The day started at dawn for Kotetsu. He was a farmer first and foremost, and that meant working the farm as soon as he woke up. The only difference for today was that his mother had packed an extra special lunch for him, which he’d look forward to eating when the time was right. At this moment he was standing in the auditorium, reflecting after the Hokage finished her speech. He didn’t know enough about her to have a solid opinion, the Kaneharas stayed away from ninja business for the most part, and ninja business was the lion’s share of the Hokage’s duties. If Kotetsu passed the test this day he’d be spending more time with ninja business, but ultimately it was just a job for him. The Kaneharas were farmers, and Kotetsu always saw himself going back to that some distant day, perhaps buying some more land with the money from being a ninja. 

It frustrated him that the written test was first. He did best with things that could be solved with force, being only average at best at intellectual tasks. The only asset he had to help him was his persistence. He had a few minutes before the test started, so he used that time to read over the notes he had taken during class. They were a mess, but there was a lot material on those sheets of paper, plenty for him to study beforehand. He had enough that someone else could join if they wanted, and as far as he knew there was no rule against studying before the test actually began.

	Annoyingly, there were some large empty spots in the notes, places where he simply wrote SEE TETSU’S NOTES or TALK TO SATORU ABOUT THIS; his team was great, but there are some times when he thought relying on them too much might actually hurt him. He wasn’t sure if they were there yet, Kotetsu thought he saw Satoru in the crowd but wasn’t sure, and just went back to standing there and flipping through his notes. He tried to actually think about the written test, not daydream about how much better he’d be at the physical portion, because if he didn’t pass this, there would be no second stage for him.