Now where was I? Ah yes, that pesky Naruto was once again in my face, laughing at my clothes. Was he trying to get a rise out of me? Or rather draw attention from the rest of the class? Maybe he could even think of himself as top dog, but he couldn't be that delusional… could he?

I chose to test my theories: "Can you piss off?" Blunt and to the point as I ever were.

"No. You look so stupid in that crop top. What are you, a girl?"

"I don't ever recall doing drag… but I reckon you could."

"What's 'doing drag' mean?" He took a few moments to ponder, coming up with some new slander probably by the growing smirk on his face. "Is it someone dragging your face through dirt and mud? I reckon you do that all the time."

It wasn't even remotely funny. "I forgot to say why you would be perfect for drag…"

"Well then, spit it out will you." He looked rather excited for some odd reason. Was he that braindead?

I slowly raised my index finger to the sky, face blank as ever, before pointing harshly at his groin: "Because, you have nothing there." I stated it with finality, so now it was law, especially with this braindead guy.

"Oi! What are you saying! My penis is much bigger than yours!"

That wasn't the smartest thing to yell out in the classroom full of pre-teens. How uncivilised, uncultured and uncaring.

Seconds later, the 'Sasuke-kun mob' as I liked to call them were swinging closed fists into all parts of his body except for his genitalia. They were also shouting curses and remarks such as "You shouldn't speak like that in the presence of a lady."

They were 8. Definitely not ladies by any stretch, but they could play pretend all they wanted.

I caught a glimpse of Naruto's face whilst he was being pummelled, and surprisingly, or probably more accurately unsurprisingly, there was a slight smirk on his face. His bloodied and bruised face.

It was option 2 all along. I guess the orange, high vis tracksuit made sense then. The orphaned Jinchuriki was after attention, yet he was too stupid to realise my only friend, I guess I could call her my best friend then, was always giving him much more than he'd ever notice.

And that was a good thing. There was no way in hell I'd help Hinata-chan make friends with Naruto, and thus make me have to put up with his bullshit.

The rest of the day went about as usual as it possibly could, but the next day was being hyped up by every person in the class before it began…

Today was ninjutsu day. (No exclamation as this is academy ninjutsu we are talking about).

The class was led outside by Iruka-sensei to one of the training fields used for practicing everything expected of a ninja bar academics. The first thing Iruka-sensei did was demonstrate the handsigns required for the kawarimi, going slowly and multiple times whilst calling them out so nobody missed it. It was a good thing we had spent a week mastering the formation of normal hand seals, mastering being used lightly that is.

After Iruka-sensei was satisfied that everybody knew what they were, he explained the technique, how and when to use it, the pros and cons, and some other tips and tricks to help learn it 'in no time'. That was basically practice closer to a log initially and later take paces away until one could do it 10 metres away, the standard requirement for the genin examination, and to also practice the leaf to forehead chakra control exercise.

After that, he had us line up alphabetically by surname, the way in which exams would be held, and had us all give it our best shot.

As I had no surname, like a few others, we were placed at the end and ordered by first name, so I was in the penultimate position. So far, only 4 people had managed to get it on the first try, those being the clan heirs of the Aburame, Hyuga, Uchiha and Yamanaka. Then again, it probably wasn't their first try seeing as they all had received some level of clan training in the past.

There were 3 tries until we had to go to the back of the queue, so while Danzo-sama had made sure I knew the 3 required ninjutsu, I intentionally messed up my first attempt by falling forwards after switching with the log a metre away. That got the class laughing at me eating dirt, but it hid any suspicion that there was a no name student with such potential to ace it first try from Iruka-sensei. I did it perfectly though the next two times.

Even though everybody, save the more introverted of my peers, were laughing out loud, it was to be noted that I was the only other person to manage it in the first three tries… So really, only Yamanaka Ino had a valid reason to laugh. The rest were useless flops in my eyes… especially the civilian born ones. Odds are, they would cap out at either high genin or low chunin level, if they even kept a shinobi lifestyle.

Both Iruka-sensei and Hinata-chan, albeit the latter quietly, applauded my apparent skills in ninjutsu.

The rest of the day, the class was split into two groups, those who had successfully gotten the simplest form down and were now working on being successful at a longer range, and those who were still struggling had Iruka-sensei still guiding them. Only two other people had managed the basic stage, before coming across to our other group. By the end of the day, the five of us who were capable of it initially had completed the 10 metre distance, and the other two were partway through.

Seeing as we had completed the required level though, Iruka-sensei had given us an early mark, so obviously Sasuke had darted off before the Yamanaka could track him, the Aburame headed off and that left Hinata-chan and me. It was a bit after midday, so I offered to grab a snack with her somewhere, but she had politely refused, stating that she had to wait for her escort and could thus not leave without angering her father and clan. She just headed back to the classroom, probably to watch shrimp dick like usual while I chose to venture into the village streets, bidding my farewell.

Seeing as there was nothing to do, I chose to hunt down the famed Uchiha prodigy, which wasn't as hard as one might believe. I merely sprinted in a direct route to the Uchiha compound, beating Sasuke by a couple minutes thanks to my 'Root training'. I say that loosely as I was technically never a member of Root.

Once he reached the compound, he had noticed me standing by the main gateway: "What are you doing here?"

"I came over here as I had nothing to do, but wanted to spar."

"Why me then?"

"Because Hinata-chan never tries against me and lets me win, and you are the strongest guy in our class apparently."

"So what makes you think that I'd want to train with you when I am stronger than you. I wouldn't get anything out of it."

"Are you the best?"

"Yes."

"Then how did I get here a few minutes faster than you if you ran here and had a head start?"

The infamous Uchiha grunt.

He then strolled past me, locking the gate behind me. Of course, I could vault the wall, but that would be illegal without the expressed consent of some Uchiha. One could not simply enter another clan's property without clearance. There were also probably traps and seals hidden across the compound's perimeter, so that was another hinderance.

And so I walked home, before grabbing the rest of my supply of shuriken and kunai (I always had a kunai on me because you never know when you might need it) and headed off to the academy training grounds seeing as an academy student could only either use the academy grounds or clan grounds to train, and I didn't have access to the latter. It was a good thing all of my class had gone home by now, or else some pests would probably be calling me dirt face whilst I threw my metal against the wooden targets provided.