Chapter 6: Chapter 4,5 Entering the academy
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***
Entering the academy was very eventful. At first, everyone crowded in front of the academy. All the clan families stood as if they were shutting everyone out. The clanless ones didn't approach them, but stood in clusters. I came with Minato and Kushina. Various clan heads came up to us and greeted my father and mother. I just stood there, not paying attention to anyone, and then Itachi's family came up to us.
- Hello! Fugaku-san, Mikoto-san. Hello Itachi!
- Hello, Menma.
- Hello, Menma-kun.
- Hello, Menma.
- Hello, Fugaku, Mikoto. Hello, Itachi.
- Hello, Hokage-sama.
- Hello.
- Come on, let's not get formal. I'm only here as a father, not as Hokage.
- Hello, Mikoto.
- Hello, Kushina.
From there, I just walked away from them with Itachi. Dad was talking to Fugaku, and Mom was talking to Mikoto. Well, I started talking to Itachi.
- Itachi, how's it going? How's your training? Are you stronger than me already?
- Father says I'm progressing fast. We'll see who's stronger in sparring. How's yours?
- I'm doing well too. I've learnt a few techniques. By the way, I have a great affinity for fire, too.
- You do? What techniques have you learnt so far? My dad just taught me the Fireball Technique.
- Yeah? I know that too. I've also learnt wind and lightning techniques.
- That's cool, but it's still hard to get to you.
- Ha ha ha! Yeah, I'm awesome!!! By the way, how's Sasuke?
- He's fine. He's at home now, with a nanny looking after him. Dad didn't want to take him with us. He's only two months old now. By the way, are you going to have a little brother soon, too? They're hard to take care of, so good luck!
- Come on, I can take care of him easily. We just chatted about training and getting into the academy.
***
- Itachi has grown quite a bit.
- So has Menma.
- I hope they can become good friends.
- Itachi is developing quite fast. I showed him the Fireball technique recently and he learnt it quickly. Now he's learning the academic techniques and I think he'll be ahead of his peers. What about Menma?" Minato grinned softly and gloatingly at Fugaku's words. Then he stuck out his chest and proudly said....
- He's already mastered all the academic techniques and a couple of elemental techniques. He has three basic elements: Fire, Wind, and Lightning. He's even learnt my Rassengan. And that's just from scrolls. He's already surpassed most of the Genin who graduated from the academy!!!" Fugaku's jaw dropped at those words.
- Wait, when did he do that?!
- I'm wondering about that myself," the Hokage said with a sigh as he looked at his son, chatting merrily with his friend's son.
- Don't tell me you didn't train him? If he's really such a genius, he could beat you at your age," the Uchiha clan head replied, quickly calming down.
- I think he already has, he's got Kushina's genius too.
- I see, well, we'll see how they develop. The new generation is surprising, don't you think?
- I think the new generation will quickly overtake the old. And as Hokage, I like to see it happen. Oops! I should get going. The Hokage's speech is coming up, so please look after my wife and Menma.
- Don't worry about them, but don't mess up the speech!" Fugaku shouted to his friend. "What kind of child are you, Menma Uzumaki?"
***
After the ceremony and father's speech, we were called by name, each to a different class. There were more interesting people in my class than I thought. In addition to Itachi, there was a girl from the Inuzuka class, Kiba's older sister, Hana Inuzuka. It's odd that she doesn't have her own puppy. There were three in the canon, so maybe they haven't given them out yet. Probably. There were also a few clan children like Hyuga, Aburame and Nara. There was also Izumi Uchiha, known in the anime as Itachi's mate. Cute girl, but I'm not really interested in her. The rest of them seem to be clanless. But there were two among them that I was quite surprised to see. Iruka Umino and Mizuki. For some reason, I have a neutral attitude towards both of them. Mizuki's just a future traitor. He made fun of Naruto when he was about to steal the scroll, but nothing else. He didn't seem to mind him at all at the academy. Umino, on the other hand, used to yell at Naruto all the time at the academy. You know, back in my world, I realised that teachers do that all the time. They pick one student and make fun of him, scolding him and giving him D's all the time. I don't know if it's to show what will happen if the rest of the class does not learn well, or if it's just to bring someone down to the bottom of the class caste system, but I think it's a very bad thing for a teacher to do. I remember being the target of such teaching myself. At the beginning of the year I did badly, so the teacher after the whole year, clearly followed only me and made it look like I was the worst student in the class. I hate that kind of discrimination. And in the anime, Naruto was the victim. But of course he forgot all about it when Umino started treating him better. Even though Iruka was like a brother to him afterwards, I still have a neutral relationship with him. I don't care about Mizuki at all. The first day at the academy was boring. All the oral subjects weren't interesting, but they revealed the smartest kids in the class. The top three were me, Itachi, and a guy from the Nara clan. I found out his name later. Shadow Nara. His name gave me creepy associations, but he was a typical representative of his clan, a lazy genius. The most interesting things were the sparring sessions between the students at the end of the day. But they were conducted strangely. All the clansmen fought only the clanless ones. They weren't pitted against each other. So they beat them easily. I got Iruka by some random fucking chance. Only Tai was used in the battle, and he wasn't very good at it. Or maybe I was just too strong, either way I beat him with one accurate punch, just speeding up to him from behind. After he woke up, he gave me a hateful look for a long time. What's he getting so worked up over a simple loss? Or he thinks he just didn't have time to show all his skills, either way, I just didn't pay attention to it. After the academy, I suggested Itachi to train together and spar. What can I say, Itachi is very strong. It took me 10 minutes to beat him, but we both didn't fight to the best of our abilities. And it was purely a Tai sparring session. Afterwards, Itachi wanted me to meet his friend Shisui. But I really didn't want to see him. His Kotoamatsukami might not work against the Player's Mind, and he probably hadn't awakened his Mangyoko Sharingan yet, but I didn't want to take any chances. So I politely declined, which Itachi was surprised by, but didn't really care. Next I went to my daily training with Gai. After that, I spent the rest of the evening doing chakra eye channels on the Hokage Mountain. All the following days went about the same. At the academy, Itachi and I became the most popular guys as expected. The girls were divided into two fronts, some thought better than me and others better than Itachi. In sparring, when we were put together, I would lower my level to his, so no one could figure out who was better. At first, Itachi didn't really like me not putting up a good fight against him, but then I just said that I didn't want all the girls running after me. And that he'd share my fate, which he quickly accepted. I treated the girls in my class the same way Itachi did. I either ignored them or was just polite. And of course our popularity didn't endear us to the boys in the class. I remembered one of them. It was the same guy who had bullied Itachi in the anime, but had become his friend. He's the one who caused Itachi to awaken the Sharingan. When Obito killed this guy on one of the missions. I remember him from my childhood. He was the one who tried to pick on me. And he seemed to remember that, so he only picked on Itachi. But I wasn't ignored either. I was accosted by Iruka and a few other clansmen! It was weird, but he didn't come at me with his fists, so I just ignored him. He studied like crap, by the way. I wondered why he was bothering Naruto so much. He's also late, rude to his teachers, and a total bully. Like in the anime, he's trying to get attention. That's probably why he picked on me, because I'm one of the most popular guys. It's weird that he's not hitting on Itachi then, are they like the girls split into an anti-Itachi and Menma fan club? Okay, I'm not really interested in that. I didn't listen to much in class and did chakra channels for my eyes, but I always got the highest score on my tests, so the teachers didn't bother me with complaints either. In the morning, I'd send about fifty clones at once to train, so my existing Techniques were being pumped up as well, as was the Eye Usage Level. They were also learning the Fuin Barrier Techniques, but they were still having trouble mastering them. Gai was the one to train, because the clones couldn't open the Gate. This was to be expected, because a hundred clones who could open the Eighth Gate would make even Madara shiver. And so passed my first month at the academy and soon, the unfortunate "Tenth of October" came....