Before long, an ordinary-looking young man walked into the classroom from outside. As soon as he entered, he scanned the forty-odd students in the class and nodded with satisfaction.
Under the unified gaze of the students, he calmly walked to the front of the podium and began to introduce himself to the students:
"First, I want to congratulate you on passing the test and becoming a student of the Ninja Academy. I am Fujimura Taiga, and I will be your homeroom teacher until you graduate. I am twenty-three years old, a Chūnin in the village. My hobbies are walking and journaling, and my dream is to educate outstanding students."
Shiraishi knew that the first part would definitely be the self-introduction segment.
But that was fine; it was a good opportunity to gather information, and perhaps there would be an unexpected surprise later.
The students at the front quickly finished their self-introductions, with various and interesting hobbies and dreams.
However, thinking about the unstable future of these children, Shiraishi sighed inwardly.
But then he remembered that he was also just a little kid himself, which made him feel depressed.
Before considering others, he should first ensure his own survival.
This terrible ninja era.
If Konoha Village, known as the leader of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, was like this, how much better could the other villages be?
And in Konoha Village, with his already fixed way of thinking, it was impossible for him to change anything.
The Will of Fire, after nearly thirty years of nurturing and cultivation in this village, had become deeply ingrained.
Was the Will of Fire passed down by the First Hokage necessarily correct?
Perhaps it was correct at first, but times are always changing with each passing day.
Shiraishi really wanted to say to Konoha's higher-ups—"Sirs, times have changed."
The Will of Fire no longer suited this era.
He probably would disappear without a trace after saying that.
"I am Hyuga Ayane. For now, there's nothing I dislike. My favorite thing is soaking in hot springs, and my future dream is to become an amazing kunoichi."
The graceful and serene girl, like a Yamato Nadeshiko, stood up next to Shiraishi and introduced herself with a smile to everyone in the class.
After receiving enthusiastic applause from the others, she quietly sat down.
It was Shiraishi's turn, and he naturally stood up from his seat.
"Hello everyone, I am Chiba Shiraishi. My hobby is reading, and my future dream is to become a doctor."
In his previous life, Shiraishi was a highly capable and experienced physician. His knowledge of medical principles was extensive, he was familiar with many medical instruments, and he had performed numerous surgeries, accumulating a wealth of experience.
According to his prior understanding, ninjas were divided into various types, including medical ninjas, a support-healer-type profession.
If he aimed to be a medical ninja, Shiraishi was confident he could excel in that field.
However, to avoid drawing too much attention, it would be necessary to appear ordinary at the time.
Moreover, Shiraishi was indeed very curious about the medical ninja profession.
The Ninja Academy also had specialized medical ninja training courses, but very few people enrolled in them. Compared to the dazzling variety of ninjutsu, the process of studying medicine was undoubtedly dry and boring. Generally speaking, during the Ninja Academy period, if one-tenth of the students studied medical ninjutsu, that would be a very high proportion.
In fact, during the Ninja Academy period, over ninety-five percent of students had no interest in medical ninjutsu.
Being immature, they couldn't yet understand why such boring and tedious courses existed in the school.
Shiraishi's introduction was very ordinary, and among the entire class, he was the inconspicuous one, naturally not attracting too much attention.
"My name is Uchiha Ruri. I have no interest in any of you, and I don't plan to share my dreams or interests with weaklings. Don't bother me if you have nothing to do, and don't bother me if you do. If you can manage that, I'll consider you my classmates."
Lightly pushing aside the hair by her ear, the girl on the other side stood up and introduced herself with a cold and arrogant tone, her eyes utterly ruthless.
However, due to her extremely arrogant manner, she immediately offended most of the class.
"What's her deal? Acting so arrogant just because she's cute, how annoying..."
"Who would want to play with an unsociable person like her? So full of herself."
"Uchiha people are really annoying."
...Whispers immediately broke out in the classroom, all expressing dissatisfaction and hostility towards Ruri.
With a soft hmph, Ruri sat down, still aloof and arrogant. Even though she had instantly become the class's public enemy, she seemed intent on doing as she pleased.
Having such a standout deskmate feels like trouble. I hope it doesn't attract too much attention. Shiraishi scratched his head in distress.
◎
Two months passed.
Shiraishi gradually accepted the unavoidable fact that he was in the lair of an incredibly dangerous terrorist organization.
Fortunately, his 'heresy' was not only well hidden, with no one detecting anything amiss, but he was also slowly getting stronger by leveraging his identity at the Ninja Academy.
Aside from some pyramid scheme-like books about the 'Will of Fire,' the teaching content at the Ninja Academy still contained a lot of practical knowledge.
Shuriken throwing techniques, chakra refinement and application, etc., Shiraishi had already initially mastered.
However, in practical classes, Shiraishi didn't perform too outstandingly, achieving only a mediocre average score. He wasn't a so-called dead last, nor did he rank among the top students, being called 'someone else's child.'
Therefore, Shiraishi's popularity was quite good; he could converse normally with both male and female classmates.
Although playing some ninja games with these people was childish, it was unavoidable to avoid standing out, so he treated it as relaxation after training.
However, this meant Shiraishi had to burn the midnight oil, poring over medical-related books borrowed from the school library.
As a doctor in his previous life, Shiraishi understood the importance of this profession too well.
Although ninjas in this world possessed supernatural powers, they were ultimately flesh and blood. Flesh and blood bodies get sick and get injured, so medical ninjas are absolutely not a superfluous and useless profession.
If he could protect himself as a medical ninja in the future, he could better hide himself within Konoha Village and look for a suitable opportunity to escape from there.
But before that, he had to use Konoha Village's power to strengthen himself, and also use Konoha Village's intelligence network to gain a deeper understanding of the ninja world.
Therefore, Shiraishi believed he would have to stay in Konoha Village for at least ten more years, and only after gaining the ability to protect himself would he consider leaving Konoha.
During the day, he absorbed knowledge at the Ninja Academy, and from 4 PM to 9 PM, he underwent various training sessions.
After that, he returned home to read medical books until 12 AM.
Living at this pace, although tiring, encountering a mysterious and unknown field also excited Shiraishi and filled him with a desire for exploration.