20 Second Best

The teacher had just finished the class attendance, finding all 15 members to be present.

"Alright, class, today we have the training ground second. First, we will do the leaf test to check your control over your chakra. Afterwards, we will go outside for a basic physical fitness test. Put your hand up if you have already unlocked your chakra."

Half of Kushina's class raised their hand. They were all clan shinobi, while those who didn't were civilians trying to be ninjas. It turns out that one of them was a civilian, though, which was odd.

"Come up here and line up. Take a leaf and press it to your forehead. You need to channel your chakra to the leaf and maintain the amount. It will fall if you use too little or the flow isn't steady."

Under the instruction of their Chunin sensei, the students got up at took a leaf. This was a common chakra control exercise so none of them were surprised by the exercise.

Kushina stuck the leaf to her head and looked around to see how the others were. 

In her class were a Hyuga girl, an Aburame boy, a Sarutobi boy, a Lee girl, a Nara boy, and a Kiba girl with an adorable black puppy on her head. The civilian with chakra was a boy who had bright yellow hair.

The Kiba girl was the first to have her leaf fall; her puppy playfully knocked it off her head. The class laughed at how cute they were, and she went back to her seat.

The Lee girl was the second to have her leaf fall, and almost immediately afterwards, the Nara boy's leaf also fell. The girl looked disappointed at her results, while the boy looked bored.

The remaining Aburame boy, Sarutobi boy and Hyuga girl all dropped their leaves one after another. The last two were Kushina and the yellow-haired civilian boy who no one expected to last so long.

She struggled to control her massive amount of chakra while the boy seemed like he could go on forever. This small mental blow disturbed her control and caused a large surge of chakra to travel to the leaf.

Her lip twitched as she watched the leaf fall. She snatched it out of mid-air and stomped over to her spot. 'So close. So close to being first.'

The teacher tapped the boy's shoulder when she took her seat. "That is enough Minato. You can return to your seat." 

Kushina paid attention as the teacher said his name. 'Minato, huh? You won't win against me again.'

The class then moved out to the training ground. It was a simple dirt-covered area with a large circle drawn into the ground.

"To start, we will be running laps around the circle as many times as you can. Make sure to run as fast as you can."

The 15 students all started running right away. It didn't take long for a clear division between the clan shinobi, who had been training since a young age, and the civilians just stepping into the shinobi world.

Those from a clan were clearly outperforming the others, and this difference grew as time passed.

Kushina had gone hard right from the start. She was fast and quickly began to pull away from almost all of the other ninjas. She was the fastest clan shinobi in the class but not the fastest in the entire class. That title belonged to the yellow-haired boy, Minato.

She tried to pass him, but he always seemed to be a bit faster than her. She hoped he would have lower stamina, but the teacher ended the running before either person slowed down.

They had similar results in the rest of the tests they conducted. Minato did one more pushup than her, two more pullups than her and was half a second faster on the obstacle course.

It was so infuriating! She tried her hardest, but her efforts never seemed enough to beat him. 

Even in target practice with Shuriken and Kunai, he was more accurate.

She couldn't take it anymore after he got his 3rd bullseye on the target. She stormed up to him with her fists clenched; her hair began to do its weird floaty behaviour as she was far from happy.

"Fight me! I don't believe you are better than me at everything!"

The boy looked completely taken aback by this behaviour. He looked back at the teacher who was watching, but he didn't do anything.

"Why do I have to fight you?"

"I will beat you at something! Even if I have to beat you up to do it."

"Is this allowed?" the boy asked, looking towards their Sensei.

He just shrugged his shoulders. "It is not against any rules. Besides, it would be good practice for the future if it isn't taken too far. It will be a strictly Taijutsu fight, so you don't have to worry about any of the clan shinobi's large advantages in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu."

Minato Turned back to Kushina. "Alright, I will fight you then. What are the rules?" he asked her.

She turned towards their sensei. "First to bleed! I don't believe you won't bleed before me, you know!"

He nodded, and the other students in their class began to gather in a circle around them.

Their sensei got between the two of them. "Are you both ready?" 

We nodded while looking each other in the eyes.

It was clear to the audience that Kushina took this fight far more seriously than Minato.

"Begin!" their Sensei used the flicker technique and disappeared from the middle of the arena, reappearing at the edge of the circle of students.

-

In the Senju compound, Kane was finishing the last stroke of his scroll.

"Mito, can you check it? I think it's perfect! I don't think I made any mistakes this time!"

Sitting on a couch nearby eating dango, Mito set them aside and got up. Picking up the scroll he had been working on, she inspected each kanji.

The lines of each one were crisp and precise. The spacing between each one was also accurate. She set down the scroll after going through all 7,777 without finding a single flaw.

"Congratulations, Kane, you are officially halfway to becoming a Fuinjutsu Master."

Kane Jumped up in excitement. Unfortunately, he bumped the table as he got up. This toppled over the inkwell he had been using, ruining the scroll he just finished.

He froze as he watched the ink spread. 

Mito couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. She was unwilling to spoil his hard work with this, though, so he used a sealing matrix to collect the spilled ink and put it back in the bottle.

Slightly depressed, Kane thanked Mito. he may have millions in Ryo, but that didn't change the fact that the chakra ink was expensive.

"Don't worry about it too much, Kane. After today, you won't need ink to make your seals."

That lifted his mood. With a sparkle in his eye, he seemed to forget his accident with the ink.

"Are you going to write seals with Chakra?! Really!"

"Indeed. Sit beside me, and I will show you how it works."