Aokiji Pays Attention in Class

By the time Aokiji returned to Konoha, dawn had broken. He had also racked up a mountain of debt, and he cursed under his breath, condemning the penguin's heartless business practices.

Dragging his overwhelming drowsiness along, he went to school, collapsed onto his desk, and fell asleep. Drool pooled all over the place. His classmates were long used to his behavior; the class's "Sleeping King" title was no exaggeration.

"Hey, wake up..."

At some point, Aokiji vaguely felt someone shaking him. He opened his bleary eyes and found that it was his deskmate.

"What is it? School's over?"

His deskmate was speechless. "Did you forget? An invited Jonin is giving a lecture today. Everyone left early."

If they were not deskmates, he would not have bothered with Aokiji at all.

"Oh~ I remember now." Aokiji rubbed his eyes. "Thanks."

The Ninja Academy occasionally invited Jonin to lecture the students. It was somewhat like prestigious schools inviting celebrities in his previous life, all meant to inspire the students.

Aokiji followed his deskmate to the designated classroom. All the students were there, but the teacher had not arrived yet. It seemed he had come at just the right time.

Aokiji casually found a seat and considered whether to continue daydreaming.

After being woken up by his classmate, he was no longer that sleepy and could not fall asleep for the moment. After a while, the lecturer arrived: a dignified woman with a ponytail.

Her name was Biwako, and she was a Medical Ninja. After a brief introduction, she unrolled a scroll covered in inscribed mantras. With her palms overlapped, a soft green glow emanated from them. Before long, the fish lying flat on the table began flopping around energetically, drawing repeated praise from the students below. But when she asked who was interested in Medical Ninjutsu, the room instantly fell silent.

Biwako sighed helplessly and followed the procedure, explaining matters related to Medical Ninjas. The students below were drowsy and utterly uninterested.

These days, even children knew that Medical Ninjas had no future.

Some parents even warned their children that if they did not study hard, they would only be able to become Medical Ninjas—mere support.

If Medical Ninjas received even a little respect, they would not be treated this way.

But do not think becoming a Medical Ninja was easy. On the contrary, the requirements were extremely demanding.

Not only did one need precise chakra control, but one also needed a vast amount of specialized knowledge. Both talent and hard work were indispensable, and training a qualified Medical Ninja took a long time.

So here was the question: if I have that kind of ability,

why would I become support?

Wasn't being an ADC better? Spending so much time on Medical Ninjutsu would inevitably slow one down in other areas. Ninjutsu was all-encompassing, and based on their specialties, ninja were subdivided into Taijutsu Ninja, Genjutsu Ninja, Sensor Ninja, and so on.

Among them, Medical Ninjas were publicly acknowledged as the weakest "ninja type."

The effort required was immense, while the rewards were disproportionate. Naturally, no one wanted to become a Medical Ninja.

Yet awkwardly enough, Medical Ninjas were indispensable on the battlefield.

Speed was paramount in war. On the surface, the great nations had barely more than ten thousand ninja at most. There were only so many people; every death meant one fewer. How to quickly get injured ninja back into battle after a fight was especially important.

Ordinary doctors treated injuries far too slowly. By the time they finished healing someone, everyone else would already be dead.

They were nowhere near as convenient or fast as a Medical Ninja's Medical Ninjutsu.

Aside from Ninja Clans that had the resources to specifically train Medical Ninjas for their own families, talented Common Ninja generally would not consider becoming Medical Ninjas.

A strong fist worked better than anything else. If someone had talent, who would willingly settle for being a supporting role?

Unless they had an intense interest in Medical Ninjutsu.

But was that even possible?

That was simply the environment now. The vast majority of children hoped to go to war and fight rather than huddle in the rear and play support.

Under orders from the higher-ups, Biwako had come to the Ninja Academy, hoping to start with the children, cultivate their interest, and find a few talented students to train.

But from what she could see so far, everyone seemed wholly uninterested in becoming Medical Ninjas.

Just as Biwako thought she would return empty-handed this time, she suddenly realized that was not entirely true. One student in the room was listening very seriously, standing in stark contrast to the other sleepy students.

She asked the boy several questions, and he answered every one smoothly. He clearly had some talent and had genuinely been paying attention in class.

"What is your name?"

"Uchiha Aokiji."

Biwako froze. He was actually a child of the Uchiha Clan, and he was interested in Medical Ninjutsu too. That was beyond rare—it was practically unheard of.

Everyone knew that the Uchiha Clan possessed unparalleled talent for battle.

In truth, if this clan became Medical Ninjas, they probably would not be bad at it either. With a pair of Sharingan, the difficulty of performing surgery would likely drop dramatically.

But Uchiha Clan members with Sharingan were all passionate about combat. Researching Medical Ninjutsu was practically neglecting their proper duties. Even if someone personally wanted to do it, the clan would likely stop them.

She silently memorized his name.

Not long afterward, class ended. Once Biwako left the classroom, the surrounding students could no longer resist crowding around him. One of them said strangely, "Did the sun rise in the west? It would be one thing if you didn't sleep in class, but you actually listened seriously."

After saying that, the student did not forget to put a hand on Aokiji's forehead to check his temperature, joking, "No fever, huh."

Aokiji slapped the hand away. "What? Can't I occasionally feel like putting in some effort?"

"Uh, it's not that you can't, but why are you interested in the most hopeless field, Medical Ninjutsu?"

Of course it was to pick up girls.

If he wanted to win over a girl, there was nothing wrong with starting with her hobbies and interests. At the very least, they would have something in common to talk about.

Tsunade had not yet become a Medical Ninja, but she definitely would in the future. Aokiji was making preparations in advance. They could have more in-depth discussions about work. Ever since Tsunade graduated, he had been in touch with her much less. At this rate, they would soon become people from two different worlds.

So Aokiji wanted to become a Medical Ninja. If they had overlap in their work, it would be easier to get close to her.

Once Tsunade became a Medical Ninja, people would inevitably find it suspicious if an Uchiha Clan member like him suddenly became one too.

Besides, Aokiji was not confident that he would be able to avoid becoming a ninja in the future.

The Uchiha Clan might not allow him to fail to graduate and refuse to become a ninja. The Uchiha Clan was one of the foremost Ninja Clans in the Ninja World. If the clan produced a useless person who could not even graduate from the Ninja Academy, they would not be able to bear that humiliation.

Besides, in everyone else's eyes, Aokiji's poor grades were only because he was lazy. Given his talent, if they dragged him off for some intense tutoring, as long as he did not genuinely refuse to become a ninja, passing the graduation exam would definitely not be a problem.

Aokiji was preparing for a rainy day. Even if he had the misfortune of graduating in the future, he could at least become a Medical Ninja and quietly develop through his growth period.

Aokiji said calmly, "It's nothing. You all know my personality. I'm rather afraid of dying, and I have no interest in becoming a ninja, going to the battlefield, and serving as cannon fodder. But I'm ridiculously talented, and the clan behind me won't let me drop out. I just heard Teacher Biwako say that Medical Ninjas apparently don't need to go to the battlefield and seem to have a high survival rate, so I want to try becoming some kind of Medical Ninja."

At this point, Aokiji put both hands on his hips, lowered his head, and sighed helplessly. "All I can say is, it's very unfortunate..."

"You bastard..."

The students around him gritted their teeth, suppressing every cell in their bodies that wanted to beat him up. It was not because they cared about friendship between classmates; they simply could not beat him.

"Hmph, Aokiji, don't think you're so great just because you have talent."

"Sorry, but having talent means you can do whatever you want. Even if I sleep in class all day and go home to play, my grades are still among the best. I'm better than all of you."

You would never know how hard a classmate who claimed to go home and play actually worked after getting home.

Aokiji had understood that trick long ago during his school days.

"Keep falling like this, then. One day, we'll definitely defeat you and beat you until you're crawling all over the ground! Just like the teacher said, talent is important, but compared to talent, hard work is what matters most.

"Talent only determines your starting point, but hard work determines a person's final achievements."

Aokiji: ...

One look was enough to tell that this kid had been thoroughly fooled by the teacher.

He did not know about other worlds, but in Naruto, sorry, bloodlines really were overpowered.

People often said that a mother gained honor through her son.

But that saying was wrong. It should be that a son gained honor through his mother. Only if the source you were born from was extraordinary could you possibly be extraordinary too.

Aokiji had no intention of mocking this student. Hard work was certainly worthy of respect, but countless cruel realities lay before them: talent truly was more important than effort.

Even hard work itself was an extremely rare talent.

Did they really think working hard was so easy? Only those who had truly worked hard knew how difficult it was.

Even Aokiji sometimes could not resist slacking off under the excuse of balancing work and rest, reading a little... novel to relax.

"Then work hard, all of you. Sigh~ Ever since Orochimaru graduated, I have realized that I am always lonely. It is as though I stand in a high place, with no one to speak to. The lonely bitter winter makes me shiver. What exactly do I seek from such heights?"

Everyone: ...

Aokiji suddenly showed off, thinking that maintaining the persona of a fallen genius was really troublesome.

He really wanted to just become a good-for-nothing.

But if his strength suddenly skyrocketed one day, people would inevitably suspect that he had been hiding his strength all along and was some scheming guy.

Biwako headed straight to the office. When the teacher seated in a chair saw her arrive, he stood up and stepped forward to welcome her. "Jonin Biwako, how did it go?"

Biwako shook her head. "The students do not seem very interested in becoming Medical Ninjas."

The teacher sighed softly. There was nothing to be done about it; that was simply the current situation.

If it were him, he probably would not want to become a Medical Ninja either.

Biwako smiled. "Not entirely. One student listened very seriously in class. That gave me some comfort."

The teacher was slightly surprised. A student was actually interested in Medical Ninjutsu? It was truly rare. He could not help asking, "What is his name? I should praise him properly in class next time."

"Uchiha Aokiji."

For a moment, the teacher thought there was something wrong with his ears. Aokiji, who slept in class all day and always did whatever he wanted, had actually listened seriously during a lecture?

Biwako had a good first impression of Aokiji, and with that preconceived notion, she continued on her own. "He listened so seriously even to a medical course that normally receives no respect. I imagine he must be the most attentive student in your class."

(￣_,￣) "Uh... what's with that expression?"

The teacher waved both hands outward, his expression strange. "From what I know of Aokiji, he is someone who hardly ever listens in class and sleeps all day."

Biwako found it hard to believe. "No way."

"Words alone are no proof; seeing is believing. If you don't believe me, you can stand outside the window during his next class and observe for yourself."