The introductions continued, one student after another stepping forward to share their names and dreams. The classroom had settled into a rhythm—nervous anticipation, the shuffle of feet approaching the front, the announcement of identity, the return to one's seat. Each child brought their own flavor to the moment, some confident, others shy, all of them taking their first real step into the world of shinobi.
Then it was Naruto's turn.
He stood up so quickly his chair scraped backward with a loud screech that made several students jump. His bright orange jacket seemed even more vibrant under the classroom's lighting as he strode to the front with complete confidence, his head held high and a grin already forming on his face. He'd been waiting for this moment, rehearsing it in his mind while watching the others introduce themselves.
"My name is Naruto Sarutobi!" he announced loudly, his voice carrying to every corner of the room with an enthusiasm that was impossible to ignore.
The effect was immediate. Iruka's gaze, which had been maintaining a steady, professional interest in each student, suddenly sharpened when it landed on Naruto. For just a fraction of a second—so brief that most of the children wouldn't have noticed—something complex flickered across the instructor's face. It was a mixture of emotions so tangled they were almost impossible to separate: anger that seemed to come from somewhere deep and old, pity that softened his eyes, and something that might have been disgust or perhaps fear, all warring for dominance in his expression.
His jaw clenched slightly. His fingers tightened around the attendance scroll he was holding. The scar across his nose seemed more pronounced as his face tensed.
But Iruka was a trained shinobi, someone who'd learned to control his reactions in far more dangerous situations than a classroom full of six-year-olds. Within a heartbeat, he'd smoothed his expression back to neutrality, his professional mask sliding firmly into place. He nodded at Naruto with the same measured attention he'd given every other student, though those who knew what to look for might have noticed his breathing was slightly more controlled, more deliberate.
The students, however, had caught something else entirely. A ripple of whispers swept through the classroom like wind through grass.
"Sarutobi?" someone murmured from the back.
"Wait, isn't that—"
"Like the Hokage's surname!"
One boy, braver or perhaps simply more curious than the others, spoke up loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Sarutobi... like Lord Hokage's surname, right? Are you the Lord Hokage's grandson then?"
The murmuring intensified. Suddenly, every eye in the classroom was fixed on Naruto with renewed interest. The energy in the room shifted palpably. This wasn't just another student—this was someone connected to the most important person in the village. Some students leaned forward in their seats, eager to hear the answer. Others whispered excitedly to their neighbors.
Shikamaru, predictably, looked utterly unbothered, his head still resting on his desk as if the revelation was too troublesome to care about. Choji continued eating his chips, though even he glanced up briefly with mild interest.
But Rock Lee's eyes had gone impossibly wide, practically sparkling with excitement. His entire body seemed to vibrate with renewed energy at this revelation. Sakura sat up straighter, her expression shifting from casual interest to keen attention. Several other students wore similar expressions—awe, curiosity, perhaps a touch of envy.
Naruto's grin somehow managed to grow even wider. This was it. This was his moment. "Yes!" he declared proudly, his chest puffing out. "He is my grandfather!"
The classroom erupted in fresh whispers. Naruto let them continue for just a moment, savoring the attention, then raised his voice again to make his most important announcement.
"And I'm going to become the Hokage one day too!" His hand came up in an enthusiastic thumbs-up gesture, his smile so bright and confident it seemed to fill the entire front of the classroom. "Just like my grandfather! Believe it!"
Some students looked impressed. Others skeptical. A few smiled at his enthusiasm. But regardless of their reactions, every single one of them would remember this moment—the blonde boy in orange declaring his impossible dream with absolute certainty, as if it were already an accomplished fact rather than a distant ambition.
Naruto held his pose for just a second longer, making sure everyone had absorbed his declaration, then bounded back to his seat with the same energy he'd approached with. His heart was racing with excitement and satisfaction. They knew now. They all knew who he was and what he intended to become.
The introductions continued. Several more students went up, though it was hard to match the impact of Naruto's announcement. A quiet girl named Ami who barely spoke above a whisper. A boy named Ryo who mentioned his family's weapons business. Each one added another piece to the puzzle of their class's composition.
Then a small, shy figure stood up. Hinata Hyūga moved toward the front of the classroom with careful, hesitant steps, her hands clasped nervously in front of her. Her pale lavender eyes swept across the sea of faces watching her, and immediately she felt her courage beginning to waver. So many eyes. So much attention. Her shoulders hunched slightly, and her voice caught in her throat before she could even begin.
She was feeling overwhelmed, her nervousness threatening to paralyze her completely, when her gaze accidentally landed on Naruto. He was sitting at his desk, and the moment their eyes met, his entire face lit up with recognition and warmth. Without hesitation, he flashed her a huge smile and threw up an enthusiastic thumbs-up, the same gesture he'd used for the entire class just moments before.
But somehow, when directed at her specifically, it felt different. Personal. Encouraging.
Hinata felt her cheeks flush pink, warmth spreading across her face. Her heart did a strange little skip. But something about that simple gesture—that genuine, uncomplicated support from the boy who'd saved her from bullies just yesterday—gave her the courage she needed. She straightened slightly, her hands unclenching a little, and took a small breath.
"M-my name is Hinata Hyūga," she managed, her voice soft but audible. It wasn't loud, it wasn't confident, but she'd done it. She'd introduced herself despite her nervousness.
A few more students went after her, and then came the last introduction of the day. A boy with dark hair and eyes that seemed almost black stood up with an air of cool indifference. His movements were precise, controlled, and there was something in his bearing that suggested he was already more mature than his six years.
"Sasuke Uchiha," he said simply, offering nothing more—no dreams, no hobbies, no elaboration. Just his name, delivered with an aloofness that immediately set him apart from every other student who'd stood at the front of the class.
The reaction to his surname was almost as pronounced as the reaction to Naruto's had been, though for different reasons. The Uchiha clan was legendary, and whispers of recognition swept through the students who understood the significance.
Finally, the introductions concluded. Iruka glanced at the clock and seemed surprised at how much time had passed. "Well," he said, his voice carrying a note of pleased surprise, "that took longer than I expected, but it was important. You all did well." He moved to the blackboard. "It's now lunchtime. We have an hour break. You can eat anywhere on the Academy grounds—the classroom, the courtyard, the gardens. After lunch, we'll reconvene for your first actual lesson on chakra theory."
The word "lunch" created an immediate stir. Children began reaching for bags and lunch boxes with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The formal structure of the classroom dissolved as students stood, stretched, and began migrating toward different areas.
Iruka dismissed them with a wave, and suddenly the room was full of movement and chatter as nearly thirty six-year-olds decided where and with whom they wanted to eat their first meal as Academy students.
The courtyard-like garden area in front of their classroom building quickly became the popular choice. It had benches, shaded areas under trees, and open grass where students could spread out. Within minutes, the space was dotted with small groups of children unpacking their lunches.
Some students had naturally gravitated toward each other—kids who'd apparently already known each other before today, perhaps from their neighborhoods or clan connections. Small clusters formed, two or three children sitting close together, already comfortable with each other. Others sat alone, either by choice or because they hadn't yet figured out how to bridge the gap toward friendship.
Naruto grabbed his lunch box—carefully packed by the Sarutobi household staff that morning—and looked around eagerly. This was it. This was where he'd start making friends. All these kids, all these potential comrades. He just needed to find the right group to approach.
That's when he heard raised voices coming from near a cluster of benches.
"I'm telling you, this is my sister's spot! She sat here when she was a student, and now it's mine!" The voice was loud, aggressive, and accompanied by a small yapping sound.
Naruto's curiosity pulled him toward the commotion like a magnet. As he got closer, he could see Kiba Inuzuka—the boy with the puppy—standing with his arms crossed, glaring at Shino Aburame, who sat calmly on a bench, methodically unpacking his lunch as if nothing unusual was happening.
"Your claim has no logical basis," Shino replied in his characteristic monotone, not even looking up. "The benches are communal property. First arrival establishes temporary occupancy rights."
"I don't care about your fancy words!" Kiba shot back, his face flushing with frustration. "That's my spot! My sister's spot! It's tradition!"
Akamaru, the small white puppy perched on Kiba's head, yapped loudly in support of his master, his tiny barks adding to the noise.
Shino remained completely unaffected, opening his lunch container with careful precision. "Your emotional attachment does not override established seating protocols."
Across from them, occupying another spot at the same bench cluster, sat Hinata. She looked deeply uncomfortable with the argument happening so close to her, her shoulders hunched and her eyes darting between Kiba and Shino with visible distress.
Kiba, sensing an ally, suddenly turned to her. "Hinata! You're a Hyūga, right? Tell him about respecting traditions! Tell him he should give up the seat!"
Hinata's eyes widened in panic at being dragged into the confrontation. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. "I... I don't... um..." Her voice was barely audible, her discomfort palpable. She clearly wanted nothing to do with this argument.
Just two seats to the left of the commotion, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi had claimed a bench. Shikamaru was lying on his back, hands behind his head, attempting to watch clouds despite the noise. Choji sat beside him, methodically working through what appeared to be an enormous lunch, his chips from earlier replaced with rice balls and other foods.
The argument grew louder, and Shikamaru's expression shifted from peaceful to annoyed. He let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Ahh... what a drag." His voice carried clearly despite its lazy tone. "Why are you even fighting over a seat? Just sit here. Two spots are vacant. No one's sitting there, right?"
Choji nodded without stopping his chewing, his cheeks bulging with food. "Yeah," he managed around his mouthful, "just sit and eat." He swallowed, then looked at Kiba with genuine interest. "By the way, what did you bring for lunch?"
Across the courtyard, at another bench, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka sat together. They'd apparently known each other before today and had immediately paired off. They watched the boys' argument with matching expressions of exasperation.
"These boys don't have anything better to do," Sakura said, shaking her head. "They just want to fight, making up all kinds of reasons and excuses for it."
"Right?" Ino agreed, rolling her eyes. "Can't they just sit and eat peacefully? We've been here less than a day and they're already causing problems."
Naruto, watching all this unfold from a short distance away, couldn't help but chuckle. These kids were interesting. All of them so different—the argumentative Kiba, the logical Shino, the practical Shikamaru, the food-focused Choji, the exasperated girls. This was going to be fun.
He spotted an empty seat beside Ino and Sakura and made his way over, settling down and placing his lunch box on the table with deliberate loudness to announce his presence. The girls glanced at him, Ino raising an eyebrow at his sudden appearance.
Naruto grinned at them, then suddenly straightened up and pointed toward the Academy building. "Ah! Iruka-sensei is here!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The effect was instantaneous and spectacular. Every single student in the courtyard froze. Kiba's argument died mid-sentence. Choji's hand stopped halfway to his mouth. Even Shikamaru lifted his head slightly. Heads swiveled frantically, eyes searching for their instructor.
"Where?"
"I don't see him!"
"Is he checking on us?"
The panic was brief but total, every child suddenly worried they were doing something wrong on their very first day. Eyes scanned the building, the pathways, the doorways, searching desperately for any sign of their teacher.
But there was no one. The courtyard remained empty of adults.
Slowly, confused, all those eyes turned back to Naruto, who sat there with an innocent expression that was betrayed by the mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Ah, my bad," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I was daydreaming. Must've imagined it."
Ino's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Hey! Why are you shouting in my ear all of a sudden?!" She smacked his shoulder, not hard enough to hurt but enough to express her annoyance.
Choji looked genuinely distressed. "Yeah! I almost dropped my chips earlier because of a scare like that! Don't do it with my rice balls!"
A chorus of complaints rose from the other students, expressing varying degrees of irritation at being fooled. But underneath the complaints, several of them were trying not to smile. It had been kind of funny, seeing everyone panic over nothing.
Kiba, however, wasn't amused at all. He stomped over to Naruto, Akamaru bouncing on his head with each aggressive step. "That's not funny! You scared Akamaru!" The puppy barked as if in agreement, though he didn't look particularly scared. "You think you can just mess with people like that?"
Naruto looked up at Kiba, his grin unrepentant. "I was just joking! Lighten up!"
"Lighten up?!" Kiba's hands clenched into fists. "Even if you're the Hokage's grandson, I'm not going to be scared of you! I challenge you to a fight!"
The courtyard went quiet again, but this time with anticipation rather than panic. A challenge on the first day? This was interesting.
Naruto stood up slowly, meeting Kiba's glare with calm confidence. "If I fight you," he said carefully, "will you stop arguing about the seat with Shino and just take one of the other spots?"
Kiba's confidence didn't waver. "Yeah! If you win!" The implication was clear—he didn't expect to lose.
Within minutes, a circle had been drawn in the dirt using a stick—roughly three meters in diameter. The rules were simple and had apparently been established by the students themselves through some kind of collective understanding: both fighters stay inside the circle, and the first person to be forced out loses. They could push, hit, kick—whatever it took to force their opponent outside the boundary.
The other students had quickly gathered around, forming a ring of spectators. Even Shikamaru had bothered to sit up to watch. This was entertainment, after all, and far more interesting than a peaceful lunch.
Kiba rolled his shoulders, bouncing on his toes, his expression fierce and confident. He came from the Inuzuka clan, known for their partnership with ninja dogs and their feral, aggressive fighting style. Even at six, his instincts were sharp, his movements quick. He was probably one of the most naturally athletic kids in their class.
What Kiba didn't know—what none of them except maybe Hinata suspected—was that Naruto had spent the last month training every single evening with Asuma Sarutobi, a jōnin-level close-combat specialist who believed in discipline, repetition, and harsh correction. Those hours of flexibility training, resistance exercises, and basic taijutsu drills had built foundations that most Academy students wouldn't develop for months or even years.
"Ready?" someone called out—it might have been Rock Lee, who looked absolutely thrilled by this development.
Both boys nodded.
"Fight!"
Kiba moved first, charging forward with a wild punch aimed at Naruto's face. It was fast, powered by natural athleticism and aggressive confidence.
Naruto's body reacted before his mind fully processed the attack, muscle memory from countless repetitions taking over. He swayed left, the punch missing by inches. Kiba followed up immediately with another punch, then a third, each one thrown with conviction.
But none of them landed. Naruto dodged right, ducked under, stepped back, his movements economical and controlled. Asuma's voice echoed in his mind: "Don't waste energy. Don't move more than necessary. Dodge by an inch, not a mile."
Kiba's frustration mounted with each miss. He tried switching tactics, attempting a kick aimed at Naruto's legs. Naruto hopped over it. Another punch combination—dodged again.
The watching students murmured in surprise. The Hokage's grandson could actually fight.
Kiba, breathing harder now and getting desperate, decided on a more direct approach. He lowered his shoulder and charged straight at Naruto, planning to use his body weight and momentum to simply bull-rush his opponent out of the circle.
It was exactly the kind of straightforward, predictable attack that Asuma had drilled Naruto on how to counter.
As Kiba closed the distance, fully committed to his charge, Naruto planted his feet and waited. At the last possible second, he jumped—not backward or to the side, but up. His hands pressed down on Kiba's incoming shoulders, using them as a vault point, and suddenly Naruto was airborne, flipping over Kiba's head entirely.
But the technique didn't end there. As he vaulted, Naruto pushed down and forward, adding force to Kiba's existing momentum. The boy had been charging at full speed; now he was charging at full speed plus the additional force from Naruto's push.
Unable to stop or control his trajectory, Kiba stumbled forward. His feet scrambled for purchase, his arms windmilled frantically, but physics was unforgiving. He crossed the circle's boundary and tumbled into the grass beyond it.
Silence, then eruption.
"Whoa!"
"Did you see that?!"
"He jumped right over him!"
Naruto landed lightly inside the circle, barely winded. He walked over to where Kiba was sitting in the grass looking stunned and offered his hand. "Good fight."
Kiba stared at the offered hand for a long moment, his pride clearly warring with his shock. Finally, his stubbornness won out, and he batted the hand away, climbing to his feet on his own. "I don't need your help," he muttered.
But then he looked Naruto straight in the eye, and despite his defeat, there was a fire burning there. "You got lucky this time," he declared loudly. "But I'm going to beat you next time! You're my rival now, Naruto! I'm going to train and train and then beat you! Just watch!"
Naruto grinned. "Sure! I'll be waiting!"
A few tables away, sitting slightly apart from the main crowd, Sasuke Uchiha had watched the entire exchange while methodically eating his lunch. His expression remained neutral, almost bored, but his dark eyes had tracked every movement of the fight with sharp attention.
A small smile flickered across his lips, there and gone so quickly it might have been imagined. Interesting, he thought, taking another bite of his rice ball. The Hokage's grandson had some skill. Not impressive by any real standard—they were both still just Academy students after all, barely better than civilians. But compared to the other kids in their class, it was noteworthy.
The blonde idiot's movements had been too practiced, too refined for someone who'd never trained. Someone had been teaching him properly. And that flip—crude, but the basic mechanics had been sound.
Sasuke filed the information away and returned his attention to his lunch. It didn't really matter. None of these kids mattered. They were all so far beneath where he needed to be.
But still... it might not be completely boring here after all.
The lunch period continued, the excitement of the fight gradually fading as students returned to their meals and conversations. Naruto found himself surrounded by curious classmates asking questions about the fight, about his grandfather, about everything. Kiba sulked briefly before apparently deciding that having a rival was actually pretty cool and joining the conversation with renewed energy.
The first day at the Academy was proving to be everything Naruto had hoped for and more—exciting, challenging, and full of potential friendships waiting to be formed.