The Hyuga Clan residence was not far from the Ninja Academy, only a little over four hundred meters away.
Although Konoha covered a large area, the outer districts were reserved for later arrivals. The Hyuga Clan had joined Konoha early, so they had naturally been assigned to the central district.
Further inward were the Uchiha and Senju.
Konoha had no modern cars, so despite this being the school gate, there was no traffic jam like the ones that clogged the roads outside kindergartens in later generations.
The modest school entrance was packed with people. Parents brought their children over one by one to fill out registration forms, then left. The little ones were led away by teachers from their respective classes and assembled into neat formations.
They would soon listen to the Hokage's speech.
In a city of two hundred thousand people, with a birth rate of 10‰, there should have been around two thousand newborns each year. However, not all of those children would attend school.
First, schooling was not free. The expensive tuition alone discouraged nearly seventy percent of families.
Second, this was a Ninja Academy. Attending did not guarantee becoming a ninja, but it still carried that expectation, and some parents did not want their children to become ninjas.
That discouraged another ten percent of families.
Third, many ninja clans had their own internal schools and did not send their children here. Sending clan children to school was merely the ninja clans showing the Hokage some respect, as in Ningyuan's case.
After all those rounds of selection, there were not many children left who came to school. If even one-tenth attended, that would already mean the Hokage commanded considerable prestige.
"Once you're at school, make sure you get along well with your classmates!" At the school gate, Hyuga Mie handed in Hyuga Ningyuan's registration form and gave him a reminder.
"Mhm!" Hyuga Ningyuan nodded as he looked through the crowd of students for familiar faces.
There were quite a few students in his year, around two hundred and fifty. They might have caught a postwar baby boom. As for acquaintances...
Hyuga Ningyuan's eye twitched. He found them!
It was a father and son dressed in green jumpsuits, with bowl cuts, looking as though they had been carved from the same mold!
Green was already eye-catching enough, yet the two of them were hugging and crying at the school gate!
"Dad, I'll work hard and show my classmates my ninja way!"
"Mm-hmm, Dad believes in you. Go on, prove your youth to everyone!"
"Tch." Hyuga Ningyuan hurriedly looked away, feeling as if he might be contaminated.
So it was this class after all!
It seemed this year had many famous people.
Asuma, Yūhi Kurenai, Morino Ibiki, Tobitake Kazuma, Mizuki, Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Obito, Shizune, Uchiha Tekka!
Worth mentioning, Mei Terumi was also their contemporary!
Although she was not from the same village, what one loved could lie beyond mountains and seas, yet mountains and seas could still be crossed. What were two villages by comparison?
"Ningyuan, look at that guy. He's even wearing sunglasses!" Shinta tugged Hyuga Ningyuan's arm and pointed.
Hyuga Ningyuan turned to look. The boy had a rather sunny appearance, but somehow still gave off an inexplicably silly air.
If he were merely wearing sunglasses, he might have been from the Aburame Clan.
But this guy also had a ping-pong paddle symbol on him.
"Those aren't sunglasses. They're goggles!" Hyuga Ningyuan said irritably, then turned away.
He was just the mastermind behind the ninja world, nothing worth mentioning. Wouldn't it be better to spend that time looking for girls?
Yūhi Kurenai was in this class too!
Found her!
Red eyes, handsome features, and a touch of refined elegance!
That was right. He first spotted the tall Yūhi Shinku, then noticed the little Yūhi Kurenai he was holding by the hand—also black-haired and red-eyed, looking adorably bewildered.
"Was this girl already so cute when she was little?" Hyuga Ningyuan blinked. He did not have any perverted thoughts, and even if he did, he could not act on them.
It was simply that compared to boys, he preferred playing with girls.
Of course, that sort of thinking would be looked down on among elementary school children, but I've already been reborn. Why should I care?
"Brother!" Hyuga Ningyuan pulled over Shinta, who was still looking around, and said, "Let's put our friendship on hold for now!"
"Huh?" Shinta looked confused. Put it on hold?
"Oh, right, let me give you some advice!" Hyuga Ningyuan patted Shinta's shoulder. "You'd better get into a relationship while you're still in school. Once you leave, it'll be much harder to find girls!"
"Uh..."
Seeing that Yūhi Kurenai had already entered the school, Hyuga Ningyuan stopped wasting words and immediately slipped in after her.
Mie's registration form had only just been filled out. By rights, that did not follow the rules, but the gate guard took one look at Hyuga Ningyuan's distinctive Byakugan and knew there would be no issue. Why would he stop him?
Then he saw the little Hyuga brat take two steps at a time and catch up with a little girl who had just gone inside.
"Yūhi Kurenai!" Hyuga Ningyuan called.
"Ah?" Hearing someone call from behind, Yūhi Kurenai hurriedly turned around. She saw an unfamiliar child quickly approach her, then directly grab her hand!
"Eh?" Yūhi Kurenai blinked, then heard him say with a grin, "My name is Ningyuan. We're in the same class!"
"Ah, really?" Yūhi Kurenai immediately forgot what she had been about to say, and also forgot that her hand was still being held. "How did you know my name?"
"I was right behind you and saw your registration form!" Ningyuan asked, "By the way, your eyes are red and mine are white. Red and white are a classic color combination, so how about becoming my girlfriend?"
Making friends required being decisive and cutting through the mess quickly. Even if it did not work, it would still bring them closer.
Street punks and rappers relied on this sort of shameless persistence to win over school beauties whom people thought were completely out of reach.
Of course, there was another approach: respect her, cherish her, stay by her side, think what she thought, worry about what worried her.
But that path could easily turn someone into a simp, so Ningyuan had no intention of taking it.
Besides, Asuma did not seem like the type to fawn over girls either, which meant Yūhi Kurenai might not necessarily respond to that approach.
"Eh?" Yūhi Kurenai's eyes widened. "But, but, eh?"
She thought about it. Being someone's girlfriend did not seem impossible?
Dad said she should make more friends with her classmates. Hadn't she made a good friend this quickly?
She clearly did not yet understand the difference between a friend and a girlfriend, but that was fine. By the time she learned, she would probably already be used to Ningyuan's presence.
"What are your names?" Seeing the two children arrive hand in hand, the Chunin teacher was a little curious.
Their features were both obvious. White eyes belonged exclusively to the Byakugan, while red eyes should belong to Jonin Yūhi Shinku's family. The Hyuga Clan and the Yūhi family both had a "hi" in their names, but they should not be related, right?
"Hyuga Ningyuan!"
"Yūhi Kurenai!"
"Oh, then come with me. From now on, you'll both be my students!" the Chunin said with a smile. He did not dare involve himself in matters between great clans; he only needed to do his own job well.
"Mhm, hello, Teacher!"
Outside the school gate, after sending Yūhi Kurenai inside, Yūhi Shinku ran into an old colleague and began chatting.
"Kakashi is already old enough for school, huh!"
"Yes!" The handsome young man with a gentle smile curled his lips shyly. Who would have thought that such a humble and amiable young man was the ruthless figure who had slaughtered enemies on the battlefield until they trembled at the mention of his name, saying one could abandon a mission upon encountering him?
"Where's your daughter?" Hatake Sakumo asked.
"I've already sent her in!" Yūhi Shinku pointed inside, then turned his head. His smile froze on his face.
Wait, where did that little brat from the Hyuga Clan come from? Why was he holding my daughter's hand? You little bastard, let go of her!
Before you continue