Ninja Reserve

In the forty-first year of Konoha, the lingering chill of early spring was gradually dispelled by warm sunlight. Uchiha Kyohaku's first school year at the Ninja Academy was drawing to a close amid outward calm and undercurrents beneath the surface.

Six months was enough for him to thoroughly familiarize himself with the workings of this place known as the "cradle of ninjas," and to gain a clear understanding of the so-called ninja reserve training system.

The school's curriculum was mainly divided into three categories.

Cultural and theoretical subjects were where Kyohaku felt most at ease. He needed to expend only minimal effort to excel in Ninja Continent Literature; Fundamentals of Chakra Cultivation and Introduction to Ninja Tools corroborated what he had learned from his father's notes and the library, deepening his understanding; Human Anatomy and Taijutsu Fundamentals touched upon his old profession as a forensic examiner in his previous life, and his grasp of muscular structure and the principles of force generation far surpassed that of his peers. He could even occasionally spot sections of the textbooks that were overly simplistic or imprecise, but he never pointed them out, merely noting them down in silence; Ninja World Geography was an area he had long studied in depth.

In these classes, he consistently remained in the upper-middle range. He was neither outstanding enough to arouse suspicion nor behind enough to require extra "attention." Like the most inconspicuous part of the background, he quietly absorbed, integrated, and deepened his knowledge.

The real challenge had always come from practical and physical training courses.

In Ninjutsu Practice, they were currently teaching the most basic E-rank Three-Body Technique. For Kyohaku, whose chakra control was abnormally refined, creating a blurry, distorted yet genuine clone with the Clone Technique, swapping places with a prepared wooden block over a very short distance using the Substitution Technique, or transforming into another classmate of similar build with the Transformation Technique were not particularly difficult in terms of chakra manipulation. The hard part was making the process appear "difficult and imperfect," in keeping with his image as someone with "a disabled right foot and possibly obstructed chakra circulation." He had to precisely control his chakra output, making his clone more illusory, his substitution slower, and his transformation occasionally leave behind a flaw. This "reverse control" was even more mentally taxing than executing the techniques perfectly.

Taijutsu Training Guidance and Physical Training were his genuine weaknesses. He could barely participate normally in basic flexibility, coordination, strength, and speed training. Most of the time, he could only perform the extremely limited adaptive exercises assigned by the teacher at the edge of the field, watching Uchiha Steel Mountain, Uchiha Dai Yi, and the others display their vigor on the grounds, occasionally casting him disdainful glances. Endurance runs were even more of a nightmare. Leaning on his crutch and moving with difficulty, he was always the last one to finish, his clothes soaked through with sweat and waves of stabbing pain radiating from his right ankle. Yet he never uttered a word about giving up, merely completing the greatly shortened distance one step at a time in silence.

Shurikenjutsu was the one course where he could reasonably display a hint of something unusual. Though his unsteady stance greatly affected the force and stability of his throws, his fine control over the muscles in his arm and wrist, along with his subconscious calculations of trajectories, angles, and wind direction—stemming from his father's notes and the logical mindset from his previous life—allowed his accuracy to improve from its initially miserable state at a "slow but steady" pace. Occasionally, he could even strike the bullseye, earning a flicker of surprise from the teacher. But he would immediately make his next few throws miss, concealing that "coincidence."

The ideological and special education courses were more subtle. In Inheritance of the "Will of Fire", he listened as the teacher spoke of the First Hokage's ideals, the bonds between comrades, and the spirit of dedicating oneself to the village. His expression remained calm, but his heart was unmoved, carrying even a trace of cold scrutiny. Pretty slogans, tools for uniting people's hearts, but they can't conceal the essential truth of ninjas as tools. He recorded this material as a sample for understanding the village's ideology and methods of social control.

Tactical Theory and Ambushes and Teamwork Drills were far more interesting. Although his physical limitations prevented him from serving as the main force in exercises, his mind, accustomed to logical analysis and information processing, allowed him to display a composure and clarity beyond his age during tactical discussions and intelligence analysis. The plans he proposed often took unusual approaches, emphasizing efficiency and information gaps, sometimes making the teacher in charge of the course take notice. But during teamwork exercises, he was usually marginalized, and when groups were formed, he was always the last one left to be chosen.

The school's teachers also left a deep impression on him.

Teacher Iwato, who was in charge of taijutsu and shuriken courses, was a burly man with a stern face and a thick beard. He was strict, loud-voiced, and somewhat feared by the students. Yet Kyohaku had once happened to see him after school, flustered and full of tenderness as a little girl clung to his leg and acted spoiled—probably his daughter. He had also heard rumors of other teachers teasing him for being afraid of his wife. He was a well-rounded jonin with a rough exterior and a soft spot within. He appropriately eased his demands on Kyohaku, but there was no discrimination in his gaze. Instead, he would occasionally teach him techniques for using his center of gravity and crutch to generate force.

There was also a classmate named Ebisu, who always wore sunglasses and carried himself like a little adult. His theoretical grades were exceptionally good, and every other word out of his mouth was "rules," "efficiency," or "elite." He seemed rigid, but Kyohaku could sense his persistent desire to earn recognition.

Over the course of that year, Uchiha Kyohaku was like a seed scattered in an overlooked corner, quietly drawing nourishment without anyone noticing. He skillfully played his role, burying his true self deep within. While his peers were still naively learning how to become ninjas, he was already systematically deconstructing the profession of "ninja" through the mindset and perspective of an adult, silently planning an entirely different path for himself.

To him, life in the reserve was more like a long yet necessary apprenticeship in disguise.