Ch-3

At the Ninja Academy, that is a huge building in the Leaf Village located directly at the base of the Hokage Mountain.

In the lower section of the building, through the door of a big classroom, one can see a senior ninja, a teacher's own table. And in front of the table were wide stairs, on which two sets of wooden seats and desks were placed. There was a wide partition between the two sets. The seats were occupied by the young generation, consisting of merely 7-year children. These children were prospective ninjas, currently in training.

There were diverse kinds of children sitting, none wearing a same pattern of clothes. Some children had brown hair, some had blonde hair.

There was a girl who had pink hair, there was a boy who had bright, dazzling yellow hair.

Amongst all these diverse children, there were two children who had a same, identical pattern printed on the backs of their shirts. The concerned pattern was symbol of the Uchiha Clan. Both of the children had same kind of unusual black spiky hair and jet-black eyes.

One was currently sitting on the seat, with no notable expression on his face whatsoever. His name was Sasuke Uchiha, son of the head of the Uchiha Clan as well as the leader of the Konoha Military Police Force, Fugaku Uchiha.

The second Uchiha child was sitting on the uppermost and leftmost seat close to the windows. He was Shou Uchiha, the protagonist of this story.

He wore an expressionless mask on his face. He paid no heed to the other children around him who were talking to each other.

His eyes were focused on the book that was settled on his desk. The book was open. And the pages were flipping themselves, or rather Shou's fingers were flipping the pages one by one. His jet-black eyes ticked back and forth in subtle motions as he continued paging through his book, never pausing. He was going at a page per second, which made it look as if he were scanning each page for defect rather than actually reading them.

However, everyone in the room knew that he was absorbing each and every word of the book.

Despite the astounding speed with which the child was reading the book, no child present in the classroom complimented him.

They had repeatedly performed that particular action in the early days and now knew that the child was not looking for any compliments.

The children, besides Shou were chattering between themselves except for one girl. That girl was fair-skinned with light-bluish eyes and short platinum blonde hair. Her name was Ino Yamanaka, the young heiress of the know Yamanaka Clan. If one would have a crush, they would, normally, steal glances at their crush, without making it obvious.

However, that girl was constantly looking 'lovingly' at Shou, who currently didn't show any interest in her and simply immersed himself in reading his book.

This action of hers made it clear that she was a brazen and bold child, having no shame in looking continiously at her crush. Few days ago, she boldly declared her love to him, during the class, in front of the teacher who shook his head helplessly. Any other child would admire her for being so bold. However, Shou was not any other child. He thought that she was an immature girl, who mistaked admiring him as loving him.

As mentioned before, Shou alongwith Sasuke Uchiha, had leading grades in the Academy. Shou was a child, blessed with a beautiful and even-featured face.

Other than the class, during the break and other activites, he keeps a pleasant and polite facade when interacting with his peers.

Thus, resulting in him befriending all his peers. Some of his peers had civilian-parents, some had ninja-parents, some had parents who were members of Shinobi Clans and some were orphans.

As the chattering of the class was going on, the closed door of the classroom opened with a sliding sound and revealed the teacher of the class. The class suddenly got quiet at the timed arrival of a Chunin of the Village who was their teacher.

The teacher came into the room and stood behind his desk. He had a glinting plate with the sign of Konohagakure on it. The metal plate was attached into a cloth, that was wrapped around his head. He was a man of average height and build. He had brown hair that he kept in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose.

His name was Iruka Umino.

His hands currently on his desk, he said,

"All right, students, good morning..."

'Most' of his students wished him back.

He spoke cheerfully with a smile,

"Now then, it's time for the class to start."

After sometime of teaching,

Iruka looked at the children, his eyes scanning each one of them until stopping at a particular child who was even now reading his book in an astonishing speed.

There he is, Iruka thought.

Iruka spoke,

"Hey, Shou? Could you put your book down for a little while.."

Shou's reply was quiet as he continued paging through his book, with no change in his behavior or even his line of sight.

"It's all right, sensei. I'm listening to the lecture."

"In that case, there's no problem, is there?!", Iruka exclaimed, pinching his nose, exasperated, having already expected this reply and continued the lesson.

The boy clicked his tongue quietly, then focused his attention entirely on the book.