Chapter 2: Academy begins

My father was really sad, it was clear in his eyes and of course I knew that I could become a ninja and very powerful with only taijustsu, however I don't think I have what it takes to go training like Might Guy and Rock Lee.

"Don't worry dad I will be a ninja, even if I can't do those cool jutsus like you" As I was saying I could see my father start to smile and mask his worry and sadness with a happy and a supporting attitude. "Of course you can be a ninja and I will help you be the strongest one ever!" He had a bright smile on his face and a puffed chest full of confidence, then he pulled me into a hug as he was convincing himself that what he just told me was true.

It was a bit weird, because I knew that there were multiple paths to strength. After he put me down from the hug I told him with a smile: " I will go and train in my room, I need to get better at chakra control". Then he said to me while I was going to my room: "Son, I will go to the archive and search for some jutsus that you can start to learn, I think there is a clone jutsu without element that you can learn after you build up more chakra and get better at chakra control"

I was in my room going through every single jutsu that I could remember that was not an elemental jutsu. The first one that came to my mind was the rasengan, the rasengan was an class A jutsu and all that was needed was a really good chakra control, however I can't find a way to explain how I know the jutsu as only Minato, Jiraya, Tsunade, Hiruzen and probably Danzo knows about it so I don't think it's a good idea to go after it.

As I was thinking about what I could learn at the moment, I remembered Sakura. Even though she was a normal and for the most part of the series a dead weight on the team she became really strong by perfecting chakra control and building up chakra in her fists and other parts of her body to boost her strength and speed. This was a good starting point, building chakra was mostly a mind exercise with some physical training, so I do believe It was the best option for now.

"Let's start training then!" With that I got one of my kunais and began coating it with chakra and trying to make a fin layer on it and holding it together. It was hard, all I could muster was holding the layer of chakra for a few minutes and then the amount of chakra would reach a point that I could not control and then burst out of the kunai, making me have to start all over again. I didn't quite understand what was happening so I kept trying.

About 3 hours later I was almost out of chakra. I did get some ideas about the burst of chakra after losing control, I always thought that chakra that was imbued into and object would just fade away after losing the control and supply, however I was trying to feed more chakra to compensate the waste of chakra due to poor control. After thinking about how much chakra I was wasting coating the kunai, I heard a loud noise at the front door. "Son! I found it! I found the clone jutsu that doesn't need an element affinity to use that I was talking about!". Hearing this I stood up and went to the living room where my father was with a scroll at hand and a smile on his face. "Here son, I found it!" Again he said and I saw his happy smile.

"You told me that I had to get better at chakra control to use it, but can you show me what the jutsu looks like?" I asked him hoping that it was the kage bunshin jutsu."Even if you can't use it right now it is something that you can learn and understand, I do think it is a good idea for me to learn it so I can help you when you are ready". He said sitting down on a chair and motioning for me to take a seat."The jutsu is called Kage bunshin jutsu, the theory is that you can make a mostly real clone of yourself and use it in combat and scouts."

When he said the name of the jutsu I got hyped, learning the kage bunshin jutsu for sure will be a life changing skill and will help me learn anything faster because of the part that the user will retain the memories of the clone. As I was lost in thoughts of how amazing it will be to use the jutsu my father looked at me and with a serious tone he told me."Look son, It will be hard be to be a strong ninja with only non-elemental jutsus, you already can be considered a genius because of how good your chakra control is, I'm not sure, but I think you are about low to mid level chunin in this skill alone and your chakra is at high level genin." He then looks down and stops for a brief moment. "I will do my best to help you achieve your dream, you still have two more years for you to enter the academy so I will up your physical training and will guide you on your chakra control exercises, I may not be the best, but I will do my best to help you". He then looked up and I spoke all I could say." Thanks dad" Then I stood up and ran to hug him.

I was happy, most people in the series would just have told me to give up hope and do anything else but be a ninja and that only because they believed that ninjas had to have these skills and if you can't learn them then you are trash and don't deserve a chance.

After we ate dinner and I was about to go to sleep my father approached me and asked."Son, how is your chakra training going? What are you doing to practice?". I was already in bed so I had to stand up and get a kunai to show him what I was doing." I'm doing this, coating the kunai with chakra, but after a while the chakra just bursts out of the kunai and I lose control over it". I told him while coating the kunai with a fine layer of chakra and then as I finished talking I made it burst like it was happening during training. He then looked at what I was doing and said."I had this type of thing happen to me when I was practicing years ago, at the time my teacher told me that it was happening because I was building up more chakra and making it denser over time." he stops to think a bit and I asked." So I'm using more chakra to try to control and losing control because I don't have enough control to hold more chakra and maintain the shape?" I asked and waited for the answer, and the answer came fast."Yes, that is what is happening. After my teacher told me that I limited the amount of chakra and it kinda solved the problem, the coating was weaker, however I was able to hold it for much longer". That was a breakthrough in my training, however I had no more energy to train and went to bed after wishing goodnight to my father who went to his bedroom to sleep as well.

The next two years went by quite fast, I was so fixated on learning and getting better to have the best chance at the academy that I went out to play way less often than before. The times that I went out I went to the park just so my friends knew I was alive and well. Naruto now was even more discriminated against than before and he would retaliate by painting buildings or the hokage mountain. Sasuke was almost impossible to meet, his father would help him learn jutsus, train and study almost every day, so he was loving it. Sakura was studying a lot too so she could be one of the best and impress the teacher.

Everything was following what I do remember so I don't think my presence made too much of a difference. However now two after training I was ready for the academy and today was the test to enter, I was nervous, I couldn't fuck this up, because I had to be one of the top to compensate for my lack of talent in ninjutsu.

As I was walking to the academy with my father I saw a lot, I mean a lot of children, some with their family and some in groups with the orphanage representative. And when we got to the academy the Hokage was there to give his speech. His speech was about how happy he was to see children wanting to protect those who are dear to them, how the will of fire lives in every single one of us and wishing luck to everyone in the tests that were about to start.

After his speech one of the teachers told everyone to follow him to a track field nearby and ordered us to run, telling us that the test will last for 2 hours. Some children went all in from the start and could not continue after 20 minutes, those failed immediately and went home crying, while their parents did their best telling them that they will pass next year, some other children lasted far longer, however they failed too. After 1,5 hours passed no more than 50 children were running and now that we were spaced out I saw my friends running, Sasuke was a few meters ahead, looking just fine, Naruto was near him breathing heavily, but for sure not giving up. As I was already quite fit and used to run hours without end and had learned how to use chakra to improve my speed and stamina, let's just say that it was an easy test for me, However I wanted to be at the front so I sped up and caught up with Sasuke.

Sasuke was surprised, I don't think he thought someone was training as hard as him if not harder than him. Seeing his surprise I said." What are you so surprised about? If you don't pay attention to where you are going you will hit someone or fall". Just as I said it he had to dodge a kid that was running slowly, I laughed and sped up to be in front of him then Sasuke and Naruto yelled at the same time."Hey! I will be the one at the front!" and they sped up.

The test finished with myself being the one who ran the farthest, Sasuke in second and Naruto just a few centimeters behind him. They looked tired and for a good reason, running for two hours non stop and not using chakra was not an easy feat. I then looked around to see 30 children in total that passed the first test.

As I was about to go talk to Sasuke and Naruto a second teacher went up to the stage and called everyone, telling us to go inside the building to do the written test. This part was easy, however having to think and solve problems after running for two hours was hard. The questions were mostly basic math and history so if you read some books you would know what the questions were about, the math part you had to have someone to teach you though.

The second part lasted for 1h and they told us that we will know the results tomorrow at the board that was located on the front of the school and that they were happy with the results so we could now go home and be happy to be a part of the academy.

My father was happy to see the results of a harsh training so we went to eat out. As we were walking we saw Naruto going to ichikaku's ramen shop so I went up to him so we could celebrate together. He was happy, probably the happiest he ever was in his life so I wanted to make sure that day was one for him to keep in his memories forever, so we celebrated.

The next day I woke up and went directly to the academy and for sure my name was there, first place, perfect score in the physical test and almost perfect in the written test and to make things even better I was in the same class as the main cast. I yelled in happiness and as classes would soon start, the fun too was about to start.