This Time I Will Win

After breakfast, Denji routinely brought a bag of food for Hinata.

"Take care on your way," Shizune said goodbye.

Akimichi Denji nodded and turned to leave.

Senju Ancestral Home was close to the Ninja Academy. He didn't run into Yamanaka Ino, but he did encounter Hyuga Hinata again.

A guard accompanied Hinata as she walked with her head lowered.

When she spotted Denji, she unusually approached him first and greeted him. "Good morning."

Denji was surprised. Hinata seemed to have changed a little. She never used to approach him first.

He handed her a bag of food. "This is for you. I figured you still hadn't eaten enough."

A blush spread across Hinata's face. Being found out for having a big appetite should have been embarrassing.

But when Akimichi Denji said it, she felt no shame. Instead, a different feeling stirred within her.

She accepted the food. "Thank you, Denji."

No Wish Point appeared, and Akimichi Denji turned away in disappointment. He wasn't in a hurry. He could take his time. He'd already turned this into a daily check-in.

"Is there anything you'd like to eat? I can bring you something like that next time," Denji asked.

"Anything you bring me is fine," Hinata replied, flustered by the question.

Akimichi Denji looked at Hinata reproachfully.

That clearly wasn't true. If it was, where were my Wish Points?

When Yamanaka Ino saw Akimichi Denji walk into the classroom with Hyuga Hinata, alarm bells rang in her head.

She'd deliberately changed her outfit that morning and lain in wait along the route from the Akimichi home to school.

But the only person she'd seen on the way to school was Akimichi Choji. That was how she found out she'd picked the wrong route.

But it didn't matter. Akimichi Denji was my desk mate!

The one who lived closest got the first taste.

I'm going to win.

Seeing Yamanaka Ino's expression, Haruno Sakura laughed to herself. What a golden-haired loser.

Two more students entered the classroom: Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto chattered away beside Sasuke, who wore his usual cool expression but didn't reject him.

Haruno Sakura was stunned. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. How could this be?

How had Naruto and Sasuke gotten so close?

She hadn't even earned the right to walk to and from school with Sasuke.

Yamanaka Ino chuckled to herself. Falling behind Hinata was painful, but seeing her best friend lose to Naruto made her feel a little better.

Uchiha Sasuke saw Akimichi Denji walking toward him.

"Are you free this afternoon?" Sasuke asked.

"I am. What's up?" Akimichi Denji asked, looking puzzled.

"My brother wants to pay you a visit."

Akimichi Denji was a little surprised. Uchiha Itachi wanted to see him?

Uchiha Itachi, the Uchiha Clan's most famous prodigy. He was also the most famous ungrateful wretch in Naruto.

He'd slaughtered the entire ninja clan that had raised him. He was the Great Love Immortal Venerable of Naruto.

Still, last time Shimura Danzō had made a move against him, Uchiha Itachi had helped him out.

The visit was probably about Sasuke awakening his Sharingan.

Akimichi Denji agreed. Uchiha Sasuke left, looking relieved, as though he'd completed his mission.

That morning's lesson wasn't about the Will of Fire anymore, but theoretical knowledge.

The densely packed text in the textbook gave Akimichi Denji a headache.

Though the students at the Ninja Academy were still only elementary schoolers, what they learned was even more complicated and profound than the material in middle school back in his previous life.

He could manage lessons on the Will of Fire, but these academic questions were asking too much of him. They made his left brain attack his right.

Maybe students in the ninja world had 130 trillion cells, so they developed faster and could handle this density of information.

But that didn't include him.

Oh, and Naruto, too.

Watching Naruto scratch his head and stare at his textbook like it was written in another language, Denji began to understand why Naruto was exhausted every day after becoming Hokage, dealing with all kinds of affairs.

After class, they had a short quiz.

Akimichi Denji looked at his barely passing score.

Yamanaka Ino came over. Seeing Denji's score, she knew her chance had come.

She wasn't going to pass up any opportunity to be alone with him.

"Denji, if there's anything you don't understand, I can teach you."

Akimichi Denji nodded, picked up his general studies textbook, and asked about the parts he hadn't fully grasped.

Yamanaka Ino saw her plan had worked. Suppressing her excitement, she casually leaned closer and pointed out the key parts of the text as she explained them.

Every now and then, her hand brushed against Akimichi Denji's.

"Ding! Congratulations on fulfilling Yamanaka Ino's wish: [This Time I Will Win]. Wish Point +1."

Hinata couldn't stop glancing back with her pale eyes. How she wished she'd already awakened the Byakugan. Then it wouldn't be so obvious she was sneaking a look.

Akimichi Choji had already opened a bag of chips in the back row.

Inuzuka Kiba nudged Choji. "Is your brother really okay doing that?"

"What, you haven't eaten? Want some?" Akimichi Choji instinctively clutched the opening of the chip bag protectively.

Unable to get through to him, Inuzuka Kiba turned to Nara Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru, what do you think about this?"

Nara Shikamaru lay listlessly on his desk, watching.

"It's fine. The Ino-Shika-Cho families are close. There's nothing wrong with being affectionate."

"I don't get it either. Sakura, can you teach me?" Seeing Akimichi Denji and Yamanaka Ino talking, Uzumaki Naruto came up with an idea.

"Get lost." Haruno Sakura lost her temper and didn't indulge Naruto.

Naruto quietly walked over to the other side. "Sasuke, can you teach me?"

Uchiha Sasuke's expression remained blank. He was about to refuse.

But then he remembered his brother telling him to make friends. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Go ahead and ask."

Uzumaki Naruto was overjoyed.

Haruno Sakura was bewildered. "How could this happen?"

Whenever she asked Sasuke, he always turned her down.

How was she inferior to Naruto?

Sakura clenched her fists, her face turning red, but all she could do was grumble to herself: Sasuke, you're the worst.

The afternoon was devoted to practical training, which still covered Ninja Tool Throwing and Konoha Style Taijutsu.

Akimichi Denji was in his element during practical training.

Konoha Style Taijutsu was a basic, well-rounded style.

Senju Style Taijutsu focused more on overwhelming opponents with strength, while Konoha Style Taijutsu had no weaknesses but no particular strengths either.

The two styles could complement each other, making up for each other's shortcomings.

Akimichi Denji eagerly absorbed the techniques, trying to integrate them with Senju Style Taijutsu.

He realized that even basic taijutsu wasn't useless. Quite a few techniques were worth learning from, and they helped shore up his fundamentals.

In peacetime, the Ninja Academy taught at a relatively slow pace. Over six years, students learned only the basics of the Three Body Technique, Konoha Style Taijutsu, and Ninja Tool Throwing. Nothing else.

Anyone who mastered those was already a qualified Genin.

Of course, on the battlefield, people like that were just there to fill the ranks.

Not every Genin was on the level of the Konoha Twelve.

Sometimes the gap between people was bigger than the gap between people and dogs.

Some Genin were cannon fodder, crushed under rubble on the battlefield, no more than background figures in a Ninja World War.

Others could shatter the Valley of the End with the shockwaves from their fights, or kick the Hokage straight into the finale.