-12- Deny, deny, and deny

Over the past 8 months, with Renji training relentlessly with Nobu every day, they both saw a ton of progress.

When he first started, he could barely keep a leaf balanced on his forehead for 45 seconds. He could now consistently hold it for 40 minutes, with not only his chakra control getting better, but so did his ability to concentrate.

He also improved in his elemental training, with him already moving on to cutting large twigs instead of leaves for wind, for lightning he could move the lightning bolt around his body as he adjusted the voltage instead of keeping the lightning stationary, and for water, he could already change the sphere into other shapes. They were usually really ugly versions, but he had moved past the sphere, so he was happy.

He was extremely happy with all of the progress he made in those areas, but what made him the happiest was his improvements in his body and his chakra reserves.

When they first started training together, he was always a little bit behind Nobu since Nobu had a 6 month head start, but now he was consistently outperforming him, even if it was just very slightly, in their daily training regime.

And what shocked him more than that was his chakra reserves. They had more than tripled in the last 8 months with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

He knew this was mostly due to his young age and that it would eventually slow down since that was exactly what his teacher said would happen. However, he had asked around, and everyone, including Nobu, said that 8 months after they had their chakra unlocked, their chakra reserves had only increased by 2 times on average.

He wasn't sure why he was the outlier, but he chalked it up to him being an Uzumaki. Deep down, he hoped it had to do with some cheat his reincarnation gave him, but he knew he was grasping at straws with that. If it hadn't happened yet, it likely never would

He wanted to talk to another Uzumaki, but he didn't know any his age, which surprised him since the academy was a melting pot of clans with kids from clans all over this continent. Even eternal rivals like the Uchiha and Senju clan, could be seen sitting in the same row in class.

So, the only Uzumaki he knew was his mom, and he wasn't sure if she ever had her chakra unlocked. Even if she did, it wasn't like he could ask her.

One day, Renji had enough and decided to ask Nobu why there didn't seem to be any Uzumakis in the academy. He was surprised to hear that while in the Hand, there was no set place for clans to live, and they made all the clans mix together to keep the Hand from having internal clan problems, there were three exceptions to that rule: the Uzumaki clan, the Tensei clan, and the Kajiya clan.

The Uzumaki clan was due to their fuinjutsu skills being far superior to all the other clans of this world, the Tensei clan due to their alchemy skills for the same reason, and the Kajiya clan was due to their weapon crafting.

The Uzumaki clan all lived around the fuinjutsu guild in the southwest side of the city, the Tensei clan lived next to the alchemy guild in the south part of the city, and the Kajiya clan lived around the blacksmith guild in the southeast part of the city.

Renji was surprised that alchemy was even a thing since it wasn't in the show, but he knew that this world was clearly different in many ways from the show and manga.

Upon finding out that all the Uzumakis lived in the southwest side of the city, he went home and asked his parents why they didn't live with the Uzumaki clan.

He was shocked to learn that not only were his mom and dad both special jounins from the Empire of Whirling Tides, but his mom was also a fuinjutsu grandmaster, and his dad was a master blacksmith.

The reason they didn't live with the Uzumaki clan was because, to them, those Uzumakis chose to be here and work for the Obsidian Hand, and they saw it as a betrayal to the Whirling Tides Empire and the world, so they refused to live alongside them and see them as fellow clan members.

He already knew the answer to the question, but he went ahead and asked why his parents decided to open a ramen restaurant instead of doing what they loved and were good at: being a fuinjutsu grandmaster and master blacksmith.

They both said that they refused to be any more a part of the Hand than they had to and that they didn't want the lives lost on their hands due to their seals and weapons.

Their answers made him a little nervous because he knew it wouldn't be long before they figured out he was in the ninja academy.

Based on their tone, it would be hard to convince them to let him be a ninja.

But for his brother's sake, he had already decided if they forced his hand, he would just have to either be homeless or hope Nobu's parents would let him live at their house.

However, he really loved his new parents and didn't want to lose them, so he hoped it didn't come to that.

Another month went by, and now was the day of the 1st-year final exam.

Renji expected there to be this big, rigorous test where they tested all the kids on their ninja skills, but he was a little disappointed to hear, especially due to all his hard work and improvement over the past 9 months, that the final exam for the 1st year was always just a written test going over what they had learned over the year.

He found out that it wasn't until the 2nd year of the academy that the ninja tests started to take place, and he couldn't wait.

***

He, of course, easily passed the test that was meant for 6 and 7-year-olds, which equaled about early teens if this was Earth. But being a young adult that was in his 4th year of college when he died, the test was too easy.

The summer came and went with him going over to 'play' with Nobu every chance his parents would let him.

Unfortunately, when there was 1 month left before school started back, they were ruthlessly insistent that he could not go anywhere with Nobu for the rest of the summer until he let them meet Nobu's parents, which he, of course, couldn't allow to happen.

Even though he had met Nobu's parents plenty of times and really liked them and got along with them, he knew they wouldn't lie for him. That just wasn't the kind of people they were, so it was bound to come up that he was in the ninja academy with Nobu. So he just had to deny, deny, and deny.

The rest of the summer went by with him being forced to do all he could secretly in his room and around the neighborhood when they would let him go outside, which was rare since they were mad at the way he was acting about Nobu's parents.

He understood from their perspective that he was being completely unreasonable, but being a kid came with its perks. He could act certain ways and get away with it, with his parents thinking he was just going through a phase.

But soon, it was time to go back to school.

This year, he was on the 2nd floor in room 2-G with the same teacher and kids.

He walked into class with about 10 minutes before class was set to start, and he saw Nobu sitting in the third to last row, just like they did all of last year.

Renji waved with a smile as he walked up and sat next to Nobu. "What's up, man? Sorry it's been a while. My parents finally couldn't take it anymore and wouldn't let me hang out with you until I took them to meet your parents."

"Yeah, that's about what I figured happened after about a week of you not showing up," Nobu said with a sigh.

"At least you got to train most of the summer. But anyway, what are you going to do? How much longer do you think you can hide it from them?" Nobu asked.

"I don't know, man. I think it's coming though, and I don't know how they're going to take it," Renji said as he began to whisper. "I mean, they really hate you know what."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I kind of told my parents about your problem. Even though they were mad at first that we had both been lying to them about this, even though we technically didn't lie, we just didn't tell them, they said that if it comes down to it, you could stay with us. They said that they would think you would choose your family over being a ninja, but they said they understood that it was a tough decision and that they wouldn't want you to be homeless, so there's that at least."

"Well, thanks. That means a lot and takes off some of the pressure," Renji said, deep in thought.