6 Chapter 6

Land of Fire.

Konohagakure.

Six months after starting at the academy.

Izuna's fame spread throughout the school. Excelling to such an extent that even teacher threw up their hands in defeat; given the fact that he mastered the subjects of the next years, and easily completed any tests or special homework.

He was more than advanced enough for the genin, and that's why, just over six months after he started the academy, the teachers unanimously agreed on his graduation after his first year.

In the village of Konohagakure, a select number of students judged by their teachers to be particularly gifted and skilled could take the graduation exam without waiting for their full term to be up.

And if they passed the exam, they would attend the graduation ceremony with older students, and be assigned duties as a genin of the village.

"You'll be a ninja and out there in no time."

Akane had said, knowing his skills and desire to become a ninja as soon as possible.

His graduation had already been settled. He even asked for his father's permission, who naturally agreed.

Just six months of school left.

"Hey! You!"

Walking down the hallway after school, Izuna suddenly heard someone call out his name and stopped walking.

'Haah...'

Exhaling a silent sigh, he turned around to see three older students, probably from the school's senior class, standing in the hallway behind him.

"You him? Izuna Uchiha?"

Izuna had spent most of the time training as a ninja. He didn't have an ounce of energy to waste on anything else other than his training. He even barely remembered the names and faces of his classmates in his own class.

Busy in his own life and training to become stronger, he didn't know anything about students in other classes. So based on their height and built, he was assuming that the three students were in the senior classes.

"You know who we are?"

"No."

The average age of graduation from the academy was twelve. The physique of the five-year-old Izuna was completely different from the students standing before him. He was so short that he had to look up at them.

"Cheeky brat, just as everyone says, huh?"

At Izuna's blunt reply, the student standing in the middle, who had done the talking, furrowed his brows in annoyance.

"I'm Hazuki Izumo. Ain't nobody at the school who doesn't know me."

"You are? But I don't know you."

Izuna said, looking at the three kids standing before him, while the one named Hazuki threw an irritating smile at him. It wasn't just with this boy, Izuna always had this attitude at the school. Most people avoided the conversation at this point, and would never step into his space again.

"Hey! You wanna go?"

Said the student with narrowed eyes standing on Hazuki's right.

"Slow it down, Keiko."

Hazuki instructed, and Keiko threw him a droopy nod with an irritating smile.

"You know why we stopped you?"

"No idea."

"What's with this kid?"

It came from the other boy standing next to Hazuki, his right eyebrow-raising up. He was the tallest of them all.

"Hold up, you two. Don't rush it. We are gonna make sure to teach this kid about school manners."

Hazuki held his two mates back and slowly took a step forward to stand before Izuna.

"You must be aware of the importance of hierarchy in the ninja world, right?"

"With the four-person cell as a basis of ninja missions, the order of superior jonin and chunin are absolute. It's the decorum of the foundation of the ninja, after all."

"Heh, just as one would expect from an honor student to have such a neat answer. But..."

A malicious look appeared on Hazuki's face, who had come close enough that Izuna could almost feel his breath, and glared at the younger boy.

"...I just can't stand that attitude of yours. You sure are an eyesore for an Uchiha."

"Is that so?"

Izuna said dispassionately, much to his annoyance.

The "cheeky brat" before them was a younger student, who just didn't care about their childish attitude. However, to them, Izuna was a younger student and Hazuki had certainly decided before his encounter that Izuna would cry and apologize if they just threatened him a bit.

No doubt he had made countless classmates and other younger students obey him like this. He wasn't the least bit ashamed of threatening a student many years junior to him.

However, unlike what he expected, the dim arrogance of their nature bled out onto their own faces.

'Haah! It's getting annoying.'

Izuna exhaled a dispassionate sigh. It wouldn't even take a second to take down these fools.

He was called cheeky or whatever, but really, they just wanted him to yield. They wanted the supposed prodigy of the generation to cry and beg for mercy.

They weren't wrong about establishing hierarchy, it was no ordinary school, this was a ninja academy, after all. Wasn't that the way of a ninja?

In the ninja world, the thought of killing was no sooner had, than the act was carried out.

Izuna wouldn't even need a kunai to deal with the three fools standing before him, but he had the kunai hidden under his sleeve, and quite fortunately three of them. He could just simply grab the kunai, and send them flying through the air. Holes would be dug out in their head, and the three would fall.

But he wouldn't do something like this. He wanted to avoid futile fighting but had no intention of letting them hit him.

"If you are done with your blabbering, I'm leaving."

Izuna said dispassionately, stifling all emotions. It was bothersome for him to deal with kids like them.

The look on the faces of the older students changed at once, flushed with fierce emotion up to the point, that they now suddenly paled. As Izuna had said, their impulse to threaten the cheeky first-year boy somehow changed into helplessness.

"Y-you..."

All three of them reached hands around behind themselves and grabbed hold of the kunai hilts.

With an indifferent expression on his face, and arms losing at the sides, Izuna stared at the older students. If it had now come to this, he intended not to go easy on them.

"Ha!"

The tallest of the three moved first, after noticing Izuna made no movements, at all. Dashing, he arrived in front of Izuna and trusted the kunai.

However, unlike what he had expected, just as the sharp blade was about to graze the younger boy, his field of vision suddenly turned upside down and he fell with a loud thud, unconscious.

"Why don't you take a little nap here?"

The older student collapsed even before his brain could register what had happened.

"Wh-what?!"

Too stupified to say anything else, the two older students were taking shallow breaths. Both Hazuki and his mate were watching every move Izuna made. A tense silence engulfed the hallway, for a moment, and was soon broken by the strange battle cry of the older students.

"Gaah! G-get him!"

The next instant, Hazuki from the left, and Keiko from the right, both started running. Izuna was caught in an attack from both sides.

"Haah..."

Heaving a deep sigh, Izuna slightly shook his head. He didn't move from his spot. Without pausing, the two boys racing at him from the left and right tried to catch him in a pincer attack and drove kunai into his belly and shoulders.

"Wha-!!"

However, as they dug their weapons into Izuna, he suddenly disappeared from their field of vision. Swiftly flickering with ease, Izuna was standing behind the shocked boys and brought the edge of his flat hand down their necks. All of it happened in an instant.

"Take a little nap here, just like your friend."

Done with the fools, without glancing at them, Izuna disappeared with a burst of white smoke.

"T-that was a Clone justu? No! It was the Shadow Clone!!"

A fleeting silence flowed through the hallway of the academy, which was soon broken by the stunned teacher, standing at the end of it, who had seen Izuna perform the previous deed. The extent of Izuna's abilities that surpassed a genin and reached the chunin, left him bewildered.

< Chapter 6 > Fin.