Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Day 224

After the hectic week that I experienced, I was glad to get back to my normal schedule, that included going to academy.

I met up with Kaori and she immediately asked me about previous night, so I summarised and explained it to her.

"Wow, Fugaku sama is being tested quiet harshly" she commented.

"Yeah, the way the elders treated him, you wouldn't think he was clan head" I said remembering the elders openly questioning Fugaku's decision. Even I felt offended when they questioned my potential , I never thought of myself as someone on Minato or Sandaime level potential.

But, I was not weak, thinking about it brought up past memories that I kept suppressed, of me being helpless, of people ignoring me, of me feeli...

"Satoru Kun you alright " I jumped a bit, hearing Kaori so close.

"Stop doing that" I said reflexively.

"Not my fault this time, you were last in your thoughts with a frown in your face" she replied instantly.

I ignored it.

"Anyway I am sure Fugaku sama, will be able to deal with them and come on top" I said as there were no Uchiha elders in future.

"Ohho... , looks like someone is fan of Fugaku sama" she said excitedly.

"What? No" I denied it honestly, but she kept pestering me, as we reached academy.

It was noisy as we entered the room, both me and Kaori took our usual seats, she was quiet now, she didn't speak much while at academy, and I was glad she had dropped that nonsense of me being Fugaku fan. It was ridiculous , I hardly knew the man. If in Naruto world I admired someone, it was Jiraiya.

I liked how he didn't belong to any major clan and still became one of the most powerful ninja.

But he still remained kind and sympathetic to those who were weak. He took in and trained Nagato, Konan and Yahiko, when he didn't need to.

I also liked how he roamed the world, writing stories and having his adventures.

And lastly his dream of world peace was something that anyone could get behind and it was his disciple who was finally able to achieve a part of it.

I think Jiraiya would have made a much better protagonist than Naruto. But that was just my bias.

As I was looking around the class, while lost in my own thoughts, I noticed Kenji staring at me. I moved my head asking him what he was looking at but he turned back. That was weird. Before I could think further on it Hito sensei entered and the class quieted down.

After class as I was getting ready to leave I heard a cough beside me.

"Did you cough at me?" I asked Kenji

"What ? No." He replied a bit flustered.

"Yes you did, I heard it and I think I saw your spit flying" I said

"No way, I was ... I was just trying to get your attention" he said stepping back

"Couldn't you have done that normally, like" hey sorry to bother you but can we talk" " I said standing up, I was deliberately teasing him, but I had not forgotten him smirking, during our last fight. I was being petty.

"Well..." he started to say but I cut him off.

"Instead you introduced your spit around me, is that how you normally introduce yourself. You know that's weird right" I continued on

"Well I .. I " his face was red with embarrassment, it was funny but I should stop now.

"Satoru kun, be nice" Kaori said looking between him and me

"Musume san right? I am Nara Kaori" she greeted him .

"Yes, of course Nara san, who doesn't know you, please call me kenji" Kenji muttered

"Then please call me Kaori, no need for excessive formality, we are all classmates here" Kaori replied with a smile to which kenji nodded.

"So what do you want?" I asked

He looked around, the class had emptied out.

"Please help me" he suddenly shouted looking intently at me.

Once I heard Kenji's explanation, I finally understood his weird behaviour.

To summarise, he was on the verge of failing class. His taijutsu was still impressive and what kept him hopeful but he was far behind in theory and ninjutsu.

He had planned to pass on sole merit of taijutsu but as both me and Kaori had improved and climbed up in the ranks, it had inadvertently impacted him and just yesterday Hito sensei had told him that he needed to perform better in theory or ninjutsu to pass.

As to why he asked for my help? Well top two ranks were held by Hyuuga brothers, third was Kaori and finally forth was me.

All top three were clan kids, so he picked a fellow civilian to ask for help.

"I can give you money, in return for your help. My parents are rich" he offered.

I scratched my head, thinking about it. I looked at Kaori who gave me an encouraging nod but I was not sure what she meant by that.

I interpreted it as she was fine with whatever I decided, in that case

"Let's do this, come with us to training ground, I will check at what level you are and then make my decision"

He nodded at that and we all left academy and headed to our regular training ground.

On the way I asked what was bothering me.

"So Kenji san, you said you come from rich civilian family, right?"

He nodded at me, so I continued.

"Then why become ninja? You could live a comfortable life"

I could feel Kaori's stare but she kept silent, Kenji meanwhile looked down with a heavy frown on his face. After few moments he spoke

"I am the oldest, after me I have a younger brother and sister. My father is a very successful businessman, he inherited it from grandfather and took it to new heights"

I was not sure where this was going but I kept listening.

"I ... am not like my father, I was never interested in studying or in business and my father noticed it too. So he is focusing on my younger brother and is growing him as his successor"

"And you don't like that?" I asked impulsively.

"What? No. My brother is much smarter than me, he should inherit it. He actually likes it too. Thinking about turnover, profit, margin and stuff like that."

"How old is he? " Kaori asked

"Ten, he is a year younger than me but he already skipped two grades in his school" Kenji smiled broadly saying that

"I want to do something useful too, to help my family. So I decided to be ninja " he said simply.

I ... accepted that, there were worse reasons to aim for something and moreover who was I to judge.

Before we reached the ground I had already made up my mind.

A/N: So after reading feedbacks, I have decided on two things, firstly I will be increasing story length starting from chapter 15, as i have already written till that point. I plan to increase it to atleast 3k+ per chapter, but starting might have few 2k+ chapters. Secondly I will start giving titles to chapters, that will give a general idea what the chapter is about.

That will be all for this week, please review and comment, will love to hear from readers.

Also please visit pat^re^on / johnblack6826 for next three advanced chapters