Later that day, I went home and had a shower.
I saw my reflection from the blurry mirror, I had an athletic build for a child.
Due to my age, I didn't have really muscular definition, but I definitely was not weak. My body was pretty ok, I would say. I saw my crotch and sighed.
It took some time to adjust but there was nothing I can do, so I accepted my fate as a girl in my current life.
After accepting the fact that I had a vagina, I was much relaxed and confident.
It seems that I was finally comfortable in my own skin.
Really, acceptance and adaptability were the key.
I covered myself with a towel and went to my room to change.
I picked a grey shirt with black shorts to wear.
I always liked grey.
After helping my mother by setting the table, father called from the kitchen.
"Is the table ready?" he asked.
"Yes, dad." I replied.
Our food was mostly prepared by my mother, but dad liked to cook. So, he always added a little side dish to the table, prepared by him.
So, most of the time while mother and father were in the kitchen, working on food, I set the table up.
We ate our dinner and mostly talked about day-to-day topics.
After we ate, while we were still chatting on the table, I asked my father the question that was bugging me since I had the conversation with Ino. After asking a few more of my friends I found out that they all wanted to go to the academy.
"Dad, I want to go to the academy." I spoke. Ripping the band-aid off.
My father, not expecting this, choked on his spit for a second.
"What… why academy?" he uttered.
"Because I want to learn more and all my friends are going there. Please daaad." I begged him.
"Do you know what kind of place is the academy?" my father asked.
"Umm… no?" I answered.
"Academy is a serious place. You must have a lot of discipline and willpower for succeeding in that place." He spoke. He had some friends who graduated from the academy. He once tried the academy, but dropped out in the first year. A ninja's life was not for him, not after his own father.
"I can be a serious! And I do have discipline!" I said enthusiastically.
"You don't even make your bed in the morning." Father said.
"It is going to get messed up in the night again, why bother? And what does that have to do with the academy?"
'Hmm… I still have friends that has close relations with the academy. Maybe I could set up a meeting with some of them' the man thought.
"Anyway, you are too young to think about academy young miss. They don't enroll until 6 years of age. Last time I checked you were like 2" said my father teasingly.
I looked at my father helplessly, he was not taking this seriously!
I turned to my mother looking for a way to reinstate the conversation, but to no avail mother was on my father's side.
.
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2 days later in a Rice shop
"Thanks for coming Izumo." Said the man behind the counter.
"Sure thing, Kizashi. What did you want to discuss" said the other man while sitting on the chair next to the counter.
"You know my daughter turned 4 four months ago and you never visited!" Kizashi huffed in a fake angry manner.
"Aww man, give me a break, I was in a mission! Congratulations by the way." Said Izumo, sweat dropping from temples. Why did he brought this topic up, we have seen each other like a dozen times in the past four months. It felt really suspicious, maybe Kotatsu was playing a trick on him again.
Or maybe Kizashi could be pulling his finger too, given the man's playful personality.
"Sakura-chan was very upset he couldn't see her uncle Izumo." Kizashi said acting hurt.
"Whaaat, if she were here, I could apologize to her." Izumo said. Trying to figure out where this conversation leading to. Maybe this was the revenge from last weeks poker game? He should have eased on the man, but that was his lucky day and cards just kept appearing as he just needed. The victory was too sweet!
"Ah would you look at that, Sakura-chan is actually here. She is in the backroom going over the last months accounting ledger." Kizashi said smirking.
Izumo half expected that the kid would be here, but he still couldn't figure out the purpose of her being here. What was the end goal? He was getting restless.
Before Izumo had the chance to reply, Kizashi called.
"Sakura, would you come here?"
No reply was heard
"Maybe she has fallen asleep?" asked Izumo trying calm himself down. He felt like he was already fallen in a trap.
"SAKURA!" shouted my father.
I heard the shout and felt as if boiling water was spilled over my head.
The only time my father used that tone was when I was in deep shit.
I swiftly got up from my seat and rushed to the front room, in a flash I was scanning the room looking for the cause of the shout.
I saw another man, vaguely familiar to me sitting beside my father, looking as confused as I was.
Everything other than that seemed fine.
I couldn't find anything.
"What is going on?" I asked my father.
"This here is uncle Izumo, do you remember him?"
I stared at the man, couldn't really remember him.
"No." I hesitantly answered.
"Uncle Izumo works really close to the academy; maybe do you have some questions?" my father asked.
Oh, ok! I will do that. I want to go to the academy after all, my father's vague teachings in literacy were not enough.
'So that what was about, why the scheme? He could have just asked me directly.' Izumo thought
"You want to be a ninja, huh brat?" Izumo said, trying to gauge the kid's knowledge and willingness on the topic.
Kizashi settled back and started to watch how his daughter responds. There was no ninja stuff in both his and his wife's family.
"A ninja? I thought the academy was a place for learning." I asked, utterly confused.
We used to play ninja in or friend group, we used paper throwing stars we folded and throw them at each other. It was like a modified version of tag. I did not understand how the two connected.
"Hahaha, that is true. But there is a lot more than that." Izumo laughed.
"The academy raises the new generation of the protectors of the village. For the new generation and us, the entire village is like a large family. Every Konoha shinobi with the Will of Fire loves, believes, cherishes, and fights to protect the village, as previous generations had done before them."
"We believe in the will of fire that burns deep within our spirits."
"And the academy sparks the fire, igniting the very flame that protects."
A NINJA academy? Like the ones that wear black outfits and use swords and stuff? A literal ninja?
I have never seen any ninja in the village. I occasionally saw a few weird people patrolling the streets with equally weird uniforms but no ninjas.
I had later learned these weird people was the police.
I was used to the police wearing a cap, wearing flashy-yellow jackets and stopping people to check their identity but this world's concept of police was different.
The police had vests, which was ok, not that unusual. The wests had some sort of weird symbol, again not that weird, maybe the designing and culture was more open towards these kinds of designs.
What was weird was the police was sometimes carrying forearm length blades and sometimes no weapon.
How can they have deterrence if they had no weapons, I had no idea.
Ah, maybe that was the point, the ninja was the master of the shadows, the followers of darkness.
Probably not. Looking at Izumo in front of me, He wasn't the ninja I expected.
He had a bandana with a meatal plate in front of it, front of his hair was out of his bandana and combed to the right, barely covering his right eye. Not the balaclava that I expected.
"But what do they teach in the academy?" I asked out loud, not really thinking about the questions I was asking.
"Basic mathematics, natural sciences, history and literature. Taijutsu starts second year, and ninjutsu doesn't start until the fourth year." Izumo explained.
"Taijutsu, ninjutsu?" I asked, I did not know the meaning behind those worlds.
"Taijutsu refers to the art of hand-to-hand combat, and ninjutsu… well it would be better if I show it to you." Izumo replied.
He did three weird moves with his hand and there was a poof of smoke coming out of nowhere.
The smoke quickly cleared and I saw a second Izuma standing next to the other one.
"H-How is t-that possible" I uttered, falling on my ass from the sheer surprise.
"This is a clone, a basic jutsu." Izumo responded.
"With chakra, the possibilities are endless. So is the potential."
WHAT! That shit defied logic, it should be impossible.
I couldn't speak, I was amazed. That was completely new to me!
"Can anyone do that?" I asked Izumo while switching between the two of them after a whole minute of staring at the two Izumos.
"Yes, with enough practice every capable ninja should pull of the clone technique." Izumo responded.
"Can I touch It?" I asked Izumo pointing to the clone.
"Yeah, go ahead." He spoke.
I tried to touch the clone but my hand passed through it. That was so weird.
I wanted to doo that too. I must join the academy.
"What can I do to join the academy?" I asked.
"Well, there is a test, it is written in the brochures the academy hands out actually." He spoke.
"The admission test consists of a physical test and an interview. If you have an able body and have no problems communicating such as lisping you should be fine." He continued.
I had done plenty of sports in my previous life, I am going to train my body to my previous standards in two years.
Wait for me academy I will come for you!
I sincerely thanked Uncle Izumo. Then my father sent me home to help my mother. I was too excited about the academy I didn't realize I was already home until my mother called out for me.
.
.
.
"You didn't really have to had a scheme for just a talk you could have just asked me" Izumo said to Kizashi.
"Just wanted to get back at you for the poker night with a little joke." Kizashi responded while grinning.
Seeing his friend sweating, trying to figure out schemes that are not real was kind of funny.
"What s all this talk about academy, I thought your daughter would succeed your shop" Izumo said.
"She is really passionate about that; it seems all her friends are going to try the academy and she doesn't want to be left out. At least until you showed her a jutsu, she really got mesmerized by that. I think she will put all her effort to become a ninjutsu specialist."
"Aren't you thinking a little bit far ahead, she has not even entered the academy. Are you sure to send your daughter into the bloody world of ninjas?
"I am not sure, my friend. But seeing the fire in her eyes after she had seen your ninjutsu reminded me of myself. When I was her age, I had big dreams you know. I was going to be the best ninja the world ever seen! Hahaha" he laughed.
"Kizashi, you know about the things we do. You know what can be the consequences, you lived through one!" Izumo said.
"I know but how can a Father crush his daughter's spirit by not allowing her to become what she wants?" Kizashi said.
"I will talk to her and explain what happened to my father before the academy tests."
"If she still wants to go to the academy, I don't know what to do Izumo." Kizashi said.