Academy

The academy.

The first stepping stone, on my road of conquest and road to being Hokage. Also... my worst nightmare. Not mentioning that every teacher hates me and sabotage me, but also the other kids.

God, are they annoying. Why do I have to be in the same class as the clan heirs? Can't I just be in the class where majority of the civilians are located in?

There are only a few whom I can actually tolerate. The few being the Hyuga, Nara, Aburame, and Akimichi clan heirs. The rest are all annoying, especially the Inuzuka and Uchiha.

One likes to show off and the other is just a douchebag.

I especially hate Uchiha Sasuke. He is the reason for my quiet peace being disrupted, every day, six days a week. His fangirls keep screaming! It's honestly a bother, I once indifferently asked them to tone it down but all I got were screams to mind my own business along their stares of disdain.

Not because I was the walking plague of Konoha, no because I tried to keep them from showing their affection to their prince. I'd rather have raw eggs hurled at me than go through their screaming!

My ears especially hurt because of two girls, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino.

Uchiha Sasuke's top fangirls, one is the top civilian scorer and the other a princess of a clan. They used to be friends but well... they found out they like the same boy and now they are at war. Sad really, how you will end a friendship because of such a reasoning.

I'm actually quite jealous, I mean I have no friends. I tried before and succeeded but the next day they would shun me because their parents told them too. Of course those were civilians, I never bothered with clan kids because I fear what their parents would do. I mean they are active ninjas, if civilian parents already throw rotten eggs at me, what would shinobi parents throw at me? Kunai and shuriken?

I need new ones, but I'd rather throw them at a target, not be one.

Then there's Inuzuka Kiba. He won't shut up, I would feel bad that he has to hear the fangirls because his sense of hearing is amplified but... I honestly hate him.

He likes to rub it in my face, that I'm the dead last of the class. But he didn't know that I wouldn't be dead last if not for the damn teachers. We all took the same test, I finished first and turned it in. Since I was finished I glanced at my desk mates and looked through their questions, I saw some of their answers were similar to mine. When we got our results I got a horrible grade, 3/20 correct.

What's worse? The answers I put in were correct, I looked at my desk mate to see them having 17/20. Their answers were the same as mine but why was my score so different?

I once tried to ask and protest towards the teacher, but all I received was a scolding.

"Are you the teacher?"

"How would you like to teach the class"

"Oh, you've been a ninja for tens of years? No? Then what right do you have to tell me I'm wrong"

Those were the words I got in return. I would go to the hokage but in all honesty, would they even let me meet him? They would probably chase me out, my best bet would be if the old man came to visit me himself.

The Inuzuka was clamoring all the time about being the clan head. But I only inwardly scoffed, him clan heir? Did he forget he had an elder sister. At most he would get some high position but not anywhere near clan head.

From then on I remained indifferent to it all. Keep to myself, don't ask questions, don't protest, no nothing. It's fine so long as I stay in the academy, at least that way, I can learn some methods of survival.

Taijutsu classes were by far the worst of them all. I learned the hard way that no matter what I do, I would always be the loser. If I was close to winning, I would be stopped and it would be a draw. What more, the moves they taught me weren't the real taijutsu style. It was faulty, wrong stances, flawed in every way.

But I didn't care. I watched, learned, and analyzed the other kids' strokes and movements. Burning them into my memory so I could practice them when I'm alone by myself. I only focused on the academy style taijutsu stances. I didn't bother with the shinobi clans' superior fighting styles, after all not only were those unique to them, but they were their clan property.

It was taboo for others to steal another clan's things. Most didn't care about that rule, the reason why it was taboo was because the clan people would disdain and get mad at others if they saw someone not from their clan using their style.

As for why clans didn't use another clan's style, its because of their pride. If an Uchiha used the fighting style of the Hyuga, it would be shameful. All clans prided themselves as superior, getting caught using another clan's style would be openly stating that their clan was weaker and not as strong as the other clans.

I for one didn't want anything to do with the clans, therefore I only watched civilian kids use the academy style.

Analyzing their movements, hoping for them to use each stance, stroke, and movement.

---

Once I'm done with the academy, I go straight to the wilderness, the forest. My 'playground' if you will. My favorite spot is at the bottom of the Hokage Monument's cliff. No one would really go there except if they wanted to gather herbs or flowers. I liked that spot the most as there was a river where I would catch fish. Finding the area where I stashed my old and rundown training equipment. The academy had good quality kunai and shuriken.

Meanwhile I used ones I found. All rusted and chipped, I spend hours on end cleaning them up to usable conditions. I knew I could get bullseye on all targets at the academy, but I held back. I knew things wouldn't turn well for me if I started scoring greatly.

Though I knew that didn't really matter. I mean, yes it's important for being a ninja but not for passing the graduation exam. I needed to master the three basic jutsu's to pass. Kunai and shuriken throwing, Taijutsu sparring, and the written exam were all just to get information on the students abilities so they can put them in the most optimal squad.

From past records, I knew that at least the dead last, if he/she passed the graduation exam, would be placed in a squad with both the top scorer and top kunoichi.

Though, I don't have to worry about that. The graduation exam is 2 years from now after all.