NOVEL WEB Chapter 5: I, Your Father, Have Appeared
Chapter 5: I, Your Father, Have Appeared
After a seven-week vacation, the students attending Konoha’s Primary Ninja Academy were excited for the start of a new term. Holidays were fun, but it was the dream of every child in Konoha, be they from a civilian or established family, to become Shinobi.
With two months to train in ‘secret,’ everyone was eager to show off how much they had grown over the break. However, before the lessons could officially begin, one of their Chunin instructors, a portly man by the name of Funeno Daikoku, stepped up to the podium at the front of the class and said, “First off, welcome back. I trust each of you made the most of your break?”
Though not everyone participated, most of the class erupted into cheers at Daikoku’s question. The portly Chunin chuckled in response, but, once the classroom had settled, he stunned everyone by revealing, “As some of you may have noticed, one of your classmates is no longer with us. Due to his subpar performance and inadequate chakra reserves, Hiroto has been transferred to Classroom 3-C. In his place, we have a new student I want to introduce everyone to.”
Following Daikoku’s words, the classroom’s sliding door opened to reveal a boy with wild brown hair, uncommon yellow eyes, and a broad smile that exuded confidence. He was dressed rather unusually, wearing grey pants, a dark grey t-shirt, a red sash, and a monkey-fur jacket. However, instead of appearing tacky or out of place, the outfit reinforced the wild, untamed charm hinted at by the youth’s overdeveloped canines.
After reaching Daikoku’s side, Wu turned to his future classmates, raising his hand to offer a curt, “Sup. The name’s Sarutobi Wu. Look’s like we’ll be classmates from now on.”
Hearing the name Sarutobi, one of the female students, a blond-haired girl named Shiho, raised her hand and asked, “Are you a relative of Lord Hokage? I didn’t think there were any members of the Sarutobi Clan in our generation.”
Before Wu could answer, Daikoku gave the explanation that had been provided to him before the class, stating, “Wu here was living outside the village until just recently. He’s still acclimating to life in the village, so be sure to lend him a hand if he needs assistance. Also…”
Staring down at the piece of paper personally entrusted to him by the Hokage, Daikoku’s smile cramped as he added, “I have been advised to warn everyone that Sarutobi-san’s strength is significantly greater than the average person. He has been asked to hold back, but, to prevent any accidents, students are urged not to tease or try to bully him. This is an advisory from Lord Hokage himself. Understood?”
Despite Daikoku’s warning, most of the boys within the classroom looked at Wu with challenging smiles. Others had outright glowers on their faces, the most prominent belonging to a boy with delicate features, raven-black hair, and obsidian eyes. The person that stood out most, however, was a boy with bright, almost mustard-colored hair, tattered cargo pants, and an offensively orange hoodie.
Slamming the table in front of him, the blonde-haired youth bounced to his feet and shouted, “I don’t care if you’re the strongest student in the history of the Academy! I’m the one who’s going to be the future Hokage! You hear me…!?”
Though most of the other students rolled their eyes, snorted, or glared in the youth’s direction, Wu’s smile broadened as he stated, “That’s a great dream. I wish you the best of luck…?”
Realizing he hadn’t given his name, the blonde-haired youth pointed at himself with his thumb and shouted, “The name’s Uzumaki Naruto! The future Hokage…!”
Nodding his head, Wu earned skeptical looks from many within the class as he said, “Nice to meet you, Naruto. I hope we’ll be able to get along in the future.”
Not expecting such a response, Naruto had the most confused expression of everyone in the classroom. However, before he could recover, Daikoku clapped his hands together and declared, “That’s enough chatter for now. Sarutobi-san, please take your seat.”
Obeying his Sensei’s instructions, Wu made his way to the only empty seat in the classroom, a middle seat between two children with red, fang-like markings on their cheeks. Both had wild brown hair and sharp eyes, but the boy sitting closest to the window had a tiny white puppy sitting on his head. As for his deskmate, she had an appearance remarkably similar to the boy’s, but she couldn’t fool Wu’s eyes.
Perking up as Wu approached, the boyish girl teased, “Looks like you drew the short straw. Most people don’t like sitting near us because we smell like the kennels back home.”
Before Wu could say he didn’t really care, the boy sitting a space away from her snorted through his nose and asserted, “People who complain about the way dogs smell are idiots. If it bothers you, you can sit on the floor or ask Lord Hokage to give you a private desk.”
Ignoring the boy’s remark, Wu sat between the clearly related kids and asserted, “I don’t mind. Before I transferred to Konoha, I was living with members of the Monkey Clan. Compared to those old coots who take a bath once a week, dogs may as well smell like daisies.”
Though she felt a strange sense of panic seeing Wu ignoring her cousin, the boyish girl couldn’t suppress a laugh. This earned her a warning look from Daikoku, but she just shrugged it off and whispered, “You’re funny. My name is Kaia, Inuzuka Kaia. That’s my cousin, the heir of the Inuzuka Clan, Inuzuka Kiba. Let’s all get along, okay, Wu-kun?”
Nodding in approval, Wu returned a smile of his own and said, “Of course.” before adding, “But call me Wu. I’m not fond of honorifics.”
Adopting a snaggletoothed, feline smile, Kaia excitedly replied, “Then you can call me Kaia. I also dislike honorifics. They make me feel itchy.”
Inserting himself into the conversation, Kiba offered a curt, “Kiba.” before looking up to draw attention to the puppy on his head, adding, “And this is Akamaru…”
Since Hiruzen had repeatedly espoused the importance of friendship, Wu gave Kiba a slight nod before raising his gaze to Akamaru and saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
As Akamaru responded with an affirmative bark, Kiba rolled his eyes and said, “You’re weird…” before putting his head down on the desk. Morning classes were almost always related to the history of the village, so he had developed the habit of sleeping through most of them.
Observing Kiba’s actions, Wu took a moment to look around at the rest of the class before determining it wasn’t a good idea to emulate the spikey-haired heir. With the exception of a boy whose hair was drawn back in a spiked ponytail, everyone else was at least pretending to pay attention as Daikoku began a lecture recounting the village’s founding.
While passing his gaze over his fellow students, Wu’s brows perked up when he spotted a girl with pale pink hair. He had accompanied Hiruzen on numerous walks around the village, but this was his first time seeing someone with pink hair. She was also one of the few students paying attention to their Sensei, dutifully taking notes while everyone else with a piece of paper was doodling or writing messages to their friends.
Moving his gaze from the pink-haired girl, Wu’s brows perked up a second time as he noticed a girl with a bowl haircut and fringe bangs framing her face staring intently at the blonde-haired boy who had introduced himself as Uzumaki Naruto. She had eyes that vaguely resembled the cataracts of the Grand Elder, but they had an almost pearl-like quality that made them more appealing than off-putting.
Realizing the thought that had just crossed his mind, Wu’s brows furrowed as he internally asked himself, (“How do I know what pearls look like…?”)
Dismissing the thought almost as soon as it had appeared, Wu shook his head and decided to follow the example of his classmates, pretending to pay attention to the lesson. He had already memorized the texts related to the village’s founding, and he seriously doubted their Sensei would be brazen enough to call upon him on his first day…
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After droning on for a full hour, Daikoku notified the students that they would be taking a quiz at the end of the week before advising them to make their way to the training field, a large clearing of flattened earth that was encircled by trees and a green fence. There was an obstacle course on one side of the clearing and a range populated by wooden dummies, but the most popular location within the training field was the white circle at the exact center. It was only 5m in diameter, but it was the place where students were allowed to prove their ‘superiority’ by sparring against their classmates.
As accidents weren’t uncommon during training, a total of six Chunin were required to be present whenever the grounds were being used. Among these was a young man with brown hair drawn back into a spiked ponytail and a large scar across his nose. Upon seeing the children from Class 3-A approaching, he adopted a broad smile that exuded cordiality as he said, “Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all made excellent use of your time off. It will show in your performance.”
With many of his classmates greeting the man as Iruka-sensei, Wu took the initiative to do the same, approaching the man and raising his hand as he said, “Nice to meet’cha, Iruka-sensei. My name is Sarutobi Wu. I just joined Class 3-A this morning.”
Though he was a little taken aback by Wu’s actions, Iruka managed to maintain his smile as he looked down at his clipboard and replied, “Yes, there was a faculty meeting about you joining us. Welcome to Class 3-A, Sarutobi-san.”
Before Wu could offer a polite response of his own, the attention of the class was drawn to Naruto, shouting, “Okay, let’s do this!” while pointing in Wu’s direction. Like most boys in the class, Naruto hadn’t taken their Sensei’s warning seriously. If anything, knowing Wu was strong just made him want to prove himself even more.
Having received the same warning as the rest of the teachers, Iruka’s expression hardened as he said, “Now, wait just a moment, Naruto. Wu has no experience sparring with other children. For the time being, he will be observing the class to see how spars are-”
Raising his hand, Wu cut off Iruka’s explanation, claiming, “You don’t have to worry, Iruka-sensei. Gramp—I mean, Lord Hokage gave me permission to partake in sparring exercises. He said I should just focus on defense to get a feel for how powerful my classmates are.”
Though he furrowed his brows, Iruka didn’t call into question the veracity of Wu’s claim. Instead, he asked, “So, you’re not going to attack?”
With a cheeky smile on his face, Wu nodded his head and confidently replied, “Yeah, but don’t worry. Unless they target my eyes or testicles with a kunai, I should be able to shrug off the attacks of any Academy student. At least according to Lord Hokage.”
While he disapproved of Wu’s language, Iruka ultimately nodded, saying, “Very well, Sarutobi-san. I’ll allow you to participate. However, if you go back on your word or retaliate out of anger, you’ll be prohibited from participating in spars until I’m confident you can control your strength.”
Making an OK gesture with his right hand, Wu replied, “No problem. Just leave it to me.” with a massive grin on his face. His sessions with Kurenai had taught him an important lesson about most humans. While they were aware of Chakra Reinforcement, most humans only possessed surface-level knowledge of the technique. They could reinforce their bodies, but there was a massive disparity between their lackluster techniques and the ‘Adamantine Body’ technique taught to him by the Monkey Clan…
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