"Nice to meet you, Hinata," Naruto said with a smile.
Hinata blushed at Naruto's smile. Never had anyone stood up for her before. Some Hyuga members of the Branch family had always walked her home and to places, but the kids never bullied her when they were around. To Hinata, Naruto was her first hero.
"There's still some time before the ceremony begins. Do you want to hang out for a bit?" Naruto asked Hinata.
Hinata nodded. The two then moved over to the shade and talked for a bit. Naruto learned that Hinata came from the famous Hyuga clan and learned a few things about being a clan member. Naruto had never heard of the clan, but he did know that other children belonged to various clans, so Hinata's information was enlightening. Hinata wanted to learn more about Naruto, but he didn't really have much to offer. He said that he lived alone and that he wants to be a great ninja. Hinata grew disheartened when she heard that Naruto was all alone, but smiled when he said he wanted to be a great ninja.
The bell rang and that meant that everyone had to line up for the ceremony. Hinata ran off to go look for her father so Naruto waved bye to her. Naruto then scouted around to look for Hiruzen. As soon as he spotted him, Naruto dashed towards him.
"Ah, there you are Naruto," Hiruzen said as Naruto approached him. "Did you make any new friends?"
Naruto nodded with a smile. "Yeah, this girl named Hinata Hyuga became my friend." Hiruzen was a little shocked that his first friend would be from the prestigious Hyuga clan, but was happy for Naruto. "She was really nice. I hope we can hang out a lot in the Academy."
Hiruzen nodded. "Don't worry, Naruto. You'll have a lot of time to spend with her and your many new friends that you'll make at the Academy. Now, let's line up like those other families for the ceremony." Naruto obeyed.
After everyone lined up, the second Hiruzen walked out of the Academy and stood before the families. "Welcome, all to this year's entrance ceremony. As you all know, we nurture and teach the young ones that want to follow the shinobi path and eventually bring them up to be fully fledged shinobi. This school's founder, our very own Second Hokage, wanted a safe way for ninja to grow. Back in my day, before the village was even created, our teachers were the battlefields we fought on. Many senseless battles took place and life was a real struggle. But, we've made great strides since then and have come to this point where people can study ninjutsu in peace. I see before me, many ninja with lots of potential. Before long, I may see you all in my office as I assign you missions. Haha, but I get ahead of myself." The Third Hokage laughed off his joke and cleared his throat to speak again. "If you follow the Academy's rules, then I think you'll be successful ninja in no time. Love the village and hope to preserve peace and prosperity. Have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work. And, be healthy in mind and body. And with that, I welcome you future ninja to your first day at the Academy!"
After he finished his speech, Hiruzen was met with applause while the children cheered, happy that they were at the Academy. Naruto was smiling as he heard Hiruzen finish his speech. A teacher then came out and took over to speak about the Academy to the parents and future students. He explained generally what to expect from the Academy. Some other teachers began walking around to greet some parents. One teacher was talking to the head of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku Uchiha, about how happy he was to receive another child of his as a student.
While the teachers spoke with the parents, Naruto suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Naruto turned with the real Hiruzen smiling at him. "Well, Naruto, you're finally a student at the Academy. How do you feel?"
Naruto grinned. "I feel pretty good. I think that it's going to be a very educating experience."
"Is that so? Haha, why don't you go on inside with the other kids? You all will be having class in a moment."
Naruto complied. He ran inside the Academy while Hiruzen began to talk with all of the other parents. Once inside, Naruto met Hinata in the hallway. Naruto then saw the other kids running to a classroom, and Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and they ran with the others inside.
Once they were inside the classroom, Naruto and Hinata found seats up top and sat down like the rest of the children. Many of them looked so excited to start class. Others were happy that they were with their friends. Naruto was paying attention to every minute detail. As far as he knew, he believed that his skills were nowhere near the skills of the other kids. He wanted to make sure that he did well so that he could improve his skills.
A teacher wearing the Leaf Ninja uniform walked inside and proceeded towards the big desk in the front. He brought a large book and slammed it down, silencing the students.
He then spoke, "Hello everyone, welcome to the Academy. We will now proceed with attendance, so say that you're here when I call your name."
The teacher went through the names and all the kids replied happily. The teacher hesitated a little when he got to Naruto's name, but still proceeded with attendance. Once he finished, he went to the closet and pulled out a bunch of notebooks and pencils.
"Okay guys, now that you are all students, you're going to have to study hard. A great ninja is well educated, so I want each of you to come down and grab a notebook and pencil because note-taking starts today!" Most of the children groaned when they heard of this. Naruto, however, smiled and was very eager to learn.
The children proceeded to get their notebooks and returned to their seats. The teacher then began his lecture on the history of ninja. This went on for an hour and then finally finished.
"Okay, guys. It's time for a break. We are going to do practical training right now. Let's go outside!" After the teacher finished, the kids cheered. They were so happy that they could go outside and could get away from the boring lecture.
The instructor then took everyone outside to the track. "Alright, to start off, let's run 20 laps around the track! You don't have to go as fast as you can, but you should be going at a relatively quick pace!" Some kids grew disheartened when they heard that this was just going to be running. One kid in particular with a ponytail groaned that this was way too much work. "Ready! Begin!"
Everyone started to run, but one student in particular was going by pretty fast. Naruto was speeding by most of them. But, as he was running, one person was catching up to him. A boy with black hair in a black shirt and white shorts was trying his best to keep up with Naruto. Naruto was wondering why most of the kids were running so slowly, but he paid them little to no mind. Naruto then sped up a little and made a big gap between the boy and him.
When Naruto finished, the other kids were still running. The teacher was astounded by Naruto's speed. Usually kids needed to develop that kind of speed at the Academy, but Naruto was unnaturally fast. The teacher, of course, didn't think Naruto could outrun him, but it wouldn't be easy if they were to race.
It didn't take long for Naruto to lap the kids a few times. When he finished, the kids were finishing their tenth lap. He patiently waited for the kids to finish, but was confused why they decided to run so slowly. He heard them breathing hard and panting, so he thought that they must have trained really hard earlier in the day and are just that tired from their earlier training.
All the other boys were giving Naruto a glare, thinking that he was a show-off. Some of the girls were thinking that Naruto was pretty cool. Hinata thought that Naruto was amazing.
The boy with black hair felt ashamed of himself for letting Naruto outshine him in this race. He knew that he would have to work hard to catch up to his older brother's level, but now there's someone his age that he has to catch up to first. He walked up to Naruto and asked, "What's your name?"
Naruto turned and replied, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki." The girls were interested and glad that they learned his name. "And what's your name?"
Sasuke gave him a hard look. "I am Sasuke of the Uchiha clan." Many girls looked at Sasuke and thought he looked cool and cute, too.
Naruto smiled a little. He was going to ask Sasuke more about the Uchiha clan, but the teacher stepped in. "Alright guys, good work. We are going to stretch and then move on to more exercises." The students then proceeded to stretch. Naruto wasn't familiar with all of the stretches they were doing, and found himself a little stiff when trying some of them. He was nevertheless grateful, though, that he was getting to learn more to become an effective ninja.
"Alright, now that we are done with stretches, I want you guys to partner up and do 50 sit-ups. When you are done, do 50 push-ups. When you are done with that, do 50 squats. Then we'll wrap up our time outside." The children moaned, but nevertheless complied.
Naruto partnered up with Hinata and he held her ankles while she did her 50 sit-ups. Then, Hinata held Naruto's ankles for him to do his 50 sit-ups. Then they both began their push-ups. Naruto looked around to see what a push-up was, and then followed what the kids were doing. He did the same for the squats. When they were all finished with the exercises, most of the kids were sweating a lot. Naruto, on the other hand, barely broke a sweat.
The teacher was pretty surprised by how Naruto's physical abilities outshined the skills of the other students' by so much. Normally it would take almost the entirety of a student's time at the Academy to get their skills to that level. He wondered what his combat skills would be like. "Before we wrap up, let's do some sparring."
The students were getting excited. They haven't fought yet and they thought that this was going to be a lot of fun. Naruto was intrigued also because he was eager to know what the other students' skills were. The teacher began to explain how they'd spar one on one against someone of their choice. He taught the ceremony to begin a match and how you end one, emphasizing that the sparring match was respectful and showed a certain bond between the two that sparred. He then asked who wanted to spar first.
Sasuke immediately shot up. "I want to spar with you, Naruto."
Naruto got up and couldn't hide his little smile. "Alright, I'll spar."
"Don't forget to show your respect to your opponent," the teacher told Naruto and Sasuke. They both complied and showed their respect. Then the match began. The girls didn't know who to root for, and the boys were just glaring at how all the attention was focused on Naruto and Sasuke.
Sasuke charged at Naruto with a kick. Naruto blocked the kick with his arm and threw a punch at Sasuke. Sasuke ducked underneath the punch and grabbed Naruto's shirt, throwing him over his shoulder. Naruto did a flip in midair and managed to land on his feet. Sasuke tried to do a sweep kick at Naruto's feet. It landed, and Naruto fell. Sasuke was about to slam his fist into Naruto, but Naruto rolled away. He then got up and regained his form. Sasuke charged again and Naruto ducked, throwing Sasuke over his shoulder. Sasuke wasn't ready for the throw and landed flat on his back. Naruto, looking at his hands, was happy that he pulled off the throw for the first time. But, this let Sasuke get back up. Naruto quickly charged at Sasuke, using his arms to make it look like he was going for a punch. Sasuke instinctively blocked, and Naruto took this chance to do a sweep kick at Sasuke's feet. Sasuke fell back onto his back, and Naruto slammed a fist into Sasuke's gut. Sasuke gasped for air, and laid on the ground in pain. Naruto waited for Sasuke to get up, but Sasuke took a little while to get up. The teacher raised his arm, declaring the match over.
Naruto gave a little smile and began to show his respect to Sasuke. Sasuke gave his respect to Naruto, but gave a glare at him. Naruto noticed and spoke up. "Are you okay?" Naruto thought that Sasuke might be hurting a lot.
Sasuke gave a cold reply. "I'm fine."
"Oh," Naruto said. Naruto wasn't completely convinced, but he thought he could be reading Sasuke's expressions wrong. He decided to let it go.
The teacher was really shocked by Naruto's display of skills. At first, it looked like Naruto didn't know how to fight, but then he started copying Sasuke's techniques and acquired the upper hand. This kid was really strong for someone his age. The teacher had hoped that Naruto would be someone he could ignore, but with skills that good, it would be pretty bad to ignore him.
A few other students sparred. Some kids were too afraid to spar. A large bulk of girls surrounded Naruto, congratulating him on his match and praising him for his skills. Naruto assumed that they were being nice, so he thanked them for their compliments. But he told them that he would have to work hard to catch up to everyone else's level. The girls laughed a bit and thought that Naruto's modesty was cute. Naruto wasn't sure why they laughed, but paid it no mind.
After the sparring, the teacher said that they would return to the classroom and break for lunch. Most people wanted to eat with their friends. Naruto decided to eat with Hinata. Naruto noticed that Sasuke was eating alone, so he told Hinata that they should join Sasuke. Hinata agreed and they walked over to where Sasuke was sitting.
Sasuke noticed them and asked, "What do you guys want?"
"It's better to eat with others, right? So why don't we eat together?" Naruto responded.
Sasuke didn't have anything to retort considering Naruto and Hinata already sat down. Hinata brought a nice bento and Sasuke brought some rice balls. Naruto merely watched them eat.
Sasuke saw this and said, "What? Are you so strong that you don't need to eat anything?"
Naruto put a hand behind his head and chuckled. "Ah, no. I didn't have any food to bring today so I don't have any food today."
Sasuke and Hinata looked perplexed. "Doesn't your mom pack you a lunch?" Sasuke asked. Hinata's face began to grow sad. She already knew what Naruto's response was going to be.
Naruto gave a small smile. "Ah, I bet she would if she was here. But, everyone in my family is dead except me."
Sasuke choked a little on his rice ball. He thought he just stepped on a landmine. Hinata was looking really sad from Naruto's comment and looked like she wanted to cry. She already knew that Naruto was all alone, but hearing it still made her heart feel heavy. Sasuke said, "I'm sorry." He then put a rice ball in his hand and offered it to Naruto.
"Ah, but that's your food. I don't want to impose," Naruto replied.
Sasuke gave him a smile. "You idiot, just take the food. A smart ninja eats to make sure they can keep up their strength." Hinata also smiled and offered some of her food to Naruto. She didn't say anything for being too shy, but Naruto was able to understand what she was trying to convey.
Naruto gave a little smile. "Thanks!" He then took the rice ball and some of the food that Hinata offered and the three of them ate their food in bliss.