Merry Christmas to those that celebrate it!
Thanks to Silver Queen for detailed worldbuilding, as you'll see a lot is borrowed off the DOS universe. Basically we're in the DOSverse for now (it's not assumed knowledge) but we'll probably diverge later on.
Chapter 3 - First day
Sakura sat in awe as she saw the Hokage up close for the first time, right in front of her was the most powerful man in the village! His face was aged compared to his likeness carved into the mountain, but age must not affect ninja in the same way it did civilians. Her father was always commenting about the pains of getting old, although now she wasn't sure, perhaps he just made a big deal out of it for joke fodder. The man in front of her was exuding a real presence, powerful but not oppressive, filling her with pride and a sense of importance - it was THEM he was addressing, them that he claimed were the basis of Konoha's future. Boy, her mum would have wrangled a way to stay if she knew the Hokage would be speaking to them. Probably just as well though, she would have gone on about it for weeks to anyone that listened…
Wait- she suddenly realised she had been lost in her thoughts for some time, hadn't he said how important it was for them to focus on learning to the best of their ability? Now he was talking about some will of fire and she had missed it, was it a special technique? Maybe they needed to hold onto it because if they didn't it would go out of control and burn down Konoha? Argh, well she'd probably learn more about it later, she resolved to sit up front and pay good attention in the lessons to come.
Classes were called and her new teacher Iruka-sensei led them to a large classroom with row upon row of benches. Slipping into the front row she pulled out her things and waited while the teacher attempted to settle the rest of the class. Were the other kids really that confident they didn't need to learn? Maybe she wasn't as far ahead as she thought, this WAS supposedly the top class. Some of them even seemed to know each other, she shrunk shyly in her seat and hoped she'd be able to make friends.
When the bell rang for lunch she timidly moved towards a group of three girls that had gathered at the front of the room. One of them had purple hair so she figured her pink hair wouldn't be so out of place among them. The purple haired one, Ami, had turned, looked her over and nodded briefly in greeting. Her heart had soared at the acceptance, but it was short lived, "Eww, umeboshi!" the second girl Fuki exclaimed as she pulled out her lunch once they were seated outside. Well, she wouldn't be pulling out the extras… She only managed to eat half of one before their comments cowed her into to putting it away. The three chatted away the rest of lunch, she sat quietly, listening on and trying to keep up as Ami boasted of the exotic travels and secret spy missions her shinobi uncle had apparently been on.
After lunch was taijutsu class, which was basically practicing various physical skills. She proved to be well below average. She'd never exercised much and certainly not so much in one go. It meant getting her clothes dirty and becoming sweaty and tired, and without lunch even more so. Her mother had never liked when she got messy, "the neighbours would talk", she'd always said. She forced herself through the drills, dripping with sweat and breathing heavily; when Iruka-sensei did not goad her on like some of the others, she counted it a win. One day down, one day closer to becoming a ninja.
Thanks for all your follows and favourites (and review), I was not expecting that level of response and it is really encouraging! I'm glad that you are enjoying reading this. Obviously this is pretty slow paced and will continue to be, although I certainly won't be going day by day, but if you're into the adventure and high powered ninja-fighting fics - well, as far as I can tell Chunnin exams for Sakura are a long long way off so this story is probably not for you...
