Over a month had gone by and in it most lessons had focused on academic lessons with very little ninja techniques but now they were about to start.
"Chakra is the combination of physical and spiritual force inside living things. Chakra can be infused subconsciously or consciously, in a state where the chakra network is not fully functional, chakra flow is passive and very little is made. Now after awakening the chakra network, through repeated practice you can control the amount of chakra infused and store more of it.
One such benefit is that ninjas have stronger bodies than normal civilians even if they don't train their bodies consistently but you should always train your body as ninja."
The class was silent as they absorbed Iruka's words, some of the kids were writing notes, other yawning etc.
It took a while to develop the habit of learning, Kudo was among those who were actively listening to the lecture. While his father had taught him some things, most of it did not delve into how shinobi techniques worked.
"Now, all of you have already had your chakra networks fully awoken so, the first exercise we are going to perform is the leaf exercise. This exercise lays the foundation into becoming an exceptional shinobi. The exercise involves putting a leaf to your forehead and controlling the flow of your chakra such that it remains adhered to your forehead as long as possible."
"Iruka sensei! How does playing with leaves make me the Hokage? It's just stupid leaves." Naruto complained, his words voicing other students' thoughts.
'That Naruto brat is annoying but I don't want get stuck playing with leaves all day.' Sakura thought looking at her notes.
"Naruto." Iruka sighed his brows crunched in frustration, out of the corner of his eye he saw Kudo. Kudo despite being as brash as Naruto at least he had some semblance of control.
"Just do the exercise Naruto or else." Iruka said sternly, Naruto gulped with sweat. Whenever Iruka didn't want to tend to him he let out threats but sometimes he would just advice others to ignore him. Naruto felt sad and always thought that he was the problem but Kudo would always say that those who can't appreciate others are rude and stink.
"Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba that includes you as well." Iruka had not foreseen that his class would be this troublesome.
A dozen minutes later, the kids sat in meditation trying to control their chakra. Most leaves just directly fell and for some it took a few seconds but overall, it was terrible.
An hour into the exercise the longest time was just 15 seconds belonging to Sakura Haruno. Kudo placed fifth at just 9 seconds. Hinata Hyuna was second, Sasuke third and Shino fourth. Naruto was dead last with the leaf instantly falling the whole hour.
For the whole week they just focused on the leaf exercise, towards the end Naruto could hold the leaf for a minute but was not diligent in practicing something Kudo had come to notice. After tens of attempts to make Naruto to practice, Kudo settled for claiming that Sasuke would be the Hokage instead. For some reason they disliked one another but as long Naruto put in the effort it was fine with him.
Kudo didn't aspire to be a strong shinobi; he didn't know what kind of shinobi he wanted to be. Just that his dad wanted him to become a shinobi, so he just went along with it.
Other than the leaf exercise they also ran a lot around the academy ground, some thing Iruka had said about stamina.
Kudo had taken to reading in the academy library while as a first year he couldn't access Justus, he spent most of his time reading about the village and the shinobi world.
Another 2 months soon went by and it was now time for the quarterly exam; a tense mood had settled in the academy as for the senior students they were also going to the exam.
The day of the exam;
"Alright, it's time to begin the exam." Iruka said holding a bundle of papers, for the academic side it was simple math algebra, language and life ethics. Life ethics was something his father had called a brainwashing session, it mostly revolved around the will of fire and being a ninja bound and guided by the will of fire, an ideology the first Hokage had passed down generationally.
After 2 hours of theory tests, the students were back at the academy ground. The 30 students were each sitting in a meditative posture with a leaf attached to their foreheads.
Iruka observed them like a hawk, the clock in his hand ticking silently, at the 31-minute mark Naruto was the first to the drop the leaf, Kudo had worked hard often turning their pranking sessions into training sessions.
Just as he was about to complain, Iruka's gaze silenced him as he moved outside the ground in a fit. Naruto had tried his best not wanting to let Kudo down given that Kudo excelled in class yet still hung around with him. Sometimes he felt that he was wasting his time yet Kudo always denied it with a smile plus his ideas of pranking were borderline diabolical something that worried Naruto.
At the 45-minute mark, only 13 students remained but their heads were laced with sweat as heavy breathing echoed throughout the ground. 'Focus. I must come in first place to make father proud.' Sasuke thought, he had even more pressure to excel like his brother Itachi but Fugaku always found him lacking. A point evident by how his father never complimented him.
3 minutes later only 9 students remained; Shino Aburame, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuga, Ino Yamanaka, Enya Yorisuke, Manemi Hatake, Sarutobi Ai and Kudo Tanehiko.
At the one-hour mark only Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno remained and Iruka stopped the test, first place had a tie.
"Rest for 3 hours after that you all be running laps around the academy grounds." Iruka said and left toward the academy building.