Chapter 2: Smoke and Mirrors

That night, Sam had strange dreams. He was stuck waist-deep in mud, surrounded by jungle, with the foliage rustling around him. Disembodied voices were whispering around him, and he swore he saw eyes coming from the shadows between each tree.

He slowly started sinking deeper in the mud, and the voices grew louder and louder, and just when he was neck deep in the muck, and the voices seemed to be just behind him, he shot upright in bed.

Sweat beading down his face, he looked around and found himself again in his room.

'Must've been a stress dream'

He took a quick shower and put on his usual outfit, a black under suit, with tan shorts and a navy shortsleeve, and put his light grey hair back with a hair band. Sam liked his hair, it reminded him of Kakashi from the manga, it had a similar spiky look, but he put it back with a black hair band which really upped the spikage in the back.

His mom took a look at him when he walked down from his room and gave him a big thumbs up and a bigger smile, which was nice to see. Ever since the war broke out there's been a deep solemnity about the whole village, including his mom, so seeing her smile so brightly was a welcome change.

"Don't you look dashing! I hope you're as good at your schoolwork as you are at your fashion design. Now remember to always listen to your teacher, bow when you meet him, take good notes, bring a spare set of clothes..." and the list continued

"I know! I know, mom!" Kannin protested the maternal bombardment, but couldn't resist a mother's love.

Suddenly turning more serious, she said "And always be careful. I know the village is the safest place right now, but the world is a dangerous. Be careful."

Kannin nodded and gave his mom one last hug before walking out the door.

-

Kannin was afraid that the academy was going to be difficult, but it seems like the war has stretched the village thin already. Instructors rotated frequently, assignments were quick, and pretty simple, especially given what Kannin remembered of his last life, much of the work was basic mathematics and reasoning, which he excelled in. There was a history class which he struggled in for a while given that his memory of the manga was not perfect, but he had a general knowledge which helped him out.

What really disappointed Kannin was that he managed to attend the academy when no one else he recognized was there. Kushina and Minato graduated roughly two years previous and it seems like it would be another few years before Kakashi, Shisui, and the other characters would attend.

What that also meant was that there were few others who really challenged Kannin on an intellectual level. And after a few weeks, it became obvious that, at least with the war gong on, the academy existed to make sure that incoming genins just had basic logical competence, and a rudimentary understanding of how to perform jutsu.

And that is where most of Kannin's attention went. While he wasn't a Naruto fanboy or anything, jutsu are pretty clearly the coolest part of the world (he was lamenting not being an Uchiha a little though). He could remember the formula for Shadow Clone Jutsu pretty clearly, but he also knew it was a forbidden jutsu so he never did it at school. Back at home though, he was trying his best to replicate it.

And it eventually worked. What made Kage Bunshin so dangerous was in great part due to how easy it was. The strain it put on one's chakra reserves for its ease made it easy to accidentally injure oneself with overextension. This marked a great turning point in Kannin's life--his first jutsu!

Just then, his mother came in the door and saw two Kannin's sitting in the living room. She dropped her books and ran over to give him a hug-and promptly chose the wrong Kannin and, in a puff of smoke, fell to the ground. The real Kannin shortly joined her there laughing his head off.

"Okay fine, you got me!" his mother said after composing herself. Then she turned to him, and with a more serious expression asked "Was that a Shadow Clone? Kannin that's a forbidden jutsu, how did you learn that?"

Kannin was not planning to get caught, and he started stuttering while putting a story together that wouldn't get him in trouble: "Well...uhm...you see...I saw some of my teachers doing it and...I don't know I guess I just wanted to try it myself. We haven't even started trying to do any jutsus at school yet so I wanted to see if I could." he put on his best pouty face and looked up at his mom "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

His mom couldn't resist the puppy-dog eyes and said "I guess not honey. Just promise me you won't show any of your friends, and you don't do it outside okay?" Kannin nodded, "In fact, why don't we tell your teacher about this so you don't get in trouble."

Kannin's eyes got wide and tried to protest, but a mother's word goes.