A man wearing a flack jacket and a metal headband, witch I learned that symbolized our allegiance to our village spoke loudly.

"For those who wish to take part in the exam please follow me."

My father handed in my paperwork for the entrance of the academy two weeks ago, and the deadline was a week ago before the exams. It seems that they were willing to give second chances to the kids that are not completely sure about their choice.

We were ushered through a building that had a symbol on it, I still could not read. My father has taught me how to read numerical symbols and some of the essential characters for accounting but I haven't yet learned to read.

My parents strongly agreed on learning with my peers and bonding with them so they told me the academy would teach how to read and write, and I would learn there.

They slit us in two groups as boys and girls. The girls were told to wait in one of the classrooms while the boys were taken outside.

There were barely twenty girls beside me. We couldn't even fill out one thirds of the classroom. I barely took my time to take a look at the class. I spotted Ino sitting in the far corner but I paid no mind to her.

A female ninja, same outfit as the previous ninja came and started to talking to us.

"As a female, you will have much hardships in your ninja life. But as subservience as a virtue, you must have perseverance."

The fuck are you even talking about?

"Now come the boys should be done with their part." They are fast, it has been barely five minutes.

We went outside and saw the boys slowly walking towards the exit, they were panting like dogs.

"This part will consist of running; you will run in a pre-determined route and you will get scores based on your time."

Ok not a bad first start, the following challenges must be the ones that will be eliminate the unfit.

We went ahead and stood at the line side by side; the route was simple. We were supposed to run two tours around the academy's main building.

"You will take three laps around the Main building. I advise that you start with 30% of your speed then gradually İncrease to 60% in the second lap, as well as 90% on the last lap." She spoke while taking a notebook from her hip pouch.

I crouched slightly and readied myself for a sprint.

"On my mark." The woman said.

She took a look at everyone's faces.

"Go!" she said.

I burst forward with all my might, crushing the gravel under my foot.

Within the first three seconds of the pseudo race I was already ahead my competition.

I couldn't how far back the others were so I pushed forward, pushing myself to near my limit. I felt the wind hitting me in the face, I saw the overseer of this part and whizzed past her.

In front I could see the backs of the girls who couldn't run. I run past them and heard the gasps of surprise. One even tripped and fell due to my unexpected arrival on her heels.

I could see the forerunners and tried to push myself even more, to my absolute limit. My lungs were burning and my legs were protesting but I could maintain this tempo for a little while longer.

I passed the forerunners as the same time they finished their second lap, while consequently I finished my second.

I kept my pace as the distance between me and the others widened once more. At the halfway mark of the last lap, I started to feel my legs going number by the second. I couldn't feel my legs but I can somewhat control them. I widened my strides to avoid toppling over my own feet.

I passed the finish line and slowed down in wide steps. I walked a little to regulate my heartbeat and when I could again sense my legs, I went closer to the lady-ninja.

I did not say anything and did not look at the notepad that she was holding in her hands.

After ten second the first forerunner passed the finish line and nearly forty seconds later the last one finished.

"Good job everyone, now follow me" the woman said.

We complied, there were still panting girls and some even were limping.

Oh, one of them was the girl that had fallen after I passed her.

'Now finally I can show my efforts on physical strengths tests' I thought to myself.

We went in a wide-open area which had slides and swings. We were apparently in the schoolyard of this academy.

The woman told us to wait there for a few minutes. She said those who will be accepted to next stage would be declared after that small break. She went inside the building right in front of us. After a few minutes she came back with a stack of papers in her hands. She started to distribute these papers to ones who passed.

Those who failed were ushered to the exit.

"These papers on your hands are your identification for the interview. Do not lose them, and come here tomorrow morning at the same time as today."

'What?! No more tests? What kind of half assed testing system is this? All my training and worries for this bullshit? Just a regular ass track race?' I was pissed. I felt cheated. I couldn't even heard the rest of the woman's speech and found myself on the way to the entrance where my father was waiting for me.

I separated from the group and went over to one of the metal poles that kept together the fence. I took off my headband and bit in in ager, screaming into the fabric. I held the metal bar, and to vent my explosive anger I headbutted it with all my might.

The pole bent as the shape of my forehead and my forehead had small cut that was leaking blood on my eyes.

I took the headband off my moth and wiped away the blood off my head, I wrapped my head it like nothing has happened, binding the wound n process.

I went to the entrance and was greeted by the face of my concerned father.

"Sakura! What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing, dad." I replied.

"You were the last, you worried me for a second there." My father said having a small laugh.

"So, how was the test?" my father asked.

"Fine, I got through running pretty well. Can you believe that there were only running for physical tests?" I asked my father, giving him my opinion on the tests.

"Yeah, it always has been that way. Why would you assume it would be different this time?" my father asked, confused.

'Always has been this way?' Fuck, I am a moron. I did not even asked people about the exams. I always assumed that it was confidential so I did not look into it. Had I known this I could have saved tons of time, I didn't need to push myself that hard.

Well, whatever. What is done, is done.

Still, all that training must have something to add to a fledgling ninja, right?

.

.

.

"What about this year's batch?" three chunin were taking to each other in the academy's teachers' lounge.

"Seems promising. Mine's had bunch of clan heirs." One of the men said.

"I had two of them in my group." The woman added on.

"I had a few too." The other man added.

"Any interesting ones?" the firs man asked.

"I had so called a prodigy, nothing special so far." The second man answered

"What? Did you expect prodigies to run a different way?" the woman teased the second man

"I meant no extra conditioning, like no extra work pushed towards running. He just was indeed like everyone else. Just pushing a little bit harder"

"Ooh. I had one like that in this batch."

"Someone pushing themselves?"

"Yeah, the girl seemed promising. And had a really well conditioned body too. She was pretty fast."

"A record breaker?"

"I don't know, I will send the results with the brief from the interviews to the Hokage. We will see if the record is broken."

.

.

.

Tomorrow morning me and my father went to the academy. This time we were fifteen minutes early. I was not really concerned about the whole ordeal. I knew I was one of the best candidates. I had the yesterday's test to prove that.

The staff started taking children one by one, starting with alphabetical order of their surnames. My surname being Haruno, I was somewhere in the middle. They called my name after half an hour of waiting.

The questions that they asked me was general which included questions like how do you like Konoha, what was my goals, what it takes and means to become a ninja. I answered truthfully and I was pretty sure that I had no problems with my speech patterns.

They thanked me and said that in a week we should be notified about the results.

.

.

.

After a week, an academy chunin dropped by the rice shop owned by the Haruno family and notified that Haruno Sakura was accepted in the Konoha's ninja academy. Haruno Kizashi was elevated and dejected at the same time of this news. At the positive side their family now had a soon to be ninja among them, which brought a cluster of financial benefits which included lowered tax brackets, cheaper health and property insurances. And his daughter was taking her first steps to realize her dream, that was enough to make every father proud. At the same time her daughter was getting involved into the blood-filled world of ninja, which had its own intricacies and different politics.

Kizashi sighed and thought to himself.

Unless she had pushed herself up to the standards of those intricacies, she will be swept under the wave like many others before her.