School Life

After entering the house and finishing his bath, Hyuga Matsuba recalled his shadow clones. Exhaustion washed over him, and he nearly collapsed onto the floor.

"This Ninjutsu really is insane. No wonder it's one of the forbidden techniques." After resting on the bed for a while, Hyuga Matsuba sat up straight.

Looking back over the past few days, he had finished practicing all the Ninjutsu recorded in Tsunade's book.

Hyuga Matsuba was clever. Once he learned the Fuinjutsu, a diamond-shaped mark would appear on his forehead. Hyuga Matsuba secretly altered it and made the mark grow on his back instead.

The shape of that mark had also changed slightly, making it look somewhat like a Three Tomoe Sharingan.

But he had not done that because he was afraid people would discover he had learned the Ninjutsu. He simply thought the mark was ugly.

After a good night's sleep, he woke up in the morning. As usual, Hyuga Matsuba summoned several shadow clones to continue practicing, and had them compress the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack as well.

After a long time, Hyuga Matsuba had become somewhat familiar with the technique. Its principles were similar to Empty Palm, but he had not obtained Empty Palm.

If merely knowing about Naruto in the past allowed him to understand every technique, then all this would be far too easy.

In any case, compressing the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack was still rather difficult and required a great deal of time, even with Hyuga Matsuba's clones helping him.

After filling his stomach, packing his things, and warming up, another day of school began.

When he arrived, Hyuga Matsuba was actually the last one there. Even Uchiha Ken, who had been beaten up and sent to the hospital yesterday, had arrived before him.

"What's going on? There's obviously still a long time before class starts." Hyuga Matsuba found it unbelievable.

"Fuck! It wasn't my choice. I was sleeping so well, and those two dragged me out of bed. Studying is exhausting." Wuchang was still half-asleep.

"Today is our first official class! I want to become a ninja, so how can I not take it seriously? You came so late—you obviously aren't taking this seriously!" Nawaki began lecturing Hyuga Matsuba.

"I dream of becoming a ninja too! We have to study hard!" Two-Tails smiled at Nawaki.

Hyuga Matsuba shuddered. Oh god, why are these two so strange?

He could not dwell on it. Hyuga Matsuba took his seat, chatted with Mikoto for a while, then pretended to sleep as he began refining his Chakra again.

His most urgent task now was to improve the quality of his Chakra. Only then could Hyuga Matsuba rapidly increase his strength.

"Is Hyuga Matsuba feeling unwell?" Mikoto looked thoughtfully at her deskmate, who had lowered his head.

The teacher soon arrived. Mikoto looked at Ueno Juri and nudged Hyuga Matsuba with her elbow.

"Matsuba, wake up. Class is about to begin!" Mikoto whispered.

Hyuga Matsuba sat up and looked at the teacher on the platform. His Observation Haki had been active the entire time, so he had long sensed every movement the teacher made. Still, he thanked Mikoto. "I really have you to thank!"

"It's nothing!" Mikoto revealed a gentle, utterly adorable smile.

Hyuga Matsuba's heart would not stop pounding. He silently thought, She's way too pretty. How can there be such a beautiful little girl? Could it be that I have a thing for little girls?

Bang! Bang!

The teacher knocked twice on the desk and spoke in a faint voice. "Today, we officially begin our studies. This is also the first step toward your future success. You will spend five years at this school, and I hope you can achieve your dreams."

"Becoming a ninja is not so easy. This is not child's play, and I need to remind you of that now."

"After becoming ninjas, you will definitely encounter countless setbacks and hardships. You cannot imagine how difficult the future will be."

"Your current task is to study hard. If you listen carefully now, it may help you avoid taking detours in the future."

Ueno Juri's gaze swept across every child's face.

Yet the students below were all busy with their own things and paid her no attention whatsoever.

"Sigh." Ueno Juri had long expected this result. They were all just brats, thinking only about becoming ninjas or Hokage someday, but they had never considered how much effort that required. It was not something that could be achieved just by talking about it.

"Whatever makes you happy."

"Now, for our first lesson, we will mainly study methods of refining Chakra. Chakra is extremely important to us. No matter what kind of ninja you choose to become, you must master this skill."

Once they learned what the first lesson was about, those little brats instantly lost interest.

Only Mikoto, who was studying seriously, cooperated with the teacher below. The children from the other clans had already begun entertaining themselves.

There were also some children without clans. It was their first time learning about these things, so they listened attentively as well.

Ueno Juri had a face full of black lines and no way around it. Those children from clans had already encountered this material long ago, but the civilian children knew nothing, so she still had to teach it.

"Students who already know this must listen attentively too. Even if you have learned it already, you cannot disrupt others' studies. If you keep causing trouble, I can only make you stand in the corridor as punishment."

After hearing the teacher's words, everyone restrained themselves somewhat and chose to lie down and rest. This was the most common way to slack off at school.

The entire morning's lessons were about Chakra. When school ended at noon, everyone felt liberated.

After the whole morning, the children's initial excitement and interest had long vanished. All they could think about was getting out of school sooner.

At noon, most students chose to bring their own lunches. After all, time was limited, and packed meals were the best option.

After Hyuga Matsuba took out the food he had prepared, everyone was startled by the sheer quantity of dishes before them, even though they had already witnessed his enormous appetite.

After lunch, they rested for a while. There were still classes in the afternoon, usually outdoor activity lessons held at the Training Ground.

"I already reminded everyone earlier to prepare Kunai Swords. Now, we will learn some techniques for using this weapon."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ueno Juri took out a Kunai Sword. With a slight exertion of force, the sword flew out and precisely knocked down a practice target in the distance, piquing the students' interest.

"Hmph, when it comes to this kind of swordsmanship, our clan is the best. What are you showing off for?" Uchiha Ken, who had been beaten senseless yesterday, began making his presence known again.

He also took out his two swords. Just as the teacher had done, he flicked his wrist, and the two swords passed through the center of the target one after another, directly piercing through it.

Uchiha Ken's move caught everyone by surprise. It seemed that the little trash who had been beaten up yesterday did have some skill after all.

"What are you so smug about? Anyone can do that!" Nawaki refused to be outdone and threw his own sword.

But the result was far from satisfactory. Although Nawaki's sword also hit the target, it had nearly missed and was nowhere near the bullseye. Nawaki's face turned red in an instant.