Enrollment at the Ninja Academy, Outrageous Rewards

The alarm clock rang three times before Takuma finally crawled out of bed.

He had drunk three cartons of that milk last night. He didn't know if it was just psychological, but it really did taste richer and more mellow than regular milk.

Today was the first day of school at the Ninja Academy.

He changed into the new clothes his mother had prepared the night before and looked at his reflection in the mirror—dark brown hair, decent features, but far too short. As a former adult who once stood one meter seventy-eight, he had to re-adapt to this shrunken body every time he looked in the mirror.

"Takuma! You're going to be late!" his mother's voice drifted up from downstairs.

"Coming, coming."

He grabbed his school bag and headed down. A simple breakfast was laid out on the table. His father was already seated, his expression still somewhat unnatural—the embarrassment of being caught secretly smoking yesterday clearly hadn't fully faded. His mother, however, looked as composed as ever. As she served Takuma his meal, she urged, "Listen carefully at school and get along well with your classmates."

"I know."

"And don't get into fights."

"...I'll try my best."

Mori Kazuki set down his chopsticks and cleared his throat. "Takuma, the training at the Ninja Academy—"

"I'll be careful." Takuma knew what his father wanted to say. Don't reveal too much about the Senju bloodline or his recovery abilities in front of his classmates. The father and son had already discussed this in private last night.

Mori Kazuki nodded and said nothing more.

After breakfast, Takuma shouldered his bag and stepped out of the house. The morning streets were still quiet, but the ninja tool shop next door was already open, and the sounds of moving items drifted out from within.

Just as he was about to walk past, a figure darted out.

It was a girl about his age, wearing her hair in two buns and dressed in a light green short-sleeved shirt. She was struggling to drag a cardboard box that was clearly heavier than she was.

"Do you need a hand?" Takuma asked instinctively.

The girl looked up, revealing a round, dust-smudged face. She sized Takuma up, then pushed the box toward him without ceremony. "Help me move it to that shelf by the door."

"...You're certainly not shy."

"You're the one who asked," the girl replied righteously.

Takuma resignedly picked up the box—although his six-year-old body had shrunk, the basic physical strength of the Senju bloodline remained, so carrying a box was nothing. He placed it where the girl pointed and brushed the dust off his hands.

"Did you just move in?"

"Yeah, arrived yesterday." The girl had already started unpacking another box, which was filled with unsharpened shuriken blanks. "My name is Tenten."

"Mori Takuma. From the bookstore next door."

"A bookstore?" Tenten's eyes brightened. "Does your family have a lot of books?"

"It's alright. Most of them are old books my dad collects and resells."

"Do you have any books about ninja tools?"

Takuma thought for a moment. He recalled that there were indeed a few old manuals on ninja tool crafting in the shop, which had been included in a batch of old goods they had acquired. "There should be a few. I'll look for them later."

"Great!" Tenten smiled, revealing two canine teeth. "My dad says our family's ancestral ninja tool craft requires constant learning, and he wants me to read more. I'll come by your shop later to take a look."

"Sure. Are you heading to school now, too?"

Tenten suddenly remembered she had school today and slapped her forehead. "Almost forgot! Let's go!"

After a quick tidy-up, the two headed toward the Ninja Academy together. Tenten was the type to get familiar quickly; she didn't stop talking the whole way, asking whether her family's shop location was good one moment and complaining about the lack of supply channels in Konoha the next. Takuma responded half-heartedly, though he secretly thought it was quite a coincidence—living next to a ninja tool shop, wasn't that like having a built-in equipment supply station?

"By the way, what's your specialty?" Tenten asked suddenly.

Takuma thought for a moment and answered seriously, "I'm particularly good at staying alive."

Tenten paused in her tracks, turned to look at him, her face full of confusion. "...?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like." Takuma couldn't explain too much. With the Senju bloodline plus Wolverine's healing factor, he couldn't say much else, but he was definitely hard to kill. This assessment was the most accurate summary of his current strength.

Tenten clearly didn't understand, but she nodded anyway. "Alright. Staying alive is a skill, too. My dad says the most important thing for a ninja is to come back alive."

As they talked, they arrived at the Ninja Academy. The entrance was crowded with many new students and their parents, making it quite noisy. Takuma noticed a familiar face—Naruto, with his spiky blond hair, was standing alone in a corner. The surrounding children were pulled away by their parents, who whispered, "That's that kid" and "Stay away from him."

Takuma looked away. There was nothing he could do right now; he couldn't just run over to a group of six-year-olds and say, "Don't discriminate against him, he's the hero who will save the world in the future." If he said that, he'd likely be treated as a fool.

The entrance ceremony was held on the school playground.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, attended in person, standing on the podium with his pipe in his mouth. The old man first scanned the little ones sitting below, then began a long lecture on the Will of Fire.

"Konoha Village was founded by our two predecessors, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara—"

Takuma tried hard to keep his eyelids from closing. There was nothing wrong with the Will of Fire itself, but when the Third Hokage spoke, it was truly long and slow, making it an excellent sleep aid. Several of his peers had already started dozing off, though a girl with buns—likely Haruno Sakura—was listening quite intently, her eyes sparkling.

The Third spoke for a full forty minutes before finishing. Takuma roughly estimated that the core content was just "unity, dedication, and protection"; once the fluff was removed, the effective information didn't exceed two minutes.

After the entrance ceremony came the class assignments.

The teacher in charge of registration held a list and read names one by one, assigning students to their corresponding classes. Takuma was assigned to the class taught by Iruka—he found a seat toward the back and sat down.

Then, Iruka began roll call.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Here!" Naruto raised his hand with great energy, grinning broadly. A few suppressed chuckles echoed in the classroom, and a child at the door even blurted out "Demon Fox," earning a glare from the teacher.

"Haruno Sakura."

"Here!" the pink-haired girl's voice was crisp.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

The classroom went quiet for a moment, followed by a wave of whispers—"The Uchiha kid," "So cool." Takuma followed the crowd's gaze toward the front row by the window, where a black-haired boy sat expressionless, completely unresponsive to the surrounding discussion. Sasuke replied with a flat "Here," his voice cold.

Takuma sighed inwardly: This child's fate was arguably the most tragic in the Naruto world. His entire clan wiped out, his own brother did the deed, and his brother even made him hate him. With a setup like that, you really couldn't handle it without some serious mental fortitude.

"Mori Takuma."

"Here." Takuma replied.

Naruto, sitting in the front row, suddenly turned his head, grinned at Takuma across several rows of seats, and flashed a mouthful of white teeth. Takuma was stunned for a moment, then nodded in response.

The system prompt in his mind suddenly rang out without warning.

[Event Detected: The First Gathering of Team 7]

[Event Level: Plot Key Node]

[Witness Status: Confirmed Valid]

[Witness Complete—Obtained Draw Opportunity ×1]

Takuma's pupils contracted sharply.

The first gathering of Team 7—Team 7 referred to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, the team led by Kakashi. But they had only just enrolled; they were six-year-olds who had just been assigned to a class, and it would be years before they actually formed Team 7. How could the system deem this event valid so far in advance?

And he hadn't done anything; he had just been sitting in his seat waiting for roll call.

Suppressing the urge to draw, he waited until after class, ran to the bathroom, and locked the door before taking a deep breath and opening the system panel.

The prize wheel appeared again, with various colors of light intertwining and spinning.

A flash of light that wasn't particularly dazzling passed, and something light fell into his hand.

Takuma looked down and saw a few black hairs lying in his palm.

[Congratulations to the host, you have obtained the reward: Hulk's Leg Hair (Ten strands)]

[Item Description: Leg hair shed by the Hulk, Bruce Banner, during his transformation. Contains trace amounts of residual gamma radiation (dosage is completely safe). The material is tough and can withstand extreme tension without breaking.]

[Note: Congratulations, this is the closest you've ever been to the Hulk. Although it's just leg hair, at least it's a superhero's leg hair. More useful than milk.]

Takuma stood in the bathroom stall, staring at the few black hairs in his palm, and remained silent for a while.

Hulk's leg hair.

He didn't even know where to start complaining—should he complain about how many strange things were stuffed into this prize pool, or should he complain about the system's note that it was "more useful than milk"? Did the system really not realize that the things it gave were becoming more outrageous each time?

"What could this possibly be used for?" he whispered.

The system did not answer.

Takuma took a deep breath and carefully tucked the leg hair into the inner layer of his ninja tool pouch. Regardless, the description said it could "withstand extreme tension without breaking," so maybe it could be used as a rope if needed?

When he walked out of the bathroom, the hallway was already empty. The new students had been picked up by their parents or were heading home in groups. Takuma walked out of the school gate alone, the sunlight somewhat blinding.

The first day of school. The first gathering of Team 7 was complete, he had earned a draw, and the prize was Hulk's leg hair. The gap between Wolverine's healing factor and Hulk's leg hair made him deeply realize just how outrageous the upper and lower limits of this system's draws were.

Takuma slung his bag over his shoulder and walked toward the bookstore.

From a distance, he saw Tenten squatting at the door, counting inventory. She had a lollipop in her mouth and a ledger in her hand, her expression as serious as a little adult.

Seeing him approach, Tenten looked up and shouted, "Hey, bookstore kid, where are those ninja tool books you said you'd find?"

"...I haven't even stepped inside my house yet."

"Then hurry up and go find them, I'm waiting." Tenten was a bit unreasonable but sounded confident.

Takuma waved his hand helplessly and pushed open the bookstore door. There were no customers in the shop. His father was sitting behind the counter flipping through an old book. Seeing him return, he looked up and asked, "How was school?"

"It's alright." Takuma thought for a moment and added, "I was assigned to the class taught by Iruka-sensei."

Mori Kazuki nodded and didn't ask further. He closed the book and watched his son's back as he walked up the stairs, a trace of complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

Takuma returned to the study and began rummaging through the dusty old ninja tool books on the shelf.

At least the ninja tool books were genuinely useful.

As for the leg hair, he'd deal with that later.