You were not a normal child.
Ever since you could first talk, you were always sharper than your peers. Quicker to pick things up, the first to notice something, and you always knew just what to do.
That was exaggerating slightly, you were not a genius by any measure of the word, but you were bright. Or maybe you were just driven, pressed forward by something that was just beyond your peers.
Whatever it really was, it saw you scouted. Marked as someone potentially special. Your mother was ecstatic when the Ninja first arrived, bringing with them a battery of tests and quizzes. Your father was as stoic as ever, simply giving you one nod, and leaving it for you to decide.
For the first time in your life, you found yourself challenged by those tests and quizzes, as much physical as they were mental, logic puzzles you knew would leave your once peers migraine-ridden. Acrobatics that you were sure would snap your neck when you attempted them. Weights that caused your arms to shake minutes after you had ceased holding them.
But despite your issues, the first you had ever faced, the Ninja seemed satisfied. You were told that you had been accepted for Ninja training, and starting that semester it was your patriotic duty to attend.
Your mother threw an entire party, just your family and the neighbors, complete with cake and a stag that your father hunted that very day. Mother offered to try and invite over your once-peers, but if you were being honest you did not really have anyone you wanted to come.
You were more driven than your peers, and with that you became different. You were not bullied or anything, you were actually pretty well-liked, but you were apart.
There was a part of you that wondered if that would be different here. As your eyes took in the massive, sprawling academy before you. Ninja were meant to be the best of the best. Surely you would not be so different here too?
Your eyes fall to the gate, packed with hundreds of parents escorting their children, and a pang of sadness hits you. Your mother was too busy attending her shop to make the trip here with you, and your father was not the kind of man to find sentimentality in this sort of thing.
You glance away from the parents, back to the building, and for the first time truly take in the building that would be shaping you, and housing you for years to come.
The building cut into a mountains peak, mostly smooth, but for the wide fields that jut out of the sides, often supporting itself on another nearby by mountain.
Kumogakure's academy, you knew. Your new home.
Authors Note: So is a story translated from a quest over at Akun, or . I run the quest fairly regularly, however I have yet to pin down a time that I am particularly suited to calling my preferred time to run. If you wish to participate in the quest feel free, however fair warning, the site itself is a rather rough place, and I'm not particularly inclined to moderation.
I'll be posting Chapters here as it suits my fancy, there's about 30k words over on Akun currently, so if its not that length on this site and you find yourself hankering for more then you know where to find it. Further the story is translated from a quest, which means that it's both second person and written around a system. While this is not a gamer fic where there will be character sheets and little numbers going up throughout the update, the outcome of many things are determined by dice rolls and by increasing skills. Hopefully that does not put anyone off.