Classmates

Year 17 of Konoha.

Ninja Academy, Class 1-A.

The first day of school.

Aokiji, only five years old, lay listlessly on his desk, yawning as though he desperately wanted to sleep. Yet beneath his drooping eyelids, his gaze remained fixed on the girl sitting closest to the podium.

I'm going to marry this girl someday.

Rubbing his chin with his fingertips, he silently made up his mind.

Although this had happened rather suddenly.

He felt it was necessary to explain.

This wasn't puppy love. This was loli... for the sake of the clan.

"I've finished introducing myself. Now it's your turn. Who wants to go first?"

After saying this, the middle-aged teacher, who looked to be around thirty, swept his gaze around the room.

The students looked at one another, unsure what to do.

But that was only natural. They were all strangers to each other, so of course they were too embarrassed to introduce themselves and talk about their dreams in front of everyone.

Perhaps understanding that, the teacher stopped waiting after receiving no response. He immediately began calling on students to break the deadlock.

Just then, a crisp voice, clear as silver bells, rang out.

"Teacher, let me go first."

At those words, everyone in the classroom turned toward the speaker. She was a girl with golden hair, brown eyes, a round moonlike face, and delicate, doll-like features.

The teacher revealed an approving expression, thinking that she truly was that great man's granddaughter.

Under everyone's gaze, the girl slowly stepped onto the podium and introduced herself. "My name is Tsunade. My dream is to become a Hokage like my grandfather someday and protect the village."

That statement contained a great deal of information. Some of the students caught on and began whispering among themselves.

"Then does that mean Lord Hokage is your..."

One student could not help asking.

Tsunade wore a proud expression and answered without hesitation, "That's right. The First Hokage is my grandfather."

The classroom instantly erupted. The First Hokage was the God of Shinobi who had pacified the chaotic era. His position in Konoha was immensely important.

After Tsunade returned to her seat, she was swiftly welcomed with the enthusiasm reserved for a princess.

"Tsunade's dream is wonderful. You should all learn from her in the future."

The teacher raised his voice, suppressing the restless students below.

With Tsunade taking the lead, the other students became more proactive as well. No longer so reserved, they began going up to introduce themselves as the teacher called on them one by one, starting from Tsunade's seat.

After several rounds, it was finally Aokiji's turn to go up.

"My name is Uchiha Aokiji. My dream is simple: to live like a plant."

The students below stared at him in confusion.

What did it mean to live like a plant? After pondering for a moment, the teacher smiled warmly and praised him. "That's a fine dream. Like a plant, quietly working hard every day, then someday growing into a towering tree and sheltering those around it. It shares the same spirit as the Will of Fire."

"Oh, that's not what I meant." Aokiji waved his hand. "I mean, plants don't have to do anything. They just bask in the sun all day, and sometimes live for hundreds of years. That kind of simple, unadorned life is what I yearn for."

The slap in the face came as swiftly as a Dragon Tornado, leaving the teacher completely disoriented.

The room below fell silent as well. Deathly silent.

A moment later, the classroom burst into laughter.

Put simply, wasn't that just lying flat?

The more everyone approved of Tsunade's dream, the more they sneered at Aokiji's dream of giving up.

"Um, Aokiji, that probably can't be called a dream..."

At that moment, the teacher genuinely suspected that the Uchiha in Aokiji's surname was fake.

In his impression, although Uchiha Clan children often had trouble fitting in, they were all highly ambitious. How could such an oddball appear, openly announcing that he wanted to give up the moment he stepped onstage?

Aokiji looked at him with his round eyes and asked, "Isn't not having to work an amazing dream?"

How could that possibly be amazing?!

Such an unambitious ideal—doing nothing all day, eating and sleeping—however he looked at it, it seemed... pretty great? The teacher had been about to refute him, but after thinking it through, he realized it really was fucking amazing. After all, some people struggled just to stay alive. Compared to them, wasn't Aokiji's dream simply too wonderful?

After all, the prerequisite for achieving all that was having enough money to support a life of lying flat.

"Aokiji, you may return to your seat."

Aokiji silently returned to his seat.

He had not made up that speech on the spot. It was groundwork for the lying-flat lifestyle he intended to pursue from now on.

Although he was currently living carefree at the academy, there was a war raging outside.

He had no intention of becoming too outstanding, getting dragged off to war, and becoming fertilizer for the great tree that was Konoha.

Besides, the Uchiha Clan gave people the impression of being aggressive. He had chosen to lie flat in order to create an image of harmlessness, lower others' guard, and make it easier to seize the position of Hokage in the future.

Naturally, Aokiji could not have been so calculating as a child. It was because he was an "orphan" transmigrator.

It was not as though he wanted to become Hokage because of some lofty ambition. He had no choice. Once the war ended, Konoha's upper echelon would cast aside the Uchiha Clan once they had outlived their usefulness. As someone born into the Uchiha Clan, Aokiji would inevitably be caught in the crossfire.

And the best way to prevent that was for the Uchiha Clan to produce a Hokage.

Aokiji could not count on the other members of the clan.

Every one of them was painfully straightforward. In the original story, they were clearly planning a rebellion, yet they kept shouting about it at Naka Shrine as though they were afraid people would not find out.

So he could only do it himself.

By convention, transmigrators ought to have their own unique Golden Finger. His name sounded quite intimidating, so perhaps he should have come with some sort of template. Unfortunately, apart from sharing a name with that person, he had nothing else in common with him.

Still, it was not entirely accurate to say there was no connection. His late mother possessed the Kekkei Genkai of Ice Release.

In other words, Aokiji was a promising talent with two Kekkei Genkai.

When a Kekkei Genkai awakened, a ninja's chakra would undergo a period of rapid growth. If they suffered intense emotional stimulation, their chakra could even surge dramatically on the spot, or spiral out of control.

A typical example was the young Haku from the original story. After witnessing his father kill his mother, his power went out of control. By the time he came to his senses, huge ice spikes had pierced the entire house, killing everyone on the spot.

And he was also from the Uchiha Clan, whose chakra reserves were naturally far greater than those of ordinary people.

In the original story, Kakashi had been amazed that Sasuke possessed enough chakra at the age of twelve to use the Great Fireball Jutsu. In truth, Sasuke had been able to use it at six...

With these two sources of potential, even without awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, Aokiji's chakra reserves could conservatively reach a level of 8 in Spirit.

Do not underestimate a level of 8 in Spirit. Looking across the entire world, that amount of chakra would absolutely be outstanding.

Kakashi's level 6 in Spirit was often mocked as a unit of measurement. His chakra was supposedly pitifully low, yet he still carved a dog's head onto an earth wall—and carved it lifelike, at that...

But in truth, level 6 chakra was not little at all. It only seemed that way because the people around Kakashi, or his opponents, were too monstrous.

With two Kekkei Genkai, who needed some lousy Golden Finger?

I'm the fucking Golden Finger.

But he could not be too absolute about such things, lest all his efforts come to nothing.

There were differences in the probability of inheriting different Kekkei Genkai, and possessing two at once was even more difficult. As far as he remembered, other than technological and ruthless artificial methods, there seemed to be only that woman from Hidden Mist who liked wearing fishnet stockings.

The odds of naturally producing Dual Kekkei Genkai were probably extremely low. Otherwise, there would not be so few people with them.

Not long after Aokiji finished his introduction, another classmate stepped forward to introduce himself.

Resting his chin on one hand, Aokiji studied the delicate-looking boy dressed in a kimono.

His name was Orochimaru. If Aokiji had not mistaken him, he should be that scientist from the original story.

Perhaps handsome men were always drawn to one another. After finishing his introduction, Orochimaru deliberately—or perhaps unintentionally—glanced at him.

Aokiji smiled back.

Having confirmed each other's gaze, they would need to interact more deeply and cultivate their relationship in the future.

Of course, he could not get his priorities mixed up.

He glanced sideways at a certain little blonde girl.

The Uchiha Clan truly had been cursed with terrible luck. As one of Konoha's two founding shareholders, the Uchiha Clan had always charged ahead in every Ninja World war, shedding blood and tears. Was it excessive for them to hold the reins of power once, given the strength of the entire clan?

Yet when it came time to elect the Fourth Hokage, not only had they failed to win, they had not even received a nomination. It was blatant humiliation.

Not to mention that after the Fourth Hokage died, that old Third Hokage had righteously reclaimed the position of Hokage and clung tightly to power. He had even used the Nine-Tails Attack to force the Uchiha Clan away from the village's center of power, which was effectively suppression in another form.

Do not say it was all Danzo's doing. Who knew whether those two had been acting in concert?

Saying what the leader could not say, after all...

Only a young man like Uchiha Itachi had been fooled so thoroughly.

Konoha's upper echelon had practically stopped treating the Uchiha Clan as people.

It was perfectly normal for the Uchiha Clan to want to rebel and seek fair treatment.

From this, Aokiji had already realized that for the Uchiha Clan to elect a Hokage, what mattered was not strength, nor fame, but political status.

Just look at that country across the ocean in reality. Didn't they have to stack buffs first too...?

That was also why Aokiji had designs on Tsunade.

When Senju and Uchiha Clan, two forces, became one, all things in creation could be attained...

This was the proper way to interpret the Stone Tablet passed down through the Uchiha Clan.

My ancestor, Lord Madara, you understood it wrong.

P.S. I originally wanted to call him Toshiro or Hitsugaya, but those names have three characters and don't roll off the tongue, so I changed it to Aokiji. Two characters are smoother to say. The protagonist's appearance is roughly that of a black-haired Toshiro...