10. Academy and Becoming a Sponsor
Shizue was deep I her thoughts while she heard her mother shout "Shizue, have you finished your preparations for the academy?? It's starting tomorrow, in case you forgot!."
Shizue opened her eyes wide and thought 'Crap! I almost forgot about the academy because it was not that important and I was too busy planning for the Uchiha Incident damnit!!. Fortunately, there's nothing much to prepare. I just need to buy some ink and paper and I'll be good to go.'
Shizue then replied to her mother "I'll just have to buy some paper and ink. I'll go out and buy them in the evening."
"You totally forgot, didn't you?." Shizuka asked with a scolding tone.
"Hahaha" Shizue laughed with a sheepish tone.
"Humph, I know you probably already learned almost everything the academy has to offer. But still, attend it seriously and maybe make some friends. Try to have some fun while you are still young. Well....you can still have fun when you are an adult, but still, it's different you know." Shizuka said, trying to convince Shizue to take the academy seriously.
"Okay okay, I know." Shizue replied.
.....
The next day, Shizue and Hinata are walking into the academy grounds hands in hands while Shizuka and Haruhi are following behind them.
The academy is pretty much impossible to miss since it's a huge a*s building directly below the Hokage mountain. And today is the first day of the new semester so there are loads of students and their parents from both civilian and noble clan backgrounds.
Shizue, while feeling the softness of Hinata hand and looking around, thought 'Damn, there's a lot more people than I've expected. I don't remember Naruto's class having that much students. Maybe there's different classes.
Oh, I see some familiar faces. Shikarmaru, Choji a Ino are together with their parents. Oh, there's Sasuke. He seems to be different from his future brooding self, he looks quite happy. Damn, I should stop looking at him and other Uchihas or else, my conscience will start to eat me up.Sakura's here too, not fan-girling yet but she will be soon I guess.
Where's Naruto tho. Oh, there he is, on the legendary flashback swing. Damn, he looks miserable.Hang in there buddy. Now that, I can get close to you without being seen as suspicious , I'll at least make sure you can eat well and have friends to rely on. That's the least I could do for my favorite protagonist.'
A while later, students are told to line up neatly in. front of the raised podium. So Shizue and Hinata said goodbyes to their moms and walked up in front of the podium and lined up with the other kids.
A few minutes after the students are neatly lined up, the man, the myth, the legend, the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi himself walked up the podium to give the opening speech. The kids and have stars shinning inside their eyes and the adults have respect and admiration in their eyes looking at the Hokage. Well, except for the Uchiha and Hyuga clansmen. They still hate him.
Seeing this, Shizue thought 'Most of the village really respect the Hokage huh. Well, he IS The Hokage and a war hero so it makes sense. And most people have no knowledge about his fu*k ups and blunders. The propagandas probably helped too.
From what I have remembered from the series, he's actually a really good guy and he really wants the best for the village. He just misplaced his trust and overall just an incompetent leader. His ideals might work in peaceful times but Konohagakure is literally a military village and that kind of ideals just won't work in a warring times.
He's a really good guy so I might just save him in the Konoha Crush but he's gotta retire.'
After the excited children quieted down, Hiruzen cleared his throat and started his speech filled with passion and 'The Will of Fire'.
The children eyes lit up with flames of passion for the village while listening too. Shizue just went with the flow and pretended to be excited and passionate like everyone else. She doesn't want to stick out too much and attract unnecessary attention after all.
After almost an hour long passionate speech, Hiruzen left the stage and the students are guided to their respective classes. Shizue got in the same class as all the 'Rookie 9' learned that Iruka Umino is gonna be their teacher for the next five years.
Shizue and Hinata chose the back row seat on the right side of the class so they can have a view outside. And observed the rest of the kids in the class while chatting about little nothings. Shizue was also happy because Hinata showed only slight interest in Naruto and even that was only because most civilian kids and their parents seemed to hate him.
And then Shizue realized that it was only natural since Hinata didn't go out of the clan compound much because she had Shizue to spend time with and thus never met with Naruto in this timeline.
When everyone is settled on their seats, Iruka asked them to introduce themselves to the class. So, everyone started introducing themselves with of course, Naruto being Naruto saying his usual 'Believe it' 'Dattebayo' stuff.
After the introductions are over, Iruka told them to take out their pens and papers and started teaching. And the first subject was of course 'History of Konoha'. The content is also of course indoctrination. Shizue didn't blame them , after all this IS basically recruiting soldiers and training them so it was only natural.
At lunch break, Shizue saw Shikarmaru, Choji and Naruto sitting together and decided to heed her mother's advice and make some friends. So she, turned towards Hinata and asked "Hey Hinata,our mothers seems to be worried about us having no other friends, so how about we go sit with them? they seems pretty chill." while pointing her chin at the three.
Hinata is still a little shy but no too much anymore so she looked at the three and replied with a nod " Yes, that seem like a good idea. They seem like they are fun to hang around with."
So, the two Walked up towards them and and "Hey, You guys seems pretty chill so mind if we hang out with you guys." said Shizue.
The three replied -
"Nah, it's ok."
"We don't mind dattebayo."
"Munch-munch, you want some potato chips?"
Shizue and Hinata sat down and Shizue introduced herself and Hinata to them "We already introduced ourselves this morning but still, my name's Shizue and this super cute girl here is Hinata." making Hinata blush.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna become the Hokage, believe it!!" Naruto excitedly introduced himself.
"I'm Choji Akamichi, munch-munch." Choji said munching on his potato chips.
Shikarmaru with a lazy and curious tone "Shikarmaru Nara,....aren't you guys from Hyuga clan? I thought you guys will be more..."
"Suck up? Hahaha, seems like we have a bad rap huh?. Most of the clan members are like that but not us I guess. I'm pretty chill if I say so myself and Hinata here is the sweetest girl ever!!" Shizue said laughingly.
"M-mou..I won't talk to you anymore if you keep embarrassing me like this." Hinata said with an embarrassed voice.
"Haha, okay okay." Shizue pacified Hinata.
Shizue turned towards Naruto and said "You want to be Hokage huh, that's a pretty big dream."
"Huh, you think I can't do that!?" Naruto is going to argue back but Shizue cut him off and said "Woah there, calm down. It's not about if I think you can do it or not but it's about what you have to do to become Hokage."
"W-what do you mean." Naruto asked in confusion.
"What, You didn't think you could become one by just shouting out loud, do you? Hokage is usually the strongest person in the village. So first of all, if you want to become Hokage, you gotta train really hard to get stronger." Shizue explained patiently.
"O-ok, then I'm gonna train extra extra hard!! Believe it!!" Naruto said in high spirits.
"Second of all, that cup of instant ramen for lunch ain't gonna cut it." Shizue said pointing at the ramen cup in front of Naruto.
"H-huh, w-why? I love ramen!!." Naruto panicked.
"You've gotta eat nutritious meals so your body can grow and thus become stronger." Shizue explained.
"B-but the shops don't sell me other things and I probably can't afford them." Naruto said with a small voice.
"Huh, you can't? Hmmm....Well, that's fine too. We can be considered friends now. So i'll sponsor you. Just don't forget about me when you become Hokage Haha." Shizue pretended to think for a moment and told Naruto not to worry about that.
"S-spon what??" Naruto tilted his head confused.
"Haha, don't worry about it. I'll take care of all of your meals from now on. Just train well. You wanna become Hokage right." Shizue laughed and said.
"I-I don't understand but yeah!! I'm gonna become the Hokage!! dattebayo!!"
.......{End of chapter}.....