SS006

After a solid ten hours of sleep, providing him with some much-needed clarity of mind, Seikun came to the realization his ideas from the previous night were the ravings of a madman. It would require far too much effort on his part to finesse the situation the way he imagined. His original plan needed some tweaking, but since he now possessed actual talent, Hiashi shouldn't be able to maneuver against him as easily as the original had.

One change Seikun made to his plan was to renew the training regimen he had been slacking on since awakening in the dreamscape. He had trained a minimum of five days a week while growing up in the orphanage, so if he abruptly stopped yet grew exponentially in strength, people might start to question whether he was an imposter.

With such thoughts in mind, Seikun exited his apartment around 4 AM and began running down the main street. His destination? The checkpoint that served as the village's main entry point. His apartment was situated a few blocks from the Hokage's Tower and Academy, so a round trip, which took him a little more than two hours, spanned a distance of more than seventy kilometers. Since an average Genin was expected to be able to maintain a pace of 35km/h for upwards of six hours without stopping to rest, it was a suitable warm-up...

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Reaching the Academy a bit earlier than usual, Ino was surprised when she entered the classroom and found Seikun had arrived even earlier. He had shown up at the last moment the past couple of days, ostensibly to avoid having to engage anyone, so it was quite a shock.

"What's wrong with you? Did you stay up all night drawing...?" asked Ino, approaching Seikun's seat after dropping off her bag and supplies at her own.

"If I answer yes, will you leave me to sleep peacefully...?" asked Seikun, without raising his head.

"Not likely," responded Ino, taking Hinata's usual seat and propping her left leg on it so she could sit facing Seikun.

"That picture you drew of me...is that really how you imagine me looking in the future?" asked Ino, placing her elbow on the table, tilting her body sideways, and propping her head up with her hand.

"How you look is something for you to decide..." responded Seikun, raising his head and stretching out his arms and legs before relaxing the tensions in his body, meeting Ino's gaze, and adding, "Just don't go changing to try and please others...it never ends well..."

"And how do you know that...?" asked Ino, staring at Seikun with her baby blue eyes almost unblinkingly.

"I don't," conceded Seikun, shrugging. "But if you need to change yourself to get someone's attention and convince them to care about you, did they truly fall for you or the image you created to entrap them? Me, personally? I'd prefer to be cherished for who I am..."

"And who are you, Seikun...?" asked Ino, narrowing her eyes slightly. She had never met a boy as eloquent as Seikun, at least in her age group. It made her believe he spent a lot of time reading books on philosophy and poetry.

"Ask me again on my deathbed," replied Seikun, placing his left elbow on his desk and leaning forward to rest his cheek on his palm, eyes closed as he droned, "Because I'll probably spend the entirety of my life searching for the answer..."

"You read a ton of books, don't you?" asked Ino, exhaling a faint chuckle. "But I get what you mean. I'm honestly not sure I even want to be a Ninja, but my clan shares a tradition with two other clans, and I feel like I would be letting down a lot of people if I quit. In that way, I guess you could say I'm putting on an act, huh?"

"Mmm...you're not wrong..." responded Seikun, turning his head to meet Ino's gaze. "But that's a little different from what I was saying before. In one example, you're changing yourself to meet the expectations of people who already love and treasure you. In the other, you're changing yourself, hoping that someone you like might start liking you in turn...it's putting the cart before the horse..."

"Darn. And here I was hoping you would convince me it was okay to give up," retorted Ino, exhaling another chuckle, but this time mixed with a bit of chagrin. Then, turning her body so that she was seated with both feet on the ground, she linked her hands behind her head and leaned back, a wistful look on her face as she asked, "So, how did things go with Hinata's dad? Did you manage to convince him to let you date his daughter? That's a high hurdle, you know? Dating a princess..."

"Aren't you known as the Princess of the Yamanaka Clan...?" countered Seikun.

Raising her brows, Ino asked, "Why? If things don't work out with Hinata, will you ask me to be your girlfriend next?"

"Maybe? You're definitely cute enough..." responded Seikun, catching Ino a little off guard. "But since you don't want to be a Ninja, I doubt we'd be a healthy couple. Becoming a Ninja isn't my highest priority, but since I'd rather have the strength to protect myself and the people I love, I plan to give it my all to become stronger..."

"Wow..." uttered Ino, exhaling a scoffing chuckle as she recovered enough to remark, "I wasn't wrong when I called you a flirt the other day. You're a real rogue in the making."

"Rogues lack principle..." countered Seikun. "Me? I have a surplus. But I also don't want to live a life filled with regrets. So, if things didn't work out between me and Hinata, assuming we ever get together, you can bet your blue eyes you'd be one of the first people I talked to..."

"..."

As she had never been smooth-talked in such an...overt manner, Ino found herself at a loss for words. She was used to garnering attention from boys both her age and much older, but no one had ever spoken to her as...unpretentiously as Seikun. He used a lot of big words that made her want to call him a nerd or a dork, but he didn't give the impression he was trying to sound smart. It sounded completely natural.

Recovering after a few seconds, Ino averted her eyes but did her best to sound confident as she asserted, "Well...sucks to be you. Even if I'm not as gorgeous as you made me out to be in that picture, I'm easily the best-looking girl in class. I can get a boyfriend whenever I want, so why would I settle for a boy who sees me as table scraps?"

"Then I guess I'll just have to settle for being your friend..." responded Seikun, followed by a protracted yawn. This annoyed Ino quite a bit, but for reasons she couldn't quite explain, she didn't find Seikun's confidence and disregard wholly unpleasant...

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With Ino leaving him the moment another girl arrived, Seikun was able to get at least a few minutes of shut-eye before a familiar presence and faint warmth appeared next to him, followed by a soft, "Good morning, Seikun."

Though he was tempted to respond that it had improved with her arrival, Seikun felt he probably shouldn't be laying things on thick with an eight-year-old. Thus, after a brief delay, he raised his head, stretching his body a second time before settling into his seat, meeting Hinata's curious gaze, and asking, "How'd things go with your father?"

Adopting a smile that Seikun didn't expect, Hinata pumped her tiny fists and happily responded, "He said that he was relieved that my first friend was someone trustworthy. It was my first time hearing him say something like that, so thank you, Seikun!"

Taken aback by Hinata's rather...tragic words, Seikun stared at her with a mix of pity and empathy. Fortunately, she didn't appear to notice and he was able to recover quickly, adopting a smile of his own as he replied, "I didn't really do anything, but I'm happy if you're happy, Hinata."

"I'm very happy~!" affirmed Hinata, looking like she could break out into song and dance as she dangled her feet happily beneath the desk. She genuinely couldn't remember the last time her father had been proud or simply relieved by a decision she had made, so she was really glad that she had mustered up the courage to speak to and then approach Seikun on their first day at the Academy. Even if his asking her to be his girlfriend made her feel fluttery and anxious, like she wanted to scream, every time she recalled it...

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Though his legs felt heavier than usual, Seikun had no trouble keeping up with the Academy's morning training regimen. It was difficult not to have his soles adhere to surfaces when he was doing the obstacle course, but as his results exceeded even the prodigious Uchiha Sasuke, much to the latter's chagrin, the Chuunin assigned to monitor them spent most of their time and energy on other students, particularly Naruto.

"Don't...get arrogant..." said Sasuke, panting as he reached the location where Seikun was seated, waiting for everyone else to finish.

"Don't worry," responded Seikun, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he assured, "Once you awaken your Sharingan, you're bound to surpass me. I'm just enjoying the limelight while I have it. What's so bad about that...?"

Snorting disdainfully, Sasuke forcibly suppressed his labored breathing long enough to retort, "You may be great compared to the other kids in our class, but you're nothing compared to my brother. He was already a Genin when he was our age..."

"Yeah, your brother really is great..." affirmed Seikun, catching Sasuke off guard as he kicked back, relaxing with his hands behind his head as he revealed, "Itachi is someone I look up to greatly, so, if possible, I'd prefer not to argue with you over nothing. I don't believe that's what he'd want from either of us..."

Recalling his brother mentioning that he hoped he made many friends at the Academy, Sasuke felt awkward and scratched his head. He felt like Seikun was looking down on him by outperforming him and the others in their class, but now that he stopped to think about it, would he be happier if his main rival held back to avoid embarrassing him? If anything, it would make him feel ten times as frustrated...

Taking a seat next to Seikun, maintaining a comfortable distance, Sasuke remained silent for nearly a full minute before saying, "If you're really my brother's fan, I could probably introduce you to him..."

"Only if you're willing to introduce me as your friend," responded Seikun, adopting a smile as he added, "It would be embarrassing for us both if he learned the only reason you introduced us is because I told you I was his fan..."

Furrowing his brows, Sasuke descended into another protracted silence. This time, however, it was Naruto who broke it, arriving next to them with a winded Kiba.

"Man...you guys...are way too good at this..." panted Naruto, too tired for one of his usual outbursts.

"It's not that we're too good..." retorted Sasuke, but instead of adding that Naruto just sucked, he allowed his words to trail off, deciding not to pick a fight. Fortunately, his words were uttered too quietly for Naruto to pick up over the sound of his gasping breaths. 

"What...did you...say...?" asked Naruto, swallowing a few times to avoid drooling or throwing up the contents of his breakfast, two cups of instant ramen and slightly citrus-tasting milk.

"Worry about catching your breath before you worry about what I said..." responded Sasuke, rolling and then averting his eyes. Then, as it seemed pretty comfortable, he emulated Seikun, lying back on the compacted dirt ground and staring up at the clouds listing lazily through the sky...

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