The Hyuga Deskmate Who Wouldn't Drown

To his surprise, Hyuga Kaze discovered that his son had an exceptionally solid grasp of this common knowledge and was remarkably experienced.

Some of the things he did had not even occurred to Kaze, a ninja who had spent years carrying out missions.

Yet his son, a Ninja Academy student who had been held back a year, did them as naturally as breathing.

As though he had suddenly learned how.

Kaze did not ask any questions. As long as his son knew how, that was enough.

The father and son had spent four or five days walking there.

On the way back, however, ten full days passed and they still had not reached the village.

Twelve days later, they finally returned to Konoha.

After settling Hyuga Kaze into Konoha Hospital, Hyuga Seisen rushed into the Hokage Office.

He reported everything they had learned to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was deeply shocked and immediately forwarded the intelligence to the relevant ANBU departments for a thorough investigation.

He then highly praised the father and son's accomplishments.

From the village's values surrounding the Will of Fire to their personal self-improvement, he offered them encouragement on every front.

After a long-winded speech, he finally got to the tangible rewards.

Hyuga Kaze's treatment at Konoha Hospital would be fully subsidized.

They would also receive one A-rank mission record and a reward of 150,000 ryo.

Hyuga Seisen was overjoyed.

Those 150,000 ryo would greatly offset the impact of the Hyuga Clan reducing the compensation paid to branch family members.

After turning in the mission, Hyuga Seisen went home first.

His grandmother was at home. If he stayed away too long without returning, the old woman would worry.

When he got home, his grandmother asked where Hyuga Kaze had gone.

Hyuga Seisen casually made up an excuse to brush her off.

The next day.

Early in the morning, the school was already packed with people. Before he knew it, the new term had begun.

Hyuga Seisen stood at the school gates, his gaze sweeping across the newly posted class assignment list on the wall.

Ever since Kakashi had set a record by graduating early, a quiet trend of striving for early graduation had emerged within the school.

The village seemed to tacitly approve of the trend and had secretly lowered the standards, leaving many classes short on students.

The school had therefore decided to merge and reorganize several classes.

Hyuga Seisen's original class had been broken up, and he had been assigned to join another class to continue his studies.

"Building A, third floor..."

Hyuga Seisen found his name on the class list.

After turning this way and that, checking classrooms one by one, he finally found his new class.

The classroom was already crammed full. Some students were chatting, while others were playing with paper airplanes.

Boys and girls alike were fooling around in all kinds of ways.

A female teacher emerged from the faculty office and headed toward his classroom.

She wore her hair in a ponytail, with her bangs swept diagonally across the corner of her eye, and a pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on her face.

Her professional teacher's outfit fit her perfectly, and she looked like the strict sort.

Judging from the teacher's photograph on the class list, this should be his homeroom teacher—Inoue Lingyue.

Hyuga Seisen hurried over and explained his situation.

Inoue Lingyue's expression darkened as she listened, her eyes full of helplessness.

There had not been many early graduates in the class she was responsible for, so there were not many open spots.

Yet the school had still squeezed another student into her class and assigned her a repeat student.

And he was a notorious troublemaker at the school.

Sigh! My performance bonus is going to be cut again this year.

She looked at the handsome student before her, sighed, and nodded, leading Hyuga Seisen into the classroom.

When she reached the podium, Inoue Lingyue slapped the desk hard.

"Quiet!"

Her stern voice instantly drowned out the noise. Once the little ones below had fallen silent, she pulled Hyuga Seisen over.

"This is a new transfer student, Hyuga Seisen!"

"You should all learn from one another from now on."

Then she looked at Hyuga Seisen. "Introduce yourself to everyone."

Hyuga Seisen nodded and stepped up to the podium.

He introduced himself openly and confidently. "Hello, everyone! I'm the new transfer student, Hyuga Seisen."

His handsome, clean-cut face paired with his sunny smile instantly drew everyone's attention.

The room fell silent for a moment before erupting in enthusiastic cheers and shrieks.

"Ah! The new transfer student is so handsome!"

"What transfer student? You don't know Seisen-senpai? He's one of the school's famous handsome guys."

"Really? Then I hereby strike Uchiha Toshihiko from my husband list and replace him with Hyuga Seisen."

"Fengling, you're so fickle."

"Can't help it. He's just too good-looking. Sorry, Toshihiko."

The girls in the class had stars in their eyes and were thrilled.

"Tch! What's the big deal? Another pretty boy."

"Exactly. Who knows what he's acting all smug about."

In contrast, the boys in the class all shot him hostile looks.

For a moment, every kind of voice rose at once.

Inoue Lingyue inwardly sighed. Just as I thought. He starts causing trouble the moment he arrives.

The racket below irritated her, and she picked up a ruler and slammed it against the podium.

"Enough, quiet!"

The noisy shouts below died down again.

She turned to Hyuga Seisen and pointed to an empty seat in the last row.

"You'll sit there. Your deskmate is from the Hyuga Clan too."

"Alright, thank you, Teacher."

Dodging several little hands trying to secretly pass him notes along the way, Hyuga Seisen finally reached his seat and discovered that his assigned deskmate was a girl.

She had her head buried beneath the desk, doing who knew what.

"Hello, I'm your new deskmate, Hyuga Seisen," he greeted her.

She did not respond and kept her head down.

Hyuga Seisen did not mind. He sat down on his own and casually picked up the stack of newly issued textbooks on the desk, flipping through them one by one to see what subjects they covered.

Well, damn. They really had to study everything from astronomy to geography.

There were eleven books in all.

And those were only the basic classes.

There were also additional courses.

Things like Intelligence Gathering, Wilderness Survival, Tracking and Counter-Reconnaissance, Emergency Treatment...

There was a whole pile of them. No wonder the people of this ninja world, who possessed superpowers fueled by chakra, were studying themselves to death.

The most outrageous subject was the Will of Fire.

A single sentence from the First Hokage had developed into five or six books, including The Origins and History of the Will of Fire, The Future Development of the Will of Fire, and On the Contemporary Will of Fire.

He had originally been full of confidence and determined to perform well, but when he saw so many courses, he could not help taking a deep breath.

After a while, his female deskmate finally moved.

She cautiously raised her head a little.

Like a rabbit poking its head out of a burrow, she revealed pale jade-like eyes and blinked as she looked around.

When she noticed someone sitting beside her, she was initially confused, then abruptly sat up in fright.

The cute animal pattern printed on the front of her clothes trembled along with her.

Her cheeks, which had been stuffed full and happily moving moments ago, froze at once.

Her eyes widened round, and like a startled rabbit, she looked utterly adorable.

"I'm your deskmate, Hyuga Seisen." Hyuga Seisen smiled and held out his hand.

Her eyes were clear, but her little head seemed not to have caught up yet.

A moment later, she suddenly panicked and hurriedly stuffed the remaining half of the bread in her hand into her mouth.

After chewing it haphazardly a few times, she swallowed with difficulty, grabbed her water bottle, and gulped down a large mouthful of water.

Finally, she wiped her hand on her clothes before cautiously reaching out to shake Hyuga Seisen's hand.

His female deskmate was very pretty!

Her skin was fair, her nose small and delicate, and she had an innocent, dreamy air about her.

When he gently held her little hand, a smooth, soft, faintly cool sensation brushed against his fingertips.

"My name is... Hyuga Ayane."

She smiled apologetically, her crescent-shaped eyes beautiful as they curved.

Only after seeing her turn toward him did Hyuga Seisen realize why he had failed to recognize her at first.

She wore a loose white T-shirt decorated with cute little animals.

The excellent figure she had inherited from the Hyuga Clan filled out the loose combat uniform perfectly.

At her lower abdomen, the fabric drew sharply inward, creating a striking contrast with her still childish face.

As he watched her long, silky blackish-purple hair fall casually over her shoulders, Hyuga Seisen felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

"Have we met somewhere before?" Hyuga Seisen asked.

Hyuga Ayane froze at his words, a thoughtful look appearing in her eyes as though she were trying hard to remember.

After a moment, she shook her head. "I don't remember."

Hyuga Seisen felt that he must have been overthinking it. "Maybe I remembered wrong."

Hyuga Ayane blinked her beautiful eyes and looked curiously at her new deskmate. "When did you sit here?"

"I was here from the start. I even greeted you just now, but you probably didn't notice."

"Ha ha, sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

As she spoke, she seemed to suddenly remember something and turned slightly toward him.

In a soft voice, she asked, "Um... do you want some of this?"