On the school playground, Kizaru—already 175 centimeters tall—stood out from the crowd at the back of the freshmen line.
On the high platform in front of the field, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was giving an entrance speech to the new students.
Watching the "Will of Fire" banners flutter behind the old, middle-aged Hokage as he talked on and on, Kizaru suddenly felt that the world of Naruto wasn't that different from the Earth he'd lived on in his previous life.
Leaders' speeches were the same everywhere: the same nonsense, the same brainwashing, the same endless lecture.
The Third Hokage's speech dragged on for nearly forty minutes. Only after the crowd broke into loud, enthusiastic applause—some kids almost moved to tears just because it was finally over—did Hiruzen leave the platform with a satisfied smile.
Once the Third Hokage left, the rest of the entrance ceremony sped up all at once.
In just ten minutes, the opening ceremony wrapped up. The new students of each class were led away by their homeroom teachers toward their respective classrooms.
The Ninja Academy's management wasn't particularly strict. Students could choose their own seats. Out of consideration for everyone else's view, the tallest person present, Kizaru, chose the window seat at the very back of the classroom.
The seat next to him was empty. Yoshihiko Shimura had wanted to sit beside Kizaru, but Kizaru had calmly chased him to the first row on the pretext of "sitting at the front helps you study harder."
After witnessing Kizaru's god-like performance during the entrance test, none of the other students dared come over and share a desk with him.
In the row in front of Kizaru sat the heirs to the clan heads of the famous Ino–Shika–Chō trio.
Among them, Nara Shikaku sat directly in front of Kizaru, also by the window.
The Shimura clan had a good relationship with the Yamanaka clan among the Ino–Shika–Chō.
When Danzō formed Root, the Yamanaka clan had sent many shinobi to help with its operations.
When everyone finally sat down, Yamanaka Inoichi, heir to the Yamanaka clan, glanced back with a calm smile and spoke to Kizaru first, keeping the relationship between their clans nice and smooth.
Kizaru naturally answered with a lazy smile, and the two exchanged a few brief words, establishing a preliminary friendly relationship.
Some people approached him with honest friendliness—so of course, there were also those full of hostility.
The two infamous clans of the village—the "evil-eye" Uchiha and the "roll-their-eyes-in-pleasure" Hyūga—were both staring straight at Kizaru.
Their gazes were anything but gentle, but in Kizaru's mind, they looked almost… kind.
'Oooh, everyone's looking at me so warmly,' he thought to himself, completely misreading the atmosphere.
Uchiha Inari and Hyūga Toda—both of them had lost to Kizaru during the entrance test.
After the Senju clan disbanded and was absorbed into the village, the Hyūga and Uchiha became the two strongest remaining ninja clans.
As children of such powerful families, the two naturally carried a certain arrogance. After losing to Shimura Kizaru in public, their pride felt like it had been set on fire and kicked around the arena.
Their hostility toward him wasn't genuinely hatred—just the simple refusal to accept defeat. After enrolling, both of them had only one goal in mind: defeat Kizaru.
The first day's classes were very similar to Kizaru's previous life on Earth. There was basically no substantive instruction. It was almost all explanations of school rules and "ideological and moral education."
The homeroom teacher for Kizaru's class was Yamakawa Seiji. He had once been an elite chūnin in the ANBU. After growing older and starting a family, he had taken the initiative to transfer to the Ninja Academy as a teacher.
As a teacher, Yamakawa Seiji was very responsible. After briefly laying out the school rules, he immediately started the official lesson.
He knew that cultural and ideological classes were far too dull, and that children didn't enjoy them. So when he lectured, he mixed in his own experiences and short stories he had seen or heard while on missions.
Taught that way, the boring ideological class suddenly became much more interesting. Most of the students listened with genuine curiosity, their eyes shining as they followed along.
Their reaction made Yamakawa Seiji secretly pleased. He swept his gaze around the classroom proudly—until his eyes finally stopped at the window seats in the very back row.
Click.
Unable to control the strength in his fingers, Yamakawa Seiji snapped the chalk in his hand cleanly in two. Most of the smile on his face faded.
The reason for his sudden dark mood was simple: at the back window seats of the classroom, two students were already fast asleep on their desks.
Taking a deep breath, Yamakawa Seiji felt that, on the very first day of class, he absolutely had to show the students the majesty of their teacher.
He knew both sleeping students very well. One was the great genius who had dominated the entire arena during the entrance exam: Shimura Kizaru, the famous genius of the Shimura clan.
The other was Nara Shikaku, son of the Nara clan head, who had scored a perfect mark on the written portion of the entrance test.
After recalling the power Shimura Kizaru had shown during the exam, Yamakawa Seiji couldn't help admitting to himself—with some pain—that if he clashed with Kizaru, the chances of subduing the boy quickly and cleanly were less than thirty percent.
In a true all-out battle, Yamakawa Seiji was one hundred percent confident he could defeat Kizaru… at least, in Yamakawa Seiji's own opinion.
However, as a teacher of the elite class, if he needed to go all out and fight hundreds of exchanges just to subdue a six-year-old freshman on his very first day… where would his dignity as a teacher be?
Without knowing Kizaru's disposition, and after carefully weighing the risks of taking action, Yamakawa Seiji decided to change tactics.
He decided to pick one lucky student and use him as an example for the whole class.
He picked up one half of the broken chalk from the lectern, then snapped his wrist in a motion that clearly belonged to a kunai throw.
The piece of chalk shot out, and the bit of chalk Yamakawa Seiji threw struck Nara Shikaku squarely on the head with perfect accuracy.
The students below the podium followed his movement and turned to look toward the back of the classroom.
"Hahaha!"
Seeing Nara Shikaku, who had just been struck, slowly lift his head with a pained grimace, the students burst into laughter.
Sitting in the front row, Yoshihiko Shimura naturally turned around too. When he saw the pineapple-headed boy from the Nara clan get hit on the head by the teacher for sleeping in class, he started laughing as well.
But as he laughed, Yoshihiko suddenly noticed something wrong.
Behind the Nara boy, Kizaru was also sleeping sprawled over his desk.
"Kizaru-nii must have been training too hard last night," Yoshihiko Shimura instantly found a perfectly reasonable explanation for his big bro in his mind.
"Nara Shikaku, go stand at the back of the classroom and wake yourself up!"
On purpose, Yamakawa Seiji raised his voice as he scolded, hoping to wake Kizaru sitting behind Shikaku as well.
"What a troublesome thing…"
Rubbing his head, Nara Shikaku didn't bother trying to argue. He slid off his chair, stood up, and walked lazily out from his seat.
As he moved past the desks, he heard a voice murmur beside him.
"Ooh… that's rough. Looks like Sensei picked the wrong guy."
Turning his head, he saw Kizaru leaning against the back of his chair, a faint smile on his face as if he had been awake and watching the whole time.
Only then did Nara Shikaku fully process what had just happened.
The guy behind him had been the first one to flop onto the desk and fall asleep!
Nara Shikaku looked at Kizaru, then shifted his gaze toward the teacher on the podium wearing a stern expression. In an instant, he understood everything.
So I'm the one getting offered up… and the "kid" behind me is the real sleeper?!
Seriously… what kind of cowardly teacher picks on the easy target and ignores the real problem?
Complaining silently in his heart, Nara Shikaku walked to a spot not far to Kizaru's left near the back of the classroom and stood there obediently.
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