Enrollment

Time flew by, and the years passed in a blur.

April 1, Year 54 of Konoha.

Today wasn't April Fools' Day. It was an important day for Konoha.

"You tell me: why does a genius like me have to go to school?" Gu Qi complained to Kakashi as they walked down the street.

Behind them trailed three listless Ninja Dogs.

Since Gu Qi was in a bad mood, he naturally wasn't going to let the three Ninja Dogs off easy.

So, on his way to enroll, he'd brought along the three Ninja Dogs who'd been planning to sleep in.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "You were the one who turned down the chance to graduate early and become a ninja!"

"I regret it now. Is it too late to change my mind?" Gu Qi asked hopefully.

This time, Gu Qi truly regretted it. The thought of sitting in class and studying things he already knew felt like a complete waste of time.

As for enjoying a happy childhood, what could be more fun than doing experiments?

After all, every new thing Gu Qi developed brought in a huge amount of money.

"What do you think?" Kakashi replied expressionlessly.

"Tch, what a pain!" Realizing there was no chance, Gu Qi couldn't help pouting.

"Whoa, there are a lot of people!"

As soon as they arrived at the entrance to Konoha Ninja Academy, the noisy crowd reached Gu Qi's ears.

"Of course. Being a ninja is an extremely dangerous profession. If they didn't bring in a large number of fresh recruits every year, there'd be no one to carry on the work."

Before Kakashi could answer, Gu Qi heard a familiar voice.

"Brother Itachi?" Gu Qi turned around and was surprised to see Uchiha Itachi with Uchiha Sasuke beside him.

"Is this your younger brother?" Gu Qi asked, though he already knew the answer.

Itachi nodded. "My younger brother is the same age as Gu Qi-kun, so he's starting school today too."

"Big brother, who is this?" Uchiha Sasuke tugged at Itachi's sleeve and asked.

Itachi smiled as he explained, "This is Kakashi Gu Qi. You saw him in the forest when he came to help you practice with Kunai. Do you remember?"

Sasuke thought for a moment, then nodded as he remembered.

"Come to think of it, Gu Qi-kun and Sasuke will be in the same class. You two should help each other out from now on!" Itachi said with a beaming smile.

"Absolutely!" Gu Qi replied, looking at Sasuke the way an adult might look at a child.

Sasuke tilted his head and snorted, then fell silent.

"Come on. You talk too much." Kakashi nudged Gu Qi forward, nodded to Itachi, and left.

"Sasuke," Itachi said, "don't underestimate Gu Qi-kun. He's a formidable opponent!"

"I'll definitely beat him."

Hearing how highly Itachi thought of Gu Qi, Sasuke said unhappily.

"Let's go too." Itachi patted Sasuke's head and smiled.

"Okay!"

At the school gate, Kakashi stopped. "I'll leave you here. You're on your own from here."

"Relax! I'm not three years old." Gu Qi said, sounding annoyed.

"Good. Behave yourself at school."

"I'm off!" Gu Qi didn't want to listen to any more of Kakashi's nagging, so he waved over his shoulder and walked away.

Following the directions from the teachers and older students, Gu Qi soon found his classroom with the three Ninja Dogs.

"Oh, everyone's here?" Gu Qi opened the classroom door and spotted several familiar faces.

Shikamaru yawned listlessly. "I didn't expect you to be in this class too. What a pain."

"What do you feed your three Ninja Dogs? Why are they so much bigger than my Akamaru?"

Kiba came over with Akamaru when he saw Gu Qi.

"Ras and the others are large breeds, and I have a special formula for them. Of course they grew fast," Gu Qi said smugly.

"Tch!"

Though Kiba was annoyed by Gu Qi's arrogance, he had to admit that Gu Qi had the skills to back it up.

"This is great! I didn't know I'd be in the same class as Gu Qi-kun!" A child in an orange jumpsuit came up to Gu Qi, looking thrilled.

Gu Qi greeted him too. "Naruto! Long time no see."

In recent years, Gu Qi had been absorbed in all kinds of experiments and training, so he hadn't seen Naruto for a long time.

"Get out of the way, you!" Before Naruto could say anything else, two pretty girls pushed him aside.

Sakura beamed. "I didn't know Sasuke-kun would be in this class, and Gu Qi-kun too!"

"Right, right! We're so lucky," Ino chimed in.

Gu Qi rubbed his nose. He supposed that counted as a compliment.

"Quiet down, everyone! Find your seats and sit down."

Just then, Umino Iruka appeared and rescued Gu Qi, who hadn't known quite what to do.

The moment the teacher arrived, the noisy classroom fell silent.

The students who'd been excitedly chatting began looking for their seats.

"There you are! Hello, we'll be deskmates from now on." Gu Qi soon found his seat in the middle section of the tiered classroom.

To his surprise, his deskmate was Hyuga Hinata, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family.

Hyuga Hinata was the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family.

Gu Qi had been very fond of her in his previous life. After living in this world for so many years, he couldn't believe he was finally meeting her today.

Although Gu Qi had visited the Hyuga Clan many times before, he'd never seen her.

He'd heard that Hiashi had placed great hopes on Hinata. As a result, she spent most of her time training.

"Y-yo, hello, Gu, Gu Qi-kun..." Hinata said shyly when she saw him.

Gu Qi didn't think much of Hinata's shyness. After all, she'd spent most of her time within the clan, so it was understandable that she'd be timid around strangers.

Sitting down, Gu Qi smiled at Hinata. "Come to think of it, I knew a girl from the Hyuga family when I was little."

"R-really?" Hinata lowered her head and murmured.

Gu Qi thought she was just shy, so he didn't pay it any mind. He continued, "I haven't seen her in about two years. It's a shame I never asked her name."

"G-Gu, Gu Qi-kun... actually..."

Smack!

Hinata was trying to say something softly when someone interrupted her.

"Quiet!" Umino Iruka slapped the desk and spoke sternly. "Starting today, I'm your homeroom teacher. I won't tolerate anyone breaking the school rules in my class."

As he spoke, Iruka looked around, watching the students' reactions.

Seeing that most of them had been cowed, he silently gave himself a "yes!"

"All right. Some of you may already know one another, while others may be meeting for the first time. So, let's each introduce ourselves and share our dreams."

"I'll go first! I'll go first!" Before Iruka had finished, Naruto jumped up and said, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and my dream is to become Hokage!"

"Tch." Many of the students looked at him with scorn.

"Don't let his idiocy fool you. He might actually become Hokage someday," Gu Qi whispered mysteriously in Hinata's ear.

Thump!

Since he was so close, the already shy Hinata turned bright red and froze.

Realizing he'd overstepped, Gu Qi quickly sat up straight and apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

"I-it's fine," Hinata said softly, her head lowered and her face bright red.

"You idiot, sit down." A vein popped on Iruka's forehead as he silently labeled Naruto a troublemaker.

"Idiot."

"What an idiot..."

"..."

Hearing his classmates mock him, Naruto sat down, looking dejected.

"I'm going to call the roll now. Introduce yourselves one by one," Iruka said, taking out a class register.

"Kimura Yasushi..."

The boy whose name was called stood up excitedly. "Yes! Hello, everyone. My name is Kimura Yasushi, and my dream is..."

"That was a nice introduction. Next, Kohana Miho," Iruka praised him.

The girl whose name was called spoke with gentle confidence. "My name is Kohana Miho..."

"Shikamaru Nara."

"Ugh, what a drag." Shikamaru stood up listlessly. "I'm Shikamaru Nara. My dream is to live a peaceful life in the future."

"Tch. What's that supposed to mean?"

Hearing Shikamaru, Naruto was the first to jump up and mock him.

"Idiot," Shikamaru said blandly, then sat down.

"Who are you calling an idiot, you— Ow!" Naruto started to retort, but Iruka punched him on the head.

"Idiot, go sit in the back with the Ninja Dogs!" Iruka felt that if this kept up, it would take years off his life.

"Okay..." Naruto trudged to the back of the classroom, dejected after being hit.

When Ras and the others saw Naruto come over, they crowded around him.

"An idiot with dumb dogs—what a perfect match! Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

Someone's remark set off laughter throughout the classroom.

Boom!