Just as Tsunade was sinking into a gloomy mood and trying to encourage herself, a young voice suddenly spoke.
“Can I sit here?” Akira turned toward the sound.
Standing in the aisle beside Tsunade was a white-haired boy pointing at the last empty seat at their three-person desk.
Akira narrowed his eyes.
White hair…
and a boy?
Jiraiya?
No…
He didn’t look like him.
His hair wasn’t the signature spiky mess, and there was no face paint either.
Tsunade glanced around the classroom and realized that while she’d been chatting with Akira, every other seat had already been taken.
Curiously, everyone had deliberately avoided sitting near her.
She looked at Akira.
Akira simply nodded, indicating he had no objections.
Tsunade immediately gestured for the white-haired boy to sit down.
The boy visibly relaxed after taking his seat.
He had been the very last student called during class assignments.
By the time he’d entered the classroom, every seat had already been claimed except this one.
Seeing the Senju crest embroidered on Tsunade’s clothes, he’d had no choice but to steel himself and walk over.
Fortunately, Tsunade didn’t possess the arrogance often associated with prestigious shinobi clans.
Otherwise, he had no idea what he would have done.
Watching the boy’s cautious demeanor, Akira couldn’t help finding it amusing.
Leaning across the desk past Tsunade, he smiled and spoke.
“Nice to meet you.
I’m Akira.
What’s your name?” Hearing the friendly question, the boy gradually relaxed.
He leaned forward as well and quietly replied, “Hello, Akira.
I’m Hiruko.” So it’s you.
Akira was both surprised…
…and somehow not surprised at all.
There weren’t many shinobi from the same generation as the future Legendary Sannin.
Hiruko happened to be one of them.
He had even been friends with the three of them.
Unfortunately, as an ordinary civilian-born shinobi, his talent couldn’t compare to theirs.
Unwilling to accept mediocrity, he eventually devoted himself to forbidden research and created the forbidden technique known as the Chimera Technique.
By fusing with five users of kekkei genkai, he dreamed of becoming the god of a new world.
Then he promptly showed up as the villain of a movie before, unsurprisingly, getting taken out by Uzumaki Naruto’s Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
While recalling who Hiruko was, Akira continued chatting with him.
Tsunade naturally joined the conversation.
Before long, the three of them had become quite familiar with one another.
Just then…
The entire classroom fell silent.
Instinctively, Akira and the others stopped talking.
A young teacher with an ordinary appearance entered the room.
Seeing all forty-two students sitting neatly at their desks, he nodded in satisfaction.
Walking to the front, he wrote his name across the blackboard.
Taiji Sato.
Only then did he turn around and address the class.
“Good morning, everyone.
My name is Taiji Sato.
From today until the day you graduate as shinobi, I’ll be your homeroom teacher.” “Now then, let’s begin our introductions.” “We’ll start from the right side.
One by one, tell everyone your name, your hobbies, and your dream for the future.” He casually pointed toward the student sitting in the front-right corner.
The child stood up.
“My name is Nobita.
I like Shizuka.
I don’t like Gian.
My dream is to become the richest man in the world.” The next student rose.
“My name is Suneo.
I like Gian.
I don’t like Nobita.
My dream is to inherit my family’s business and become a boss.” Then another stood.
“My name is Shizuka.
I like Suneo.
I don’t like Gian.
My dream is to become a full-time housewife.” ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [The More You Know] Nobita, Shizuka, Gian, and Suneo are main characters from the Doraemon series.
This is probably just a fun, random cameo, or perhaps the author simply did not want to come up with original character names.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listening to everyone’s hobbies and dreams, Akira felt as though their relationships were an absolute mess.
More importantly…
Since they’d all chosen the path of becoming shinobi, wasn’t it a little strange for their dreams to revolve around becoming successful ordinary people?
The Ninja World still had three Great Ninja Wars ahead.
Not to mention all the constant skirmishes between villages in the meantime.
There was no telling how many of these classmates would even live long enough to realize those dreams.
Earlier, Akira had joked that the Will of Fire sounded suspiciously like the teachings of a pyramid scheme.
Now, watching every classmate enthusiastically announce their dreams one after another…
It really did feel like some motivational seminar.
If they had everyone repeat those dreams every single day, it’d be even more convincing.
“My name is Tsunade.” “I like gambling.” “I don’t really dislike anything.” “As for my dream…” “I want to travel the world and win at every casino I visit.” Akira returned to his senses.
Hearing Tsunade’s dream, he couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
With her legendary luck at gambling…
Winning even at the casino down the street would be difficult.
Conquering every casino in the world?
Some dreams truly belonged only in dreams.
“If you want to travel the world, you’ll need tremendous strength.” Sato offered a brief comment before turning toward Akira.
Akira stood.
“My name is Akira.” “I enjoy reading and music.” “I don’t have anything I particularly dislike.” “My dream is to bring peace to this chaotic era and become someone like the First Hokage.” The moment he finished speaking…
The entire classroom erupted.
Students immediately began whispering among themselves.
Dreaming of becoming Hokage wasn’t something people casually declared.
Once those words were spoken aloud, any embarrassing mistake you made in the future would become a lifelong joke among everyone who remembered.
As the discussions spread through the classroom, a faint light flashed across Akira’s eyes.
Where no one else could see…
Lines of translucent blue text appeared one after another.
━━━━━ SYSTEM ━━━━━ Reputation +1 Reputation +1 Reputation +1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ …
“So, your dream is to become Hokage.” “That’s certainly a wonderful ambition.” Sato gave a brief comment before moving on to the next student.
He’d heard dreams like that countless times.
Every graduating class always had several children who declared they would become Hokage.
Saying it was easy.
Actually achieving it…
That was another matter entirely.
Akira sat back down and listened as the remaining students introduced themselves.
Since his seat was in the second-to-last row, only a handful of students remained.
Within a minute, everyone had finished.
What struck him as odd, however, was that aside from Tsunade and Hiruko, none of the names sounded familiar.
Neither Orochimaru nor Jiraiya was in this class.
It seemed the future Legendary Sannin wouldn’t actually become acquainted until after graduating and becoming genin.
Coming back to himself, Akira noticed Tsunade staring blankly at him, apparently lost in thought.
He simply smiled at her.
Seeing his warm smile, she snapped out of her daze and returned it with a bright, radiant grin.
The first class consisted of little more than introductions.
Sato followed up with the usual speeches about the future and then organized a few classroom games to lighten the atmosphere.
To his credit, he was a capable teacher.
After only a few games, the distance between teacher and students had noticeably shrunk.
Even Hiruko had relaxed considerably and no longer seemed so nervous.