pick up their papers. Normally, he avoided this—walking to the front could be uncomfortable for some—but this time was different. Other classes had never been taught by him before, yet their scores had all risen significantly.
"I actually got seventy points this time! My mom's going to praise me when I get home. That's an improvement of over thirty points!"
"That's amazing. I'm not so lucky—I only improved by a little over ten points."
"What's your score?"
"Eighty-five."
"Konoha's vulgarity!"
The classroom buzzed with excitement as students compared improvements.
Only Class 1, Grade 1 remained calm. Some had improved, others had regressed, but on average they'd only gone up by two points. Not because they didn't work hard—rather, their baseline scores were already high. An eighty, rare in other classes, was nothing unusual for them.
"I really envy you guys in Class 1, having Mugetsu-sensei as your homeroom teacher. He's amazing at teaching!" one student said during break, remembering the bulletin board's practical combat results.
Before being taught by Mugetsu, they'd never imagined a teacher could raise scores so drastically. And the combat results? Ridiculous—practically everyone in Class 1 had over thirty points out of forty, with Ninjutsu scores consistently at ten.
"Mugetsu-sensei is great, sure, but it also depends on the student. Some get taught by him every day and still manage to regress twice in a row," Kotetsu said softly.
"Oh? And who might that be?"
"Of course, it's Anko—"
Kotetsu froze mid-sentence. The voice next to him wasn't Izumo's—it was Anko's. He glanced across the room to see Izumo, five seats away, smiling back at him.
"Kotetsu, why'd you run off this morning?" Izumo called with a grin.
If Kotetsu could be unrighteous, Izumo saw no reason to be kind.
"I was actually going to say the red bean soup was delicious," Kotetsu tried to explain.
"Do you think I'd believe that?" Anko gave him a look that screamed, Do you think I'm stupid?
Kotetsu wisely kept his next thought—If I didn't think it was possible, I wouldn't have said it—to himself.
"Class begins."
The bell and Mugetsu's voice saved him—for now. Anko didn't dare cause trouble during Mugetsu's lesson.
"Actually, this morning, Izumo gave me a signal with his eyes…" Kotetsu quickly shifted the blame to avoid walking home alone later.
Anko simply nodded, deciding to deal with them both after class.
"At Konoha's call, the Kage of the other four great nations gathered together. This was the first Five Kage Summit since the founding of the villages, and such an event has not occurred since. At the summit, Konoha evenly distributed the Tailed Beasts, and the Five Kage signed a peace treaty. From then on, the Shinobi World entered a temporary era of peace…"
Mugetsu concluded his lecture on the summit's significance just as the dismissal bell rang.
[Completed one major class lecture]
[Evaluation: B]
[Reward: Chakra +40]
Under his gaze, the number on his panel rose to 20090.
After announcing dismissal, Mugetsu went home to cook before heading to the South Border Forest for training.
"Next, you'll learn a more concentrated burst of Breathing Technique than normal breathing," Mugetsu told Shisui and Obito.
"This is normal breathing." He channeled Fire Release nature transformation into his palm, producing a basketball-sized fireball.
Then, after releasing the Chakra and adjusting his breathing, he gathered it again—a fireball twice the size flared in his hand.
"And this is Total Concentration Breathing," Mugetsu explained. "What you're doing now can be considered Total Concentration Breathing, but to reach my level, you must focus and then push beyond that concentration to create an explosive burst."
"Mastering this step means you've truly learned Flame Breathing. It can greatly strengthen Ninjutsu and temporarily enhance your physical abilities."
Finally, he warned, "Be mindful of your stamina and Chakra consumption. Use it only at critical moments."
The two nodded seriously.
"Mugetsu-sensei, what happened to your hand?" Shisui asked, noticing the bandage on his finger. He'd seen it earlier but hadn't wanted to interrupt.
"I've been practicing something recently. It's nothing serious—don't worry about it," Mugetsu replied with a gentle smile.
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