First Close Contact

Early in the morning, Pingsan walked into the hall with dark circles under his eyes, occasionally letting out a silly little chuckle.

Danzo lowered his head to study something and paid him no mind.

Then Pingsan suddenly chuckled twice!

Danzo, who had been concentrating intently, jumped in fright. He raised his head and stared at Pingsan with a baffled expression. "What are you laughing at?"

The man seemed to grow gloomier by the day. Sigh, the furrow between his brows was so deep it could probably trap a fly.

Pingsan was startled by Danzo's actions and question, too. He responded with the same baffled expression. "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

For some reason, the furrow between Danzo's brows suddenly relaxed a little. He picked up his bowl and asked, "How's life at school?"

Pingsan answered a little nervously, "Very good, sir!"

Danzo actually smiled, nodded, and said:

"I'll arrange for someone to teach you how to train. As for school—just don't cause trouble."

Pingsan hurriedly stood up and said loudly, "Yes, sir!"

Danzo tapped the tabletop, his tone suddenly softening as he said:

"Sit down and eat."

During the first history lesson, the teacher talked about ancient legends and the Seven Warring States. Pingsan shook his head slightly and thought, It's all about the Ōtsutsuki family.

But then an illustration caught Pingsan's eye. He squinted at it for a long while before muttering, "Holy crap, an Aquarius Saint! Are you messing with me?"

Shikaku was startled by Pingsan's words. He hurriedly wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and asked, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Pingsan instinctively focused on the system panel.

Skill: Rozan Sho Ryu Ha (Passive). Each time you hit someone on the chin, there is a 15% chance of triggering a powerful strike, dealing 135% strength + 45% stamina as damage and knocking them away.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the one Pingsan had imagined.

He couldn't help looking at the bottle below it again: I Love A Shiba Inu!

Pingsan's mouth twitched. He took a deep breath and said, "No, it's nothing. I just think that guy looks really cool!"

As he spoke, he pointed at the man standing on a tree, dressed in Aquarius armor.

Shikaku rubbed his reddened cheek and said, "Oh, you mean him?

"He's a figure from myth and legend. They say they came riding on the moon and were the first to bring peace to a chaotic age.

"The woman in that rather abstract painting is called the Rabbit Goddess. This one is the Rabbit Goddess's younger brother.

"It's been almost two thousand years. Who knows how much of those myths and legends is made up?

"They say our Nara ancestors included some kind of Immortal.

"Back then, there weren't even any ninjutsu!

"Anyway, it's all unreliable!

"Any modern ninja could go back in time, start a religion, and claim to be some kind of god!

"It's just a way to fool the masses!"

At lunchtime, a short, somewhat shifty-looking man with black hair and uneven eyes came to the school to find Pingsan.

The man's shifty appearance gave Pingsan a bad impression of him. The man said:

"I'm Shimura Yujin. The Clan Head sent me to teach you Chakra and Taijutsu training."

The man had a grin on his face. His tone was respectful, but his manner seemed quite casual.

Clearly, Danzo had ordered him to come, but he hadn't wanted to babysit a child.

Pingsan pursed his lips. It seemed this guy wasn't anyone important. He certainly didn't look like a master.

"Mm, got it." Pingsan kept eating his bento. Namiashi Raidō and Shiranui Genma, sitting beside him, had been chattering away nonstop and were starting to annoy him.

Shikaku and Choza had already gone to the front to eat with Yamanaka Inoichi.

Pingsan and Gekko Hayate were the youngest in the class.

Pingsan was only a little over three, not quite four, and Gekko Hayate looked about two or three.

Next was Kakashi Hatake. He was a little over four, not quite five. The other students were all six or seven.

The Ino-Shika-Cho kids were older still; they were all over nine.

In fact, the children of the major clans attended the academy simply to make life easier for their families.

Only children from ordinary families went there to learn.

The Ninja Academy only had three years of schooling at the time. In other words, if nothing unexpected happened, Pingsan could graduate at seven.

If Gekko Hayate didn't repeat a year, he'd graduate at five or six.

No wonder ninja from major clans looked down on those from ordinary families. What could anyone learn in three years at the academy? They might not even master the Three Body Techniques!

That afternoon, the teacher went over a whole lot of theoretical knowledge in class.

Pingsan was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. When he really couldn't take it anymore, he sat there and began gathering Chakra!

Until now, the system had been helping Pingsan gather Chakra in preparation for his awakening.

But after the system awakened, his Chakra gathered so slowly it could barely be called a crawl.

Pingsan tried for over half an hour without feeling anything. Chakra was still gathering, but he just couldn't control it.

After the tedious theory lesson ended, the teacher led everyone to the field to prepare for their first sparring exercise.

The round-faced teacher half opened his dead-fish eyes and said:

"All right, class. Today's our first Taijutsu lesson.

"First, we'll warm up. Then we'll draw lots to choose our opponents and have a simple sparring match."

The kids ran around in a noisy jumble, paying no attention at all to the round-faced man.

Twenty minutes later, after finally getting all the kids lined up, the teacher started the draw.

Pingsan drew number 18 in the Earth group. His opponent was the chubby-cheeked number 18 in the Heaven group: little Asuma.

During class, Asuma was either drooling or messing with Kurenai in front of him.

Kurenai seemed older than Asuma, but it was hard to tell by how much.

"Bring it on! I'll beat you till you're crawling!"

That ridiculous line had to belong to Obito.

The green-clad beast, Might Kai, stared at him with wide eyes for a long while, apparently unable to tell who he was either.

But the guy actually did fifty push-ups in front of everyone before getting to his feet and squaring off against Obito.

Obito stood there arrogantly, sucking on a lollipop as he taunted Kai.

"Ha!"

"Pfft!"

Kai kicked Obito to the ground. Pingsan covered his face, while Kakashi and Rin looked just as speechless.

The whole class froze for a few seconds, then burst into laughter.

The teacher was a little speechless, too. He hadn't even called for them to start yet.

As the saying went, the more you showed off, the harder you got hit.

Obito had been defeated in an instant by the worst student in the entire grade, so everyone started calling him the dead-last.

By the time it was Pingsan and Asuma's turn, half an hour had already passed.

Asuma jiggled his chubby cheeks and beckoned to Pingsan with a finger. "Come on, Pingsan. Big brother's going to show you some love!"

Pingsan and Asuma were quite familiar with each other. After all, their fathers were partners, and they lived fairly close by. It was just that their mental ages were so far apart that Pingsan didn't much enjoy playing with him.

Pingsan's eyes twitched as he thought, You're asking for it, fatty!

Pingsan narrowed his eyes and said:

"Fat Monkey, looks like I'll have to give you a good thrashing today so you can learn your place!"

And so, after the teacher called for them to begin, the two had their "first close contact."