So, since I plan to get pretty dark with this fic, I can't really post it over on SV. That's why i'm posting it here.
OO
Long shadows formed as the light of the morning sun shown through the blinders, a sun beam hitting me right in the eyes, waking me up. I scrunched up my face, eyes watering from the light, before I sat up, giving my eyes a good rub to remove the crud from them. The sight of the dimly lit white walls of my bedroom greeted my eyes as I opened them and glanced around, before landing on the calendar, most of the dates marked with an X but today was a round circle.
That's right. Today was the day, the day I would start training at the Ninja Academy, in Konohagakure.
A moment later my alarm rang. It was 6:30, but the academy started at 8:30. I quickly turned off the alarm, before getting up.
10 days ago I lived in an orphanage, where I had been forced to share a room with 5 five other orphans. Now I lived in a boarding house, meant to house orphans that were attending the Ninja Academy. Here I had my own room, that had it's own attached bathroom. Given that the boarding house had a dedicated boiler, that meant I didn't have to compete for hot water any more.
I was six years old, having woken up in this world three years ago. Given that you can see the Hokage Monument from anywhere in Konohagakure, it didn't take me long to figure out where I had ended up.
I was a scrawny little thing, with grayish white hair and hazel eyes. Or at least, that was how I was when I woke up. Now I was a muscular six year old, due to my intense exercise regimen and high protein diet.
Speaking of which, it was time to eat breakfast and get started on my daily exercise routine.
I got out of bed and quickly put on my exercise clothes (a white wife-beater and gray cotton shorts). Stepping out of my room and locking the door behind me, I walked down to the cafeteria, where the cooks were already busy cooking breakfast for the boarding house inhabitants.
The boarding house I had moved into when I signed up to ninja school was designed to hold at least 100 students. Now, normally there weren't that many orphans who where willing to join ninja school, so at the most it held around 60, most of whom were boys. If it had been at full capacity I would have been forced to double up with someone, but thankfully it wasn't.
This large capacity meant that the cafeteria was pretty big, with the kitchen one end, where cooks would serve food on a tray, like at a normal school.
It seemed today's breakfast was dumplings. I got two meat dumplings and one veggy dumpling, before sitting down at a table to eat. As I ate, I glanced around the room. I wasn't the only early riser, there were a few others. A girl that sat at a table to my right, whom I recognized was from my old orphanage, and two boys that sat at a table behind me. I didn't know them.
One of the boys stood up, walking around the table to stand near me. He was already dressed for the day at the academy, probably with no exercise routine planned.
"Hey, you're from one of the other orphanages, right?" he asked. His voice had an annoying nasal quality.
"That's right," I said shortly.
"What's your name?" the boy asked.
"Kazuto," I replied shortly. I didn't ask his, and kept my attention on my food.
"I'm Toyokuni," Toyokuni said. "Me and Shinzo were gonna go play in the play ground before class starts, you want to come?"
He indicated the other boy who was still sitting at the table.
"Sorry, I'm going to be busy until then," I replied, scarfing down the last of my meal, before getting up. I noticed that the boy was slightly taller than me. "Maybe another time."
"What are you doing?" Toyokuni asked with a frown.
"Exercising," I replied, turning away. I was out of hearing range before he could reply.
The boarding house had it's own training area, a small playground, and on the other side was a small forest.
To warm up I did some jumping-jacks, before running twenty laps around the training ground. When I was finished with that, I did a handstand and walked two laps on my hands, after which I did my normal stretches to gain flexibility. Then I did the normal exercise routine, which included handstand push ups, pull ups, sit ups, more jumping jacks, handstand spin with my legs perpendicular to the ground, back flips and fore flips, and a few cartwheels.
While I was doing this, Toyokuni and his friend came out and went to the playground. They didn't do very much playing, instead watching me.
When I was finished with my normal exercise routine, I went into the nearby forest. Having already unlocked my chakra early on, I had mastered the leaf sticking technique, and was now working on tree walking.
Tree walking was a much more challenging exercise than most would think. In the anime they make it look so easy, but it wasn't. Tree walking trained muscles that I didn't know I had. When tree walking, if you wanted to remain perpendicular to the ground, you had to use your abs and leg muscles to hold yourself aloft. That was when you were facing up. Facing down was a lot more difficult, you had to use your back muscles.
And it was worse when you had to move, that meant shifting all of your weight onto one leg, which may or may not be up to the challenge of holding you up. This assumed you were walking up or down the tree. Running was a lot easier since you had your forward momentum to hold you up.
Tree walking was more of a workout than regular exercise.
By the time I was finished, it was 7:40. I walked out of the small forest and passed the training ground. By now most of the inhabitants of the boarding house had woken up and were getting ready for school. Since the academy was only a few blocks away there we didn't need that much time to get ready.
After taking a short shower and dressing up properly (in a green shirt and some blue jeans), I went back down to the cafeteria and packed some dumplings for lunch, before exiting the boarding house.
With ease, I jumped up to the roof of a house on the other side of the street. I had practiced chakra enhanced jumping as well, so taking the shinobi road was the best route.
It didn't take long for me to get to the Ninja Academy, and I was early. People were only just starting to arrive, but a small crowd was already starting to form. Spotting a lamp post nearby, I jumped from the roof top I had been crouching on, landing on the lamp quite easily.
I kneeled, leaning over the lamp post to get a better view. The Hokage was there, as were what seemed like a few shinobi parents. I noticed a dark haired boy with the Uchiha fan on his back, standing close to a man wearing the standard flak jacket. That had to be Sasuke.
Strangely, as if he had known I was looking at him, Sasuke turned to look at me. His eyes widened slightly, but he otherwise didn't move.
I grinned at him, before I grabbed the pole connecting the lamp to the post. Then I swung down, under the lamp, before placing my other hand and left foot on the post, connecting to it with chakra. Using chakra, I slid down the post (It was metal), coming to a rest on the ground.
Sasuke kept his eyes on me while I did this, and when I landed, I walked up to him casually.
"Hello," I said, "First day at the Academy?"
Sasuke nodded minutely.
"Me too," I replied. "My name is Kazuto, what's-"
"Come along, Sasuke," said Fugaku, giving me a stern look.
He walked farther into the crowd, and Sasuke walked behind him. Rude.
OO
I only barely payed attention to the Hokage as he droned on about hard work and academic excellence. The new students had been lined up into a square of rows and columns, which the Hokage stood in front of, while the parents also had their own little square off to the side.
Coincidentally, I had ended up with Sasuke on my right side. I didn't say anything, though. It wouldn't have been appropriate while the Hokage was giving his speech.
"-know you will do the Leaf Village proud." said the Hokage, concluding his speech.
One of the teachers walked forward.
"When I call your name, come forward and get your classroom number," the teacher said. He then proceeded to call out names. When my name was called out, I got room number 143. I didn't bother staying behind, instead walking into the academy and finding my room number.
As always, I was the first one there. I took the seat that was in the back, closest to the window. Slowly, the room filled up, and the last student to come in was Sasuke, who was followed by the teacher, a rather chubby guy with a blue bandanna headband on his head.
"Sasuke," I said, waving at him, and indicating the seat next to me. Sasuke blushed with a slight smile, and he took the seat.
"Sorry about father," he whispered.
"It's OK," I waved it off. "So you're an Uchiha?"
Sasuke nodded. "Are you from a clan?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm just an orphan. Just moved out of the orphanage ten days ago."
"Where do you live?" he asked.
"A boarding house for students who don't have a home," I replied.
"Oh"
Oh, indeed. After that we fell into silence.
OO
After the bell rang, our teacher called roll, and then spent half an hour informing us of what we would be covering that first quarter. Ninja school didn't have winter or summer break, instead school was arranged into quarters, with a two week break in-between.
After that, we spent the next hour running laps around the schools track. Given that I already spent a lot of time running laps before I signed up for ninja school, I finished first.
Then we had the taijutsu evaluation, where we had to spar with the teacher one on one so he could get an idea of how much we already knew. Given that I didn't know any taijutsu, I didn't do very well on that one. At best all I could do was flail at him wildly.
After that was lunch break, then the academic part of school, where we learned history and math and that sort of stuff. By the middle of it I was really bored and was waiting for it to end.
By now I had learned that, of the rookie nine, only three were in my class: Shikamaru, Choji, and Sasuke. It probably meant that as more people dropped out, classes would be merged.
Finally the day came to a close around five o'clock. After the teacher dismissed us, I stayed behind, waiting for every one to leave. After they were gone, I stood up and walked up to the teachers desk.
"Oh, do you need something," the teacher asked. "err..."
"Kazuto, my name is Kazuto," I replied.
"Kazuto," the teacher nodded.
"Yes, I was wondering if the Academy had a library?" I asked.
"Oh yes, of course," The teacher nodded again.
"How can I find it?" I asked.
"Second floor, North wing. it's pretty big, so you can't miss it."
"Thanks," I replied.
OO
Like the teacher said, the library was pretty big, so it was hard to miss. When I arrived, there was a chunin manning the front desk. The chunin seemed to be reading a book, but he put it away when I walked up.
"Hello," I said as I walked up to the desk, pulling out my academy card. "I would like to check out some books, is that ok?"
"Uh, yes," said the chunin. "So long as you're an academy student or at least a genin, you can check out books."
"How many at a time? And for how long?" I asked.
"Ten, and three weeks," said the chunin. "I need to check your card before you enter."
I handed it to him.
"This seems to be in order," the chunin said after a moment, handing it back to me. "Find whatever books you want and bring it up here to check them out. Also, the second floor of the library is restricted to genin. I advise that you don't try even get into the place, understand?"
"Ok," I said, giving a casual salute.
OO
It was annoying that the whole second floor of the library was restricted, but I didn't mind, for I found what I was looking for anyway. Apparently, foundational information (such as hand signs, the basic three, chakra control techniques, E-rank techniques and information on basic survival) weren't restricted. Also, information on the very basics of Nature Transformation and Shape manipulation could be found here, which was neat.
However, information on any specific that weren't E-rank or one of the Basic Three was restricted, so even if you trained Nature Transformation, you had to wait until you were a Genin before you could learn technique related your Nature element.
I didn't mind that much, though. I figured that if I could learn the basics, I could probably figure out how to make my own techniques. But that was a long way into the future. I had other stuff I had to learn first.
When I arrived back at the front desk, I was carrying the allotted ten books with me: A Guide to Chakra Control by Tsunade Senju, The Basic Three by Tobirama Senju, Ten Common E-Rank Techniques also by Tobirama Senju, A Ninja's Guide to Wilderness Survival by Hideo Sarutobi, Poisons and Their Antidotes also by Tsunade Senju, Genjutsu and Reality by Shinku Yuhi, and a few other books that I had gotten just for fun.
The chunin at the front desk gave me an odd look when he saw the haul I brought to him.
"Getting an early start, are you?" he asked as he scanned the books.
"I like to be prepared," I said shortly.