NARUTO: IDE:Chapter 4: Ninja Academy The next morning.
The first thing Uchiha Shin did after waking up was check his condition.
Feeling the increase in his strength, he finally confirmed that everything that happened last night had been real.
He then checked his Energy.
Full.
Shin clearly remembered exhausting his Energy before collapsing into sleep.
Yet after one night, the entire reserve had already recovered.
If he had been using the old Chakra Refinement Method, there was no way it could have recovered this quickly.
This cultivation technique really was incredible.
Still, Shin didn’t continue cultivating.
He got out of bed, washed up, and took a cold shower.
He had to go to school today.
If something unexpected happened, having an excuse to stay home would be a pain.
Cultivation could wait until the evening.
Shin had considered taking a few days off, but that would only draw attention.
If he had taken leave several days ago, nobody would have thought much of it.
But after being absent for so long already, suddenly asking for leave now could easily make people suspicious.
So Shin decided to keep his head down and go to school.
If anyone noticed a few small changes in him, he could always blame them on the shock of losing his parents and the changes that followed.
With his decision made, Shin quickly finished washing, grabbed a few pastries, and ate them on the way to fill his stomach.
At this time, the Uchiha Clan was still one of the Village’s core forces.
The clan had not yet suffered the isolation that followed the Third Great Ninja War, when they were pushed toward the outskirts.
For now, the Uchiha still lived near the center of the Village, not far from the Ninja Academy.
Shin walked to school as usual, his pace unhurried.
When he arrived, he headed straight for his classroom.
A few people greeted him along the way, and Shin merely nodded in response.
He had always acted like this, so nobody found it strange.
Uchiha were naturally aloof and tended to look down on the weak.
Most of them wore cold expressions and rarely bothered with unnecessary conversation.
As long as Shin maintained that attitude, he wouldn’t attract attention.
Ring, ring, ring!
About ten minutes later, the class bell rang.
At that moment, the classroom door opened.
A Chunin who looked to be around twenty years old stepped inside.
He was their homeroom teacher.
From his previous memories, Shin knew that their homeroom teacher was named Sugiki Keitai.
Like most teachers at the Academy, he treated every student the same.
So even though Shin was from the Uchiha Clan, he received no special treatment.
Just then, Sugiki Keitai glanced at him.
Shin’s heart immediately started pounding.
Had he noticed something?
Fortunately, the teacher didn’t look at him for long.
He soon turned away and began the lesson.
Sugiki Keitai’s words drifted past Shin’s ears without registering.
His mind was stuck on that brief glance, especially the strange look in the teacher’s eyes.
Shin was certain it hadn’t been an accidental glance.
The man had deliberately observed him.
That made Shin uneasy, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.
As long as Sugiki Keitai hadn’t searched his memories, there was no way he could discover Shin’s secret.
Still, he needed to be more careful from now on.
Keep a low profile.
Stay hidden.
That was the way to survive.
The bell signaling the end of class rang.
Only then did Shin snap back to reality.
The entire lesson had already passed.
Sugiki Keitai glanced at the distracted Shin, shook his head, and walked out of the classroom.
As Shin’s homeroom teacher, he naturally knew what had happened to the boy’s family.
He had wanted to guide Shin through the loss, keeping him from going down the wrong path or doing something reckless.
That was also what the Konoha higher-ups had intended.
Originally, he should have started counseling Shin much earlier.
But Uchiha Ninja had approached him and advised him not to interfere in Uchiha Clan affairs.
The Uchiha Clan’s intention was simple.
They wanted to see whether Shin could awaken his Sharingan on his own.
To the Uchiha, the life or death of an ordinary clan member wasn’t particularly important.
If that person awakened the Sharingan, however, it would be a valuable gain for the clan.
But so many days had passed, and Shin still hadn’t awakened his Sharingan.
The Uchiha Ninja had already lost patience.
Seeing that Shin didn’t appear to be in a bad mental state, Sugiki Keitai also abandoned the idea of counseling him.
Shin knew nothing about any of this.
He had assumed the strange look from his homeroom teacher had been concern for him, which had made him unnecessarily nervous.
Soon, the morning classes passed.
The Ninja Academy’s morning lessons focused entirely on theoretical knowledge, while the afternoon was mostly devoted to practical training.
As for the afternoon practical lessons, Shin had already figured out how to handle them.
He would just go with the flow.
If he failed and couldn’t graduate, that might actually be for the best.
At least then he wouldn’t have to go to the battlefield.
Of course, that was only Shin’s wishful thinking.
Even if he deliberately dragged his feet, going to the battlefield was still unavoidable.
Who told him to be an Uchiha?
If not him, then who?
By afternoon, the students had gathered on the training ground.
Sugiki Keitai looked over the forty-odd students in his class and spoke.
“Next, I’ll divide you into groups.
You will fight each other, and you won’t stop until I tell you to.
Even if you’re knocked down, get back up and keep fighting.
Understood?” The moment he finished, the students broke into whispers.
During previous practical classes, they had always trained in small groups while the homeroom teacher supervised, corrected their mistakes, and explained what they had done wrong.
Now they were being told to fight at the same time, and even losing wasn’t an excuse to stop.
That had never happened before.
Shin frowned.
He could feel it.
A sense of urgency.
Normally, this kind of training was reserved for fifth- and sixth-year students.
Now they were being forced into it as well.
The rumors were true.
Their graduation was being moved up, and they were going to be sent to the battlefield.
Still, it made sense.
During peacetime, the Village could devote its time and resources to training the next generation properly.
But now they were at war, and the front lines were desperate for manpower.
The Academy had no choice but to shorten their training period.
According to the original schedule, they still had another month before graduation.
That month suddenly felt very short to Shin.
He had to awaken his Sharingan as soon as possible.
Only then would he have even the slightest chance of surviving on the battlefield.
“Quiet!” Sugiki Keitai’s shout rang across the training ground.
Chakra surged through his voice, shaking the students into silence.
The whispers died at once, and nobody dared make another sound.
“Next, I’ll call out names.
When you hear yours, step forward.” “Hanada Kintaro.” Upon hearing this, a burly student stepped out from the crowd.
“Takahashi Matsu.” Another student walked forward.
“You two are a group.” “Yes, Teacher.” Hanada Kintaro and Takahashi Matsu stood together, quietly waiting for the next instructions.
Sugiki Keitai continued calling out names.
“Yamanaka Inoko, Tanaka Hana.
You two are a group.” “Yes, Teacher.” One pair after another was called forward.
Before long, the entire class had been divided into more than twenty small groups.
Shin was no exception.
His opponent was a civilian Ninja named Saito Ki, whose strength was only slightly higher than that of Shin’s previous body.
The two were practically evenly matched.
It was probably deliberate on Sugiki Keitai’s part.
Pairing a strong student against a weak one wouldn’t give an accurate measure of their actual combat ability.
Looking at the ten-year-old boy standing before him, Shin knew that his previous self definitely wouldn’t have been able to win.
Their physical abilities were similar, but when it came to actual combat experience, his previous self couldn’t even compare.
Shin was different now.
With his strength greatly increased, defeating Saito Ki would be easy.
(Saito Ki, Combat Power 0.8, unranked.
Crushing him only requires one finger.) Shin blinked.
He hadn’t expected the system to have a function that could directly assess an opponent’s Combat Power.
That was surprisingly useful.
“Uchiha Shin, what kind of look is that?” Saito Ki glared at him, his face turning red.
“Don’t think I’m afraid of you just because you’re an Uchiha!” Shin looked at him, slightly confused.
He hadn’t said a word.
Why was this guy suddenly angry?
He felt a little wronged.
Although I’m an Uchiha, I’ve never looked down on anyone!
It’s all the system’s fault.
Why did it give me this ability without telling me about it sooner?
At that moment, Sugiki Keitai’s voice rang across the training ground.
“For the following battles, no weapons are allowed.
Understood?” The students answered with yes.
“Begin!”