Chapter 5: First day

"I'm so going to miss you!" Sawada sobbed, while she held Soma in her arms. She burst into tears and was unable to let him go.

"It's all good. I'm going to visit you often. You're just like my big sister after all." Soma comforted Sawada. He also didn't enjoy being separated from one of the two persons he saw as family in this world. 

"You mean it?" Sawada looked him in the eyes. She wasn't able to see clear, but she knew that Soma was there nonetheless. 

"I mean it. I'm going to miss you too." 

Sawada brought the boy to the door handing over his luggage. "Stay, just like you are." She said, which was a goodbye. But Soma set himself the resolution, that it won't be for long.

And now he was on his way to the new apartment he was going to live in for the next years. Turns out, that the academy organized a small two room flat for every orphan, that successfully joined the academy. The good news of his passing were delivered last week after the exam and made Sawada and Tomioka very happy for Soma's sake. And now he had to live in a small room having an allowance of a whopping 800 Ryu each month. It was there for food and water, but could also be spent on private expenditures. 

The flat wasn't something to brag about. It consisted of two rooms, a bath and another room that included a little kitchen as well as Soma's bed and a table to eat or study on. After he laid the small amount of luggage Soma possessed in his flat, he headed straight to Sushizaki's, as Tomioka said he wanted to celebrate Soma's admission into the academy. 

Once he entered the store, he was immediately welcomed by the retired Shinobi behind the counter. He looked different than usual. Instead of his worn off casual clothing, he wore a expensive looking, traditional, black kimono. Soma were able to see the scar on his neck way easier now. He also remembered that Tomioka gained this particular scar in a standoff with two of the seven Ninja Swordsmen of the mist from Kirigakure. 

"Hey, Yatora. To celebrate your admission into the academy, I have something for you." Tomioka looked at Yatora in a serious manner, while smiling internally. He prepared this gift a long time in advance and was really excited to now give it to the student, that was as close to him as his own flesh and blood.

"What is it?" Soma sounded indifferent, but Tomioka wasn't insulted by it in the slightest. If there's something he learnt about Soma, it's his inability to express his feelings in everyday situations. The only times when Soma had shown actual emotions were always during the training.

Tomioka held his hand under the counter and grabbed something. As Soma realized what it was, he couldn't believe his eyes. "You're giving me a sword?" Tomioka held a katana in a black sheath with a plain grey handle.

"It is only a practice sword I made myself. Perceive it as an acknowledgement of your training. It has a little bit of chakra-metal ore processed in it. That way you can practice to extent your chakra through the blade. It won't be effective in combat though, as it is only a really small portion in the blade."

Soma still couldn't believe that. It was a practice chakra blade katana. Those were really expensive as chakra-metal ore was very rare and difficult to obtain. "Is it really for me?" 

"Of course it is. You're like a son to me. And you earned yourself a little reward." Tomioka's eyes were genuinely warm opposing the rest of his serious face.

"Thank you." Soma really had no idea how to react. 

After Soma exited the store, he made his way to buy himself a piece of chakra paper, as well as everyday-necesseties, he'd need to survive on his own. That left him, with around 670 Ryu left. As it was already really late, he decided to head home first before checking his personal chakra nature. As he reached his flat he immediately sat on his bad, taking out the piece of chakra paper. Now the only thing left for him to do was to focus a little bit of chakra onto the paper and wait for the reaction.

Slightly disappointed he looked at the now wet piece of paper in his hand. That could only mean one thing. His Chakra nature and the element he was best suited for was neither Wind or Lightning, as he hoped, but Water. 'Everything's better than Earth' Soma tried to comfort himself with his own thoughts. Water wasn't actually that bad. Soma had already thought on what to do in every acceptable outcome. If his natural affinity was Fire, he would have been training the wind nature additionally, but as his chakra nature was Water, Soma had decided to learn the Lightning in addition. 

However, Soma didn't plan to learn any of the elements Jutsus this year. He would rather learn some basic Jutsus and train his choices. In 'Chakra Theory 3: About Affinities and Kekkei Genkai' there were the ways to train the different elements mentioned. For water it was to manipulate the water in a bottle. You had to manipulate the level of Water, create little vortexes and change it's viscosity in order to train your water nature. The way to train your lightning nature was way easier to comprehend than the water one. You just had to create a lightning with chakra between two of your fingers and then had to hold it there. An advanced version would be the maintaining of the lightning between two hands.

Soma decided to go to bed early, as tomorrow was his first day at the academy. After he completed his morning routine, he packed himself something to eat and drink and made his way to the academy. At the entrance there waited a chunin that told every new student the number of their classroom and gave them their student ID. With this Soma now had official access to the section with the E- and D-Rank Jutsus in the library.

As he entered the room, he immediately recognized two people. It were the Uchiha boy from the admission exam, Sasuke Uchiha, and a girl with pink hair and a massive forehead, who was, so guessed at least Soma, Sakura Haruno. That means he was apparently in the class with the main cast. However he couldn't see anyone that looked like Naruto as a kid. 

He sat himself in the last row, next to a boy with shoulder long and black hair, tied in a spiky ponytail. He had a bored expression on his face, even though the lesson hadn't even begun yet. At the symbol on his jacket that consisted of a black circle filled with some black lines, Soma identified him as a member of the Nara-Clan famous for their various shadow techniques. 

Next to him there was a for his age incredible bulky boy with brown hair. Soma would have known that the boy was from the Akimichi Clan, even if he wouldn't have seen the sign on the boys shirt. They were known for there straightforward body expansion techniques. 

Soma sat down and shortly introduced himself. "The name's Yatora Soma." As he wasn't really comfortable around kids his age, he kept it short.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara." Seems that Shikamaru also wasn't the biggest fan of a conversation.

"Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Choji Akimichi." Choji reached out to shake my hand and Soma did the same.

[A/N: So I know, that in Japan they usually talk to each other with their last name, if they don't know each other well, thus I also wrote Soma in everything that wasn't a dialogue. But I can't recall someone calling someone their last name in the entire series. I may be wrong, but I really can't recall anything like that. Thus, I decided to write Yatora, MC's first name, instead of Soma from now on to be consistent, as I also wrote every other character with their first name. Just to let you know, Sawada is the caretaker's first name as well]

The next moment the Chunin, Yatora already knew from the exam entered the room. "Hello. My name is Iruka Umino and I'm going to be your teacher for your time at the academy. You may call me Iruka-sensei." 

Since he was going to be his teacher for the next six years, Yatora decided to take a closer look at Iruka. His spiky, pineapple-like hairstyle complemented his from the classical konoha-headband shortened face. A single, giant scar ran horizontally across his face just below his eyes. His physique looked well built and was comparable to an athlete, although Yatora concluded that that had to be the case for the most ninjas.

 Iruka looked at everyone and realized something. "Wait, we're missing someone. Where's-" But he couldn't even finished his sentence, as in the next moment someone entered the window with a hectic jump. He had blond hair and something like Whiskers on his cheeks. Yatora immediately knew with whom he dealt here. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. You better remember the name, as I'm going to be Hokage one day!"

As Naruto realized the look that the teacher had for him, he guiltily laid his hand behind his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Uhm, am I late?" 

"Are you late? Are you late!" The next ten minutes consisted of a lecture on why the academy is the a prestigious facility, that had to be treated with respect in honor of it's founder, the second Hokage, and every shinobi in existence. Then Iruka suddenly stopped lecturing Naruto. "Shoot, We're late for the ceremony. Students, follow me!"

They left their classroom and gathered on the sportsground, where the exam had taken place. Iruka gathered the students next to the other classes, that already were present. Yatora had a perfect view on the stage were the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was located. The one just mentioned stood up and prepared to give his speech upon noticing that everyone was now assembled.

"All of you new students, the future shinobi of the hidden leaf, are Konoha's greatest treasure. I am sure that the will of fire burns in each one of you greatly and I have no doubt about the bright future ahead of you. For the sake of our village and its resident, I hope that each single one of you takes his studies at the academy seriously and makes an effort to be the best possible version he can be." With that, Hiruzen concluded his encouraging speech and the students were taken back to their respective classrooms, where the curriculum of the upcoming year was shortly summarized.

After school, Yatora made his way to the library to finally learn Jutsus other than his Kenjutsu. As he already decided he was going to learn three E-Rank Jutsus and one D-Rank Jutsu.

Clone Jutsu

Transformation Jutsu

Body-Replacement Jutsu

Body Flicker Jutsu

With the clone Jutsu someone summoned one or more afterimages of oneself, that had no physical body and where thus unable to damage a opponent. They were only usable for the distraction of unexperienced fighters, as the clones were unable to crush grass or kick up dust. It was not a really good Jutsu, but served as a good base for learning a variety of different clone Jutsu. 

The Transformation Jutsu was just what it said to be. One was able to alter his appearance, including looks and age. It is also worth to note, that it finds more use for children, as one was able to increase his height too. Of course adults were able to increase their height as well, but they were already adults, so there was no point for them to do something like that. 

The Body-Replacement Jutsu was the most complicated yet. In the fanfictions Yatora read there was none that depicted the Body-Replacement Jutsu or Substitution Jutsu the same way. Some said, you just transformed another object into a clone of you and had to ensure that the opponent wasn't watching, while others depicted it as a Space-Time Ninjutsu, that enabled a weak form of Teleportation. It would have been great, if it really was a teleportation Jutsu, but in truth it of course wasn't. It wouldn't make any sense for a Space-Time Ninjutsu to be ranked E. The technique was a mixture between summoning, illusion and movement techniques. You summoned an object, usually a piece of wood and transformed it into a clone of you. Then you had to use a weakened version of the body flicker technique to escape the vision field of your opponent and all of that should happen in a matter of milliseconds. 

Speaking of the Body Flicker Jutsu, it was by far the Jutsu Yatora was the most interested in. Usually it was a technique only used for travelling high distances. One vitalized his own body and enhanced its capabilities to an extent were one's movements were unable to be seen by the naked eye. That made the Body Flicker Jutsu look like someone actually teleported, despite it just being a highspeed movement. While it was commonly used as a mere movement technique, there were some unique shinobis, that were able to use the Jutsu in battle. That was very hard to master since the Jutsu takes a high amount of concentration to maintain the Jutsu. The only publicly known figure to use it in that fashion was a shinobi called Shisui Uchiha, also known as Shisui of the Body Flicker or Shisui the teleporter. If Yatora were to master this technique, it would surely made him able to compete with the high calibers of this world and would enhance his prowess in Kenjutsu.

Yatora decided to dedicate the first year of his time as a academy student to learn and try to master those Jutsus, while not slacking of with his Kenjutsu training.