6 The Academy
'He must love to hear himself talk' Akari groaned.
He was standing amongst the crowd, as The Third Hokage gave a speech of inspiration to instill the "Will of Fire" inside those of the new generation.
'I know this is something each Hokage does, but this one feels especially long-winded'
At some point Akari tuned him out and utilized the Byakugan in search of familiar faces.
Sasuke was the first who caught his attention. He was standing next to his older brother, Itachi.
Quickly he found Sakura and the others who were all standing with their parents.
And in the far corner, a young blonde child with whispers sat alone on a swing.
'Ah there's Naruto! He truly is adorable and obviously the son of Minato'
Unlike most fanfictions and reincarnation stories, Akari did not have any hopes of becoming close friends with Naruto and saving him from his childhood. He did sympathize with his origin and his mistreatment in the village, but Akari did not plan on involving himself with his Anbu guard and getting on the radar of the Hokage and his council of elders so early.
"-finally, Iruka Umino, a teacher at this academy will announce classes and their corresponding teachers and classrooms." Hiruzen finally finished speaking and as he stepped down a collective sigh could be heard throughout the crowd.
Stepping up onto the stage Iruka introduced himself.
"Hello everyone, my name is Iruka Umino a sensei at this academy, and I'll be announcing your grouping…"
Once more, Akari tuned out the voice until he started to hear familiar names, in hopes to hear his amongst them.
"…Ino Yamanaka, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Akari. This class will be personally taught by me, in classroom 205. Next Hana Tanaka…"
"Haaa~" Akari sighed in satisfaction. The only event he now could not influence would be team selections during graduation. However, up until then he would give minimal effort in the academy.
The crowd dispersed as parents and loved ones left their children behind with encouraging words.
Akari made his way into the academy, and to classroom 205.
He picked a seat indiscriminately in the middle of the classroom, as a means to blend in with the rest of the canon fodder.
As the rest of the classroom continued to file in he ran over his recent achievements while living on the streets.
'No real skills can be showed off for the next four years, so after school practice will be all the more important, so I don't not become rusty.
My current arsenal of skills consist of:
Tree-walking practice
Spider-man wall climbing
Superior Flexibility
Improved muscle strength from weights
Byakugan
Chakra sensing
No Tenketsu stealth
Slow no hand seals'
Although an impressive list, he fell behind from what he truly wanted to learned before the academy. Still he justified that he could practice and improve slowly over the next four years. Especially so with the 3 core jutsus, now that he had access to the Konoha Library as an academy student.
With all the seats filled, Akari noticed that Naruto was in a subdued, shy state and not the typical rambunctious, bundle of joy that was described in the anime.
'He must being growing into that character as he has less interaction with civilians joining the academy' Akari assumed.
Iruka walked in, placed a clip board down in front of him on a podium and started, "Good Morning class, per Orientation, my name is Iruka Umino and your home room teacher for the next 4 years at the academy. The first two years you'll be taught mathematics, reading, science, and geography. Later years you'll learn taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and shurikenjutsu alongside tactics and strategy with your core lessons."
"As of now, we will reconvene at the training ground for a screening test and understanding of all your baselines. Some students are first generation shinobi while others are from clans so a measure of your current abilities will help me and other teachers know where you need help most."
Arriving at the training ground, Akari stood at the back of the class as all of Iruka's student were lined up on the track.
"You will have 30 minutes to run 10 laps around track." He lifted a book in the air, "When this drops you may start."
The book drop and the students took off.
Akari paced himself in with the canon fodders, while Kiba, Naruto, and Sasuke fought for first.
Those at the front finished breathing heavily within 10 minutes. One had to remember that the physical bodies of children were superior to that of adults back on Earth due to passive enhancement of chakra.
Akari finished in 20 minutes sweating profusely. He had just increased his training weights so the strain on his body was visible.
The class gathered again and completed both the push-up and sit-up test. This time Akari finishing above average, as it was hard to hide effort with already trained muscles.
The final test was an obstacle course. Akari had no true method of testing his flexibility on the street, so he planned to show a little more talent than his previous tests.
With the drop of the book, Akari remained at the pace of his running test, however from maneuvering between the obstacles and climbing over the wall (without chakra) Akari truly showed and pushed his flexibility to its limit.
He smiled at the result of his training. He placed 8th in this test out of the 30 person classroom. The number would dwindle in further years, but Akari was proud of how far his unrefined home stretches led to such a performance.
Iruka only announced the top 10 within the class as to spark motivation as well as prevent unnecessary comparisons of clanless kids to clan kids.
Of course, Sasuke took first, while Kiba took 2nd, the rest were random clan members but Hinata and Ino managed to slip into ninth and tenth position of the class, respectively.
To let everyone cool down from the high intensity exercise, Iruka proposed an introduction game to gain a basic understanding of their personalities and their special skill or talent.
"I'll go around the class and ask each student to announce one thing that makes them stand out apart from the rest, you can simply show it or announce, either will do, but you must participate."
The last portion earned a groaned from the lazy Shikamaru.
"How troublesome." He muttered leaning his head on his desk.
"Then we will start with you Shikamaru, as you have so much energy. Introduce yourself, clan, if you have one, and special talent/skill." Iruka beamed at him.
Angrily mumbling, "Shikamaru Nara, Nara clan, nobody within 5 years of my age can beat me in Shoji." He swiftly sat back down, laid his head on the desk and stared out the window into the clouds above.
"A little more energy please class." Iruka reprimanded. "Pink hair, go."
"Ah! My name is Sakura Haruno, my dad is part of a merchant family so we aren't a ninjas, but a civilian clan. And my talent is the amount of books I have independently read. To now, I've read about 60!"
"Oh me, me next!" The blonde hair next to her quickly stood up.
"I'm Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's best friend. I'm from the Yamanaka clan, and I can easily identify 50 different flowers." She proudly stated.
'Hmmm, that quite useful. Recognizing poison plants from edible is quite the skill to have as a Shinobi, it's granted she'd developed this as her family own a literal flower shop.' Akari mused.
"Keep going I should not have to call out each person individually."
More randoms in the classroom introduced themselves until the final, less interactive members of the Konoha 12 introduced themselves.
"Shino Aburame, Aburame Clan, I can store insects in my chakra." A storm of bugs were released into the classroom and the clanless girls and some males screamed at the sight.
"Alright, alright thank you for the demonstration Shino, please take a seat." Shino nodded from behind his high collar jacket, and shaded glasses as Iruka attempted to calm down the class.
Taking the initiative to introduce himself quietly while the class was in chaos Naruto stood up.
"Naruto Uzumaki, I like hang out with other people and harmless pranks." He whispered and quickly sat down as to not draw more attention to himself.
Unfortunately this was seen by Iruka as a scowl crossed his face.
A booming voice was heard next.
"I'M KIBA INUZUKA, FROM THE INUZUKA CLAN. MY SPECIAL TALENT IS TELLING THE FUTURE, BECAUSE I KNOW I WILL BECOME THE FUTURE HOKAGE!!"
Akari's non-visible eyes twitched in annoyance.
'I can't turned the volume down anymore' he regretted. Kiba's piercing shout almost brought about a headache to Akari as a true tick mark appear on his forehead.
"Not so loud Kiba!" Iruka yelled back. "Ha~ the Inuzuka truly act as puppies early on, such energy." He muttered rubbing his temples.
Taking the chance into not be last, Akari stood up.
"I'm Akari, no clan, I have decent flexibility and can see without eyes." Akari pulled a practiced back flip into a handstand, then started pointing out random people sitting to prove his 'sight'.
He figured people, especially kids at the age of 6 and 5 would continually ask about why he wears a blindfold, and although he did not wish to disclose his chakra sensing abilities it was best to get most of the troublesome issue out of the way to avoid further issues in the future.
"Indeed a rare sight to see such flexibility, in a male nonetheless."
Shrugging Akari sat down and listened to the last few introductions.
"I'm Chugie Agemechi," he finished chewing, "Ah, so good, I'm from the Akimichi clan, and I can eat a lot of food."
"We know!" A voice chuckled. The class broke out into laughter causing the timid Choji to quickly sit down in embarrassment.
Tired of the continuous interruptions, Iruka sighed.
"Last but not less…" he gestured to another timid character.
"H-h-Hinata Hyūg-ga. Hyūga clan, and I can see through walls." She hurriedly sat and tucked her head in between her arms.
The last part of her introduction caught the class off guard getting some gasp in response.
Clapping his hands, Iruka began, "Now we can continue."
With their extra energy expended and introductions made, normal class persisted.
Akari ignored reading and mathematics as the level they were taught could not compare to formulas and essays he learned in his past life.
Nevertheless, he perked up for writing/calligraphy and geography lessons as these were not-so common classes back in the United States.
He needed good handwriting and calligraphy for Fūninjutsu, it helped to start hand seal practice early, to strengthen the tiny muscles in his hands. And although many places and location were discussed and shown in the anime, it was never truly laid out in a picture to easily digest.
Akari truly learned new things about his favorite anime, exclusively that could not be obtained through fan pages and wiki sites back on Earth.
Classes came to an end and Akari hurriedly left the building. He rushed to the one place that housed even more available information he could consume at his own pace.
The library.
