Academy Arc 2

Calming myself down and affixing a mask of indifference contrary to my inner turmoil, I opened the sliding door and entered the classroom to meet the infamous 'Rookie 9' for the first time.

It seemed that I was still early as barely half the students have arrived. As I made my way to one of the seats near the middle section, I scanned through the seated children, spotting a few who I was intimately familiar with.

The first that caught my eye was the dark haired Uchiha Sasuke, the future prominent rival of the protagonist. He had yet to experience the Uchiha clan massacre, so unlike his cold and brooding countenance in the anime, here he was merely quiet and looked rather disinterested with the rest of his class. Turning on [Observe], I took a quick look at his status to compare to my own.

Uchiha Sasuke Lv 10

HP: 1670/1670

CP: 2330/2330

Sasuke is a student of Konohagakure's Shinobi Academy, belonging to the prominent Uchiha clan that boasts the copy-eye bloodline, the Sharingan. He is a talented child who believes the academy will only hold him back as he wants to graduate early like his brother and follow in his footsteps.

Sasuke thinks that you are unimportant, and he is not interested in you.

Sasuke is stronger than you.

Hm? There was a new piece of information in the [Observe] window. Oh right, the preparation quest levelled up all my skills. I guess [Observe] was not excluded from it. I wondered how the system appraised his strength. Was it through levels, stats or a holistic overview of the individuals skills and experience?

Taking a seat, I opened my status window discreetly to check out my new stats from my recent level up and skill effects. I would also be lying if I said I wasn't interested in checking the new title I had just received from the insidious bonus objective.

Name: Shinji Ikari

Age: 7

Level: 9

Next Level: 280/2250

HP: 1550/1550

CP: 3410/3410

STR: 25

VIT: 22

DEX: 30

INT: 53

CHA: 7

Points – 38

Ryo – 16830

Perks:

[Lesser Chakra Sensitivity]: You have acquired a burgeoning talent in your ability to sense and manipulate chakra.

+20% to chakra-related skill effects

+10% increase to CP recovery rate

+10% increase to max CP

-10% CP cost to all chakra-related skills

Titles:

[Zealous Student]: +20% EXP gain to all skills when in the Shinobi Academy

[Life Saver]: +1 Point every time you save a life

Skills:

[Observe] (Active) LVL: 4

The ability to read information about the targeted object or person through observation.

Improved proficiency in the ability reveals more information.

[Basic Body Conditioning] (Passive) LVL: 6

Increases your body's strength, speed and endurance through training

+6% to physical damage

+6% to movement speed

-6% to physical damage taken

+6% to physical stat growth rate

[Shurikenjutsu] (Passive) LVL: 5

Increases accuracy of thrown shuriken and kunai by 50%

Increases damage dealt by thrown shuriken and kunai by 50%

[Knife Fighting] (Passive) LVL: 3

Increases damage dealt with small, bladed weapons by 30%

[Beginner Taijutsu Mastery] (Passive) LVL: 4

+4% to physical damage

+4% to movement speed

[Meditation] (Active) LVL: 5

+35% to CP regeneration

+35% to HP regeneration

[Leaf Concentration Exercise] (Passive/Active) LVL 5

CP Cost: 3 per second

+5% to chakra control

[Stealth] (Passive) LVL 4

When sneaking, +20% harder to be detected.

[Konoha Academy Taijutsu] (Passive) LVL 2

When using this taijutsu style,

+4% to physical damage

+4% to movement speed

-4% physical damage taken

[Power Strike] (Active) Lvl 2

CP Cost: 95

Increases the damage dealt by your next physical attack by 40%

I resisted the urge to whistle at my status screen appreciatively, especially looking at the level 6 basic body conditioning. I had noticed that as my skills levelled up, it became progressively harder and harder to increase their levels. As such, quest rewards that could directly level up my skills were greater time-savers than one would think.

What truly awed me was the lifesaver perk. Every time I saved a life I would gain a free stat point. Wasn't that simply ridiculous? If I were to save a thousand people, would I receive 1000 points? Or if I somehow repeated my past life's deed and somehow save the entire planet, would I receive billions, or considering the population of the elemental nations, millions of points?

And besides, wasn't the system being counterintuitive if it rewarded me every time I saved someone because then my motivations would not be pure since I would be doing it for the stat point instead of sincere altruism?

Maybe the system would only reward me with the stat point if I directly saved someone from harm's way and only for selfless reasons?

Then a thought struck me. Who saved the most lives in the world? No, not shinobi – they killed more than they saved. Nor was it the Uchiha police force. Doctors were the ones who saved the most lives, medic-nins in particular.

If I were to work as a medic-nin the Konoha hospital, or better yet in some makeshift first-aid tent on a battlefield, wouldn't I be able to rapidly accumulate stat points just by doing my job?

But what if the system didn't count healing someone as saving a life? Or would saving people as an occupation not be regarded as altruistic lifesaving? Urgh… there were too many questions and not enough answers. Damn you system, explain yourself!

Slowly, more and more students shuffled in, some nervous while others were already chatting noisily with their friends. Speaking of friends, the girl from my orphanage, Kaori, was here too and she had moved to sit right next to me upon seeing me enter the classroom and started chatting her mouth off about how glad she was that we were going to be together in the same class and other such inane topics.

I was honestly not very interested in entertaining her little crush but neither did I want to cruelly shut her down. So I compromised and settled on an aloof disposition when dealing with her and absentminded, lukewarm responses while tuning her out. Mind you, I did not mistake her possible friendliness and comfort around me for puppy love as it plainly told me so in her status.

I was more invested in checking out the other more notable characters that were in or entering the classroom. From my generous usage of [Observe], I learned that most of the students from a civilian background had very low levels between 4 and 5 and one even as low as 3, while clanless students who had shinobi parentage were mid-levelled at around 6, 7 and 8.

The clan heirs and heiresses, however, were impressively around 8 and 9 while Sasuke was the highest one at level 10. Which also meant that I was comfortably at the clan-heir standard. Although it would also be foolish to disregard their accumulated skills and innate advantages afforded to clan members.

As I surveyed the young-versions of the characters I had only seen through the screen, I felt a sudden and odd sense of surrealness. Only now did my cognition of my new reality set in. I really was in the Naruverse, and all the characters that had always been mere drawings on a piece of fiction were now living, breathing people.

I wanted to sombrely reflect on my new circumstances, what with all my loved ones left behind in my previous life, but all I could feel was a palpable excitement and elation coursing through my veins. Kaori, sensing my jubilation, blushed, mistaking it for a gesture of perceived affection.

A minute before class began, a familiar-looking chunin with a distinctive scar across the bridge of his nose who I recognized to be Umino Iruka walked in, holding a laminated file. "Alright settle down class, take your seats and we will start with a roll-call."

Seeing the instructor walking up the front of the room, the other students quietened down and sat down at their respective places.

"When I call your name, respond to let me know you're here. Aburame Shino." Iruka called out.

"Here." The stoic boy tersely responded. As Iruka continued calling out names, the door abruptly slammed open.

"I'M HERE!" A distinctly short, blonde child rushed in panting slightly. His identity obviously being the one and only spiky-haired blonde boy in Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto.

Iruka narrowed his eyes, "You're late."

"Heheh, sorry, I overslept!" The loud-mouthed blonde proudly proclaimed while also sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

The chunin furrowed his brows, "Don't be late again, Uzumaki."

Naruto widened his eyes and grinned, "Oh, you know my name already? Heheh, I must be making a name for myself already!" He swiped at his nose triumphantly.

In response, Iruka spat out brusquely, "Just sit down. Now."

To Naruto's credit, he simply brushed off the barely disguised hostility, as though he was unsurprised by the attitude, and took a seat near the back of the classroom. I raised an eyebrow at the apparent venom in Iruka's tone before remembering that the compassionate teacher had initially resented Naruto on account of the Kyuubi inside the child that had taken his parents from him. Iruka only lightened up after a year or two when he rescued Naruto from some Takigakure kunoichi after the child was tricked into retrieving some spoils from a battle with enemy shinobi outside the village.

Iruka cleared his throat and continued calling attendance. When he was done he started speaking.

"Good, everyone's here. Good morning class, and welcome to the Shinobi Academy. Before we begin, let me introduce myself. My name is Umino Iruka, I'm a chunin of Konohagakure and you can address me as Iruka-sensei. I will be your academy instructor for the duration of your education here until you graduate and become official genin."

"For the next four years, we will be imparting to you the fundamentals of the shinobi arts – not just how to fight, but a comprehensive curriculum that will serve as the foundation for your future careers. In the coming weeks, we will slowly ease you into your syllabus that is split into two, equally important portions – that is the theoretical aspect of becoming a shinobi, along with the practical side of applying theory to practice."

"Now, I like to start off every school year, especially for you first year students, with an order that should also be taken as a warning. What you will learn here are the shinobi arts, knowledge that can and will be dangerous if taken lightly and misused. So I want all of you to engrave what I say deep into your hearts – you are not to use what we will teach you frivolously and flagrantly outside the premises of the academy for any reason other than for training purposes or dangerous situations."

He paused, letting the words sink in.

"Any student, no matter who you are, if caught mishandling what they have been taught to cause harm or danger to civilians or other students without good reason, will be punished appropriately. And I can assure you, that if I find out any innocent person was harmed through reckless endangerment by any of your actions, I will be personally pushing for expulsion and subsequent restriction from learning any form of shinobi arts ever. Do I make myself clear?"

The students looked uncertainly at each other.

"Do I make myself clear!?" Iruka repeated, raising his voice.

"Hai sensei!" The class chorused.

"Good. Any questions before we begin our lessons proper?" The class shifted silently in their seats, but no one spoke up. "Very well then, we shall start off our first lesson with a brief introduction to some basic concepts and some history." Iruka picked up a chalk and began writing on the blackboard behind him.