Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Day 323

So the days passed and year came to end, and with that it was time for our final exams.

The past few months had been filled with hard work, growth and improvement. Not only for me but for my friends as well.

Kaori had finally been able to learn her first clan jutsu, shadow imitation technique and she had already started experimenting with it. Her jutsu involved manipulating her shadow to reach her opponents shadow. Once she was successful her opponent was immobilised and was forced to replicate whatever action she did.

I had watched Shikamaru do it many times but I was still impressed the first time Kaori showed it or more accurately ,used it against me.

It was a terrifying feeling, not being able to move at all and then suddenly your body starts moving without your control.

I remembered how Shikamaru used to utilize this jutsu, making his enemy hold kunai, while he was empty handed.

Kaori also went in similar direction at first but then she started experimenting, like after putting me under jutsu, she just started walking towards water and used chakra control to stand on it while I sank and got wet.

But we learned an important fact from that. Despite being under her jutsu's influence, when she used chakra to walk on water, I didn't replicate that.

The imitation was purely physical. Once she realised that, an evil smile spread across her face that made me shudder.

Were Nara's secretly sadist? The jutsu that they used were... questionable. Binding, imitation or the one that Shikamaru used to choke someone with a shadowy hand.

Let's... just not think about it, It was not good for mental health.

Anyway since then she was trying to learn a second jutsu that will compliment her shadow imitation jutsu, but earth jutsu users were not common in Konoha. So that plan was on hold.

Still her parents came through once she told them about her plans. They too didn't know any earth jutsu, but on the topic of jutsu complementing their clan jutsu, they proposed learning Genjutsu.

It was a brilliant idea and so Kaori was now learning a genjutsu. Once she is able to integrate it with her clan jutsu, she will be terrifying. A genjutsu that you can't avoid or get out of easily because your body is immobilised by another jutsu.

I wonder why Shikamaru never used his clan jutsu like that? Chakra control issue? Or did he try and failed to integrate? Or laziness? With shikamaru, I beleive, laziness can always be the reason, though he did get better in later years.

Anyway coming to Kenji, he finally completed water walking but was still prone to loosing his concentration when fighting but he was slowly getting there.

His original goal was already achieved. He was now able to do all three academy jutsu without any issue.

He has now started experimenting with taijutsu, he got the idea of pushing chakra out forcefully to move quicker, when learning tree walking.

He was now trying to integrate it in his taijutsu, like pushing chakra through his feet to increase power of his kicks.

I saw him even try to use it for punches, he got into stance to throw a right hook only this time his left hand instead of guarding his head , was beside his right hand and then he pushed chakra out it, giving his body extra momentum.

Unfortunately it was not successful and he just lost control and fell but I could see the theory behind it, if he succeeded it would be incredible.

Integrating taijutsu with chakra, if you leave out the unique taijutsu of Hyuuga clan, I only knew few others who were able to use it. Tsunade, Raikage A, if you added eight gates user than Dai, Gai and Lee.

All of them were top notch shinobi. Perhaps Kenji will take his place alongside them.

We have become... proper friends, once the initial awkwardness passed. He even moved his seat to sit with me and Kaori.

He was a nice guy, who was actually quite talkative once he opens up. We were regaled with his many... many adventures with his family.

Few of them were actually quite interesting like when his family was invited to Daimyo court and Kenji had punched a noble's kid who had made fun of his nervous little brother. Their father had to sort out the matter but he never once scolded Kenji.

He seems to have a good family. Each protecting one another.

Coming back to me, there was sadly nothing new, I still practised my blue fire, but it was still incredibly exhausting, even if I cut the jutsu short.

It was tough, training or experimenting with this jutsu because each use left me almost completely depleted of chakra. I needed to find something else, a jutsu that was actually impactful but didn't leave me this exhausted.

But now that exams were near, I was busy preparing for it and had thus made no progress.

Also, I had come to ... appreciate the Uchiha stipend, specially after I read the contract more thoroughly.

The stipend was going to increase ten times, after I became a genin. That was huge amount and will be very useful as I would no longer receive any stipend from village, after graduating and will have to pay rent for my current house.

But for me to remain as an Uchiha sponsor I needed to graduate top of the class. While my performance had improved over the months, I was still not at the top.

In theory classes, most tests I was receiving full marks. Same was true for jutsu practical's.

But when it came to taijutsu and physicals in general, I was falling behind, top two were Hizashi Hyuuga and Hiashi Hyuuga, then was Kenji and Kaori and after them it was me.

While I didn't expect this to change even in finals, in my attempt to still try, I tried developing plan to counter the Hyuuga's.

I took to observing their fights during class and started making notes. Which side they preferred attacking, what attack made them uncomfortable, how they responded to particular attacks and so on.

After I told both Kenji and Kaori about it, we started simulating fights, using the notes, in our evening practises.

So the last few days of my academy went by fast and soon it was the day of final exams.

A/N: Please comment/review, would love to hear from readers.
Also please visit pat^re^on / johnblack6826 for next three advanced chapters.