It's a cloudy but calm day on which you begin your second year as an Academy student.
You notice a few new kids and a few missing faces. You're not really surprised by that; Shikamaru's dad has mentioned before that the Academy has a student-shuffling system it uses to sort out who's going to be in which class and, ultimately, what their options are after their graduation.
What does surprise you is that Sakura, that pink haired girl with great scholastic marks, is gone, but Uzumaki Naruto is still here. And he's stepped his game up from last year - no longer content to be merely loud, he's moved on to being obnoxious. And referring to himself by his full name whenever attempting something he perceives to be 'cool'.
"I'm not that much of an attention whore, am I?" you ask as he fails at air-somersaulting onto his desk.
"Mm, maybe," Ami says, sounding slightly grudging, as though disappointed at having to compare you half-favourably with someone for once. "You're annoyingly good at a lot of stuff, so it's not as if it's entirely your fault that you're a showoffy bitch, but this is just kinda pathetic. It's like he wants us to make fun of him."
"I think it's admirable, the way he keeps trying," Hinata puts in. "I don't think he has anyone helping him with his homework, or with anything, really, and he still comes to school every day and works his hardest."
Ami frowns at that, but doesn't say anything. She just twists her hair, a habit she developed when she decided to grow it out.
You poke her. "Split ends! If you want long hair you have to take care of it!"
"Yeah, thanks, I got that the last fifteen times you told me."
=
Your non-shinobi-course teachers are finally letting you skip ahead, but where do you want your punchy-wizard focus to be this year? Pick two, but you can only make a memory palace for one.
[X] Intro to Genjutsu
[X] Intro to Ninjutsu
[X] Taijutsu
[X] Survival
[X] Weaponry
[X] Tutoring Ami in Handseals and Trapmaking, her two worst subjects. In exchange, she'll be willing to tutor you in Weaponry, her best subject and your worst.
You, Hinata, Menka and Sasuke have been free-running together in the mornings like you agreed to, and you're all still sparring buddies. Any additional training you'd like to do? Pick one.
[X] More parkour. Stamina's the one advantage you could conceivably have over Itachi, level it up for all you're worth.
[X] Both of them have been comparing stories, and now they want to know; how the hell do you keep picking locks and getting away with it? How do you make seals just not work?!
[X] Sasuke has full access to the wealth of the Uchiha clan - he can amply afford to join Menka's kenjutsu lessons with Ami. If he can stand her longing looks and stay out of the way of her devil-blade.