Turning five meant one thing for Kazama— it was time to enter the Ninja Academy.
Konoha actively encouraged the village’s residents to send their children to the Academy.
After all, becoming a shinobi was an extremely, extremely, extremely dangerous profession.
Many civilians in Konoha still refused to let their children attend the Ninja Academy.
The village couldn’t exactly force them.
All it could do was encourage families to send their children there.
The problem was that a shinobi’s career could last for decades.
Even though the previous Shinobi World War had already ended and the shinobi world had returned to relative peace, who could guarantee that another large-scale war wouldn’t break out sometime during those decades?
And even without war, the missions shinobi carried out were dangerous enough on their own.
The mortality rate was extremely high.
That was why many civilians didn’t want their children to become shinobi.
And naturally, not every child dreamed of becoming one either.
That was especially true for someone like Kazama, who already possessed enormous wealth.
Still, once Uncle Gen submitted Kazama’s application, Konoha had no reason to reject it.
The Kazama family had built a strong reputation in the village through years of charity and assistance to ordinary residents.
Giving Kazama a little consideration was only natural.
…
Early morning.
Kazama’s internal clock had long since become fixed.
The moment the usual time arrived, his eyes opened automatically.
He got out of bed, pulled on a black T-shirt and a pair of shorts, and quickly washed up before heading into the backyard to loosen his body.
Today was the first day of the new term at Konoha’s Ninja Academy.
Kazama didn’t plan on doing any serious training, but a little warm-up was still necessary.
An hour later, he had gone through a light round of the Six Powers, refined chakra for a while, and finished his morning routine.
After taking a shower and changing into fresh clothes, he went to eat breakfast.
“Young Master Kazama , today is the Ninja Academy’s opening day.
Your friend Might Guy has enrolled as well.” As Kazama sat down, Uncle Gen placed breakfast in front of him and stood nearby, casually chatting.
Kazama had tried more than once to convince Uncle Gen to sit down and eat with him.
The old man had always refused.
No matter what Kazama said, Uncle Gen simply wouldn’t agree.
Eventually, Kazama had gotten used to it.
“I already knew Guy would enroll.” Kazama ate while casually asking, “Who else is entering this year?” Privately, he already suspected that Kakashi Hatake should be part of this year’s intake.
And if he remembered correctly— Kakashi would graduate this very year.
Kakashi really was an absurd talent.
“There should be quite a few children, but I’m not sure exactly who,” Uncle Gen replied with a shake of his head.
He hadn’t investigated the matter in detail.
When he went to register Kazama, he had happened to see Might Duy and Might Guy.
Since he knew Guy was Kazama’s friend, he had remembered that much.
“All right.
I’ll know once I get there.” Kazama finished eating and set down his chopsticks.
“Uncle Gen, are the glasses I asked you to make ready?” “They’re finished.” Uncle Gen walked over to a nearby cabinet, took out a wooden box, and handed it to Kazama.
Kazama opened it.
Inside, the contents were carefully wrapped in silk.
He removed the bundle and unfolded the cloth.
A pair of glasses appeared.
No— more accurately, they were sunglasses.
Kazama had specifically asked Uncle Gen to have them custom-made.
From the wearer’s perspective, the outside world carried only a faint dark tint.
But from the outside, no one could see the wearer’s pupils at all.
To Kazama, they were practically the perfect tool for openly using the Sharingan to copy ninjutsu and taijutsu without anyone noticing.
“Not bad.
Not bad at all.” Kazama examined them with satisfaction.
The craftsmanship was excellent.
They looked almost identical to the ordinary sunglasses he had seen everywhere in his previous life.
But in the Naruto world, such things were still extremely uncommon.
Perhaps no one had even seriously considered making ordinary lenses completely dark before.
Kazama put the sunglasses on.
The large dark lenses covered his eyes and nearly half his face.
They reduced some of his naturally handsome appearance and made him look a little more ordinary.
Ironically, however— a five-year-old wearing oversized black sunglasses attracted even more attention.
“Uncle Gen, I’m heading to the Ninja Academy.” Kazama said goodbye and left the Kazama residence.
With the mind of an adult, there was no way Kazama was going to have Uncle Gen personally escort him to school.
Uncle Gen also understood his personality.
After living together for so many years, he knew that Kazama had always been unusually independent.
He liked handling things himself and disliked relying on others.
Besides, Kazama had spent the last two years training on his own.
His strength was already considerable.
Three or five ordinary people wouldn’t be able to defeat him.
Because of that, Uncle Gen wasn’t particularly worried.
The Konoha Ninja Academy had originally been established by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
Its purpose was to provide Konoha with a continuous supply of new shinobi.
It was the fastest and most efficient institution for training fresh manpower so that, whenever war came, the village would always have new ninja ready to deploy.
After Konoha established its Ninja Academy, the other major shinobi villages gradually followed suit.
In many ways, Konoha had always been a pioneer.
From the creation of the shinobi village system itself— to the Ninja Academy— and even the ANBU— Konoha introduced the model first, and the other villages later imitated it.
Kazama made his way toward the Academy.
He wore a black T-shirt, black pants, and shoes marked with black stripes.
He already looked like a handsome little boy.
But the dark sunglasses covering nearly half his face drew far more attention than his appearance did.
As he approached the Ninja Academy, the streets became increasingly crowded.
Most of the children were accompanied by adults.
From time to time, crying could be heard.
They were still children, after all.
Entering the Ninja Academy meant taking the first real step away from their parents.
Not every child could handle that independently.
The moment Kazama entered the Academy grounds, he spotted Guy.
Guy had arrived very early.
Might Duy wasn’t with him.
Apparently, Guy had come alone and had been waiting specifically for Kazama.
“You’re here!” Guy looked Kazama up and down as he approached.
Then he shook his head.
“Those black glasses don’t look good.” Kazama had originally been quite handsome.
With the sunglasses hiding so much of his face, he undeniably lost some of that effect.
Guy clearly thought he looked better without them.
“This is called having style.” Kazama didn’t care in the slightest.
“And I’m wearing them for your sake.” Guy blinked.
“For my sake?” “Of course.” Kazama spoke with complete seriousness.
“If I showed everyone my full handsomeness and all the girls started paying attention to me, wouldn’t you feel bad?” Guy frowned.
“Girls are no good.
They’re too weak.” Kazama nearly stumbled.
Right.
That was probably just how a child thought.
Or perhaps, in Guy’s case— taijutsu training was the only thing that mattered.
Everything else was irrelevant.
“Come on.
Let’s go find our classroom.” Kazama followed Guy inside.
There were already quite a few students scattered around the room, sitting at their desks in small groups.
Kazama swept his gaze across the classroom.
Almost immediately— he spotted several extremely familiar faces.
Kakashi Hatake.
Kurenai Yūhi.
Asuma Sarutobi.
Obito Uchiha.
Rin Nohara…