“98, 99, 100. Yosh, only running left.”
I took a couple deep breaths, then downed the glass of water I’ve prepared. Now that I’ve done the first three exercises, I left the house to do the 10K running after checking the clock which showed 5.50 in the morning.
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.
.
“Still running on your first day of class, Takeshi?”
“Yup! That’s no reason to skip training! Later, Oji-san!
“Sure. But don’t push yourself too hard, you hear?!”
“Haaaiii!!” I waved as I run past him.
As I kept running, I enjoyed the scenery of Sakura blooming in full, illuminated in morning sunlight. I also observed the system panel that I left open to make sure I didn’t run way past 10 KM mark.
Not long after, the change that I expected happened.
[Chakra ×529 Quest : - ]
With the Daily confirmed as finished, I close the panel and began to run home.
Why still running? Call me paranoid if you want, but I’m afraid someone will find it suspicious if I always stopped running every time I hit the exact 10 KM mark. So I kept my pace while I enjoyed the scenery on the way home.
As I arrived home a while later, I went to complete the rest of my morning routine after I wiped myself and get a change of clothes. Then I left again for the academy, my second day attending school, for the second time.
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.
.
I headed toward the classroom that I assigned into, right after I arrived at the campus ground. As I went in, I noticed only one other kid inside. Which kinda surprised me as it was still more than an hour away from the bell.
I only arrived so early so I could choose my seat; nearest the windows in the last row, which is the closest to a protagonist’s seat I can get in this setting. Thankfully, that specific seat was still unoccupied. Though the desk itself are not fully unoccupied.
I walked toward the desk as I take a better look at the only other kid currently present. Bob cut deep blue hair, with head bowed down while still occasionally trying to stole a glance at me.
… Isn’t that Hinata?
Upon realizing that, I stopped by her side to greet her.
“Um… Good morning. My name is Nobu Takeshi. What’s your name?”
She looked up when I greeted her. “G-good morning. My name is Hyuga Hinata, desu.”
Hmm… She stuttered a bit, sure. But it wasn’t extreme and her volume also wasn’t that small. Thankfully, it seemed I am not the target of her extreme shyness.
Though she is still shy.
“Well, nice to meet you, Hyuga-san.”
“Um… Nice meeting you too, Nobu-san.”
“Is it okay if I took that seat near the window?”
“I-it’s okay.”
“Thank you.”
I nodded and went to my selected seat, ending the conversation. Then I rest my head on my arm lazily while waiting for the class to start.
And yes, I did end up assigned to the same class as the Rookie 9. Whether the teacher will be Umino Iruka was still unknown, unfortunately. There was no such info published on the bulletin board when I checked for my classroom after the opening ceremony yesterday.
Now, “how’s the classroom”, you ask?
It was exactly the same as I remembered showed in the anime. Important details to note was the nine desks in 3x3 matrices, each with three seats.
So that made 27 students in a classroom, instead of 18 with two seats per desks showed in some anime scene if memory serves.
Well, in this class. Dunno about the others.
And yes, there are definitely more than one class per year in this version of Naruto-verse that I currently lived in. After all, there was more than 30 accepted students that was listed in the bulletin board yesterday. And I fail to see how or why that number ever fall below 27 for any given year.
As for the opening ceremony itself. Meh, it was the usual, really. Every student was gathered and then important people making some important-sounding speeches. The highlight was, of course, the speech from the principal, which is the Hokage himself.
Hiruzen’s speech was honestly exactly as I have expected from him; first he speaks about the Will of Fire, then he lectured about the Will of Fire, lastly he preached about the Will of Fire.
Meanwhile, at that time I was trying my best holding a yawn and to mimic other kids’ expression when listening to his speech; full of reveration. Another instance where my sunglasses really helped tremendously.
Aside from that, there’s also announcement about some important bits that the students, especially new student, needs to know. One of them was the schedule; when the school start and end each day.
So, with nothing else to do, I took a nap while waiting for the class to start, with a smile on my face after I saw the System’s Panel.
[Chakra ×529 Quest : School]
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“…shi, Takeshi. Wake up.”
“… Mm? Huh?”
“The class about to start.”
With that, I snapped awake and begin to look around. The once empty classroom has already filled with student. And to my immediate right was Shino, the one who woke me up.
“Oh… hey there. Aburame-san, right? Thanks for waking me up.” To which he just nodded.
“Seriously, it’s the first day and you already sleeping in class.” A harsh voice sounded from the desk in front. When I looked, turns out it was Kiba.
“Yeah, I was quite nervous that I have difficult time falling asleep last night.” Can’t say I simply bored with nothing to do, right? “Nobu Takeshi, by the way.”
He snorted a bit. “Yeah, I heard.” Then he pointed his thumb to himself. “Kiba, Inuzuka Kiba.”
I nodded again. “Pleasure, Inuzuka-san.”
To which he waved his hand dismissively. “Psshht. Just Kiba. We’re classmate, right?”
“Sure. Well met, then, Kiba.” I turned toward my right. “So… is it okay if I also go with Shino and Hinata?”
Shino looked at me in silence for a couple second before nodding, and so did Hinata. I smiled and looked again at the desk ahead.
“How about you two? What’s your name?” I asked to Kiba two deskmates.
I can see them flinched a bit hearing my question. Were they not expecting me to ask them? Though they still answered soon after.
“M-my name’s Hito Aki, desu. N-nice to meet you.” Said the girl with head bowed a bit too deep. Another shy girl?
“My name’s Kamado Sora. Nice to meet you.” Said the boy next to Kiba. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“Nice to meet you too, Aki, Sora.”
… Huh? Why did that two names sound familiar?
The bell rang before I could remember further, also ending the conversation. Everyone immediately took their notepad and stationery out of their bag, myself included. I also used this moment to stealthily observe the now fully occupied classroom while doing so.
The main target of my observation? A certain whiskered blondie.
It’s weird how quiet he was right now, different from how loud he usually depicted in the shows. Though he still sporting that massive grin on his face.
Not long after, the door opened and Iruka showed up. He glanced around the classroom with a gentle smile from the door’s frame, before finally went inside and up to the podium. He put down the papers he carried, then cleared his throat before finally addressing the classroom.
“Good morning, everyone!”
“““““Good morning, Sensei!”””””
Iruka nodded after hearing the energetic replies. “Very good. Now, let’s start by introducing ourself, shall we? I want each of you to tell the class your like, dislike, hobby, and dreams.”
He paused for a second before continuing. “Let me give an example. *Ahem* My name is Umino Iruka. I like ramen and do not like mazegohan. My hobby is soaking in the hot springs. And my dream… I want to be a great teacher to help my students becomes excellent ninjas.”
He let another pause. “Alright, now’s your turn. Starting with… Aburame Shino.”
So, it did not start with Hannah Abbot, what a disappointment.
“My name is Aburame Shino. I like wild grass salad and winter melon, I dislike natto. I love collecting insect and I dream to tame the most powerful insect.”
I can see others shudder when they heard Shino’s hobby and dream. Poor guy, he made the wrong first impression there. Point for honesty, though.
The introduction continued alphabetically while I listened nonchalantly, only paid proper attention to prominent characters from the shows. When it was the turn of a certain pinkette, I took a long glance at her.
Haruno Sakura, one of the “clanless prodigy” in the Naruto story.
Now, that sentence might spark a fiery debate due to comparison in the likes of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Minato, Guy, and Kabuto, among others. But even those names have completely different characteristic in why they are famous among fanbase.
What is undebatable was that Tsunade, a combo of Senju and Uzumaki, are the best medical ninja ever shown. And Sakura undeniably managed to succeed her, often dubbed as “little Tsunade”, even without the “Otsutsuki-derived” genetic advantage.
I think the Sakura hate train mainly comes from her obsessiveness toward Sasuke, which is valid, and how the anime version of her often depicted beating Naruto, which is reasonable only to an extent, as it was for comedic relief.
…Oh, and also in how she is so slow and somehow become indecisive that she failed to destroy one of the Rinnegan in time.
But anyway, if you think about it, that kind of obsessiveness are not really an alien concept even on Earth, isn’t it? Especially among teenager driven mostly by hormone.
So, really, I think she’s just having a mentality of a normal teenager. Which unfortunately was the wrong kind of mentality for a ninja. It was made worse in Sakura’s case because she was assigned to the same Genin team as the target of her obsessiveness and the main character, highlighting her obsessiveness further.
Which is why I plan to change that. Maybe that will help curb her obsessiveness and then she can realize her full potential earlier.
You read that right. I plan on trying to replace Sakura in Team 7, though I will also take responsibility and will try to nudge her to the med-nin career earlier than canon.
… If it’s at all possible.
Note
I’m not joking. When I searched “naruto classroom”, some of the images showed a 3 x 3 desk arrangements with each desk having two sitting students instead of three. But I went with three in this one.
Also, with school began, the MC could gains 2 multiplier every school day from now on. Ngl I kinda start to dread how tedious it will be keeping track of that number, but oh well.
Another thing to point out was the term “clanless” that I used. In my mind, “civilian” means “not a ninja”. So I didn’t use that to address a ninja that didn’t have a clan background
Then there’s that bit about my view on Sakura. Hope I’m not ended up roasted to charcoal because of it.
And there’s a couple new “OC” introduced! Well, “OC” because we don’t really know for sure if those two kids never existed in Naruto story or just simply not mentioned.
I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I choose the name for them, but I have a hunch I will regret it. Just please, PLEASE don’t search them if you never heard ‘em. If you do… let’s not talk about that, okay?