Chapter 1, New beginnings

It was a day just like any other at Konoha, at least in recent days. The sky was clear, the children were laughing, and the town was full of people running in and out of shops. There was one thing of note to make this day special, the academy was starting up today.

The new class of hopeful future ninjas was a wide mixture of children from the clans and commoners from the village. Most of them had their families there with them, all with a mixture of emotion. From pride to nervosity and everything in between.

One of the children who were alone was a small dark brown-haired girl with red eyes with a tiny black pupil in them. Almost everyone there knew who she was. Her grandfather was the third hokage and her father was a hero to many. Sarutobi Mirai has simply run away from her mother in the commotion of it all. She didn't do it out of anger or out of sadness, but she was so excited about getting to know new people she couldn't stand still. Kurenai couldn't keep up. Mirai looked behind her with a large smile to confirm she lost her mother and then suddenly it all went dark for a second.

When she opened her eyes the next time her eyes met with the boy she apparently ran in to. He had bright yellow eyes which almost felt like they were glowing. Mirai felt how she for once was stunned and couldn't get a word out. He managed to though, "Yo!" he said, with a small wave.

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Hikaru had just been minding his own business, making sure to stand somewhere in the back. He was afraid of making enemies with any of the powerful clans in Konoha he had heard of, so he figured he'd stay at the back of the crowd with the rest of the commoners. That was when Hikaru saw a brown-haired girl apparently having the time of her life amid all this stale boredom that was the introduction speech. He then realized she was running right towards him, but surely she was looking where she was running. When she was just a few meters away she turned her head 'uh oh..' and *smash* She fell right on top of him.

He was in a slight shock but then she opened her eyes and looked at him, Hikaru just gave her a wave and a simple greeting "Yo!". He waited a few seconds but didn't get a response, so he tried to get her off so he could get up "Sorry, you're too heavy for me!".

When the girl heard that her expression instantly changed into an annoyed one and she punched him in the stomach before getting up and running back to, what Hikaru assumed was her mother.

Her punch wasn't all that powerful but it caught him by surprise, so he lost his breath for a couple of seconds. A boy with brown hair that stood straight up, only being held there by his headband, reached out a hand "Need some help?"

Hikaru took a good look at the boy. He had a very kind smile, he didn't particularly seem to feel sorry for Hikaru but more likely thought it was funny. "Sure, but who was that?" Hikaru grabbed the helpful boy's hand and got up on his feet once more. "That? That was Mirai, she's the third's granddaughter. Are you not from around here?"

Hikaru wasn't even going to try to hide it so he proudly stated "No I grew in the land of Tea. My parents are farmers there but sent me here to become a ninja so although I know the big names, I haven't seen any faces yet. I'm Hikaru by the way" Hikaru gave him a brilliant smile and noticed that two others now stood beside the helpful boy. "I'm Tsukune and these two are my friends Mibuna and Sansho!" He motioned towards a boy and a girl on either side of him.

The boy was very short and had black hair almost covered by his purple cap and the girl was tall for her age, taller than all of us. She had very warm eyes and one of which was partly covered by her brown hair. Her hair was supposed to be kept up in a tail at the back by her bow, but she had done it sloppily today it seems.

At that point the introduction speech was apparently over and all of the children were called in for their first class. Hikaru had missed everything but hoped the information was only important for parents. Tsukune gestured for him to follow and he did.

The four of them entered the classroom for the first time together. There was nothing special about the classroom of course but everyone was excited. The four of them grabbed their seats by the back of the class and waited for their teacher. Hikaru spent this time looking around and tried to put the people's faces, or the back of their heads if he was unlucky, to memory.

The only one he really managed to do so with before the teacher arrived was the brown-haired girl from before. The teacher was a fairly puny man with a scar across his face and his chestnut brown hair tied up above his head.

"Hello class! I'm Iruka and I'll be your teacher at this academy. Let's make you all into excellent ninjas in the future!"