The Academy!

{3 Days Later}

{Konoha Academy, Konohagakure}

...

I stared up at the entrance of the Konoha Academy as we walked through the main gate. I was walking with the Matron, and there was one other guy with me. According to the name hovering above his head, his name was Seiji Uchiha, another orphan who looked a little older than me and had a bright yellow name.

It seemed like I didn't need to ask the Matron to let me into the academy because a lot of kids with their parents were already there, filling the small ground in front of it. 

'Yeah, even though it's not properly shown on the show, Konoha, even though there is a council and everything, is a military-focused superpower. There were civilians who lived in the village, but all the decision-making power was centered around the shinobi clans and the Hokage. With such a tragedy happening and the losses, Hiruzen must have already ordered the clans to fill the ranks.' 

I paused for a brief moment as my eyes stared at the singular name, glowing bright red among the sea of yellow and orange names.

[Uchiha Itachi]

Over the last three days, I have figured out what the color of the names meant. Most of the civilian kids had pure white names, and as they grew older, the depth of the color increased until quite a lot of the shinobi I had seen had dark, blood-red names. With this evidence, I safely concluded that the difference must be the danger level that certain individuals present to me.

Yellow and Orange meant either on the same level or maybe a level above me. Red unsurprisingly meant danger, and maybe the opponent was superior to me in one or multiple stats. And quite possibly, as the difference in strength increases, so does the darkness of the color and the danger to me in a fight.

Itachi's bright red name didn't surprise me. What surprised me was that he was also there. I was not too focused on Naruto's timeline, but it seemed like we would end up in the same academy class. He must be the same age as me then.

[Fugaku Uchiha]

As I followed the Matron along, I quickly realized that our destination coincided with my supposed would-be killer. 

"Fugaku-sama," the Matron bowed as she stopped in front of the Head of the Uchiha Clan. 

Seeing Seiji bow as well, I hurriedly followed her example. Maybe my bowing technique was somewhat off, because I could feel Fugaku's eyes on me as I stood up and looked toward the crowd.

"These are the kids who would enroll in the academy as well?" Fugaku asked.

"Yes, Fugaku-sama," the Matron replied. 

"Itachi greets your peers. You guys need to watch each other's back in the academy if you get sorted into the same class," Fugaku ordered.

I turned back to focus on the mass murderer just when Itachi looked into my eyes as he did a very show bow and spoke, "Hello, let's get along well."

For a moment, I couldn't quite place the innocent child in front of me with the ruthless killer. While it was true that Itachi made a grand sacrifice in the show to save Konoha and his brother, that didn't change the fact that he killed so many innocent people as well.

'Could I make some changes, maybe avoid having the Uchiha go down the same path?' The thought popped up in my mind, and as Seiji greeted Itachi back, I looked at Fugaku's stern eyes, which were watching over us.

'Yeah, I don't think so. As the tension escalates, there is no way Fugaku would back down. With Itachi being the heir and a genius, quite a lot of the situation just couldn't be avoided. The only one who could change this situation is likely Shisui, and that too only if he didn't tell Danzo and the Hokage about his Mangekyo.' 

I nodded at Itachi. Since I needed the image of me being reclusive to stick, it would be better to start from the beginning. I could tell Fugaku's eyes were on me again, but I ignored them for now. He was not stupid enough to plot against a kid, especially since I was just being a little disrespectful.

"Ah Kumiko-san, and Izumi-kun. It's good that you're here. Since everyone is here, we should go register you guys for the entrance test." Fugaku spoke, and I turned around to look at a taller girl smiling at Itachi.

'Right, Izumi Uchiha, Itachi's love interest in canon.' I remembered her. There were plenty of theories about their relationship, and the only confirmation of them being a somewhat distant couple came from Kishimoto himself. The thought of the supposed creator of this world made my head spin. I wasn't one for the existential crisis, but still, knowing that the world I was living in right now was based on someone's imagination was somewhat bizarre.

'Will the story change in the original world if I can create enough of an impact in this timeline? It would be funny if one day Kishimoto comes back with an AU story based on my current life...'

As I was lost in thought, I felt Matron's hand on my back, and with a gentle push, I followed the rest of the group. The old lady was looking at me with a concerned look, and after giving her a nod, which probably didn't elevate her worries, I focused back on the way we were going. 

With Fugaku leading the group, all of the shinobi and even civilians simply gave way, allowing us to pass unhindered. I stared at the expression of the shinobi but couldn't glean anything from that. Maybe the rumors about the clan hadn't started yet.

The registration process didn't take long. All four of our names were quickly noted down, and we were told to wait for another 15 or so minutes for the registration process to finish. Our group walked over to a corner, and we waited. 

The next fifteen minutes were quite awkward, as everyone stared at one another or at everyone else for the entire duration. They only moved after a chunin walked out of the registration desk. Everyone flocked toward them, and our group shadowed everyone's movements.

"Oka Rin..."

"Hyuga Atsushi..."

"Nara Yuichi..."

One by one, the chunin started firing off names, and the kids, most of them 5-6 years old, started flocking toward them. I could see that the names were arranged based on age because almost everyone who was selected had either White or light yellow names until Itachi's name was called.

"Uchiha Itachi... Uchiha Izumi... Uchiha Kohaku..." All of our names were fired one after another. Itachi and I were both 5 years old, and although Izumi looked older, she must be just a year older at most.

"Go," Fugaku instructed, and all three of us moved. Itachi took the lead easily, and I fell back. My eyes surveyed the gathered crowd again, seeing if there were any signs of aggression from the general civilian populace or from the shinobi. 

'Stop being stupid. Of course, they won't move. The head of the fucking Uchiha clan is standing right behind us.' I took a deep breath, calmed down, and stood behind Izumi as we waited for the Chunin to call out the rest of the names. After another couple of minutes, the size of our group had increased to 40, and the chunin stopped. He looked over everyone and nodded before he spoke, "Follow me."

We walked through the academy doors and quickly arrived at a classroom. 

"Take a seat. Any seat is fine." The chunin spoke, and everyone moved; I would have liked to take a seat in the back, but Itachi and Izumi took the very first bench, and I had to follow reluctantly. 

'Just for the first day to show the unity and whatnot, I'm not going to hang around Itachi any more than I have to.' 

"Although almost all of you will be accepted into the academy and receive at least a year of basic training before we determine if you are fit to be a shinobi, the next series of tests would determine if you are placed in the elite class or not. Just to clarify, the elite class would get a lot more resources and focused teaching, and you would get to graduate early, but you would need to pass a certain standard for that to happen." The chunin looked around the classroom, and after noticing that everyone was taking him seriously, he nodded.

[Mizuno Ko]

"Good. First, we will start with a written test that will test your aptitude and reasoning skills. Do you have any questions?" the chunin said before he waved his hand, and I immediately realized that there was a stack of paper sitting in front of me.

'That was a genjutsu, used to hide our tests...' My eyes widened at the apparent ease at which I was sucked into one, and the most dreadful feeling was not knowing when it exactly happened.

'When was the genjutsu even cast?'

...

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AN - A bit more light will be shed on genjutsu and obscure shinobi arts as well. Test in the next chapter, then we'll begin with Academy lectures and learning both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu