Chapter 31: Candidates

At the Hokage office, Hiruzen and the rest of the Konoha Council looked at reports from the academy.

This is a meeting which is held every year, to scout potential Anbu candidates from the academy.

Only accomplished children have the chance to be scouted while still being in the academy!

Mostly it's the Hokage's responsibility to select the candidates, but Homura and Koharu are present, to make sure that they can give their opinion to help Hiruzen with his task.

And Danzo is here for...shady reasons.

Anyway, they were looking at the reports of this year's freshmen class.

There were many children with ordinary grades.

So that's why when Sasuke's report appeared, it caught everyone's eyes.

Homura: "So this is the Uchiha brat? He certainly doesn't disappoint, even if Itachi was better..."

Koharu: "You shouldn't really compare someone to Itachi, since he graduated the academy after only four months and joined the Anbu when he was only eleven...he is an irregularity even in Konoha's long history. Anyway, in my opinion, Sasuke certainly has the potential, but I think we should observe him more before deciding, considering the Uchiha's history."

Danzo had a dark expression and didn't say anything.

Hiruzen thought about the promise he gave to Itachi, to protect Sasuke no matter what, and made his decision.

"I won't select Sasuke Uchiha to join the Anbu for the time being."

No one objected to the decision.

Next, they looked at the report of Naruto.

He had by far the worst grades.

"..."

"HAHAHAHAHA"

Everyone thought it was best to keep their opinions to themselves, only Hiruzen laughed heartily when he read about all the mischief Naruto did in the academy.

Next came up Eiji.

His grades were all over the place: Classroom attitude F, genjutsu C, taijutsu B, ninjutsu A, teamwork B, positivity F.

There was also noted that, because of his injured hand, he is one of the rare cases who uses hand signs with only one hand.

Other things noted, how he was trained by Hayate Gekko prior to enrolling and his involvement with delinquents.

"That's a pretty wild and chaotic profile." - Koharu

Homura: "It is noted that his combat abilities are pretty high, but it looks like his personality troublesome...if he grows up and is more mature, maybe he would be a candidate..."

Danzo kept silent and thought: 'this boy is too eccentric to be of any use to me.'

Hiruzen didn't laugh about the reports of Eiji's misbehavior, instead, he was seriously contemplating.

"I...I won't select him as a potential Anbu candidate."

In the end, he decided against it.

In his eyes, Eiji was someone who has a way too flashy personality and unique quirks, which would clash with the whole identity concealment thing.

The meeting concluded with no one being selected to join the Anbu right after graduation and to observe Sasuke so that he might join in the future.

Unfortunately, Konoha didn't have a beach, so in the summer when the temperature is at the highest, people would go to a swimming pool.

Though there were some hardcore lunatics, who would visit the hot-springs even in this heat.

To thank Eiji for rescuing her, Hatsumi invited him to the swimming pool.

Since it was Sunday and too hot for any training, he had nothing to do and ended up agreeing.

Somehow, Tenten heard of it it and demanded to go with them; she stated the reason being, that she didn't trust Hatsumi.

So now Eiji was at the swimming pool with his cousin and Tenten.

"Hey Eiji, how is my swimming-outfit?"

"Hihihi, like that glue-eater would care about things like that..."

He already regretted accepting.

'This day will be a drag...and the heat frying my brain doesn't make it any better...wait I somehow sound like Shikamaru...'

Eiji wanted nothing more to dive straight into the pool, but unfortunately, the pool was pretty full.

There were also many little children there, and Eiji hated little kids (even though he is one too).

He left his sword at home, but now he wished he had it with him, so he could scare all the kids away.

The three decided to first eat something so that maybe there would be later fewer people in the pool.

"Since I invited you to thank you, of course, I prepared something for you, here you go..."

Hatsumi gave Eiji a bento.

When he opened it, it was full of glue.

"..."

He kicked Hatsumi straight in the pool.

Tenten saw what was in the bento and jumped with an angry face in as well.

She then started to throw water at Hatsumi's face.

Hatsumi retaliated and so a water battle started between the two.

'I wish I had a cold beer now...'

Of course, Eiji is too young to buy beer, so he instead sat on a pool chair.

He started to think, how his first year at the academy is almost over.

'Time sure flies by...I really should enjoy the remaining time in the academy...since after that the peaceful days will be over and big things will happen in this world where I could die anytime...'

__________

A/N:

So next chapter will be a time-skip straight to the graduation and the story pace will start to get really fast.

I wanted to thank you all for reading so far, and for all the support and comments I get from you - really makes my day.