章 122: Chapter 122: Advancements

The Academy had grown on me over these months, and it was now half way through the academic year.

By this point most of the students had made large leaps forwards in their strengths, so much so that the Hokage himself had come forwards to praise me in my teaching.

They were, according to the statistics, around 3.5 times stronger then the previous Year Three class, and were around the same strength as the classes that were around during the Second Great Ninja War, meaning...

Well, I was raising and training a batch of little monsters; even the civilian born students had improved, reaching the levels of some average Clan children.

I was, obviously, quite proud of this achievement, even more so when they all fed off of one another, pushing their peers further by constantly improving themselves.

No one wanted to be left far behind, but inevitably some of the students simply out paced the rest of the class.

Naruto, Sasuke, Ami, Ino, and surprisingly Shikamaru and Choji all improved far more then the rest of their peers.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio seemed to have an innate bond that made them improve as much as their trio mates, and since each had other 'rivals' as well to outpace, they all put in hard work in something.

Ino had begun to perfect the basic combat style of Konoha, focusing on technique, all whilst improving her speed more than power.

Shikamaru had continued to develop and further improve his own style, all while also strengthening his body and increasing his speed whilst he did so, the lazy boy finding less and less excuses to justify his giant leap in power; his only excuse currently was that he didn't want Choji to be lonely, and he needed someone to laze around with him, otherwise it was boring.

I got a chuckle out of that; Shikamaru certainly cared about his friends, dearly so, but he didn't wish to actually show that affection, hiding it behind drowsy words and yawns.

And yet, he continued to match Choji, who was training in the Akimichi technique, increasing his size slightly while still remaining surprisingly nimble on his feet.

These three were the surprise for me.

The other three weren't.

Ami's pure determination pushed her to become a little muscle headed, yet incredibly sharp minded girl, her strength only growing faster and faster as she pushed her body to its limits.

She had begun to create her own style, and she was, by far, the strongest girl in the class now; the only thing left to see with her was what her chakra was like.

Naruto and Sasuke both had insane blood running through their veins, blood that was superior to everyone else's in this Academy, if not in this village.

Uzumaki and Namikaze blood rushed through Naruto, increasing his vitality and stamina by triple what his peers were capable of, while also giving him an indomitable will and perseverance to do what he believed in.

The blonde haired trickster had come a long way, and his peers no longer belittled him like before; instead, they treated him with respect and reverence, which made the boy extremely happy.

He now had friends beside Hinata and Karin, and due to this slow shifting acceptance of him by his peers, the Clans were also finally accepting him again, no longer ignoring him like they used to.

In fact, the Hyuga Clan has already extended an olive branch of sorts, although one that was kind or... disgusting.

They wished for him to marry not Hinata, but Hanabi, Hinata's sister.

Lord Third and the others on the Council shot that down quickly, but because they had seen how much the Hyuga Heiress wished to be with Naruto.

Everyone, myself included, had told Lord Hiashi to let things play out; as it was, Neji and Hanabi were still being groomed as potential Heirs to ethnic Clan as well, so Naruto marrying Hinata was viable.

The man had been slightly disgruntled, but he relented; in fact, we had also seen his serious mask crack as we spoke of his eldest daughters wishes, the mans eyes turning gentle as he stared at the table.

We all knew the man had deep rooted problems, so we could only wish to chip away at the Hyuga's reluctance and slowly bring him to 'normalcy'.

Besides that, Naruto now spent time with all the Clans, the young boy enjoying the time with his new 'Aunts' and 'Uncles' who began to look after him.

Naruto had confided that he was slightly bitter at this new treatment, but I told him to move on and show them why they should have moved earlier, to which the young boy played minor pranks on each Clan before letting bygones be bygones.

With Naruto in the limelight now, Sasuke found himself no longer the center of everyones attention, and the pride that filled his veins wouldn't allow that.

So he trained.

And trained.

The young Uchiha silently trained, persistently trained, harshly trained...

He too found himself drifting amongst the Clans, soaking in what they could teach him like a sponge, being surprisingly grateful and nice to each.

The boy had grown as well, as he watched the trickster he once dismissed slowly claw his way above him.

Spurred on by Naruto, Sasuke had started to improve himself as best he can in every aspect, aspiring to be better than the person he so adamantly declared his rival and the boy he hated.

And yet, I had seen Sasuke defend Naruto's honor behind his back a few times now, scorning the citizens that still feared Naruto and putting them in their place, whilst also getting into a few scuffles with the older students or Genin.

It was comforting to know that the two were more like siblings then anything now, but that relationship could easily change at a moments notice due to its frailty; the two still treated one another like strangers, and yet they respected and admired the other, like rivals should.

I hoped that they could come together and accept one another as brothers, to stand side by side with pride and become the family that the other is missing.

However, only time would tell.

What time was also telling was incredible.

As it had been two months and a few weeks, my stomach was bulging slightly; not by a lot, but it wasn't the same flat stomach that I was used to.

Neither was Kurenai's.

With both Anko's pleading, Ginko's medical advice, and Makoto's experience, Kurenai and I weren't doing anything extraneous anymore, slowly becoming more sedentary as we let our bodies nurture the children growing inside our wombs.

During this time, I hadn't been sitting still, not when I had a veritable fountain of raw power to tap into.

I was talking about Nature Energy, and I was using it to strengthen myself and my child, but gradually.

A drop here, a drop there; that was all I was willing to risk, and the guidance of Asa and Shiba was immensely helpful.

They had both been surprised to learn that I was pregnant, before Asa began to mother me whilst Shiba watched on in amusement.

Enjoying the affections of the two Hawks, I also chuckled when Meigetsu had curiously inspected my stomach, her eyes wide when she felt the beginning of something growing inside my stomach.

The young female Hawk had been surprised as well, which turned to excitement as well, just like her mother.

They both were curious about the child, and I had started making visits to Mount Hane every other day, spending the time meditating and chatting with them.

Meigetsu and I had gotten closer, while Asa made it clear to Shiba that they were going for a third, making the Patriarch scaroused.

With such an eventful few months behind me, I had begun looking forwards to the future more and more.

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I can't really think of much to actually write of between here and the birth besides chapters like this, where I give updates on the others.

I can do a few Slice of Life chapters, but if you have an idea let me know; for the moment I'm stuck creatively with this story (Without just straight rushing everything lol)

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