A new day begins—only one day left before the exams.
Kaelen studied the whole day for the exams. In the evening, he stepped out of his room and found his friend Allan.
Kaelen asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Just taking an evening walk," Allan replied.
Kaelen smiled and said, "Same here."
Kaelen noticed Allan looked a bit down and asked, "Why are you looking so depressed?"
Allan sighed and said, "Aren't you feeling bad about leaving our academy and Sir Allex?"
"Yeah," Kaelen replied, "Sir Allex supported us a lot."
Kaelen suddenly had an idea. "Let's throw a farewell party!"
"Yeah, that's a great idea!" Allan agreed.
Kaelen asked Allan to call all of their classmates, while Kaelen said he would go invite Sir Allex.
"We'll meet in two hours," Kaelen said and went straight to Sir Allex's house.
Sir Allex welcomed Kaelen warmly. "What brings you here, Kaelen?"
"It's a surprise, sir," Kaelen smiled. "Please just come with me."
Kaelen took Sir Allex to a large field where Allan had already prepared everything with their classmates. Sir Allex's eyes welled up with tears.
He thanked all the students. Everyone also thanked Kaelen.
Sir Allex said, "This farewell party only happened because of you. Thank you."
At the end of the night, Kaelen went to sleep, thinking about the exam.
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The day of the exam arrives.
Kaelen woke up early and got ready.
He went to the exam hall, where an A-rank ninja stood waiting. Everyone was shocked to see him, along with many C-rank ninjas.
The A-rank ninja, who was the examiner, spoke:
"Welcome to the Ancient Masters Village Ninja Examination. This exam takes place once every five years. It will be conducted in three parts:
1. A written exam.
2. Training under an S-rank ninja.
3. A battle with your own classmates in teams of two. Only five teams will be selected. The rest will be disqualified."
The students gasped. "Huh? Only five teams out of more than a thousand people?"
Kaelen felt a bit nervous.
The examiner continued, "Let's begin the first part. One more announcement—if you try to cheat, you will be immediately disqualified. Every ninja is watching your every move."
The exam started. Kaelen answered all the questions faster than everyone. But when he went to submit his paper, he noticed that over two hundred students were missing.
He asked, "What happened to all those students?"
A ninja replied, "They were disqualified."
Kaelen and Allan both did well on the exam.
The next day, the results were announced. Both of them passed with good marks.
After that, they went to book an S-rank ninja to train them. But the line was very long. They waited patiently. Eventually, Allan got his turn and successfully booked a teacher. But by the time it was Kaelen's turn, all the S-rank ninjas were already booked.
Kaelen asked again to check, but there were no S-rank ninjas left.
Devastated, Kaelen ran away in tears. All his hard work felt wasted. He couldn't become a ninja without a trainer.
He wandered into the forest, far from the academy. The forest was huge. Kaelen climbed up and sat on the branch of a tree, lost in thought.
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