บท 3: The First Meeting
(What did you say about the Seventh Hokage?)
This is the ninjutsu class at the Ninja Academy.
On a sunny morning before teacher Shino Aburame arrived, the boys and girls in the class were chattering noisily.
"Hey, did you hear? We're getting another transfer student in our class today!"
"Eh, really? Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I wonder what kind of person it is... Mitsuki, do you know them?"
The boy named Mitsuki, who had also transferred in himself, smiled happily as his golden snake eyes narrowed at his curious classmates staring at him: "No, I don't know either."
"I knew it... What will the new classmate be like?"
"We'll find out when Shino Sensei gets here!"
For a while, the classroom was bustling with noise. Only Sarada Uchiha pushed up her glasses, the corners of her mouth unable to flatten since her classmates started speculating.
Sitting in the front row, a blonde boy leaned on his left hand, his eyes skewed to the top right, looking utterly bored.
Tsk, it's just a transfer student, what's with the fuss? Not to mention, since "that time", the power in my eye hasn't manifested again... Is it because of the disappearance of the specter?
He touched his right eye.
Suddenly, the sound of the classroom door opening rang out. Shino walked in with books tucked under his arm and closed the door behind him again.
Sarada immediately sat up straight, her big eyes full of anticipation.
The classroom instantly went silent. The blonde boy cast an indifferent glance at his homeroom teacher, still lacking interest.
"Ahem-" Shino cleared his throat loudly. "As you've probably already heard, starting today, we have a new classmate joining us who will be learning together with us. Get along well with him!"
With that said, the students could infer the new classmate was male. Some of the girls were already whispering in anticipation.
"Alright, please come in." Shino finished and turned to look at the front door.
Nearly a hundred eyes stared in that direction.
The door opened. Steady footsteps rang out, echoing in the silent classroom, stopping at the podium.
One could hear a pin drop in the classroom.
Shino was very satisfied with the effect the new student had brought. To tell the truth, when he first saw this child earlier, he was also stunned speechless for quite a while.
"Then, please introduce yourself to everyone." He said pleasantly.
The moment the classroom door was pulled open, Boruto Uzumaki was stunned along with the rest of his classmates.
Black short hair, large pitch black eyes. Skin so fair it seemed almost sickly pale. Delicate and deep features, as if sculpted by God himself.
With just one look, he left an impression deep enough that it would linger in one's mind, unable to be forgotten for a long time. Even in a crowd, he could be noticed at a glance, standing out and attracting attention.
At this moment, he looked ahead expressionlessly, eyes cold. Hearing Shino's words, he nodded to his future homeroom teacher and picked up a stick of chalk before turning to the blackboard to write his name.
It was then Boruto saw the Uchiha clan's crest on his back, the same as Sarada's.
In the silent classroom, the sounds of chalk hitting and gliding across the blackboard were especially clear. The students all stared wide-eyed at this new student writing neat, concise words - Uchiha Chitose.
Uchiha?
Apart from Shino and Sarada, everyone else was stunned.
Before they could react, Chitose had already turned around. "Uchiha Chitose. Please guide me."
With those extremely simple words said, he stood still and waited for Shino to assign him a seat. However, the children under the podium could no longer restrain their excitement and exploded.
"So handsome--!!"
"I... I think I just experienced love at first sight!!"
"But why is he an Uchiha? What's his relation to Sarada?"
"Simply handsome to death! Uchiha-kun, there's an empty seat next to me!"
"How unfair! It's my side that has an empty seat! Uchiha-kun..."
"Uchiha-kun!"
"Uchiha..."
The scene descended into chaos in an instant. The students were all scrambling to ask Chitose questions, some already inquiring Sarada if the two were cousins, and getting even more excited upon obtaining the answer that they were siblings.
A vein on Shino's forehead was jumping violently and he finally took a deep breath and bellowed, "Quiet---!!!"
The loud voice was deafening. Chitose watched the dust falling from the ceiling and remained silent.
Satisfied to see the children quiet down, Shino gave a light cough. "Then, Uchiha Chitose will temporarily sit in the last row for now."
With that said, he passed the textbooks he had prepared earlier to him.
These textbooks only contained knowledge for ordinary students under 10 years old in ninja school.
Chitose's eyes flickered imperceptibly. While secretly deducing the teacher's intentions, he accepted the books with a nod and headed to the seat Shino designated - the middle desk of the last row.
There were three vertical rows of desks in the classroom, each desk able to seat three students. The one Shino pointed to happened to be in the center of the last row, while Sarada sat second to last row.
From the blackboard's view, only a boy with a red headband occupied the leftmost seat of this desk previously. Sarada sat on the rightmost side of her desk. Chitose walked to the side of the desk and hesitated for a moment before sitting down in the middle next to the boy, which from Sarada's position was the right rear.
Sitting on the stool and placing the textbooks nicely, he first smiled at Sarada in the front left before looking to his right, pretending to casually observe the boy whose every move he was actually paying attention to. ".....Uchiha Chitose."
The boy was startled for a moment, then reacted and scratched his cheek somewhat awkwardly. "Ah... Iwabe Yuino, just call me Iwabe."
Chitose nodded. "Then just call me by my name too."
Iwabe smiled. His dark complexion made him look rather bold. At this moment, Shino had already started teaching and Iwabe and Chitose simultaneously began listening.
However, when Chitose walked towards his seat earlier, he inevitably had to pass the front leftmost desk next to Boruto. After staring dumbfoundedly at Chitose from the moment he entered the classroom, Boruto was secretly ashamed and turned his head aside when Chitose walked by, complaining incessantly in his heart: What the, so arrogant... Although he's a guy, he looks so pretty... What a sissy...
Before he knew it, Boruto, who harbored the lofty ambition to "display his prowess in taijutsu at Ninja Academy", had begun to compare himself to Chitose who had unintentionally attracted everyone's attention the moment he appeared.
However, the boy who "stole" his limelight at this time didn't even know his name yet.
***
After listening seriously to Shino's math class for a while and roughly flipping through the textbooks, Chitose confirmed he had already mastered all the knowledge in them.
Before 10 years old, Chitose traveled around following his mother while learning all kinds of knowledge.
His mother was named Minako Yatogami, an exceptionally beautiful and talented woman. She was knowledgeable, clear-headed and smart, also having her own insights on educating children.
The young mother who was always traveling never sent her son to school. Chitose followed her and gained experience of bustling metropolises with towering skyscrapers as well as forests teeming with wildlife. The survival knowledge he accumulated was probably richer than what these ninja school students who held survival exercises once every few days had.
Moreover, Minako never taught Chitose foreign languages or talked about his father Uchiha Itachi's shinobi identity, never mentioning bringing him to shinobi nations either. According to her own ideas, she selected and taught Chitose practical mathematics, chemistry, geography, biology and physics, but did not teach him history, foreign languages or literature. However, she placed emphasis on nurturing Chitose's habit of reading.
Besides all that, what Chitose mainly learned was his mother's special ability that surpassed ordinary people's .
His kind and gentle mother who had wide-ranging knowledge was the person Chitose respected the most. However, when it came to mentioning his father, this mother who was otherwise confident would always sigh helplessly.
The gifted Chitose understood at a young age that when his mother talked about his father, her eyes would be filled with tenderness and deep longing, as well as heart-wrenching yearning.
What kind of outstanding person was he that made such an exceptional mother fall deeply in love to this extent?
Questions swirled in little Chitose's mind. From his mother's occasional fragmented words, he could only piece together a vague image of his father - wise and powerful yet gentle and considerate, enduring and resilient, peace-loving, caring towards family, willing to hide in the shadows to protect everything...
However, his father had died before he was even born. And his mother never told him how his father passed away.
His mother's ambiguous description planted the earliest and deepest longing for his father in Chitose's young heart.
That was for a reliable and powerful father.
Recalling his mother's appearance, an extremely fleeting red flash passed through Chitose's eyes that no one noticed.
After Shino finished teaching, he left follow-up assignments. With hands behind his back, he patrolled the classroom. By the time he casually glanced at Chitose's assignment as he walked by several steps later, he couldn't help but be stunned.
In the short time it took him to walk over, Chitose had already started writing the third solution method, each simpler and more ingenious than the last. It wasn't difficult to see that this child's knowledge reserve had already far surpassed that of his peers.
Shino sighed silently.
As expected of that person's child.
Graduated from Ninja Academy at 7 years old, awakened Sharingan at 8 years old, promoted to Chunin at 10 years old, joined ANBU at 11 years old, then rose to Squad Captain at 13 years old.
Apart from the Sixth Hokage Kakashi Hatake and the prematurely deceased Uchiha Shisui, it seemed no one could compare to his speed of promotion. And now, it was finally time for his son to create a legend?
Afternoon.
Due to class leader Wasabi Izuno's absence from injury treatment at the hospital, the prearranged matchups for the taijutsu sparring class underwent some changes.
Boruto was in great spirits after beating Tarui. Although Tarui was lazy, he had inherited his mother's unyielding character and his grades placed among the top few in class.
After forming a reconciliation seal with the helpless him, under the approving and envious eyes of the teacher and classmates, Boruto shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to walk back to his original spot. But his cocky light blue eyes brimming with complacency suddenly collided head-on with a pair of extremely calm, even somewhat cold black eyes.
Chitose watched the match between the two people quietly, memorizing the sparring process and method of forming the reconciliation seal, while carefully evaluating the strength of everyone present.
To tell the truth, he was very disappointed. Let alone the teacher, that golden haired guy and the other white haired boy with snake eyes, as well as his deskmate Iwabe, were probably the strongest in class.
He took a deep breath and slowly breathed out.
So that's why Mother never sent me to school.
Suddenly, the golden haired classmate walked towards him, glaring fiercely at him.
Chitose: "...." ???
At this time, Boruto was cursing inwardly: What the, acting all high and mighty... Hmph, Sarada's brother is as annoying as her, I'm just waiting for you make a huge fool of yourself later!
The next match was the one Shino arranged - Chitose versus Iwabe. Iwabe was a very capable repeat student. Although Boruto had beaten him before, the two were actually evenly matched and highly respectful of each other.
Boruto thought arrogantly while looking smugly at Sarada - could she have some unknown basis for the absolute confidence on her face right now with her eyes bright and wide, full of anticipation?
What? Before Boruto could ponder where Sarada's bizarre confidence came from, Shino teacher had already shouted for the match to start. Boruto hurriedly turned around, but the scene appearing before his eyes was completely different from what he imagined.
From when the teacher said start to when he turned around, not even a second had passed.
Yet the victor was already decided.
Chitose had his back facing Boruto and stood behind Iwabe. Iwabe's hands were controlled by one of Chitose's hands and twisted to his back while his shoulders were pressed down by Chitose's other hand, forcibly bent forward. Obvious astonishment was on his face. By the time he barely regained his senses, he hurriedly struggled, but that slender, fair-skinned hand controlling him behind his back and out of sight clung on tightly like an iron clamp, not budging one bit no matter how hard he struggled.
This is... This can't be real right?!
Boruto was dumbstruck like a wooden chicken. He had just turned around and was able to see Chitose's fluttering coat sweep by drawing a graceful arc in the air.
Those who saw the entire process could only catch a glimpse of a black shadow flashing by fleetingly before the taijutsu specialist Iwabe in class was easily subdued by him.
The air froze for an instant. Then a deafening cheer rang out, mostly the girls' screams full of admiration. Even the boys instantly became impressed by Chitose.
Come on, Iwabe was defeated in an instant!
Boruto's face darkened instantly.
To tell the truth, Boruto wasn't a narrow-minded, unsociable child. On the contrary, though a little arrogant and complacent, loving to show off, he cherished his companions deeply.
Perhaps they were just incompatible.
Chitose calmly released his opponent and formed a reconciliation seal with Iwabe. He was not stingy with his praises at all, smiling back at his deskmate, his impression of Iwabe rising greatly.
He truly admired Iwabe's mentality.
However... for some reason, he was glared at again by that golden haired classmate who huffed and turned his head away in displeasure. Chitose remained expressionless, inwardly denying his previous guess that he was related by blood to the wise and powerful Seventh Hokage.
Come on, he's not alike the magnificent Seventh Hokage at all.
As for Shino, shock later turned into unconsciously pressing his lips together. Not to mention Iwabe, even he could only vaguely see Chitose's movements.
This was no longer at a level an ordinary student would have. Rather, probably even elite Chunins wouldn't be at this standard...
Or perhaps... Jonin level?
Moreover, although it only lasted a moment, he nevertheless felt... Killing intent that he rarely sensed after becoming a teacher. Should he report this matter to the Seventh Hokage?
Shino fell silent.
The Seventh Hokage didn't send any ANBU to observe this child and only asked him to take care of the boy.
***
Ignoring Boruto's recent popularity, after school, Boruto and his friends gathered by the artificial mountain to discuss another matter.
"...The situation with the class president doesn't look optimistic," Shikadai said, supporting his chin with his right hand, contemplating something with furrowed brows.
"My dad mentioned casually that the class president seems to be transferring from the ninja school to live in another ninja village," Inojin said, looking at the stones, his usual smile nowhere to be found.
Denki, on the side, watched the others with concern, his brows furrowed.
"What does the Hokage say about it, Boruto?" Shikadai raised his head, frowning, asking Boruto who seemed lost in thought.
Ignoring the matter would be better, but once mentioned, Boruto got worked up: "What else can he say!? My dad is full of 'This matter is not easy to handle, but don't worry, it won't harm her.' What's that? If he really cares about the class president, let her come back to class! She's our comrade, right? What's this 'As the Hokage, I can't decide arbitrarily' nonsense? Busy spinning in circles all day, and in the end, it's all useless! What Hokage, he can't do anything at all, this idiot—"
Boruto, long harboring grievances towards his father, erupted unconsciously, and by the end, he was quite agitated. He was about to utter his usual "Stupid old man," but suddenly, a chilling feeling suppressed him, and he instinctively stopped.
Seeing his friends looking shocked behind him, he stiffly turned around and saw Himawari not far away, her expression icy.
Their gathering point faced the school gate, next to the road everyone took after school. Originally, they thought it was a bit late, and there shouldn't be anyone, but obviously, the person walking towards them from the teaching building had heard Boruto's shouted words.
Looking into Himawari's eyes, Boruto's body hair stood on end, and almost instinctively, he took a step back, feeling like a fish on a chopping board, ready to be slaughtered.
—Could... could be killed...
In his mind, this incredible thought surfaced.
Inojin stared wide-eyed, internally surprised.
—This is... the killing intent I inadvertently felt from my father, the ANBU!
—Is it directed only at Boruto?!
At this moment, the boy spoke. "What did you say about the Seventh Hokage?"
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ZenpaiTrans The first confrontation sparked by Boruto has begun (～￣▽￣)～
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