I opened the gates to the clan grounds. Looked out at the scenery in front of me. Some trees. A Training Ground in the distance separated by fencing along some arbitrarily decided borders. A road leading to further houses ahead. On the horizon you could see the outlines of the Hokage Monument, just three faces for now.
I followed the road. A few buildings and establishments leading to more and more housing. Then traffic. Carts pulled by horse and oxen. Children playing ball in the middle of the street. Ninja dashing on the rooftops. Elders out for a walk.
Further down the road it split into four, each leading to a different major street. I took a right.
Banks and houses and offices made way for shops and street vendors and restaurants. It was much more lively around here. Even ignoring the dozens of clamoring voices yelling out their goods for people to hear, there were plenty of people still making noise. Some ninja coming out of a bar down the street laughing raucously. An older couple debating which groceries to buy at a vegetable stand. A man getting dragged into a clothing shop by his girlfriend.
For the first time since I was reborn, I really took a look at Konoha. This was it. The Village Hidden In The Leaves. It was...normal.
No, not normal. The strange mix up of different technologies centuries apart from each other combined with the weirdly western influences on the place certainly made it stand out. Some areas looked like modern life, with electricity and air conditioning and everything. Other areas seemed straight from the Edo period. You could usually tell, however, which areas were more modern and which were more destitute.
Clan symbols. Leaf Insignias. Anything related to a ninja was usually more upscale. Only the wealthiest of civilians had anything even approaching running water.
There were very clear divides here by one obvious marker. But it wasn't malicious. No one here really separated themselves from each other. They were all part of one village. And they lived life together. There wasn't much tension, all things considered. Being in Konoha after all was a blessing in and of itself. This village was a shining beacon of opportunity and hope for the future. Where everywhere else had little to differentiate them from the Warring Clans Era, here they had a chance for peace. A chance for stability, and prosperity.
How do I know? I didn't, until I saw what life was like outside the borders of Konoha. It wasn't pretty. Tsume had taken me on a trip to see a little bit more of the world and had taken me to Kihoku, a minor trading village a few dozen miles away from the capital. Thought travel would get me out of my shell a little bit more.
What I saw, instead, was poverty, sickness, and shit. Lots of it. There was no indoor plumbing, and domesticated animals did their business wherever they pleased. The people themselves were superstitious and fearful. Ninja in the village usually meant trouble, so they weren't very friendly either. It was not a fun atmosphere.
Compared to that, Konoha was like a small hole in the middle of a cloaking darkness for light to peek through in.
It wasn't normal. But it was better. It was something to hope for. Something to nurture. Something to protect.
There was a monument splitting another intersection leading towards the Academy. A statue painting the differing reds of a fire portraying the First Hokage. Besides its color, there was only one other distinguishing feature.
Hashirama was smiling.
I made my way over to the Academy gates.
'Hey, why'd you take the scenic route? Not much new to see here, is there?' Shiromaru asked.
'Sometimes, you can pass the same point over and over again without really seeing it, ya know?'
'No, you just think too much.'
'Probably.'
I reached the door of our assigned classroom. There were noticeably lesser amounts of children in here than there were at graduation. Not everyone made it into Jounin teams, even from the camp. I didn't mind however. Everyone I wanted to see was already there.
"Arata! Shiromaru!" Ayame yelled, and raced over to us.
Kouta, Anko, Torune, and Hayama went after her, making for a small procession to flow from the seats to the door.
"I see almost everyone's here. And dressed differently too."
Ayame smiled. "Don't I look so cool now?!" She said. Her outfit screamed fire. Everything was red and orange, from her pants to her vest. There was a long fastened belt going from shoulder to hip that I assumed was for a weapon or something. She was wearing shorts for some reason, her only space for weapons being the regular ninja pouch hanging from her belt (It had tiny red stickers on it).
"Screw that! Look at me I'm wayy cooler!" Anko flashed her new coat. It looked a lot like the coat she would have when she was older, with more plain civilian clothes underneath in place of less.. appropriate attire.
"Daaang Anko! Now I want a coat too!" Kouta's outfit was even more civilian looking, the only difference from his regular getup being his headband and some weights around his legs.
"I wanted to ask for a while, but are those for training?" Torune, to contrast Ayame's red ("I am the fire!"), had gone full green instead, getting closer to actual camouflage than anyone here. She had on a small backpack I could smell food from. Good food too. Mmmm… Barbeque…..
"Yeah! My legs are gonna be really strong one day! The strongest!" Kouta flexed his legs for us. Wow. Some pretty impressive definition for an 8-year old.
Hayama, who hadn't made any comment so far, had an actual sword hanging from his waist now. His traditional attire from before had changed into a ninja-version of samurai armor. Meaning less armor, more pockets. It looked uncomfortable.
"Oooh a new sword! What kind is it?" I asked.
He stumbled over his words before answering. "Ah I-It's a chisa katana! Made for me to grow into. It was forged in the Land of Grass by Iron merchants my parents paid."
He unsheathed it hesitantly for everyone to gawk over. Ayame's eyes lit up. "Is so shinyyy!"
The door opened again, and the temperature felt like it dropped 3 degrees.
Tomoe walked up to us. Turns out she also had a genin-outfit. A thick grey vest covering her arms, the Inuzuka logo on each tricep. A large black gash painted on the chest, going down to the bottom of the vest stained the monotony. I wasn't sure what it stood for. Her even greyer pants (if that's a thing) were functionally only pockets, with tons of stuff in them. She crossed her arms. Her partner Mariko, (which I hadn't seen in a while) walked beside her.
None of us had spoken to her this far. After the Nobuyuki incident she refused to see anyone for the whole week. Anko and Hayama included.
I mirrored her stance. "So you made it after all." I said, being the first to break the ice. Tomoe would be the start, after all. I can't passively sit around anymore.
She took a good look at my face. "Heh. Looks like I won, Arata." She grinned.
'She's just going to ignore it, huh.'
'She's seven! She's not supposed to be suppressing anything at all! Never mind this!' I grinned back at her. "Nah. Mine are much longer. I clearly won."
Tomoe's lines were the direct opposite of mine, to the point where you couldn't call them lines anymore. They were short, straight and thick, compared to my longer and thinner curved ones.
"Yeah right! You're just jealous of Tomoe's marks aren't you!" Mariko said. Could she always do that? Talk, I mean. Or is that new?
Ayame was about to interfere just before a nondescript teacher came in and silenced all of us. He had a sheet of paper on a clipboard in his hands. "Sit down, all of you."
We all did immediately as ordered. Rule number one of camp, follow an order as fast as you can. If you can't, do it anyway. Which is fairly extreme, now that I think about it. Like what are we, in the military or something?
'Du—'
'Don't answer that.'
The teacher seemed bored. "Congratulations on graduating and all.. Yadda yadda… Konoha pride… yadda yadda… Will of Fire…. yadda yadda glory glory… Am I missing anything?"
The class collectively sweatdropped. Who the hell is this teacher? I hadn't seen him around the school before, his only distinguishing feature being a blue bandana covering hair that probably wasn't there. Is he even a teacher here?
"No? Okay good. When you know which teams you have, please don't get up or something, I don't feel like talking over you. Team One. "
Oh, we're just going right in? All right. I surveyed the room. Everyone around me seemed fairly nervous. A bad team could probably break your career as a ninja after all. No one wanted to go back to the Academy to do another term or be sent to the Genin Corps.
"Team four. Uyehara Hisashi, Koji, and Akimichi Torune. Your sensei will be Kamizuki Fumio. " Torune tensed. She hadn't met a single one of them, but one of the names I did recognize. Hisashi was one of the people I knew for a fact was one of Asuma's groupies. That would be hard.
Me? I didn't really care. Whatever team I had is the one I would work with. If the sensei decides to fail us, I really doubt I'll be sent to the Genin Corps. Another term would even give me more time to work on my skill, since I won't have to take any missions, so either way I'll be making a net gain.
"Team seven—" Dang we're already at seven? "Will be formed out of an existing apprenticeship, so there'll be only two for them." Murmurs. The bandana guy (really starting to doubt he's a teacher) yawned. "Nohara Rin. Uchiha Obito. Your sensei will be Namikaze Minato." More murmurs.
Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait. Those names— They're the canon— My eyes jumped across the room.
There! A kid in a blue Uchiha jacket with goggles. Animatedly whispering to the girl next to him, probably Rin, I couldn't see.
Uchiha Obito. Future Madara. Genocidal Mangekyou Sharingan Dimension-Hopping Akatsuki-Leading War Starting Uchiha Obito.
That Uchiha Obito. Celebrating with his (for now) only friend. Suddenly the room felt a lot bigger. In contrast, I was much, much smaller.
I refused the urge to fidget. I should have realized it when people like Kurenai and Asuma would be in my graduating class, but all the big names are coming out now. Things are getting real. Sooner and sooner, canon would pan out faster than I could do anything about.
"Team eight will be in a similar situation. Joining the apprenticeship to make a formal team are: Inuzuka Tomoe. Kouta. Your sensei will be Uzumaki Kushina."
..What. The room stopped pretending to murmur, everyone openly gossiping now. There wasn't a single person in the village who didn't know who the Red Hot Habanero was. And she was getting students. And those students were my friends. I could feel the sweat rolling down my back. Maybe this was more serious than I thought.
"That's so amazing guys!" Ayame exclaimed. "You're gonna kick so much ass with her as your sensei!"
Kouta's face was a picture of pure joy. To a clanless orphan who didn't even know his parent's names, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. It was common knowledge that learning from an S-class nin would make you almost guaranteed for Jounin. That is, if you survived that long.
"Ha! Just you wait, Kouta! My sensei will be way cooler than that!" Anko said.
Anko said. Anko's sensei. Mitarashi Anko's sensei. Shitttttttttttttt. That's here. That's now.
Most people in the room were already accounted for teams. Doing quick math, there were only three more teams left to form. I had a 66% chance of survival. If he catches me, I would probably never surface back up again. Experiments, sacrifices, the Cursed Seal. I don't know what he would do. But I wouldn't survive the process.
"Team Ten. Yoshimoto Takeo. Hiroki. Kurama Emi. Your sensei will be Onikuma Tenma."
50% chance of death. 50% chance of failure. Shit. Shit. Shit. I couldn't die so early in! This can't be my end! Not even close!
"Team Eleven will be Mitarashi Anko. Hyuuga Aimi." Moment of truth. "Shirakumo Hayama. Your sensei will be Orochimaru."
My stomach felt like it did ten backflips, my head feeling dizzier than ever before. Guilt and relief rushed into me in equal measure. And I was just sitting down. Breathing which I didn't notice ramped up started to go back down again.
The room started full on yelling at this point. So many prolific jounin for one graduating class, the tension in the room rushed from genin to genin.
"Ahah! I told you, Kouta! Orochimaru is way better than the Red Hot Habanero! People call him the Snake Sage, you know that? You know that?" Anko said.
"No way! Kushina-sensei could kick your little lizard all the way back to his little hole!" Kouta said.
"A snake's not a lizard!"
"Settle down, children. Don't make me show my bald head to you all." The guy said, flashing his nonexistent hairline. Somehow you could clearly hear his voice over the noise.
Even weirder, the threat seemed to work, as all the children immediately shut up. Is it that bad? Am I supposed to know this guy? Like, seriously. I'd like an answer now.
"Alright. Lastly, then. Team Twelve." This is then. Finally me. "Inuzuka Arata. Sarutobi Ayame. Uchiha Tetsuo."
Through all the drama I'd forgotten Ayame wasn't picked for a team yet. Now we're on a team together. Neat. Ayame threw me some (figurative) star eyes. Everything was coming back together again. Even if the roiling in my stomach from the view in my peripherals wouldn't go away.
But I could make a change. Somehow, I could save them. Maybe.
"Your sensei will be Senju Tsunade."
….
Haa~?
A/N. So! Start of a new arc. Hope I did this chapter justice, tho probably not. I did go back on one of my previous promises from before. I think a lot of the story beats that I would want to use would fall apart without the Obito drama, so I'm keeping that in. Sorry about that if that mattered to you.
Now question! Do you prefer shorter chapters that come out quicker or longer ones that are more cohesive? Honestly I don't care either way the only thing it would affect is upload speed for me. Lemme know tho so I can make changes.
(P.S. It finna get wild. Gonna make some major deviations from what's typical fare on this site for SI fics. Just so you're aware.)
Revised 12/6/2021.