One of the random civilian students was called out and stepped forward, setting up at the start of the obstacle course while the teacher pulled out a chronometer to time him.
With the starting signal, he was off.
The first obstacle were two long walls parallel with each other, the students had to cross without touching the ground but he could not rise above walls either, otherwise, he could just use his shinobi physical abilities to jump on top of one of the walls and run.
They were too wide apart for someone to press on both with their arms and legs to suspend themselves but as prospective shinobi, the student had a better and quicker option.
With great dexterity, the student jumped towards and began to run along the left wall.
Soon though his grip was beginning to falter but with a leap, he flipped onto the other wall and ran a few more steps before flipping back to the left wall. Doing this, he quickly cleared the obstacle to the cheers of his classmates.
Next up was a tall rope he had to climb reaching a wooden platform that was connected to the ground by a slanting net which the student could run across to reach the ground.
"He is the best among the civilian students." Mei whispered to Shiki, having approached him after the exam started.
Hearing her, the boy quickly noticed the cheers were coming from students with no clan symbols while the others seemed disinterested, dismissive or outright mocking.
Meanwhile, the boy quickly climbed the rope and ran across the net with dexterity.
The next obstacle was a typical rope swing but the distance was huge with one needing an impulse strong enough to clear the gap, the kind no normal civilian could achieve.
Living up to his reputation as the best civilian candidate however, the boy effortlessly cleared it, only two more obstacles to go.
One was a long tunnel he had to crawl through which was not meant to be hard to clear, just time consuming.
Crawling as quick as he could, despite taking some time, the student cleared it without issue to reach the final obstacle, a massively tall wall.
Running at full speed, the boy leapt and used the impulse to run up the wall as far as he could, before climbing up the rest of the way using very small indentations that were purposely made for that.
It was nearly impossible for even training athletes to climb relying on that, at least not such a big height, before their fingers gave out but it was nothing for a prospective shinobi, even just an academy student.
Reaching the top, the boy jumped down without assistance, focusing chakra on his legs to absorb the initial impact and rolling to disperse it before running the final straight and crossing the finish line.
1 minute and 31 seconds.
Considering the size of the obstacles to account for a shinobi's enhanced physical prowess, it was a rather impressive time for an academy student that could not yet stick to surfaces using chakra.
"Hyuga Yuno." The teacher called out another name and a long brown haired boy with sharp looks and white pupil-less eyes stepped forward to the cheers of his female classmates, making Shiki raise his eyebrow.
"One of the two class princes." Mei said.
Shiki turned to her with interest.
"The other girls gave them the nickname! Not me!" She quickly defended herself with a blush, making the boy give a smile that added to her embarrassment.
"Whose the other one?" Shiki inquired.
Mei's expression darkened and she said through gritted teeth.
"Uchiha Ryuuto."
Seeing her expression, the boy elected not to ask further and since there was only one Uchiha in the class besides Mei, he already knew who he was looking for.
Back to the course, with the starting signal, Hyuga Yuno started his run.
He was fast, not using body flicker but clearly channeling chakra to actively increase his physical abilities.
Near instantly reaching the first obstacle, Yuno leapt to the left wall like the student before him but being a clan shinobi, his skills were more developed.
Concentrating chakra on his soles, the Hyuga stuck to the wall and ran along it at a fast pace, clearing the obstacle with far greater ease and speed than the previous challenger.
The rope climb was up next and with a burst of chakra from his soles, Yuno performed a high jump immediately clearing half of the rope and quickly climbed up the rest to reach the wooden platform on top.
With great elegance, he dashed across the slanted net with a few steps, reaching the ground and clearing the second obstacle.
Using another chakra burst for impulse, the Hyuga cleared the rope swing with great speed and rapidly approached the next obstacle, the time consuming tunnel.
With a precise leap, he launched himself into the tunnel hole, clear a bit of initial distance and using the impulse to slide forward with precise chakra manipulation, this only got him a little over half way however and he still had to crawl the remainder of the path.
As for the final wall, a chakra enhanced leap followed by sticking to the wall to run up its length in a flash got Yuno to the top and with no further obstacles, the young boy used Body Flicker to leap down from the wall, jumping directly towards the finish line with great speed.
32 Seconds.
The difference between standard Academy Training and clan training was clear to see and the mindless fangirls squealed in adoration.
The rest of the students cleared in in similar ways to the first two though no one was quite as good.
Civilian graduates attempted to copy the first students but did so in a more clumsy way and got longer times than him while clan kids mimicked Hyuga Yuno's way but couldn't do it as smoothly as him.
Mei and Uchiha Ryuto came the closest but they could not handle the tunnel as deftly, failing to properly slide after the initial leap and losing a few seconds because of it.
Their times were 34 and 33 seconds respectively, making Yuno, Ryuuto and Mei the current top three . . . until Shiki's turn came.
Walking up to the starting line, Shiki casually loosened his body while the other students paid close attention to the new kid that showed up that very day, the clan kids that knew who he was were even more attentive, determined not to miss a single detail.
The current top three scorers in particular were greatly interested.
'Let's see if there is a worthy rival in my generation or not.' Uchiha Ryuuto thought with confidence.
To him Hyuga Yuno could at most pressure him in taijutsu and these kids of silly obstacle courses. In a real fight where he could use ninjutsu, he was the undisputed king of the class.
His clan's Uchiha Mikoto was not bad but still not at his level.
'Ryumon Shiki . . . Let's see what made your mistress so confident to send you here at such a young age.' Hyuga Yuno thought, while not as competitive as Ryuuto, he still enjoyed comparing his skills with worthy peers.
And needless to say, Mei was very much looking forward to what Shiki, her new friend (she hoped) and future teammate, could do.
But there was another student even more interested, the completely covered up Aburame Shinka who showed neither too bad nor too outstanding a performance in the course, was also carefully watching her future teammate a a colder, more calculative gaze hidden by her goggles.
Amongst the thoughts of these young spectators, the starting signal sounded out, and Shiki was off to show a performance they would not soon forget.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -