Taijutsu

For the rest of class, he continued to launch the shuriken at the target. As the class neared its end, he had finally been able to reign in his placement enough to hit the target randomly across its four rings, including a few bullseyes (completely by accident). 

He wouldn't be satisfied until he could do so without looking, so he added another mental note to his ever-growing to-do list.

"Okay class! I want every single shuriken picked up off the ground or out of the target before the end of class! You have 10 minutes until then!"

The class collectively groaned, but listened well. Most kids had an easy time, but Hatada and the Uchiha boy, who he just learned was called "Sasuke" by the girl's squealing, were not so lucky. He had grouped his shuriken quite tightly, so he had to slowly pluck the shuriken row by row to avoid getting cut. Hatada had an entirely different problem.

'How far did my shuriken fly? At this rate, I'll get to the next training field before I find it- Ah! Finally.'

It was stuck quite well in a tree, but he got it out without much issue. 

"*CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP~*"

'What in the seven saints?'

Hatada heard a sound he'd never heard before in his life. It was as if a hundred birds were chirping simultaneously, followed by a-

"*THUD~*"

"*SCREEEEECHH*"

'What the fuck is that?'

Hatada was extremely interested in whatever he was hearing. He calculated how far away it sounded, and how much longer he had left before the next class started. 'I should be able to at least see who cast it.'

'Hatada began running over. He recalled a training field in the direction he was running, but before he could even see it, a hand grasped his shoulder. '!!!!!!'

"You're quite the ways away from the academy, kid. Lost?"

Hatada tensed up, feeling a great sense of combined surprise and fear; 'Was I not hiding my presence well enough? How did he…'

Hatake Kakashi was training in a nearby field after a mission, practicing his signature jutsu Chidori on some rock walls he summoned. Though he knew it was close to the academy, he never expected to sense a student approaching his position.

He was even more surprised that the kid actually managed to get sort of close!

"I was just retrieving my shuriken," Hatada half-lied. "Sorry for disturbing you…"

He scuttled off after Kakashi let go. 'Thank the saints he wasn't mad, or I would have been screwed in every… in one sense of the word. I hope someone like that isn't some pervert…'

Hatada, true to his calculations, made it back before the next class began. Nisi looked at him with a confused expression, and Ume asked him "How far did you throw that shuriken?"

"Far," Hatada said with a smile, pushing his recent interaction to the back of his mind.

Ume looked like he wanted to talk more, but the next class was in another training field, so they had to move.

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"For the next year, you will be learning the basics behind taijutsu. Those who are already learning a style can come to class tomorrow with confirmation from whomever is teaching you, and you will get this time for solo practice. You are, however, required to show progress in said style in the end of year examinations.

"The rest of you will be learning the academy taijutsu style. After this year, you will begin sparring with your peers, so I recommend you take your time here seriously."

Ume and a few others seemed a little disappointed that the class was going to be more training, but most were just excited to not be in a general class. Their enthusiasm was curbed quickly.

"On page 5 of the textbook, the basic forms of the academy style are shown. Just like in ninjutsu class, perform them until the end of class. I will correct mistakes when I see them," Iruka said. 

Hatada placed his book down away from the main group and read through the "Academy Taijutsu".

Though he was an amateur at hand-to-hand combat, even he could tell why it was practically given out for free. Basically, it was a baseline to get the kids to an acceptable level without forcing any bad habits upon them.

'Thinking about it, it's probably a good idea. If any prodigies show up from a civilian background, they won't be hindered if they learn it.'

Even if the style wouldn't entirely replace what he already had, Hatada concluded that it wouldn't hurt to learn it.

Compared to what his past three days had been like, performing a few forms of a taijutsu style was a cakewalk for Hatada. So, to spice things up, he stuck some rocks to his body with mana.

'Leaves are getting far too easy; quicker than I expected, even.'

The added weight and distribution of said weight made holding them on a lot harder. The one saving grace was that they were a lot tougher, so when he accidentally put in a little too much mana, the rock just flew off instead of fragmenting like a grenade.

Iruka was observing the class, quite happy with their dedication. Even Naruto managed to stay focused most of the time. He knew it wouldn't last the whole year, but he was hoping, no, praying his student's enthusiasm lasted for a few weeks at the very least.

However, the one thing he couldn't complain about was that his class was at least entertaining. Sasuke's constantly changing moods from proud to annoyed (proud when he performs well, annoyed when he's swarmed by girls), Ume's airheaded slip-ups, and the pair of Hyuga Nisi and Nobokuni Hatada.

As a ninja, even as a low-level genin such as himself, it was necessary to be able to pick up on the emotions and expressions of others. 'I guess I'll pair them up some more~'

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"Finally! I hate practicing that stupid taijutsu!" Ume shouted at the end of class. 

"*Pfft~*"

Hatada could barely contain his laughter after seeing Iruka's expression.

*Twitch* "Thank you for sharing, Ume-kun. I guess you will be bringing in confirmation of you learning another style tomorrow?"

""*Snicker~ Snicker*""

"Yup!" Ume said without an ounce of embarrassment for being called out in front of the whole class.

"(whispering) dummy!" Nisi grabbed him by his ear and began dragging him out of the field.

"Bye Hatada!" Ume shouted, not minding being led away by the ear.

"Have a good afternoon Ume," Hatada waved back. "You too, Nisi!"

She tensed upon hearing her name, and nodded without looking back before hurrying off at a quicker pace than before.

'Okay, now onto the second thing on the list for today: the Hokage's office.'

Hatada was eagerly anticipating the answer he would get from Hiruzen. Though he had been visiting him quite often, he felt that his promise to "give you a few pointers" still applied, so he decided not to worry.

The Hokage's office wasn't far, so Hatada decided to walk, both to take a slight break, and to formulate what he was going to ask.

'I'm sure he did something else other than simply studying and training all day every day. For one, grandpa spent much of his life in wars, so logistically that's impossible. The more I think about it, the more I feel this intuition is correct.

'Just what is it, I wonder?'

"Hey kid, the Hokage's busy right now," an Anbu guard said to Hatada.

"Just tell him Hatada's here. I'll wait patiently," he responded.

"*Sigh*, Okay."

The guard knocked on the door, and upon receiving confirmation, went in to inform Hiruzen about Hatada's presence.

Hatada didn't mind waiting, since he had multiple textbooks he could read at the moment. The sooner he got through the required materials, the sooner he could begin studying whatever he wanted (particularly blacksmithing, at the moment).

The next few hours, Hatada sat outside the Hokage's office reading through the Taijutsu textbook. It was by far the simplest and shortest out of the four major textbooks, so he got a decent way through before he was ushered in.

"Good afternoon, Hatada-kun. What's the occasion?" Hiruzen said.

"Good afternoon, grandpa," Hatada bowed. "I have a few problems with my study and training," he said.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, 'From what I can tell, he's having quite the opposite problem. I'd say he spends too much time training, since every time I use the Telescope Technique, he's either studying or training.'

"By my calculations, it would take far too long for me to accomplish all my goals, and that's not to mention the fact that more are sure to follow. When I was thinking about this, I thought about your accomplishments, and came to the same conclusion that there wasn't enough time for you to do so.

"Is there something you used or did that made it possible for you to do all that you have? Because I feel like I'd need 20 more of me to do so…"

Hiruzen sighed. 'So young, and he already wants to train more? More than now? If I give him sensei's shadow clone jutsu… no… he's too young for that.

'That doesn't mean I can't use this as an opportunity to push him, though.'