IMPORTANT A/N: I've gotten a number of questions about the timeline, and while I've tried to respond to everyone who's asked I have included the explanation at the end of the chapter. I would ask that you read that, and if you still have any questions shoot me a PM or review and I'll try to answer what I can as soon as I am able. (also if you sent me a message asking a question make sure to check your inbox, I don't think FF sends an email notification if you receive a reply or anything)

Minato lied. Things absolutely did not get easier after that first day.

Each morning started with lessons in the classroom taught mainly by Itsuki. Here we learned the base level theory of being a shinobi, as well as the basics of mathematics, history, and the beginnings of Chakra Theory. This was the easy part, and learning about chakra was interesting even if it was the most basic level possible. At around midday we would break for lunch, after which Hiroto would gather us up and lead us to the training field.

This was the painful, but bearable, practical part the day. Hiroto would assign us physical exercise to train our bodies, throwing/dodging drills to train our hand-eye coordination and a bevy of other exercises. He always pushed us to our limits, guaranteeing that the next morning the biggest topic of conversation at breakfast was which muscle group hurt the most.

The end of each day was sparring, which was easily the worst part. Because Hiroto's lessons were more practical than theoretical he would demonstrate a basic technique at the start of each session. Things like how to properly throw a punch, how to perform a kick without leaving ourselves open, and other things in a similar vein.

Then he would pair us all up and send us to the rings to practise on each other, which would inevitably deteriorate into a brawl after only a few tries. Hiroto never seemed to care about that part.

Depressingly enough, I had still to win a single round.

After getting the tar beaten out of me the day would be over. I would head home, have Mom 'ooo' and 'aahh' over my new bruises, flip through my textbooks, eat dinner, and then either play more games-that-were totally-not-training or read before repeating the cycle the next day. We had a total of two more tests in our first month, but these were much simpler than the mind-bending first day. Much more like the tests before the Accident, asking about what we had learned up until this point.

The routine was only broken up when I would have to try and avoid Minato now and then. Apparently he had taken his 'looking after the new kids' comment to heart, and would occasionally try and check up on me. Most of the time I was able to slip away, but I couldn't help the feeling that he was letting me escape.

I had taken the time to memorise the particular buzz of his chakra, so at least I had a little advance warning when he would begin making his way over which helped significantly.

The 'hide and seek' training I had been doing with Uncle Riki ended up helping a lot with that, having learned to lock on to a specific chakra 'frequency' during the long hours searching for the adult shinobi. It was still a very crude method of detection, only really letting me know when someone who I had memorised was nearby, but it proved its usefulness.

The kid was still far too observant for a six year old though, and I was sure he knew what I was up to. Especially when he would sometimes fall for my very basic evading tactics when I was sure he had noticed me.

I had overheard more than a few conversations between the many academy teachers about his astounding potential. Putting two and two together I assumed he just enjoyed the game of hunting me down.

The first big shake-up came after my first month. Upon finishing the day's sparring exercises Itsuki came up to me before I left, handing me a letter and telling me to present it to my parents.

It was a request for a meeting during the weekend to discuss something, Mom wouldn't say what it was about but the fact that it also requested for Uncle Riki to be there if possible meant I probably wasn't in trouble.

I hoped.

So that is what lead up to me sitting here, fidgeting nervously in front of Itsuki's desk, flanked by my parents and Uncle Riki, looking at Itsuki and Hiroto who each had a file and a familiar test scroll sitting in the middle of the desk.

Now I was a lot less sure that I wasn't in trouble for something.

After the drawn out greetings that were annoyingly common during formal occasions, Itsuki flipped open his folder and began speaking.

"Thank you for coming. As stated in our message we wished to discuss young Uzuki-kun's progress."

Okay so it couldn't be that bad right? The fact that he used my mother's maiden name in front of my dad didn't escape me, but not seeing any reaction meant that he knew about it in advance.

Now that I thought about it, maybe it had more to do with Uncle Riki than Mom? He was a Tokubetsu Jonin after all, so it might have been done on purpose to associate with him more than a random civilian.

Snapping back to the conversation, I was relieved to see I hadn't missed much while on my mental tangent.

"-examined his responses in the evaluation tests, as well as his participation during lessons we were pleasantly surprised. I must congratulate you on your at-home teaching abilities. Although Uzuki-kun rarely participates during lectures his level of mathematics and reading comprehension far exceed many of his peers. Even in the logic puzzles and abstract thinking sections he scored well above anyone near his age. "

Ahh... Right... That might be a problem. Especially because Mom and Dad never actually tutored me in mathematics. My parents accepted the compliment gracefully, but shared a quick, subtle look.

Well, time to start thinking of an excuse I guess.

"I will admit that we had some reservations at the prospect of one so young starting at the academy, but after examining his answers to the mental examination test we believe he is more than capable of handling the stresses of the academy."

This got me a proud grin and pat on the shoulder from Dad, evidently pleased his son was doing so well. Mom and Uncle Riki seemed much more reserved in contrast for some reason.

Having said his piece Itsuki closed his folder, allowing Hiroto to speak up with his usual raspiness

"In contrast to his excellent academic performance, Akihiro-kun's physical evaluation was significantly lower than his peers. While this is to be expected due to his small stature and still underdeveloped musculature, and he shows some motivation to improve, it is still a mark against him. A shinobi must have balance, so if he wishes to excel it would be best to focus on exercises at home, more than continuing to focus on theory."

This part came as no surprise to anyone, the litany of bruises I would accumulate at the end of each day broadcasting my ineptitude in the ring. Oddly enough though this seemed to have the opposite effect on Mom and Uncle Riki than the previous, actually making them visibly relax.

Once Hiroto was done giving his report, Itsuki turned to Uncle Riki.

"There was one more criteria we were evaluating over the last month. In Akihiro-kun's folder it mentions that you tested him for chakra sensing, correct Uzuki-san?"

"That is correct. I had done a basic test at home, followed by the classical training methods once I had confirmed it." Uncle Riki responded.

"As part of academy protocol we test all our students who are mentioned to have some type uncommon ability, such as sensing or an awakened bloodline for example. To this end we asked one of our top students, who was already familiar with Akihiro-kun, to discreetly carry out a number of tests to avoid suspicion. Not that we doubt your claims, but simply to verify."

…Wait what? Was he implying what I thought he was implying?

"Through this student's efforts we have been able to confirm that not only does Akihiro-kun have the potential to be a possible sensor, but also that he has a very limited level of control over it already, including the ability to roughly track a single person that he has had contact with, within a certain range."

That blond little shit! So that's what it was about?

Itsuki's last comment got me a very brief squeeze from Dad, who was obviously having to stop himself beaming with pride. Uncle Riki just nodded thoughtfully while Mom seemed a bit surprised this time. No negative responses was a good thing, right?

To be honest, this whole sensing thing was going a bit over my head. I was totally unaware that it wasn't commonplace, I had thought it was just the sound chakra made that everyone could hear. Maybe it was because I wasn't born with it originally that it just stood out to me more than others?

Actually thinking about it that didn't really make sense either, because someone could probably make a chakra-detector of some sort to filter out non-chakra sounds making stealth essentially impossible. Considering people as intelligent as Orochimaru existed meant that someone must have come up with an idea like that before.

Whatever the case was, it was clearly a useful ability to have. Only problem being that I still had a long way to go before it was useful as more than an 'X person is around the corner' alarm.

Having finished his explanation Itsuki leaned back, arms folded in front of him.

"Having taken all of this into consideration, We believe it best for Akihiro-kun to move to the second tier with the first group of promotions next week."

Well that was good. Tier three was the goal, and separating myself from the crowd this early would give me a good head start right?

Mom's tense iron grip on my hand and Uncle Riki's slight frown told a different story.

Having said their part, Hiroto and Itsuki standing from their chairs was an obvious dismissal. The family and I thanked them for their time and attention to my studies, and said our goodbyes. Dad's façade of formal politeness shattered the moment the door had been shut behind us.

"Aki-kun! Thats fantastic! Barely four years old and already making waves!" he said, practically bursting with pride, before picking me up and dumping me on his shoulders.

"Daddy always believed you were destined for greatness! Just make sure you don't forget us little people when you are at the top!" he continued, laughing all the way down the corridor. His good mood was contagious and it wasn't long before I was laughing with him.

It was only when we reached the front door to the academy and turned around to say something to Mom and Uncle Riki that we saw they looked a lot less pleased than us two. Uncle Riki still had his serious, contemplative expression, while Mom was actively biting her lip while staring at the floor.

Dad finally picked up on the mood and paused.

"Hey, Hey this is something to celebrate, why are you two so glum? What's wrong?"

It was Uncle Riki who responded.

"Yuji... shinobi teaching methods aren't like civilian ones. Students who show great potential aren't kept around and taught until a certain age."

"Wh- What do you mean? What happens to them?"

"...They graduate early, and are then sent out as fast as possible."

The good mood drained out of Dad and I as we realised what Uncle Riki was getting at.

… I really needed to learn how to lay low better.

-III-

The first day of the following week I headed back to the classroom after the daily physical learning with Hiroto. Exhausted, bruised, and continuing my losing streak I entered the room and made my way to my usual spot.

Before I could make it, I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders from behind. Jumping a little in surprise, I turned to see a familiar grinning face.

Shuun Mori.

She was the same girl who had sat next to me on the first day, and the second blond to have taken an interest in me for some reason. After beating the stuffing out of me for the third time in as many days during the physical lessons she somehow came to the conclusion that what I really needed was an older mentor to "pull me out of my shell" and "teach me how to handle myself", and other nonsense in the same vein.

And being the brash, loud, and tomboyish girl she was, clearly that mentor was her.

Not that I had any right to complain. As humiliating as it may have been taking fighting tips from a seven year old girl, only an idiot would deny that she knew what she was talking about. A fact that was proven when she had laid out the biggest kid in the class in a matter of seconds during the first day's spars.

"Well if it isn't little Aki-chan! I had a feeling I would be seeing you in our special little group! Come on, sit with your big sis! Hopefully this wont be as boring as the usual lessons. And if it is, that's why I have you around right?"

I resigned myself to my fate of having to explain half the concepts that would be taught as she physically dragged me over to her usual desk. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was "mentoring" who, as while she was the undisputed best fighter and athlete in our class she struggled to grasp pretty much anything theoretical.

From the outside it probably looked like some sort of weird symbiotic relationship, where she would use me to break down any concepts she couldn't figure out on her own and in return her presence would discourage anyone who wanted to drag down the young kid to raise their own standing.

From my perspective, she was a leech that constantly hounded me around and messed with me. The only reason I tolerated her was because she occasionally proved useful, and not because she had basically become the closest and only thing I had to an actual friend since the Accident.

Absolutely not that.

"How do you still have this much energy Mori-san? Everyone else is practically dead on our feet." I asked as I was being manhandled behind the desk we would share.

Blinking in confusion, Shuun took a quick look around. True to my words she was the only who had energy to spare, all the other students slumped over their desks or trying to nurse life back into muscles that might as well have been made of jelly. She turned back to me, a self satisfied grin on her face.

"'Cuz im awesome. Obviously. Also do we still have to go through your language lessons? C'mon say it with me. 'Hello Onee-san, its so nice to see you again!'. Can you do it? How about just 'Onee-san', can you say Onee-san for big sis Aki-chan?"

I stared back at her with every ounce of disdain I could muster.

"We're classmates, not relatives Mori-san."

"It's super easy! 'Ohh'. 'Ne'. 'San'. Onee-san! Say it with me! 'Ohh. Ne. Sa-"

"I'm not going to call you 'Onee-san'"

"Ha! You just did!"

"Using a term in a denying statement doesn't mean that I referred to you with that same term, Mori-san."

This got me blank stare in return as Shuun processed the statement, reminding me that I was still talking to a child who hadn't built her vocabulary by reading Dad's meeting minutes out of boredom. Nevertheless, she clearly got the gist of what I was saying as a moment later her confident grin returned, and her hand plopped down to ruffle my plain black hair.

"You'll cave eventually."

"No I wont."

"Yea you will."

"I will not, Mori-san."

"Sure you will."

Unfortunately before I could deliver my cutting rebuttal of 'absolutely not' Itsuki opened the classroom door and walked in, effectively cutting off all conversation as he made his way to the front of the class. Folding his arms behind him and casting a critical glance over the assembled students he began to speak.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate every one of you. Over the past month you have worked harder, shown more potential, or just been more gifted than your other classmates. Either academically or physically you have proven yourselves, and in recognition you have been given this opportunity to grow further still so that you may reach the height of your potential.

Now that that is out of the way, these classes will take place every day after your usual school day. Occasionally I will be joined by Katsurou-sensei who you met on your first day, and together we will be teaching you more advanced practical shinobi skills than will be taught to the first tier students. How to hide yourself from other shinobi, basic kenjutsu and specialised weapon handling, improvisational skills. These are just some of what you will learn here. Much of what you learn will be built upon the foundation of what has been taught earlier during your normal classes, so do not think that just because you have been invited here you no longer need to pay attention to those.

And remember; should you not live up to our expectations, fail to continue your hard work or lose our confidence in you some other way, you will be dropped back down to where you were. Never forget that."

Once Itsuki was satisfied we understood the gravity of the situation, he asked us to assemble at the door and lead us out. The building apprehension that we were heading back out to the training field vanishing when we met a vaguely familiar man at the gate to the academy.

"In case you have forgotten, this is Katsurou-sensei." Itsuki said as he turned back towards us. "We will be heading out for a walk outside of the academy. Try to stick together and follow me, if you break off and get lost we will not stop and look for you, so I hope you know the way back to the academy."

With that he lead us out the gate with Katsurou bringing up the rear of the group. The first few minutes passed in silence. We were mostly ignored apart from the occasional passer-by who recognised one of our teachers or other students and would give us a wave.

Once we realised we were going to be walking for a while conversations started springing up between the other students, mostly focused on where we were going. For my own part I moved close to the head of the group so I was close to Itsuki.

"Excuse me Itsuki-sensei, may I ask you something?" I asked, getting his attention.

"One can always ask, Uzuki-kun, but not always get an answer."

Clamping down on my instinctual response to roll my eyes at his comment, I took it as permission to continue.

"If we are going to be taught the basics in the first tier of the academy, and more practical things when we are in the second, what's taught in the upper three three tiers?"

This got an approving nod from Itsuki.

"Excellent question Uzuki-kun, but you should ask Katsurou-sensei instead. It is his area of expertise."

Well now I was intrigued, there was a teacher that specialised in teaching the most impressive students? Thanking Itsuki I slowed my pace a little so that I fell to the back of the group where Katsurou was bringing up the rear, catching Shuun's attention as I did so.

Gesturing her to be silent for a moment I turned my head so that I could face Katsurou. Before I could ask he chuckled.

"Don't worry Akihiro-kun, I head you and Itsuki-sensei." He said

"I can't go into too much detail, but in the third tier we begin teaching concepts that are far more theoretical and advanced than the previous stages. Mostly on topics such as anatomy, in-field strategizing, creating and breaking codes, and the big one: Advanced Chakra Theory. This is also why most of our specialised departments like the Medic core, Cryptanalysis team and T&I snag recruits from the third tier."

Now that sounded far more up my ally, sitting behind a book was always preferable than slaving away on the training fields.

"What about the fourth and fifth tiers?"

This got me a shrug from Katsurou.

"I cant say too much, but those who reach the fourth tier are those who are expected to one day assume roles of leadership in the village. Clan heads, advisors, even the Hokage one day. That sort of stuff is expected from fourth tier students, so their classes are moved away from our normal system. This way they don't have to worry about wasting time attending classes with first to third tier students, and can focus on learning things like advanced world history, politics, international relations, economics. Almost all of them then supplement that with personal physical training from either clan members or other shinobi who see their potential.

The fifth tier is more ceremonial than anything else to be honest. The academy has been around for five years now but no one has achieved it yet, so it's just a symbolic goal for students. Anyone who reaches that title would have to be a prodigy in all aspects of being a shinobi and it allows us to officially open the door to personal apprenticeships and other options when you graduate."

"Other options like the whole clan adoption thing that was mentioned on our first day?"

"Exactly. Although I think it should be said that that has only happened once, when the academy had more or less just opened. The Kurama clan adopted a clanless student called Shinku who had managed to reach the fourth tier and who showed an exceptional talent for genjutsu. The mess that adoption caused led to the creation of the fifth tier to smooth things over in case it ever happens again."

Giving my thanks to Katsurou for the information I moved back to the centre of the pack deep in thought.

Shinku. I didn't recognise the name at all, so he couldn't have been super important. I recognised the Kurama clan name however, and knew that by canon they had grown significantly weaker so maybe this move might have been influenced by that?

Perhaps I'd track this 'Shinku' fellow down to ask more questions later. I loved my family, but it could only be beneficial to have influential friends.

I wasn't given much time to think before Shuun sidled up next to me, pulling off an exaggerated yawn.

"Man that stuff sounded boring. Who cares about history or politics? I just want to be a kick-ass kunoichi!"

I sighed.

"That statement just physically pained me Mori-san. If we do not learn from the mistakes of history, then we are doomed to repeat them."

"Yea yea whatever Nerd-sama. Anyway you wanna' know a secret?"

"I wasn't aware you were capable of keeping secrets."

My sarcasm didn't have its intended effect, making Shuun smug instead of annoyed.

"I bet I know more and bigger secrets than you, Aki-chan! I'll tell you this one though, on one condition..."

As she trailed off, I couldn't hide my smirk at the first statement. I seriously doubted that.

"I'm not calling you 'Onee-san', Mori-san."

Shuun groaned in disappointment

"Why you gotta be so mean to your big sis huh? Well, I guess you aren't gonna get the secret then!"

With that she stuck her tongue out at me before wandering off, while I just started counting down from twenty.

By the time I reached four she was running back.

"Okay fine! I'll tell you the secret. But you'd better hold up your end too!"

Too easy.

"I never agreed to anything."

"Doesn't matter, anyway I know where we're going!"

This actually got me to stare at her in surprise. By now we were well into the outskirts of the village where the houses and buildings had given way to small fields and pastures. The wall that circled the majority of the village, while visible from almost any part of the village, towered over us.

"What? How would you know?"

"'Cause I've explored all of Konoha, and there's only one interesting thing around here."

When she refused to elaborate I sighed, looks like she really wanted to drag this out didn't she?

"Well alright then. Where are we going, oh wise and merciful Mori-sama?"

Shuun laughed and slapped me on the back, nearly knocking me over due to the not insignificant size difference.

"That's better! Not quite there yet, but better! But yea, the only interesting thing out here are a bunch of small fields for farming animals. Not sure why we are heading over there though."

"You don't 'farm' animals, Mori-san. You raise them."

"Farmers farm, dummy."

Conveniently we moved around a small group of trees that had been blocking our vision as we bickered about the proper nomenclature of the agricultural sciences, revealing a large but low grey building. Surrounding the building was a number of livestock, the most numerous being chickens but there were a few pigs scattered around as well.

This was officially the weirdest field trip I had ever been on.

As we approached the building and pens a man walked out, waving to Itsuki who suddenly vanished with a shower of leaves and reappearing a few meters away from the man before bowing in greeting.

Naturally this caused a whole bunch of chatter to spring up among the children, who were more focused on the disappearing act, but what surprised me more than the teleporting teacher was the subtle ringing sound that it produced. Like a handbell being struck in a field of bees, it cut through the background buzz of chakra that I had learned to tune out.

Greetings exchanged, Itsuki and the man waited for us to reach them. Not wasting a moment Itsuki launched into his explanation

"It may not look like much from out here but this is where you will learn possibly the most important lesson you will learn under our tutelage. To begin, does everyone know where the meat you eat comes from?"

This got a couple laughs, and someone even piped up with a 'We're kids sensei, not stupid!', which contrasted with the deadly serious demeanour of the adults. Itsuki was silent for a few seconds before responding.

"Very well I shall get to the point. Okamoto-san here has graciously offered some of his stock to us for this lesson. For the next hour you will be helping him and a few of his workers inside slaughter these animals to prepare them for tomorrow's market.

The single most valuable trait of any shinobi is their ability to take a life. This will be your first lesson to separate you from your peers."

The laughter stopped.

-III-

Once I got home it took about twenty minutes to scrub the rust coloured blood out from under my fingernails, one hour of Mom running her hands through my hair to break through the dam I had shoved all my emotions behind, three hours to stop crying after that, and four nights to stop the panicked squealing and overpowering smell of iron from coming back every night as I slept. Desensitisation training sucked, no wonder slaughter house workers ended up with so many psychological issues.

To their credit, Itsuki and especially Katsurou were incredibly helpful. Having impromptu therapy sessions and helping everyone sort through their emotions instead of teaching anything new in our after-school lessons for the rest of the week. Even referring the hardest hit students to another instructor who was a Yamanaka who had decided to specialise psychology.

But even with all this there was a marked shift in the mood of the tier-twos as we were called. It was especially bad for the kids like Shuun, who were orphans and had no one to lean on at home. After learning that fact I had sat with Shuun for nearly two hours after school ended one day, letting her vent and offering a shoulder to cry on.

It was the least I could do for the only person I considered a friend.

Even with all the support however, the week after our 'lesson' a number of students voluntarily stepped down, reducing our group from twenty to fourteen. None of us looked poorly on those who had left.

All of this combined meant that when I felt the familiar buzzing of Minato's chakra approach me during lunch I was in no mood to play our usual game of cat and mouse. Especially since I learned that the whole reason he had been doing so was to test me on behalf of the instructors.

It was time we had words.

I noticed his chakra take on a different hum as I continued eating. The almost imperceptible dip in tone seeming to convey hesitance or surprise, but I couldn't say for sure. It was only for a moment before it started towards me again, Minato entering my peripheral vision a few seconds later then taking a seat across from me.

We looked at one another, not saying anything for a long moment. This was probably the first time I had seen him without a smile I noted, instead wearing a slight frown. He was the first to speak.

"They took you guys to The Farm didn't they?"

"Wasn't much of a farm."

Minato sighed and leaned back to look at the sky, looking far more world-weary than any six year old should.

"Yea, yea I guess you're right about that... You want to talk about it?"

"I would rather not, Namikaze-san. But I would like to talk to you about something else." I said as I put down my chopsticks with a 'click', watching Minato straighten back up.

"I would like to talk about the fact that you, for lack of a better word, were spying on me."

Minato froze at my accusation, before sighing again and looking straight at me, deadly serious.

"...You're right. I was asked by Daiki-sensei to test you. To see how long it took for you to notice me when I hid versus when I was in the open, at what points you recognised I was coming... You get the idea. He told me he had learned enough three weeks ago, so I didn't have to continue, but I continued because I thought it was fun and interesting. You continued to play along so I thought that you agreed. I apologise for not being fully truthful with you from the start."

I stayed silent, digesting his words. He didn't try to hide it and instead owned up to it, which was a point in his favour, and he seemed earnest enough.

"At first I thought you were just playing around, its true, but I learned from Itsuki-sensei what was really going on during the talk where they decided to promote me to second tier. I am not a fan of being spied upon by my own peers but I will accept your apology. That being said, I think it would be best for both of us to not interact further. Considering what I've heard from the teachers I am sure you are very busy with your obvious desire to be the first fifth-tier ever, and I have my own training to focus on."

Minato looked disappointed but unsurprised as I replied, nodding as I finished.

"All right, but may I say something first before I go?"

"Of course."

"I've only been here for a year. I started at tier one and now I'm tier four. People might call me a prodigy or a genius, but still treat me like a kid. Most of the other kids around here are friendly enough, but I can't really talk to them. Even the clan kids aren't on my level, and I'm not saying this to brag or anything. When we first met, I noticed that you talked like I did, before I started dumbing it down for the other kids. Even right now, you think we could have a conversation like this with anyone else in our groups?

What I'm trying to get to is: It wouldn't surprise me if you are a bit like me, unable to get people to treat you like you want them to. I meant it when I said if you needed anything you could come to me. Even if you just want to talk with someone who sorta gets it."

With that Minato paused as he stood up.

"Hopefully we'll see each other around, Akihiro-san."

With that he turned and left, throwing a wave behind him as he walked back into the academy building and leaving me with a lot to digest.

Looking back at it he was right. The conversation we had would have been unthinkable between any normal four and six year old, and was the first time I had been able to communicate with someone who was both on the same level as I and who was willing to treat me like an equal.

While Shuun might be called my first friend, she was still a seven year old girl. Whenever we talked I had to make a concious effort to dumb down my speech patterns so that she would understand which meant that it had just taken four years plus a few months to have my first real conversation with someone.

My first conversation between two people treating each other as equals and it was about telling them to leave me alone. How sad was that?

I was half tempted to believe Minato was actually like me, someone from a different time or world reborn into a different life, but I discarded that thought moments later. He had been some sort of once in a lifetime genius in canon, so his mental maturity probably shouldn't be that surprising.

At any rate I had dodged the bullet that was Minato's life, and wouldn't speak to him ever again.

...Probably.

Turning back to my half eaten lunch I noticed for the first time Hiroto leaning against the fence surrounding the academy a couple dozen meters away. I didn't know when he had appeared, but judging by the contemplative look on his face he had heard enough.

I could already tell there were going to be consequences to the conversation, but I couldn't find it in me to care at the moment.

Unsurprisingly, I was promoted to the third tier a month later.

AN

Can I get three cheers for childhood trauma? If you hadn't noticed by now, the time after the warring states and before the third war was pretty fucked. Also the perfect place to set a story in!

So, to explain some of the timeline shenanigans going on: I had mentioned in the first Authors Note that the canon timeline is a bit wonky, so I had to change some things around mainly focused on births/deaths/wars. The reason for this is because the timeline of pre-canon is SUPER compressed, to the point of absurdity in my opinion. For example:

We see Hashirama with a young Tsunade, somewhere between 2 to 6 years old, but canonically he dies in the first shinobi war, after which Tobirama reigns for an unknown period of time where he sets up the academy, ANBU and police force before he ALSO dies in the first war.

It has been stated that the second war started 20 years after the first, to mimic the real life world wars. So the Sanin have to be around 22-30 by the start of the second war. Then there is a third war, a brief peace, the sealing of the Kyuubi and 12 years later the start of Naruto where Tsunade is stated to be 51 years old.

What this means is that Tsunande was AT MOST 39 years old by the end of the third war (51-12) if the peace before the kyuubi attack was less than a year. Going with the most generous timeline where the sanin are 22 years old at the START of the second war, means that somehow there were 2 massive shinobi world wars that started and ended in just 17 years. Compared to real life where the time between the start of the first world war and the end of the second was 31 years. That's almost double and the wars were only a generation apart.

We know that in canon both Hashirama and Tobirama die in the first war, but that Tobirama ruled for a non-insignificant amount of time looking at his achievements, which can only mean the first war was a long one. So we finish a long, destructive war that kills 2 Hokages, to 20 years of peace, to a bigger war (if we are following the WWI-WWII reference), to peace, to ANOTHER war, to peace, all in a roughly 37 year period. By the end of canon there were characters like Onoki who were veterans of 4 (FOUR!) world wars.

And I don't know about you, but to me that shit is CRAZY.

I made a timeline for the story so the shuffling around of dates shouldn't break anything major or leave too many plotholes, so just chalk up the whole thing to it being AU if you want.

Anyway Story-wise progress is being made, character relationships are being set up and the foundation for future events being laid. Slow build so far, academy should be finished next chapter, or the one after that if I don't go off on too many tangents so please look forward to that!

Sorry for the long Authors Note, but if anyone has any questions still just let me know and I'll get back to you, while trying not to spoil too much.

As always, criticism is appreciated for one can never improve without it!