River smiled faintly at the curious faces of the children before him and continued.
"I'll be teaching you how to extract chakra, sharing combat experience, and covering some basic ninjutsu theory."
He paused.
"Of course, if you have any other problems or difficulties in your daily lives, you can come to me for help."
As River finished, applause broke out among the students. Naruto was so excited that he clapped both his hands red.
"Now, I'd like each of you to introduce yourselves."
"I've only just arrived, so I don't know you yet."
The children were all attentive and well-behaved. Konoha's children, raised in wartime, were more mature than others their age.
"My name is Choji Akimichi."
"Ino."
"Sasuke Uchiha!"
"Shikamaru Nara!"
"Rock Lee!"
"You can call me Kiba, Teacher!"
"M-my name is Hinata."
"..."
As the children introduced themselves, River matched each little face to a name.
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
"My dream is to become a ninja as strong as my uncle!"
Soon, Naruto's booming voice rang out.
River smiled, unwilling to let his enthusiasm go unanswered, and motioned for him to settle down. "Then you'll have to work even harder, Naruto!"
"Iruka told me you haven't been doing particularly well in any of your classes."
Naruto's face immediately flushed. "I-I-I!"
Sasuke rubbed salt in the wound. "He's the dead last."
Exposed, Naruto glared at Sasuke, then lowered his head in embarrassment, unable to look at the uncle he respected so deeply.
Uncle must be disappointed to hear that I'm at the bottom of the class.
But a gentle voice soon reached him.
"Falling behind for a while only sets the stage for catching up later."
"You all need to understand that a moment of success is no reason to get conceited, and a moment of failure is no reason