Capítulo 03 – Crowd and Gossip.
[Chapter size: 1581 Words]
Third Person POV
Madame Gorete's Orphanage, Konoha, Year 32.
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Minato and his group reached the crowd with Madame Gorete, blending in as more people continued to gather.
"Madame Gorete!" They had just found a spot in the crowd to wait for further instructions, and a man dressed as a chunin approached and spoke to Madame.
"Hello, Irlon! How are you?" She said with a polite smile.
"I'm fine, Madame Gorete. Some genins told me that you lost one of your kids yesterday, but he came back on his own." He said as his eyes scanned the group of kids.
"Yes, one of those little rascals gave us quite a scare yesterday. It was that blond one over there, running off to train in some training field." She said with a wry smile, clearly dissatisfied with what had happened the day before.
"Hahaha. Don't be too mad at the kid; he's just excited about the prospect of entering the academy. Do you want to be a great ninja, kid?" He asked Minato.
"Of course, I do!" Minato replied with a warm smile, though not as exaggerated as the other children. He remained calm, just like the Minato from the original series, who always had an easy smile but was also calm and analytical.
"Then I'll be looking forward to great results from your tests, just like with the other children!" He encouraged Minato, who nodded in gratitude. He truly appreciated those words.
Minato began to think about how Madame Gorete had strong connections among the ninja. Not a jonin, but she knew some chunin and a handful of genin. He now realized that most of them had been raised by her, which was quite evident.
The children next to Minato started shouting at the ninja who was Madame's friend, saying they would do better and come in first.
Minato ignored the chaos from the other groups, as seeing a thousand children gathered in one place was unbearable. He began to imagine what the tests would be like, knowing that they would involve kunai throwing, but it would not be something to fail the kids on, as that could be developed in the middle of the academy. Minato wasn't worried about that, even though he had to improve his accuracy over the rest of the year.
There should be two more tests: one physical, which had to be done on a circuit, and another, the last test, which Minato believed to be the main one.
"The one to test the children's chakra affinity, of course. Konoha will want to nurture children who have an easier time molding their chakra." Minato thought while the crowd continued to grow.
He was lost in his own thoughts when he felt a certain commotion coming from his surroundings.
"Look, it's Princess Senju!" Someone yelled as if they had seen the Hokage himself.
Curious about this title, which he only remembered from his few years in the village, belonging to someone named Senju Tsunade, Minato quickly looked to that side, wondering why Tsunade would appear here.
The boy noticed how the crowd was parting to make way for a trio that entered, as they opened a path through the crowd. This demonstrated that the people had great respect for this little group.
Minato was amazed by this sight. There were three people in the group, but it was something he never expected to see here, especially the other two people beside the First Hokage's granddaughter.
"Tsunade-Sama brought her daughter to the academy! I hope my son can study with her!" A woman near Minato, presumably someone's mother, quickly shouted.
Yes, Minato was amazed that Tsunade had a daughter and that she was walking in front of her mother and father.
"Tsunade had a daughter with Dan? This is very unexpected, especially since I thought she would be around 18 years old now, but it seems she is a few years older than I thought, maybe around 25..." Minato reasoned, looking at Tsunade in her prime and accompanied by her husband.
"But seeing the girl walk in front of her parents like this, she seems as arrogant as her mother was in those flashbacks from the anime..." Minato murmured, thinking that Tsuna, despite looking cheerful and smiling, walked with an air of arrogance among the crowd, her nose held high. He concluded that he should avoid getting on her bad side.
He didn't realize he was caught up in his own thoughts, and he didn't see the shadow blocking the morning sun in front of him. More precisely, three shadows were in front of him.
"Hey, kid! I heard you say some strange things. I have to ask you, who are you talking about, and are you saying it's as arrogant as her own mother?!" He heard someone with an annoying voice in front of him. Minato quickly raised his head, snapping out of his thoughts, and realized that the trio that had attracted attention until a while ago was now standing in front of him.
Minato seemed to have gotten in their way without realizing it, as everyone else moved aside to let them pass. The family had stopped for the first time, and a boy had been standing in their way, and he had heard what Minato had said. The women in that group looked at him with fierce eyes.
"I..." Minato was taken aback by this, the young blonde girl, very similar to her mother, glared at him with deep annoyance.
"Tell me, I hope you're not referring to us!" She asked again, annoyed.
"Kid, you'd better not be talking about us!" Tsunade, the woman behind the girl, spoke with arrogance, crossing her arms as well. Mother and daughter looked so alike that even Minato was surprised.
The entire crowd had their eyes on them now. They had been watching the trio since their arrival, but now the little orphan who had apparently irritated the women in the group was also receiving everyone's attention, some with sympathy, and others thinking they were watching an entertaining show.
"Can we keep going? I'm sure the kid wasn't talking about us..." Dan, the white-haired man, tried to calm the situation. He saw the boy in a difficult situation and knew it was better than making enemies of the women in his life, with all the experience he had dealing with that at home.
"Dan, you're too soft on kids. Let's just leave this stinky brat this time. I want to see that old man when he shows up." Tsunade said, still with her arms crossed, and she pushed Tsuna to keep walking. Minato quickly moved aside to get out of their way and this commotion.
"I hope we can meet again, kid!" Tsuna said before continuing her way, leaving Minato somewhat confused about the kind of trouble he had gotten into without even entering the academy yet.
"What kind of person is this girl... and what have I gotten into with just a few thoughts spoken aloud..." He still couldn't believe the situation he found himself in, but it was clear that the girl was vengeful, and Minato knew they would encounter each other many times in the years to come.
"Minato, you're so brave. I wonder why the Senju princesses looked so irritated with you," one of his orphanage peers teased him.
"Min
ato, show some more respect for people!" Madame Gorete quickly scolded him, showing her displeasure with the boy.
"I... I'm sorry, Madame. It wasn't my intention..." That was all Minato managed to say, a bit lost.
Minato was now thinking about how to get out of this situation, but another group seemed to arrive, pushing everyone aside as they made their way through, even more so than the previous group.
"Look, it's the Uchihas!" Someone shouted from the other side of the gathered crowd.
Minato looked once again to the entrance of the academy and saw a group of people with stern, almost expressionless faces, leading some children in front of them.
"They look like some kind of mafia; they're all so proud..." Minato thought as he noticed they made a point of displaying their emblem on their clothes, the fan with flames.
Minato spotted a young girl among them, her hair unique.
With a ribbon tied above her head, similar to the young Sakura's, she had her hair tied in the back, with two strands falling in front of her, giving her a unique hairstyle.
"That girl is Mikoto Uchiha, the eldest daughter of the clan leader. It's a shame that the Uchihas are so closed off, so you'd better not get close to her or any of them to avoid trouble, understand?" A father seemed to be advising and warning his son next to Minato.
"The mother of Itachi and Sasuke? She's certainly very traditional, but even so, she's so different from what I imagined... It seems she will study with me, which is not strange, as Kushina and Mikoto were friends in the original work..." Minato reasoned.
He was alone, lost in thought, listening to the gossip from the adults, which turned out to be quite reliable here.
But that didn't last long, as a while later, whether it was the other children or the adult ninjas and civilians, everyone stopped talking because on a stage in front of the huge crowd of thousands of people, a middle-aged man entered with a red hat on his head. The Hokage himself had arrived.