Chapter 3: A Life of Possibilities
Dragged by the wrist to the academy, Kannin was not looking forward to what was about to happen. When they reached the doorstep, a lot of kids were snickering at Kannin, seeing the head of the class getting brought by his mom.
Making their way through the hallways, Kannin's mom finally reached his instructor's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" He answered from behind the door.
His main instructor was a low rank jonin, with long black hair, aquiline nose, and morose fashion. He almost looked a little goth when his eye bags were deep.
"What can I do for you Miss Usagi? Has Kannin done something wrong?"
"Well I don't think he did something wrong exactly...but I do think it's something you ought to know about." Turning to Kannin, she urged him on, "Well, go ahead, show instructor Hima what I found you doing at home"
Kannin rolled his eyes and reluctantly made the hand seals and "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Suddenly another copy of Kannin appeared in the space next to him, looking equally unenthusiastic about the situation.
"Kannin!" Hima shouted, surprised, and quickly realized he was being a little loud, and went to close the door. "How did you learn the Shadow Clone jutsu! Who taught you?"
Kannin, again with an apologetic look said "well I saw some teachers doing it around school and I thought it looked cool..." Kannin's face brightened suddenly and added "Plus! we haven't even tried to do any jutsu in class yet and I really wanted to try one!" He scratched his head and said "I didn't know it was a forbidden jutsu, I'm sorry."
Hima looked down at the twin Kannins and said "Well, I'll report this to my boss, and I hope you can start to understand how important this is, Kannin. We're at war. And if people see you flaunting our forbidden techniques around the village, people will start to get ideas, not many of which will be good--for you or for your mother here."
That last comment seemed a little odd to Kannin, but he understood at the very least the danger he put himself in learning this jutsu. "I swear I won't ever use it. I swear! I just wanted to learn."
"And that's a good thing, Kannin. I know you've been doing really well in class, and if you want, we can set up an advanced program for you to meet your needs, but you need to tell me if you're feeling like you're not learning all you can. It's my job to prepare you for the world out there, for the war, for being a real shinobi. Let me talk to the director to see if I can't work something out. But you're right, you can't ever use that jutsu again."
Kannin poofed his clone back and hung his head a little low, as this is his first real reprimand in this world. He looked back up at Hima and said "I wont, I swear. But do you think that I could actually start combat training and learning jutsu now? All my schoolwork right now is too easy."
Hima smiled and said "Of course you can. Give me a few days, and I'll put you with the higher level class to start learning."
-
A few days later, Kannin was summoned to the Academy Director's office, with the same result-a wide eyed bureaucrat, a reprimand, and send off.
The director quickly wrote down something on a scroll, and sent it off with a jonin to the Hokage's office. The brown-haired jonin put it on the ever-growing stack of papers on the Third's desk and quickly left.
A while later, when Hiruzen got through the few papers which had piled on top in the meantime, his eyes opened a little wider and a smirk came across his mouth as he removed his pipe. "So we have spark of genius yet again. Though I can't say he seems brighter than that Namikaze." He paused for a moment, pondering, and thought "An Uzumaki, huh. I wonder if that bad-tempered girl knows him."
He put the scroll into his 'finished' folder, and went on with his other works, though he eyed his scrying orb a few times, fighting the urge to see how the young Uzumaki was doing.
-
So what was our young Uzumaki doing? At the current moment, he's introducing himself to his new classmates.
"Hello! I'm Uzumaki Kannin. Umm...I don't know if I have a favorite food right now. I think steak is pretty good though! My least favorite thing in the world is feeling pain." Looking at his new instructor, he asked "Was there anything else?"
"No that just about wraps up introductions for now. Let's get on to basic sparring..."
And for the next few months, Kannin learned that he had severely neglected learning how to fight. He got pummeled over and over again. Though he was getting better, his visits to the medical ward got him the reputation of being a bit of a wimp.
"But wait a minute! It's not my fault I can't fight! I'm like 5! This is child abuse!"
That thought cheered him up a bit, but it didn't stop him getting thrown around by the older kids.
The main culprit was an Uchiha girl about two years older than him. She was quite good at whaling on our young hero.
One day, as they were sparring, he landed a decent punch on her chin, though she immediately answered with sweeping kick that planted Kannin on his behind, and a kunai to his throat.
"That punch wasn't half bad, lil' Uzumaki. Maybe next time you'll do something useful" She chuckled, and extended her hand, which Kannin reluctantly took as she pulled him back on his feet.
It seemed like he still had a long way to go when it came to fighting.