A new week at the Ninja Academy.
Morning sunlight spilled into the classroom, the air thick with a sluggish, lazy haze.
Going to school really wasn’t any different from going to work—most of the kids were lethargic and utterly devoid of energy.
Aoba sat at his desk, propping his chin up with one hand.
Between the fingers of his other hand, a grayish-white pebble rolled smoothly from his index finger all the way to his pinky, flipping from the back of his hand to his palm with lifelike dexterity.
Kurenai Yuhi turned her head, eyes glued to Aoba’s fingers.
After watching for a while, she finally spoke up.
“What are you doing?”
“Practicing finger dexterity.”
Aoba spouted complete nonsense with a straight face.
“Hand-seal speed depends on finger coordination.
This trains neural reflexes.”
As his fingers shifted, the pads felt the texture and grain of the stone, attempting to resonate the vibrational frequency of his chakra with the mineral structure.
This was the first step in mastering Earth Release nature transformation—understanding the weight and structure of ‘earth.’
“Really?” Kurenai blinked her ruby-red eyes, eager to give it a shot.
“Let me try, too.”
She picked up a pebble of similar size from the floor and tried to roll it across her fingertips, mimicking Aoba.
*Clatter.*
The pebble hadn’t even rolled halfway across before tumbling onto her desk.
Refusing to give up, Kurenai picked it up to try again, but this time it shot forward and nearly struck Obito, who was dozing off in front of her.
“This is so hard…”
Puffing out her cheeks, she slumped in mild discouragement.
“Pebbles have an uneven center of gravity.
They’re not great for beginners.”
Aoba stopped his movements, fished a coin out of his pocket, and handed it to Kurenai.
“Try it with this.”
As he spoke, he demonstrated.
The coin undulated across the backs of his fingers like a wave, the motion fluid and elegant.
“Once you get the hang of its center of gravity and your finger coordination, it’s actually pretty simple.”
Aoba patiently explained a few key points of leverage and timing.
Taking the coin, Kurenai practiced a few times according to his instructions.
Though clunky at first, she quickly grasped the trick, successfully rolling the coin all the way across her fingertips.
“I did it!” Kurenai cried in delight, a radiant smile spreading across her face.
“Nice.
Once you’re comfortable, you can gradually speed up.”
“Mm-hmm!”
Kurenai nodded vigorously.
Like a child who had discovered a shiny new toy, she rolled the coin back and forth with boundless enthusiasm.
Soon, the coin was practically flying across her knuckles.
Naturally, having picked up a fun trick, she just had to show it off to her best friends.
As Aoba rested his head on his desk, it wasn’t long before Shizune’s and Rin’s voices drifted over.
Cheery giggles soon followed.
It seemed they were both fast learners.
Coin rolling wasn’t particularly difficult to begin with; anyone with reasonably nimble fingers could pick it up quickly.
Besides, weaving hand seals was a fundamental ninja skill, and most kids had practiced hand signs to some degree before entering the Academy, so their fingers weren’t clumsy.
“Tch, what’s so tough about that?
The great Obito can master this in no time!”
Ever the devoted simp for Rin, Obito kept a close watch on her every move.
Seeing her playing with a coin, he immediately scrambled over.
The result was Obito chasing dropped coins all over the classroom, sending the room into fits of laughter.
This simple yet slightly tricky little pastime spread through the classroom like wildfire.
During recess, almost every student had a coin pinched between their fingers, and the room was filled with the constant *clink-clank* of coins clattering onto desks.
Not wanting to be left behind while everyone else was doing it, Obito secretly tried to practice during class.
Unfortunately, his coordination was so abysmal that his coin repeatedly crashed to the floor, making a racket until an exasperated Mr.
Araki finally kicked him out into the hallway to stand in punishment.
“Idiot,” Kakashi scoffed with his usual sharp tongue.
Still, eyeing a stray coin that had rolled over to his feet, he paused for a moment before picking it up.
After only two test tries, the coin was already rolling smoothly across Kakashi’s fingers, rapidly accelerating in speed.
Rin naturally caught Kakashi’s subtle movements.
Seeing how effortlessly he picked it up in just a couple of tries, she thought in mild amazement, *Geniuses really do pick up everything fast!*
*It really is a good exercise,* Kakashi mused inwardly.
*It conditions the small muscles in the fingers, making seal-weaving much smoother.*
He then began contemplating whether swapping the coin for a shuriken or kunai would make for more concealed sleight of hand.
…
“This is boring now.”
Kurenai sat slumped in utter boredom.
Now that the entire class was doing it, the novelty had worn off for her, the supposed “trendsetter.”
The coin rolled between her fingers; she flicked it into the air with her thumb, catching it squarely in her palm.
The trick looked cool, sure, but once everyone was doing it, it lost its flair.
It wasn’t particularly difficult in the first place, and once the trick was mastered, the thrill faded fast.
Kurenai turned her gaze toward the culprit dozing on the desk beside her.
“Aobaaa~ don’t you have anything else?”
Whether by instinct or sheer intuition, Kurenai had somehow learned how to act cutesy without anyone teaching her.
A shiver of goosebumps immediately prickled across Aoba’s skin.
Seeming to realize how whiny she had sounded, Kurenai blushed, then swiftly shot him a “fierce” glare.
Watching her play-act at being menacing like an angry little kitten, Aoba couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Here.”
Aoba drew a pen from his penholder and twirled it deftly across his fingers, the barrel tracing a flawless arc through the air.
Kurenai’s eyes lit up instantly.
This looked way cooler than rolling a coin!
The pen fluttered through his fingers, spinning around the crook of his thumb one moment and dancing across his knuckles the next, moving so fluidly it seemed to have sprouted wings of its own.
“Let me try!”
With that, Kurenai grabbed her own pen, eager to give it a whirl.
Aoba quickly stopped her.
If it were just pen spinning, he wouldn’t have bothered demonstrating it.
“The principle is the same; it’s just a different balance point,” Aoba said.
“But that’s not what I’m getting at.
Think about it—aside from pens, couldn’t you try this with other things?”
“Like a kunai?”
With a slight twist of his wrist, the pen in his palm vanished, replaced by a kunai.
Another flick, and the pen reappeared.
One more turn, and it became a shuriken!
“How…?”
Kurenai stared wide-eyed in astonishment.
Seeing that he had made his point, Aoba began to explain.
“This uses blind spots and sleight of hand to create an optical illusion…”
“The logic is identical.
By exploiting visual blind spots and subtle finger movements, you can conceal shuriken, or utilize your sleeves for hidden blade techniques.”
“Beyond that, Kurenai, you can try expanding on it yourself.
You’re smart enough; I’m sure you can come up with all sorts of tricks.”
“W-Well, obviously!
Hmph.”
Puffed up by Aoba’s praise, Kurenai tilted her little chin up and rested her hands on her hips, looking immensely proud of herself.
“Right, go for it,” Aoba encouraged with a pumped fist, letting her run off to show off to her friends.
Aoba watched her skipping figure, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
It couldn’t be helped—the ninja world was desperately lacking in decent games.
The most common pastime was playing “ninja,” which was basically tag or hide-and-seek, requiring a group and plenty of open space.
Blending learning with play like this brought a little spark of fun to the ninja world’s barren entertainment landscape, and he genuinely hoped it would smooth out Kurenai’s path as a kunoichi down the line.
Anyone with half a brain could see that whether it was rolling coins or spinning pens, both served as excellent supplemental training for hand seals and throwing techniques.
In the end, strength was the only currency that mattered in the ninja world.
He couldn’t stay by Kurenai’s side forever, and chances were slim they would be placed on the same squad after graduation.
His greatest immediate concern was surviving the Third Great Ninja War intact.
While in the original canon they had all grown up safely to become Tokubetsu Jonin or Jonin of the Leaf, there was no guaranteeing his transmigration wouldn’t create unexpected butterfly effects.