The war continued and conflicts began to escalate, with large nations engaging in small conflicts with each other as they prepared for when the real killing began.
It was in this atmosphere that the ninja school year passed and the graduation exams began, at that moment Dazen was taking the theoretical exam being the only person in his class trying to graduate this year, he looked at all the people in the room while thinking , 'The number of people taking the test is greater than expected, with many people of different ages also the war really has a very large effect and now there is a need for new ninjas so I think that examiners will reduce the difficulty resulting in a very large number of new ninjas.'
Dazen continued answering the questions, he had no difficulty answering them all in a short period and was just waiting for the exam time to end, which didn't take long, the examiners soon collected the exams and guided the students out of the room to continue the exams with several practical assessments such as taijutsu fights, throwing shurikens, chakra control and the use of the 3 basic jutsus and to Dazen's surprise the exam was not any easier and several students began to have difficulty in the tests.
Soon all the students were tested and the examiners went into the room to evaluate the students' performance while they waited for the results outside, it soon started to get noisy as everyone started talking to their friends about the exam.
Dazen looked at this as being a little out of place, after all he was a bit of an anomaly among the graduates, it wasn't abnormal for some students in normal grades to try hard and graduate a year early, but someone like Dazen who was graduating at the age of 9 and not from the elite class was something rarely seen, but soon everyone calmed down when the teachers came out with the results and put them on a board for everyone to see.
The students formed a noisy crowd around the board and little by little some began to leave excitedly and others with a discouraged expression, Dazen waited for the commotion to subside to look at his result and as expected he managed to pass with excellent grades.
The teachers looked at all that mess while they waited, everyone finished looking at the result to continue, when everyone finished looking, the director took a step forward and said: "Okay, now everyone knows the result, you can stop the noise, firstly I want congratulate everyone who managed to pass and from now on you are ninjas you tried hard and now you are part of the ninjas of Konoha and as for those who didn't make it this year, don't give up you will have other chances so there is nothing to be ashamed of, now everyone Head towards the courtyard, Mr Hokage as usual will talk to you about the duty of ninjas and their responsibilities."
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Dazen was surprised by what the principal said, normally only the students who passed would hear the Hokage's speech, 'As I thought there will be something different this year, with the war it would be unthinkable to fail so many students.'
The students began to head towards the courtyard while talking excitedly about the Hokage, with the exception of the students who were sad about their failure, they soon arrived at the place where Hiruzen was already standing waiting for the students.
Dazen looked at Hiruzen he was very similar to the anime with the only difference being that he was a few years younger, 'Hiruzen now must be at his peak, I can't say how strong he is, given his calm and contained aura it's hard to believe that he's one of the most powerful ninjas in the ninja world.'
Hiruzen looked at all those students and smiled as he began to speak, "I'm very happy that so many students are trying to take the graduation exam, it just means that even in times like this you tried even harder to become stronger and protect the village, it's this spirit that keeps the village united and strong despite all the difficulties, firstly I congratulate the students who made their efforts worth it, for those who didn't make it, don't worry, you will have another chance this year, the teachers will organize a 2-month training program during the vacation to solve the problems they caused their disapproval and thus become ninjas like their companions."
Such news surprised everyone, especially the students who failed, however, they soon started to cheer up and talk among themselves, Dazen thought: ' So that's it, they are not going to reduce the difficulty of the test, but they are going to use it to find the students' problems and set up training to solve them, this is a great idea as not only will the quality of new genins not decrease, but specialized training can increase the quality of newcomers, Konoha's leaders really are very intelligent.'
The principal saw the students start to make noise and soon interrupted: "Stop talking, the third Hokage hasn't finished speaking." Soon all the students stopped talking and waited for the Hokage to continue.
Hiruzen then continued: "I hope you understand why such a measure was adopted, at this moment we haven't had major conflicts yet, but they soon started, so we need new and strong ninjas to support our forces, I hope this war ends before you are old enough to enter into such a conflict, but you need to be ready to fight and protect your families, your friends and your village that is the duty of a ninja that is the will of fire that is why we train and get stronger, I have I'm sure you'll be great ninjas."
As Hiruzen finished speaking, the students began to applaud excitedly while some shouted that they would defeat the ninjas from other nations, Dazen also applauded while thinking: 'As expected he speaks very well even the teachers are excited.'
Hiruzen said a few more things about the duties of a ninja and after finishing, the teachers began to hand out the headbands with the leaf symbol, thus ending the graduation ceremony with the students quickly going to meet their parents who were waiting outside the academy.