Chapter 7 - Shinobi Academy

Konohagakure - 31st Year of Founding, Late Winter

The past few months had passed in a flash for Izuna. He had spent the weeks preceding his enrolment at the academy perfecting his skills. This usually meant training from dawn to dusk, and would often be accompanied by one of his parents.

Naori had accepted his offer to help her train, so she would often come visit to hang out or train together. They would frequently spar against each other, which wasn't a problem for Izuna, as she was very talented for her age, so he didn't have to hold back too much. 

Izuna had taken a shine to Naori, she was very talented and hardworking, and combined with the way his mother doted on her, he was glad for the opportunity to help train her, as he hoped that it would allow herself to protect herself for what was to come, and it didn't hurt her company wasn't bad.

Today, his father had gone on a mission to the Land of Tea, this meant he would be able to go and train with Mikoto, as he had seldom had the opportunity the past few months. Although he had a sneaking suspicion his mother had found out about his friendship with Mikoto, although he hoped he was wrong, not that he thought she would tell his father, but he didn't want to give his mother another topic to tease him about, it was bad enough with Naori.

Whenever Izuna was free, he would make his way to the training grounds where he and Mikoto had selected. It was closer to the main compound where most of the clans lived, so it took awhile for him to get there.

He arrived near the training grounds, and observed from a branch on a tree that Mikoto was indeed here today, and had begun practising shurikenjutsu. Feeling a little mischievous, Izuna formed a Tiger hand seal before appearing behind Mikoto with a Body Flicker.

"Boo." Izuna whispered in her ear, Causing Mikoto to almost fall over in surprise. She glared at him angrily, and threw the kunai in her hand at him.

"Nice to see you too." he replied with a cheeky smile, as he caught the kunai between his fingers, before throwing it away to the side, hitting the centre of a target with a Thk.

"I wish you would stop doing that." Mikoto said with a pout.

"No, how are you? Or I miss you?" Izuna said, looking taken aback.

"How are you, Izuna?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Amazing, What about you? How was the academy?"

"Ugh, don't get me started, my class is such a pain. I have a headache from all the loudmouth brats screeching about becoming Hokage or whatnot, but the worst one is Nawaki Senju."

"Oh, I forgot you had the Senju brat in your class." Izuna said with a tight-lipped smile.

"He's the worst… all he goes around doing is talking about how he is going to be the hokage and how great he is, as if we haven't heard it a hundred times, but what's worse is all the idiot fangirls that encourage it." Mikoto said wearily.

"Oh well at least he smells better than the Inuzuka right?" he said 

"Barely." she deadpanned

"Oh well, at least he hasn't challenged the Uchiha Princess yet." he said jokingly, causing her to shift nervously.

"Oh, he did, didn't he?" Izuna asked, his smirk growing wider.

"Ugh, maybe!"

"You lost, didn't you." 

"Yeah." Mikoto replied, sighing.

"Do you want me to challenge him to regain the Uchiha's honour?" Izuna asked sarcastically.

"I'm afraid Akari and a few other boys beat you to it." 

"Oh, and what happened?"

"What do you think? He may be an idiot, but he's still the best at taijutsu in the class."

"I must admit I am jealous, your year has most of the clan heirs in it." 

"Tch, why would you want to be in a class with those idiots?" Mikoto asked, while rolling her eyes.

"Why, to beat them up, of course." Izuna replied with a broad smile.

"Hmph, you can't even beat me up, how do you think you can beat them?" she said, her previous weariness being replaced with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, is that a challenge, I hear." Izuna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope, it's the sound of you hitting the dirt." she said haughtily.

Mikoto started off their spar by throwing a jab at his chest, which he used his forearm to block, as he kicked backwards off the ground trying to increase their distance as he kept fending off blows for some time until she over extended with a punch and Izuna fell backwards into the air as he wrapped his legs around her torso as he fell, and when his hands touched the ground, he leveraged his weight, to fling her over his shoulders into the air. 

Mikoto soared spinning in the air for a few seconds until she gracefully landed on her feet, but it was too late as Izuna delivered an axe kick at her head, which she narrowly managed to block by bringing her forearm to the side of her head, but the force of the blow staggered her, forcing her backwards.

Trying to regain the initiative she launched a jab at him as they continued trading blows, each one managing to slip a few through each other's guard, until she tried to rain a blow down onto his shoulder, as Izuna shifted his body, so her blow went sailing past his back, and he twisted around, elbowing her in the face.

Mikoto was stunned by the elbow to the face, and Izuna grabbed her arm and twisted it, before flinging her over his shoulder onto the ground, but even in spite of the pain Mikoto spun her legs around in a spiral before using the momentum to propel herself to her feet, as they once again began to trade blows and the spar continued for over an hour, until they were too exhausted to continue and Mikoto took a seat against a tree.

Mikoto gives a faint smile when she notices him looking at her. Izuna can see that her jaw is very swollen and there's most likely numerous bruises and little cuts across her body, so he began forming hand signs until his right hand became covered in green chakra. 

Modified Ox → Dragon → Rabbit → Horse → Tiger

'Mystical Palm Jutsu'

Izuna knelt down to begin healing Mikoto starting with her swollen jaw, and almost instantly the swelling begins to lessen visibly and after about thirty more seconds, the jaw returns to normal. He then continues to heal the many cuts, bruises and scrapes across her body, as he can do his own later.

After seeing the gratitude shining in her dark eyes, he can't help but feel pleased with himself. Even despite his knowledge of human anatomy and biology, it had still taken an annoying amount of time these past few months to learn Mystical Palm Jutsu and that was even with him being aided by his abnormal Yin affinity, and he was still at the basic level.

Although his proficiency with the Jutsu had come a long way, it had only taken a minute or two to heal Mikoto, while a month or two ago it would have taken ten or fifteen minutes. He had always been disdainful of Sakura, but learning medical jutsu himself had caused him to change his opinion ever so slightly. 

∞​

Konohagakure - 32nd Year of Founding, Early Spring

Spring and the New Year had arrived and with it the academy entrance exams.

Izuna had awoken at the crack of dawn in order to have some time to get ready and have some time to study before the entrance exams, he walked over to the mirror and fastened his long spiky hair into a ponytail, before sitting down at his desk and began reviewing his notes for the next few hours.

Afterwards changing out of his sleepwear into the traditional Uchiha garb, his parents had made for him after his coming of age ceremony, consisting of a navy high-collared, long-sleeved mantle with the Uchiha crest on its back, that splits down the lower half, alongside a pair of navy pants, with ankle-high sandals and a simple light-brown obi.

When he exited his room he saw his parents had not yet awoken, so he left the house in order to begin his day with some light training, as he spent the next hour running through his taijutsu stances, alongside practising his acrobatics within the morning chill air, before making his way back inside. And noticing his mother Tsukihi already in the kitchen wearing a lavender dress with a white apron over it, preparing breakfast.

He could see his father sitting down at the table, supping a cup of tea, and Izuna noted he wore his navy kimono with silver trimmings alongside the clan symbol upon its back alongside a pair of grey pants and ankle-high sandals.

Izuna then approached his mother, and wrapped her in a hug as he said, "Good morning."

"Good morning, looking forward to the academy, sweetie?" Tsukihi asked while she ran her fingers through his long hair.

"Of course, beating up some clan kids sounds fun." he replied excitedly.

"Now, now, sweetie, do you remember what I taught you?" she said in a reprimanding tone.

"Beat them so hard, so even their own mothers can't recognise them anymore?" Izuna replied with an innocent tilt of his head.

"Nice try, but no Izuna." she said, pinching his cheek.

"I don't want your teacher calling me into a meeting because you were getting into fights with the other children. Your father was bad enough at your age, I still remember him getting into all sorts of trouble for picking fights with the Hyuga and Senju boys." she continued.

"Tsk, I wasn't picking fights, I was only showing them the superiority of the Uchiha." Setsuna grumbled from the table.

After a delicious breakfast and many hugs from his mother, alongside a fun chat with his father. They departed from their house on the outskirts and made their way towards the centre of the compound where his uncle Kasai lived. 

Naori much like himself, would be taking the entrance exam for the Academy today, so his parents and uncle had arranged to meet up beforehand a few days earlier. 

So after a long walk, Izuna and his parents arrived outside his uncle's quaint house, which was situated opposite a famous bakery run by a civilian couple in the clan.

Setsuna opened the front gate, which led to a small courtyard, containing a pond with some fish swimming beneath the waters' depth, with a few red maple trees scattered around the courtyard within the stone walls surrounding the house.

Crouching down he began observing the fish with interest, until his father dragged him away to knock on the door, and after a while his uncle Kasai appeared at the door wearing a dark blue kimono with a white undershirt, black pants and a pair of sandals.

Izuna waited within the hallway of the house, while the adults began to walk towards the front gate, as they chatted away, and after a few seconds of waiting, Naori appeared skidding around the corner with a brush in her hand, brushing her long wavy purple hair in a hurry. 

Taking a closer look, he saw that Naori was wearing a sleeveless high coloured navy shirt, and a pair of tight navy shorts, with a white apron skirt, and a kunai holster on her right thigh, with a pair of white arm warmers.

"Better late than never." Izuna said with a smirk, placing a hand on her head as he began messing up her hair, causing her to pout.

"You shouldn't treat a pretty girl like that." she said, looking at him in annoyance.

"Where did you see the pretty girl?" Izuna asked, while exaggeratedly looking around in confusion, until she punched him in the arm.

"You're such a meanie." said in a sulky tone.

"I was only joking, my little sister is the prettiest after all." he replied with a gentle smile.

"I told you to stop calling me that." she said, looking embarrassed.

"Never! Now hurry up, our parents have already left." Izuna replied while running towards the gate, leaving her behind.

"Hey, Wait up!" Naori called out from behind.

It took well over an hour for them to eventually reach the Konohagakure Shinobi Academy, and even despite arriving early, there were already almost three thousand individuals gathered outside the academy in the courtyard and nearby streets.

"Wow! So many people." Naori exclaimed, looking at the vast crowd.

"Since the war ended, there are usually a few thousands participants for the entrance exam each year, although maybe only one in five kids will actually be selected to join the academy." Kasai replied.

When Izuna looked at the vast crowd of children gathered today instead of amazement he felt a vast sadness, he knew that of those who became shinobi, very few would survive what was to come. Knowledge was a heavy burden, he thought as he continued gazing at the countless happy families. 

Wondering how many parents, siblings, lovers, friends, strangers. Would survive the coming wars, and even then, how many would truly continue living, shackled by their own sufferings and the suffering of those around them, how many would truly be able to continue moving forward.

Within the Shinobi world, there were those who in their ignorance deluded themselves into believing that war was simply a result of a lack of understanding and hatred, believing in the false notion that simply understanding one another would bring about peace.

But this way of thinking ignores one critical component of reality, and that is Humans are irrational creatures guided by self-interest and with free will, conflict is inevitable.

There will always be those seeking conflict under the pretence of righteousness, wholly believing in their ideology and causes, guided by their emotions such as greed, frustration, fear, hatred, pride, desire and love.

But these are mere false justifications for the deeper truth that peace is a lie, and within the world there will always be those who simply wish to watch the world burn.