4 The way of a ninja
Ryo, after a long day of initiation at the ninja academy, was assigned to a housing center where he would stay. His room was on the second floor facing the street. Upon entering, Ryo observed the place where he would live for the next few years, realizing it was a small apartment.
"Better than I expected, really. It has a bathroom, a bedroom, and the living room is combined with the kitchen. Quite simple. In Japan, something like this would be quite expensive, but here they manage to provide one for each academy student."
He knew that due to the Nine-Tails attack a few years ago, the village was still recovering, especially with tensions between other villages. Ryo entered the small new apartment, holding a bag in his hands.
"The ninja who accompanied me here told me there were some ninja food bars that had everything a ninja needed and would last me the month if I ate one at each meal, but I'm not going to survive on ninja bars. I also have 1000 ryos; I'll go out later and see how much everything costs in the market."
He had no idea of the value of the ryos he had received for the current Konoha market. Walking to the room, he put the bag aside and sat on the bed. Everything was silent at the moment until he heard a loud voice coming from upstairs.
"Oh no, seriously?"
The voice belonged to Naruto, who was making a scene about the new house. Ryo remembered that Naruto had probably stayed in the orphanage until then, and only now had received the house that appeared in the anime, which was on the top floor. Ryo slapped his hand to his face, chuckling.
"I'm Naruto's neighbor, then? This is going to be more fun than I imagined."
With that thought, he began to arrange the items and clothes he had in the room's cabinets, which didn't take long since he didn't have much. A few changes of clothes only, which didn't take much time to arrange. And with that, the day came to an end, with everything getting dark once again.
Ryo, lying on the bed after having done a light workout in the living room, looked at the ceiling, listening to Naruto's heavy footsteps as he ran back and forth for some time until finally, all was silent, and Ryo fell asleep.
The day began early for him, waking up at 5 o'clock in the morning. After eating one of the ninja bars, he went out and started running. Not far away was a park with trees where ninjas trained. There, Ryo did his morning routine, leaving nothing out, from body exercises to chakra control training. By 6 o'clock, he returned home, got ready, and headed to the academy.
After arriving at the academy, he saw several children at the entrance, though a small number compared to the exam day. At the entrance of the academy, there were some ninjas directing everyone to go to a hall where all new students had to be.
"Is there going to be a speech?" Ryo wondered as he saw the Hokage in the background of the hall with two ANBU ninjas by his side. "Now, I'm going to see the legendary ninja speech by Sarutobi!" He smiled, and as a few more minutes passed, more young people entered, and then the door of the hall closed, and the Hokage walked to give his speech.
- Welcome, everyone, to the ninja academy. From today, all of you will be trained by the best ninjas of Konoha to become great ninjas and protect everyone. I see in each of your eyes that the Will of Fire continues to burn strongly. I expect great things from all of you. -
This was followed by a few more good and long minutes of a speech that ended with everyone being released, and finally, the first day of class began. Walking to the classroom, Ryo sat in a row to the right, where until then, no one was sitting, but soon the rest of the children entered, rushing to sit down like a deluge of water, and by coincidence or not, Ryo found himself in the middle of Sasuke and Naruto, one on each side.
Naruto sat beside him simply because Sakura was in the row in front, but as for Sasuke, Ryo had no idea why he chose that spot. Behind him, with a flushed face, Ryo could see Hinata, who glanced at Naruto from time to time.
"Ah, yes ... Hinata already had an interest in Naruto, right? I remember something like that in one of the recent movies, with the flashback of the scarf."
Kiba was in the row furthest back with Akamaru on his head. Both yawned together, not being very interested in the class. Shikamaru had his arms on the desk, resting his head on them.
"Is he already asleep? It must be a family thing, all Naras can be lazy like this."
Naruto fidgeted beside him, while Sasuke looked at him disdainfully, and Ryo sighed, knowing it was going to be a long year ahead. Nonetheless, he had to calm his rapidly beating heart; after all, he was among the two who would one day become the strongest ninjas ever.
"Yes, and I have to be among them somehow. I don't think I'll be able to stay with them for long, at least not after Sasuke runs away with Orochimaru, and Naruto trains with Jiraiya ... Not much was said about what happens in the village during that time."
While Ryo pondered what would happen in the untold story of the manga, he saw Iruka arranging some papers on the desk, reading the names of the list of students he would have, and thinking. "This year, there are some interesting figures in my class: two Uchihas, a Hyuga, a Inuzuka, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and..." He looked at the name towards the end of the list.
"Shimura Ryo."
This reminded him of the day before in the Hokage's office:
Just allowed to enter the office, Iruka could see the old Sarutobi sitting in his chair.
"Hokage-sama, I'm here because you called me!"
Hiruzen removed the pipe from his mouth with a slight smile as he spoke. "Yes, Iruka, I wanted to talk to you about your students this year. I imagine you already know some of them from the exam."
Iruka nodded as he looked at the Hokage, who continued to speak.
"This year, we have some figures in your class who are promising, just like the Uchihas and the young Hyuuga. We have Naruto... You already know about him, but what came as a surprise to me was a visit I received a month ago."
Iruka looked with a puzzled expression at Hiruzen, trying to understand what the old Hokage was talking about. Hiruzen promptly took a drag from the pipe again and continued speaking.
- Shimura Sora, an old friend of mine, came to inform me about her grandson's enrollment. - Iruka recognized the surname, but couldn't really make a connection with anything, perhaps with a shop he had seen in the past.
- The Shimuras were a family of strong ninjas with their own special ninjutsu. In fact, they weren't officially recognized as one of Konoha's clans because they always lived in small numbers. However, their lethality was unmatched by almost anyone. But after the last ninja war, they lost many family members, leaving only a few behind. Then came the attack of the Nine-Tails, practically sealing the fate of the Shimura family. -
Hiruzen spoke with a heaviness in his voice, recalling flashbacks of the battle against the fox, the death of Konoha's Yellow Flash, and many more losses suffered that day.
- The point is, I didn't expect the last son of the Shimura family to want to return to the path of the ninja, and that's a good thing for Konoha. Shimura Ryo, I saw the results of his exam, and they were average. However, if he masters the family's ninjutsu, he will be an important force for Konoha,
That's precisely why he's in this class, Iruka. Help him and the others become great ninjas by guiding them on the right path. -
After that, Iruka asked a few questions and then left the Hokage's office, leaving Hiruzen alone once again as he puffed his pipe, exhaling smoke from his mouth. "First, Second, the Will of Fire will burn strongly in Konoha once again. I wish you could see it, and you too, Minato... Naruto will become a good ninja."
Returning to the present:
Iruka then made the roll call to see if all the students were present. Ryo listened to the names and nothing stood out, though there were some names that were strange to him since they were mostly random students in the class. But one name caught his attention when Iruka said,
- Uchiha Sae, are you present? -
Ryo raised an eyebrow as he looked to the side, seeing the girl respond. Just like Sasuke. Uchiha Sae had a neutral expression, with long dark hair like everyone else in the Uchiha clan, and deep eyes. She was the same age as everyone else there.
"An Uchiha in the main class?..."
