13 First Day at the Academy

After that little interaction with Hana, we both entered the classroom together. This was to remove the attention that the Inazuka attracted by shouting.

*Creak*

Sliding the door to the left my vision gets greeted by a lone desk which had a teacher sitting down. The teacher was a fairly large man with brown hair and a goatee.

Turning my head to the side there were seats in a curved shape. Each row would increase in height and there were multiple kids chatting and sitting down.

But right on the top right of the seats was a certain Itachi Uchiha with main character syndrome.

The kid was looking outside through the window for god's sake.

"Hello! You guys are Hana and Shin am I right? I'm trying to memorise all my students. My name is Funeno Daikoku" My new sensei introduced himself.

Both Hana and I walking to the desk greeted him and shortly parted ways to take our own seats.

The girl already had a group of friends she could chat with.

With a glint in my eyes, I made my way to the top of the class to where Itachi was. While many girls were openly looking at the guy, his row was still open due to them being shy.

"Itachi, what are you doing staring outside."

Itachi hearing my voice instantly turns around with a smile on his face.

"Just taking in the view. You ready for class?" He questions. I could clearly hear the boredom in his voice as he wondered what we would be taught.

"It shouldn't be too bad. I'm planning to learn everything quickly so I can train more and get a senpai." I respond taking a seat.

"I'm gonna learn everything quickly as well. Graduating early is my goal." He says which made me get an ugly expression.

"Why would you do that?" I question. Itachi getting a confused look tilted his head.

"It's because the faster I graduate the quicker I'll become a shinobi and the stronger I will be." He says like it's the obvious answer which caught me off guard.

'These kids don't know the actual purpose of the academy do they.'

While the academy was there to keep kids out of the battlefield and let them choose their path in life. It also hardens them for the shinobi life and lets them spend their childhood in some sort of peace to delay them "wasting" their lives as glorified patriotic killers.

You can't go back after becoming a mass murderer.

Why do kids want to become adults so badly…

This is even more imposed when they graduate and need to do an exam before becoming Chunin and doing regular C-rank missions. But Itachi doesn't know this and wants to go ahead to get stronger without any logic.

"Why would you graduate early that's so dumb." I say grabbing both of his shoulders and playfully shaking him "Do you know why Konoha doesn't have many or any young geniuses at all?"

Itachi hearing this indulges himself as he has nothing to lose listening to my words.

"No?"

"It's because they probably get targeted by other villages and killed. That's why at least spending a couple of years in the academy will let you build up your strength to protect yourself. This is even worse as you hail from a legendary clan.

Graduating early only puts a target on your back. This will haunt you for your early years as a shinobi." I preach which made the young Uchiha get stars in his eyes. The kid was fully listening to me which was what I needed. He didn't question anything which was surprising.

"That makes sense, so I should get as strong as I possibly can before graduating." He says completely taking in my advice like any child would.

"Don't get me wrong I'm not willing to stay in the academy for six whole years. But until I reach 8-10 maybe I'll graduate." I said remembering that Itachi graduated at the age of seven.

I mean if I could, delaying or not letting the trauma that Obito made Itachi suffer would be good. But who am I kidding? It's part of Obito's plan so it's destined to happen.

Unknown to me though a few students overheard my words and started to spread rumours. This would eventually kick up a conflict.

As the two of us kept conversing with the minutes passing by, it was finally time for class. With our teacher standing up, he clears his throat.

"Congratulations on making it to class A-1. But don't get too comfortable as you could be replaced by anyone at any time by the people your age in the lower classes depending on your grades.

There is currently one A-class, two B-classes and three C-classes. Make sure to work hard and uphold the will of fire you learned at the exams.

Everyone repeat after me!"

All the kids eagerly listening remembered the words that were told to them that day.

"Love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity!" He shouts somehow reaching my ears at the back of the class.

'Is his loud voice some sort of ninjutsu that enhances noise? That could be useful in situations when I'm ordering battalions.' I thought with interest remembering Iruka from the anime having something similar.

Right after this everybody including me repeated his words.

"Love the village…!"

"Have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work!"

"Have a mind that…!"

"And finally, be healthy in mind and body."

With that little chant over, the class went back to a silent atmosphere that didn't really suit kids their age.

Looking around with a lazy look, I observe and counted that the class had 55 students in total. This seemed like a decent amount considering it's the class expected to house future Peak Chunin and higher.

While this might not seem impressive, Jounin is a rank not easily obtainable by anyone. You first need to get past the Jounin council and most likely have connections with the higher-ups of the village.

After all all the Jounin that are shown in the anime are from a clan. If the person is a civilian then they have a direct connection to a kage or elder.

'Hopefully getting the attention of Hiruzen will be enough.'

As I was thinking to myself, Funeno sensei started to talk about the curriculum.

"You guys over the up and coming years will learn about maths, reading, writing, science and geography. This will also include separate classes." He went on to explain how ninjutsu, taijutsu and the basics of genjutsu classes were mandatory and you couldn't skip them. But other stuff like Genjutsu, Medical ninjutsu and Bukijutsu (Weapon Techniques).

(A/N: Using swords is called kenjutsu but Bukijutsu is a more universal term for all weapon techniques.)

All of them interested me so I'm probably gonna invest heaps of months into each one.

Especially Bukijutsu and Medical Ninjutsu.

"Alright everybody we're gonna get to see the Hokage for the first day, get in a line," Funeno says which immediately caused a ruckus. Most if not all students were excited to meet the symbol of power of their village.

"Dude we get to see the Hokage on the first day!"

"Isn't he old though?"

"I reckon I could beat the Hokage and take his place."

As the kids conversed, this disaster of a class somehow lined up properly and headed outside. It took a few minutes but when we made it to the yard, the rest of the new classes I assume are already there.

After everyone settled down the class sat in our own little group away from the rest and silently waited for the Hokage to speak.

"The Hokage has a serious presence," I whisper to Itachi. The Uchiha hearing this nodded and looked in front of the man himself with an awed expression.

The Professor…

No, that would be too simple.

He's the God of Shinobi.

A earned title seeing that he was able to lead the village through multiple shinobi wars. Even when every other great shinobi village was against him, he lead Konoha to victory.

His intelligence?

His strength?

He was the peak of power in the shinobi world and no matter the haters, the title must of had a feat worth getting it.

"Hello young academy students, my name… is Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves. The Shinobi no Kami." Hiruzen simply states.

All of the kids watching his little introduction got stars in their eyes seeing how cool he was. Un-ironically his small speech with his podium made even me fanboy a little.

The rest of the little visit wasn't too interesting though as he constantly talked about the "will of fire". As he finished the rest of his words, the classes went back into our classes.

The classic mass brainwashing.

'It's time to actually do work.' I thought eager to learn. While subjects like science and geography might seem uninteresting, everything will be put into a shinobi situation.

So nothing in the academy is truly useless if you actually learn it.

…

"For this taijutsu lesson, we will be doing body conditioning. After that, I'll show you guys the academy taijutsu katas." Funeno announces which didn't excite most kids. This probably derives from the fact most kids here learned from their clans.

So this mainly benefits civilians.

It's been a few hours now and I've already finished a few classes. These included maths and geography which I was able to note everything down with a book given to me by the academy.

After those classes, we went into the practical classes in which Itachi and I stood out the most due to not missing any targets.

As our sensei was going through the role of who was here, a student walked up to him and started to talk. This attracted my attention and most of the students in class.

The kid had long spiky brown hair and dark eyes. He didn't look too special but certainly seemed pampered.

"Hey, sensei can I request to spar with someone?" He asked clearly aggravated. Funeno who saw this got a serious look but shortly thought about it.

"If the student agrees then there's no problem."

"Okay then!" The kid said quickly turning around towards my direction. And to my absolute "delight" I thought he was gonna choose Itachi or something, but the name that came out of his mouth made me sigh.

"Shin I challenge you to a spar! Don't accept if you chicken!" He shouts like some arrogant young master which he probably was.

'God damnit bro.'

With a deadpan look, I turned to look at Itachi who was currently holding himself back from full-on laughing. Walking up to the sensei I realised that this was a good opportunity.

'This isn't a bad thing per se. I should take all the taijutsu spars I can get to improve. Maybe learning the katas of the academy style would help though.'

With this thought in mind, a wide grin adorned my face. The kid who challenged me saw this and might have gotten a shiver down his spine.

"I accept sensei!"

With this settled both the kid who I still don't know the name of went inside the sparring circle. This was a place in the middle of the grounds where the whole school could watch.

Students in the hallways, teachers from the towers and people on the grounds of course could see.

A group started to form and surround the circle from a decent distance as sensei was watching the spar.

"Alright do the seal of confrontation like this." He quickly explained to which both the kid and I nodded. After a little bit of waiting, we finally could throw it down. Now fighting a child isn't my proudest moment but to further my goals I'll need this experience.

No mercy I'd say.

"Okay Saisu, Shin, the spar will start soon."

With all the pleasantries out of the way, we both did the seal of confrontation and made space between each other.

"Start!" Funeno announces. The students in the hallways, upstairs and on the grounds were all cheering wanting to see action.

"Who do ya think is gonna win?"

"That Shin kid is way bigger than Saisu. It's obviously him."

"Saisu is from the Kamano clan no?"

"Beat his ass!"

With the match now underway, instead of running to the middle I lightly walk there. With my bigger frame and height I should comfortably win as nothing other than taijutsu is allowed. Saisu should be quite impatient and I can take advantage of that.

Saisu with a smug grin ran forward cocking his fist back ready to punch.

"Trying to hide?" The kid smugly says as he made his way closer. Observing which hand he'll punch with, I predict a bad straight punch and dodge to the right.

The distance is now quite close as I do a forward kick to get him off balance. Saisu who almost fell regained himself with vigour and ran forward to punch again.

This time instead of dodging the hit, I catch his fist with my left hand and pull him towards me.

"Wha-" Saisu getting a bad feeling tried to defend himself by moving his other arm to his head.

But that wasn't my target.

Using the momentum from my pull, I do some sort of rear upper cut to his chest which took the air out of his lungs.

Soon after landing the hit I let go and do another forward kick to send the kid falling down, desperate for air.

'I think I went a bit too far.' I thought with sweat going down my face. Sensei quickly announced the winner seeing that Saisu couldn't get up and was struggling due to the pain.

The crowd of students were silent but after that quick dismantling, they started to cheer and whistle.

"Let's go!"

"A civilian beat a clan kid!"

"That kid needs to learn his place…"

Turning around I see Itachi holding a thumbs up for the quick win. Getting a smirk I retried the gesture while sensei walked up to the circle and helped Saisu up.

After doing the seal of reconciliation with Saisu who had a shameful look. The lesson went on without a hitch as no one else wanted a spar.

The remaining time was spent doing physical exercises and later learning the katas. Thankfully the katas weren't anything crazy with only five moves, so I was able to book em down easily on the first lesson.

'Guren will need to learn about all of this.' I thought looking back at my note book. Personalising what she learns without any Konoha brainwashing is a must.