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

Kiba Inuzuka was completely stunned.

Why did those words sound so familiar? Wasn't that the same line he used to reprimand Choji last time? Now Choji had returned it verbatim, and he was speechless.

"I won't pursue this matter this time." Choji waved his hand and pointed to the bucket in the corner. "Go get a rag and wipe the dirty place clean."

Kiba Inuzuka slowly turned around and walked towards the bucket in the corner. He suddenly felt his face getting hot.

Even someone like Choji, who used to be unable to control his mouth and would sneak snacks during class, was able to overcome his bad habits, keep his word, and genuinely repent.

And what about yourself?

He kept saying he would change his habit of climbing walls, and he even walked through the main gate for a month. But when he got itchy, he forgot all his reasoning.

He decided that he would never make this mistake again. He couldn't be worse than Choji, could he?

Akisui and Matsumoto Mie walked into the classroom.

This time, he was once again assigned to proctor the fourth-grade class.

"Shusui-sensei!" Naruto was the first to stand up and greet him.

"Teacher Qiushui." The other students also stood up one after another.

Qiu Shui smiled gently and nodded at them.

"Sensei, you're really popular with your students." Matsumoto Mie said with an envious expression as she saw this.

She knew that Qiu Shui was very popular among the students, but the last time the two of them had only proctored a practice exam together, so she didn't have a specific feeling about it.

This time, I truly experienced it. Not only did Naruto, a student, greet me warmly, but even Sasuke, who usually speaks coldly to everyone, took the initiative to speak.

"After all, it's my own class, so it's only right that we're welcomed," Qiu Shui said.

He walked to the podium and said, "The rules for this theory exam are the same as last time. There are fifteen minutes left before the exam starts. Check your pens, and if you need to go to the restroom, go now, or you'll be asking to leave during the exam."

As soon as he finished speaking, several students immediately raised their hands and hurriedly ran out of the classroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Akisui announced the start of the exam and, together with Matsumoto Mie, distributed the exam papers.

Every student in Class 1 of Grade 4 looked serious and quietly buried themselves in their work, without making any movements or noises unrelated to the exam.

Because of the significant improvement in everyone's scores in the last exam, they were praised by their parents when they got home, and some even received rewards.

After experiencing the benefits, they unconsciously began to enjoy the feeling of being recognized after their efforts.

Akisui and Matsumoto Mie took turns patrolling the classroom.

As Matsumoto Mie passed by the students, she glanced curiously at the questions they had answered and found that their answers were mostly correct.

This surprised her somewhat. It would be normal for students like Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino, who usually excel in theoretical subjects, to perform like this.

But after going around in circles, she found that the vast majority of students had performed very well in answering the questions.

"Ms. Akisui, we estimate that Class 1 of Grade 4 will have the highest average score in the entire grade again in this exam," Matsumoto Mie said in a low voice as she walked up to Akisui.

"The exam results haven't come out yet, so nobody knows what the final outcome will be," Qiu Shui said. "It's also possible that they've gotten used to the difficulty of the fourth-grade exams, and the scores of other classes might also improve significantly."

Although he knew that Class 1 of Grade 4 was definitely in first place, he figured it was better to be humble.

The bell rang for the papers to be handed in.

Akisui and Matsumoto Mie each began collecting their papers.

The situation is much better this time than last time.

Most students stopped writing the moment the exam ended, but five or six students continued writing anxiously.

Qiu Shui knew this was normal, after all, he had only been in charge of the class for two months, and it would take at least another month or two for this situation to completely disappear.

"Ino, don't you feel that this exam was much harder than the last one?" Ino's deskmate slumped on the desk with a worried look on her face after the exam.

Ever since Ino lent her that novel, she has been completely captivated. She hasn't studied much these past few days, and after doing many practice questions, she still feels uncertain about her abilities.

"It felt a little harder than last time," Yamanaka Ino said, recalling the contents of the exam paper.

She secretly rejoiced that she had lent the novel to her deskmate, otherwise, even if she only read it once, she would definitely have been unable to resist reading it a second time.

Hearing their conversation, Sakura Haruno felt reassured.

She had done most of the questions before, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, she would get a perfect score again.

"Hinata, how did you do on the exam?" Naruto asked as he walked over to Hinata.

During this period, Teacher Qiushui did not have them read books or do test papers before training, and he felt that he did not perform as well as last time in the test.

"It's alright," Hinata replied softly.

Although Ms. Qiu Shui did not assign any tasks, she had already developed the habit of reviewing and doing practice tests every night when she got home.

Naruto nodded, then ran up to Sasuke and asked, "Sasuke, how did you do on the test?"

"No matter what, I still did better than you on the test." Uchiha Sasuke glanced at him and replied indifferently.

"Then why don't you hand in a blank paper?" Naruto said with a grin.

Sasuke simply didn't want to talk to him.

He was aiming to regain the top spot in the grade in this exam. If he submitted a blank paper, even if he got first place in the actual test, he wouldn't be able to rank first in the overall score.

"Hey, didn't someone say they'd do better than me no matter what? Why are you scared now?" Naruto leaned closer when he saw no reaction.

Sasuke's face stiffened, feeling that Naruto was simply looking for trouble.

"Naruto, don't bother Sasuke and affect his exam this afternoon," Sakura Haruno stood up to speak for Sasuke. "You only won against him by luck last time. This time, Sasuke will definitely lose if he gets serious."

"That's right, that's right." The other girls also stood up and echoed.

Although Naruto defeated Sasuke in the practical test in the last monthly exam and has been studying very hard in class recently, improving his grades in all aspects, the bad impression left from a few years ago is not so easy to erase, and most people still don't have a good impression of him.

"Naruto seems to be having a tough time," Choji Akimichi muttered to himself.

"It's his own fault for always provoking others," Nara Shikamaru replied lazily.

Although their relationship with Naruto was better than their relationship with Sasuke, they felt that Naruto sometimes brought it upon himself.

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata was a little at a loss. She really wanted to say a few words for Naruto.

But after spending time with Sasuke, she realized that his personality wasn't as cold as it seemed. It wasn't good to help either side, so she could only sigh helplessly in her heart.

"Sakura... everyone..." Naruto suddenly felt a little wronged.

Why does it feel like everyone's still on Sasuke's side?

He secretly made up his mind that he must defeat Sasuke again in this practical competition and let them know that he is the strongest.