Hokage, no one knows better than me how to cultivate talent.

Chapter 117 Good Luck Every Day

"Good timing."

Yano Hayato looked at Lee rushing towards him, slightly surprised by his speed.

But he was not afraid at all; on the contrary, he felt that Xiao Li was overestimating himself.

He had faced off against Xiao Li before.

Xiao Li's physical skills were no match for his; he could basically defeat him within ten moves.

They fell in love even before he had shown his full potential.

But today is the final exam, and he wants to do his best to bring this semester to a perfect close.

Therefore, he decided to finish off Xiao Li within three moves.

"Sigh, Lee is too irrational." Seeing this scene, Tenten couldn't help but sigh in her heart. "If he had used ninja tools to hold his own against Yano Hayato, he might have been able to hold on a little longer and lose less badly."

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

Xiao Li ran to a position about two meters away from Yano Jun, jumped up suddenly, and swept his right foot out with a strong wind, kicking straight at the opponent's head.

This move was a roundhouse kick that Teacher Kai taught him.

The principle is simple: the leg muscles tense up instantly during high-speed movement, and the force is transmitted from the ankle all the way to the instep, thus unleashing a much stronger force than usual.

Yano Hayato did not choose to defend.

That's how confident he is.

Looking at Lee in the air, Yano Hayato thought that Lee was simply a fixed human punching bag.

He slightly turned his body to the side, preparing to dodge the kick, while simultaneously gathering power in his right fist, aiming for Xiao Li's abdomen.

Yano Hayato was absolutely certain.

If this punch lands, Li will immediately curl up on the ground and completely lose his fighting ability.

"What happened?"

Suddenly, Yano Hayato felt the scene before him begin to swirl, and his vision gradually blurred.

He hadn't even had a chance to throw his fist.

The next second, he crashed heavily to the ground.

"Really? How could Yano Hayato be knocked out by Lee in one move?" a student exclaimed in shock.

"Is this really Leonardo DiCaprio?"

"How did Yano become so weak?"

The students watching were murmuring amongst themselves, their eyes wide as if they had witnessed something unbelievable.

Yano Hayato woke up groggily at this moment. Hearing the discussions around him, his face turned red, and he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

He didn't open his eyes because he didn't know how to face other people's stares, so he chose to play dead.

He thought that summer vacation was coming up, and that in two months everyone would gradually forget that he had been defeated by Xiao Li.

The school had anticipated this situation during the practical exam, so two medical staff members put him directly on a stretcher and sent him to Konoha Hospital.

"First round... Xiao Li wins." It took Shui Mu a while to come back to his senses, and he also looked incredulous.

Qiu Shui remained calm, showing no sign of surprise.

Xiao Li already had a solid foundation in physical skills, but he had previously lacked effective training methods and professional guidance.

Over the past two months, he first trained with Matt Kai for a month, and then received special training from him for another month.

Might Guy's training mainly focused on physical conditioning and teaching him martial arts skills, while Qiu Shui's training focused on theoretical knowledge and practical combat.

The month of training at Qiushui has actually been more beneficial for Xiao Li's growth.

Naruto and his friends are among the best in terms of taijutsu (physical skills) among their peers.

Although Lee was sparring with Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, and others every day and was always losing, each defeat was a learning experience, and the combat experience he accumulated far exceeded that of his peers.

As for Yano Shu, he was at best a B-level talent, mediocre in every aspect. Coupled with his overconfidence, it was only natural that he was defeated by Xiao Li in one clean and decisive move.

"Candidate number three, Hyuga Neji, and candidate number four, Maruyama Tomoaki, please enter the examination room." Shusui read out the list of the next pair to battle.

Upon hearing the sound, Hyuga Neji stepped forward, his pace unhurried, his expression indifferent as ever.

Maruyama Tomoaki was a tall, thin boy. When he heard that his opponent was Hyuga Neji, his face turned very ugly.

He considered himself to be quite strong. Apart from Hyuga Neji and Gouda Takeshi, no one else in the class could beat him. He knew that Gouda Takeshi and the other two had not come to take the final exam.

Maruyama Tomoaki was in a very good mood. As long as he didn't run into Hyuga Neji, he had a good chance of getting second place in the practical exam.

But unfortunately, he ran into Hyuga Neji in the first round.

Shusui had never seen Neji perform in actual combat before, and he was looking forward to taking this opportunity to see how strong he was.

Before he could even focus his gaze, Maruyama Tomoaki had already raised his hand.

"I surrender."

Neji Hyuga himself showed no emotion whatsoever. There was no surprise, no disdain, and he didn't even glance at the other person, as if all of this had nothing to do with him.

The other students, including Shui Mu, all wore expressions of taking it for granted; no one whispered among themselves, and no one showed any surprise.

It was as if it were the most normal thing in the world, like the sun rising in the east every morning.

It seems that Hyuga Neji has a very high status in Class 1 of the fifth grade.

Qiu Shui thought to herself.

Unless the difference in strength is too great, students from the Ninja Academy generally will not voluntarily admit defeat.

Of course, Nara Shikamaru is an exception.

The following matches were mostly uneventful and lacked any noteworthy highlights.

All the characters who appeared were minor characters whose names were never even seen in the original anime.

Some punches were weak and powerless, while others had unsteady footwork; their performances were lackluster and uninspiring, leaving the audience feeling unmotivated.

As for Qiu Shui's wish to see another student, Tian Tian's, battle, that also did not come to pass.

All he could say was that Tian Tian's luck was truly extraordinary.

There were originally 34 students in Class 1 of Grade 5, so there was no chance of being left out.

However, with the absence of Gouda Takeshi and the other two, the number of players became exactly thirty-one, thus creating an extra bye spot.

And Tian Tian, ​​of all people, drew that particular lot.

The same applies to the afternoon exams.

Tian Tian drew a bye again.

The fact that he missed out on two consecutive rounds of training drew envious yet helpless glances from many students.

Someone muttered under their breath, "They're so lucky."

Tian Tian just smiled and waved her hand.

Xiao Li was also quite lucky.

His opponent in the second round was a girl.

During the battle, the girl used clone techniques, substitution techniques, and transformation techniques to restrain, confuse, and evade Xiao Li's attacks. Her moves were quite skillful, and she could even pull off a few fancy tricks from time to time.

But she was, after all, just a commoner, without any family-inherited secret techniques or any special systematic training.

His physical fitness and combat experience are far inferior to Xiao Li's.

After several rounds of attack and defense, the girl's breathing became erratic, and her steps began to falter.

Finally, Xiao Li seized an opening and cleanly kicked her out of the field.

Qiu Shui noticed that Xiao Li was quite gentlemanly, because he could tell that Xiao Li had held back his power in the final attack.

Soon came the practical exam, where five candidates would advance to the next three.

Tian Tian was still lucky enough to draw a bye.

The other students stared at Tiantian with envy and jealousy.

"So all our hard work doesn't even amount to a higher ranking than what you get from drawing lots every time?"

But that's the school's rule.

Even if they are envious, there's nothing they can do.

I can only blame my bad luck for not being good every day.

"At this rate... I wonder if Tian Tian will get second place without ever having a single real match?" Qiu Shui couldn't help but mutter to herself.

"Neji Hyuga, Lee, please enter the examination room."

Shui Mu's voice pulled Qiu Shui back from her thoughts.

Neji Hyuga and Lee walked forward one after the other and stood facing each other in the center of the examination room.

This time, neither side chose to use shuriken to test each other.

Neji simply felt it was unnecessary; he didn't need that kind of thing to deal with Lee.

Xiao Li felt that even if he shot, he wouldn't be able to outshoot, so instead of wasting his energy, he might as well just charge in.

Therefore, the two chose physical combat from the very beginning.

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

Lee made the first move, raising his leg and sweeping it fiercely at Neji, creating a whistling wind.

This tactic might have yielded significant results if used on other people.

But he couldn't gain any advantage against Hyuga Neji.

Neji slightly turned his body, his movements light and agile, and dodged the attack perfectly.

Just as Xiao Li's body passed by him, he raised his right palm and slammed it down.

"Smack."

Xiao Li was slammed face down onto the ground, raising a small cloud of dust.

Before Xiao Li could even feel the pain in his body, a whistling wind pressed down from above.

His pupils contracted, and he instinctively rolled away, barely dodging Neji's follow-up stomp.

The ground trembled slightly when he stepped on the spot where he had just been lying.

However, before Lee could regain his footing, Neji's figure had already pounced on him like a ghost, his right palm striking straight at his chest.

"Bang!"

This palm strike was powerful and heavy, with a muffled thud that could be clearly heard.

Xiao Li let out a muffled groan, staggered back two or three steps, and gritted his teeth to barely create some distance.

Neji was like a venomous snake that had coiled around its prey, never leaving its side and holding on tightly.

One palm strike after another, one kick after another.

Xiao Li was constantly being beaten and had no chance to fight back at all.

"Shui, how do you feel about Neji compared to Sasuke in your class?" Mizuki asked with a slight upturn of his lips.

"Sasuke is not as strong as him," Qiushui replied calmly.

He gave Neji a quality check while he was fighting.

The results showed that Neji's Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palm technique was displayed as sixty-four palms, and his proficiency reached the intermediate level. His overall strength evaluation was firmly at the Chunin level.

It's worth noting that even Naruto, who has mastered the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and the Wind Release: Gale Palm, was only barely at the Chunin level when he was last examined.

It can only be said that he is indeed a ruthless person who, during the Chunin Exams, required Kakashi, Might Guy, Yamashiro Aoba, and Gekko Hayate to work together to stop him from crippling Hinata.