12 Chapter 9: How to be a model student.
Some people believed that Konoha's most important and impressive site was none other than the great monument dedicated to the Kages of the leaf, those great heroes of the past who lived for the betterment of the village. Even to this date, they were remembered with both the admiration and fear they earnt with their blood and sweat. Without a doubt, the mere sight of those faces sculpted on the brown rock was a marvel that few natural wonders could hope to overcome.
Others thought that the monument to those who fell in battle was the most important site in all Konoha since that is where the village commemorated those who died in the name of the totally not a totalitarian regime.
Both groups were wrong. The truth was that the most important and sacred place in all Konoha was none other than the ninja academy, Harashima's greatest creation, the answer found by the man who dreamed of a peaceful world where children wouldn't be sent to die (sadly, Tobirama created the chunin exams a few years later) after a whole life filled with war and loss.
Truly, Tobirama was the worst thing that had ever happened to the ninja world. If it wasn't for that albino assholes, the world would have achieved everlasting peace decades ago (the narrator has not been bribed by the Uchiha…he is concurrently being held hostage by Sasuke Uchiha. Please, send help before that crazy bastard realize that I am breaking the fourth wall and dec-…nothing is wrong, ignore this last delusional rambling and keep reading the fanfic).
Anyways, even a person that had seen impressive modern buildings in their old world, like Sasuke Uchiha, couldn't help but to be amazed by all the effort that went into this large building where the will of fire was passed on from the hardworking teachers to the impressionable children that still believed that stabbing someone because they were using a metal headband with a different design was the rightful and honorable thing to do. Harashima would be proud of such complete indoctrination that went against most of his dreams.
To be perfectly honest, the academy was a great idea to unify the new generation of clans and civilians that had just decided to form part of this village thing. Sadly, Tobirama ruined, the albino was an asshole, the only difference between him and a plate of shit was the plate. And the completely unbiased narrator that wasn't being threaten by anyone agreed with that statement.
"Sasuke, are you paying attention?"
The young Uchiha blinked, just remembering that he was still in class.
"HnnnnHnn"
"What?"
The sacred language was still beyond his reach, but he could feel that he was slowly getting closer to the colossal amount of smug, disdain and condescension necessary to truly speak it.
"Sorry, Iruka. I was talking shit about the Nindaime inside my head."
Since he learnt about the sincere love that his parents held, and were unable to properly convey because they emotional intelligent could be compared to a bowl of fruit, for him and his brother, Sasuke had tried to his best to follow some of the Uchiha's ancient traditions.
"Iruka-sensei."
"Iruka-senpai." He compromised.
"…I will take it." His senpai wisely relented. "Look, I know traditions are important, but we are in the middle of a class. It is disrespectful to your classmates that you aren't paying attention while they do their best to train alongside you."
Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance. The only reason the young Uchiha was still here was because the ANBU raised signatures to make sure that he wouldn't be allowed to join them unless he accepted the honor of becoming the sixth Hokage after his older cousin. Those crooked bastards.
"Fine, I will do my best."
Since there was nothing better to do with his time, he may as well try to be friendly with his classmates.
He deliberately ignored Kiba praying for the soul of those poor kids.
-----------------------------------------------
Taijutsu:
Sasuke still had some mixed feelings about beating the shit out of children in this so called taijutsu sparing, but the opportunity to follow that ancient Uchiha tradition of hiding insecurities by bullying people and acting smug around those weaker than oneself was too tempting to resist it.
Full of youthful energy, Sasuke gave a thumb up to the sleep deprived black haired kid in front of his, he even casted the sunset genjutsu and all. It took him months to learn that trick, but it was worthy.
Shikamaru's gaze flickered between Sasuke, the sunset, before it finally settled on Iruka.
"Iruka-sens-."
"You can't surrender before fighting, Shikamaru."
"Troublesome." The Nara sighed and closed his eyes. "Please, make this quick"
"Don't worry, the geese taught me how to dispatch an opponent quickly without killing him."
"That…doesn't make me feel any safer."
Sasuke nodded. "Yes, that is probably smart."
*Cough* Iruka not so subtly reminded the kids that they were supposed to beat the shit of each other. He was such a nice teacher. Neither of them took any kind of stance. The Nara just looked at the sky and then just stared at Sasuke who was smiling.
"I hope this doesn't hu-"
Sasuke closed the distance between the two with a short Shunshin.
" SHORYUKEN"
...
...
...
"When is he coming down?" Iruka finally asked after looking at the sky for about five minutes.
"If my calculations are correct, he should be touching the ground in thirty-six sec-"
*Thud*
"...now."
"I…hate you all." Groaned a wounded kid.
Thank David Bowie that ninja medicine was bullshit.
---------------------------------------------
Genjutsu
Iruka's POV:
Iruka considered himself a simple man, a regular chunin teacher with little to no room for any further grown…not that he was really interested in becoming stronger either, he wasn't a particularly violent person, he would rather keep living a boring life, teaching children about the basics of being a ninja from Konoha and maybe math. Now that he thought about it, he spent more time teaching the multiplication tables than anything else. That couldn't be good for the children's future, so he would probably need to speak with the Sandaime about modifying the concurrent curriculum in order to make sure that the children would at least know the basics about being a ninja before their graduation. Things like not wearing orange...unless you were Naru*o, but they strangely able to move with stealth despite that.
Anyways, he was being not paid enough for what was happening now.
"What did you do to Sakura?"
"Nothing?" Replied Sasuke with uncertainness.
Iruka just scowled and glared at him, he didn't have years of teaching experience for nothing.
"Hey! I only told her that she was already inside a genjutsu, I didn't expect her to react like this."
The Uchiha then pointed at the pink haired girl who was concurrently starring at the ground without blinking. Sakura had been writing nonsense about Solipsism and the futility of existence for almost an hour and there was no sign of it stopping anytime soon.
"Oh my sage! Everything I know is fake, maybe my whole live is a well-constructed lie. What if I am just a brain inside a jar that is imagining the word around it? What if I am just part of a gargantuan genjutsu casted by a giant artificial serpent that will punish my eternal being for not helping in their creation in the first place? Maybe I am just a butterfly dreaming about being Sakura Haruno! "
The scarred chunin teacher massaged the bridge of his nose. He would need to call the Yamanaka therapists for the fifth time this week.
-----------------------------------------------
Lunch
Shisui's POV:
If someone had told Shisui that he would become the favorite candidate for the position of Godaime, he would have laughed in their faces before pointing at Itachi with his thumb. Shisui didn't suffer from an inferiority complex or something like that, he was well aware that he was one of the best shinobi in the village, it was just that he didn't need the sharingan to see that Itachi was better suited for the position. But since that was no longer a viable option, the heavy responsibility fell on his shoulders.
Now his days consisted of training to avoid being killed by enemy ninjas, or Danzo, and following the Sandaime in his daily routine in order to familiarize himself with his future job.
All the work felt more like a duty to his late family than an honor. In truth, the only positive thing that came out of the death of almost all of his relatives was that every bag of chips he ate was now family size.
HahahahaOh… he made himself sad.
"Being Hokage is about being able to look at the village and then think ¨they are my pride and I want the best for them.¨" The Sandaime explained.
"Hokage-sama." Greeted a member of ANBU wearing a tiger mask. And because no self-respecting shinobi used a door, the room was now filled with chakra smoke. "We have just received a report from the academy about Uchiha Sasuke. It seems that he spent lunch explaining to the other children about how the ninja system brainwashed children to make them believe that the only conceivable way to obtain everlasting peace is through an ultranationalism where everyone that isn't part of the village is a potential danger to it and whoever tries to challenge this idea will be portrayed as traitor to the glorious will of fire…. and something about how having a crush in a girl that has been dead for decades isn't true love nor it is a good excuse to commit a genocide."
That seemed like something his little cousin would say.
"Should we follow protocol US-11 or SU-39?"
The Sandaime looked the birds outside and after making sure they were indeed birds; he took a deep breath.
"My experience with Asuma has taught me that it is a common event for a parent to feel disappointed in his children." The Hokage told him without missing a breath. "Continue with protocol SU-00."
When Shisui was finally (seemingly) alone with the Hokage, the Uchiha asked a very important question. "Isn't protocol SU-00 the same as doing nothing?"
"Another important lesson any leader should know is that sometimes you need to trust your subordinates. Have faith on them."
So he could in fact ignore Sasuke's bullshit. That was good to know.
