Chapter 138

Without twenty-nine, I finally got the opportunity to pull out a long-prepared set of clothes, consisting of light shinobi sandals with a black toe, gray Anbu-style pants with one shuriken pouch on the belt, a tight-fitting burgundy tank top, and a loose hood like some of the Aburame.

Funny to say, but I even had to ask clan members to find out the only store where they prefer to shop. That's where I bought, in addition to my outfit, several pairs of special light-sensitive goggles that fit snugly to the face, leaving no gaps for dust and dirt. It's especially useful to have such things in the desert or when traveling at high speeds.

Quickly putting on my clothes, I looked at myself in the mirror and was pleased with what I saw. Although it seemed like something was missing. Slapping myself on the forehead when I remembered the gifts from the previous birthday, I rummaged through the drawers and pulled out a pair of black fingerless gloves and a dark blue mask that Mom gave me.

All set for service! Granted, now I look more like another representative of the Aburame than a Nara, but who cares!? It was already eight fifty on the clock, so I quickly grabbed the bag with writing supplies assembled last week and a couple of scrolls with a set for all occasions, and rushed out onto the street.

"Mom, I'm going!"

"Good luck! And don't forget the enrollment papers!"

"I got them," I shouted back in response and, making my way to the garden in front of the house, formed the seal.

Shunshin.

Finding myself in front of the gates to the shinobi academy and slightly scaring the passing ordinary parents of the incoming kids, I was glad that the protection of the house and the clan quarter allowed me to use shunshin when leaving the guarded territory; otherwise, I simply wouldn't have made it here before nine o'clock. And now, there were still a couple of minutes left before the head of the Senju would give a welcoming speech.

Without paying much attention to the wishes and other propaganda nonsense about the will of fire coming from the podium, I simply observed those who were enrolling this year. Surprisingly, this year there were about half as many newcomers as last year, and now two-thirds of them were non-clan members.

Apparently, with the increasing tension between the villages, children in clans began to be born much less often. It's understandable — when you don't know what tomorrow will bring, you don't really think about continuing the lineage.

As soon as the opening speech ended, everyone slowly made their way to the main entrance of the shinobi academy, and along with them, I did too. After finding out in which class and classroom my group would be, I headed to the fourth floor, but on the second floor, I was almost knocked off my feet.

"Ryo-nii!" Just from this cry, I recognized the unknown aggressor, or rather, the little and cute red-haired aggressor who hung on my back.

"And who recognized me in this new outfit? Although, I left my hair visible, and I don't see any other redheads around," I thought.

"Hi, Kushina-chan," I greeted, patting the girl on the head, which stuck out over my left shoulder, and freeing my face from the fabric. "How are you doing? I hope no one's bothering you?"

"Ha, I beat up everyone who tried, dattebane!"

"Well, I didn't expect anything else," I smirked, taking the little girl off my back and finally turning to face her.

Over the past year, Kushina finally started to grow and stretched out by a whole ten centimeters, reaching a whole one meter and fifteen centimeters. Of course, she was far from my result, and she didn't catch up with the vast majority of clan children like the Akimichi or Senju, but against the background of the rest of the kids her age, having such height wasn't bad.

"Ryo-nii, why didn't you tell me you're also going to the academy this year?" the girl suddenly pouted, and I felt myself starting to sweat profusely all of a sudden.

Worse than an offended Uzumaki is an angry one!

"I was going to surprise you, but as you can see, you found me first," I shrugged, looking at the smile that appeared again and realizing with relief that the excuse worked.

"Kushina-chan! What are you doing there? You forgot we have a lesson starting? And that you can't run in the corridor, not to mention jumping on unsuspecting people!" Further conversation was interrupted by a loud cry breaking through the noise of the rushing students, and another little girl, almost the same height as Kushina, joined our company.

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