After bidding farewell to the Third Hokage, Naruto stepped into the Ninja Academy. Around him, children were being dropped off by their parents, the scene filled with laughter and warmth.
But to Naruto, it was ice-cold.
How easily they had forgotten the cost of their peaceful lives—bought with the life of his father. As he passed, the villagers' smiles faded into frowns, and their voices dropped to hushed murmurs.
"Stay away from that boy… he's the demon fox."
Parents whispered warnings to their children, their eyes filled with disdain. Naruto ignored them, his expression blank, his eyes cold. Without a word, he walked toward a quiet corner of the courtyard, alone.
"Shikaku, is that the boy?"
A round man beside him asked in a low voice.
It was Akimichi Choza—head of the Akimichi Clan and future father of Choji, one of the Konoha Twelve.
The man he addressed was Nara Shikaku, the father of Nara Shikamaru, Konoha's genius tactician.
"…Yes. That's him."
Shikaku let out a soft sigh. With his intellect, it hadn't taken much to piece it together. The blond hair, the cerulean blue eyes, the boy's age, and the fact that he was the new Nine-Tails Jinchūriki.
Even with the Third Hokage's ironclad information blackout, some facts couldn't be hidden. Everyone had known Kushina Uzumaki—wife of the Fourth Hokage—was pregnant before the Nine-Tails' attack.
And now here was a child, an orphan, born the very same night Kushina and the Fourth supposedly died.
To people like Shikaku, it didn't take a genius to connect the dots.
But that was a truth they could never acknowledge aloud.
It wasn't his place to interfere.
After the entrance ceremony and the Third Hokage's customary speech about the Will of Fire, class assignments began.
Naruto silently scoffed.
The Third really knew how to manipulate public sentiment—he even took on the role of the Academy's headmaster, pushing his ideology on the next generation year after year. The Will of Fire? Sure. But rewriting the textbooks to crown himself as the strongest Hokage?
Naruto knew he didn't write those books himself, but there was no doubt he had approved them.
Now even the kids, when playing shinobi games, shouted that the Third Hokage was the strongest. It was indoctrination from childhood. And had Naruto retained the same naive heart as his original self, he might've fallen for it too—serving Konoha blindly and wholeheartedly.
But this Naruto wasn't a child.
He held the mind and memories of an adult. He remembered the Great Toad Sage's prophecy: that Naruto was the Child of Prophecy, the one who would bring change to the shinobi world.
But true change couldn't come from peacekeeping alone.
This world needed to be torn down and rebuilt.
In his past life, he'd heard a saying: "When the kingdom flourishes, the people suffer. When it falls, the people suffer still."
War in the shinobi world always brought pain to the common people—civilian shinobi forced to the front lines as fodder. Meanwhile, the elite ninja clans and the Daimyo lived lives of luxury, untouched by the violence they perpetuated.
Most disturbing of all was the fact that the true rulers of the Five Great Nations weren't the Kage—they were the Daimyo, ordinary civilians with no chakra, no jutsu, and no battlefield experience.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had tried to change that. His one-country-one-village system had been born of idealism, a vision of peace.
But in the end, it simply scaled up war from scattered tribal conflicts to national-level devastation.
At the core of every war was the same old thing: resources.
Why did Sunagakure repeatedly invade the Land of Fire?
Because the Land of Fire was rich and fertile, while the Land of Wind—mostly desert—was parched and barren. Water, which was abundant in Fire Country, was a luxury in the Wind Country.
Every major shinobi village had similar motivations, and yet Konoha always seemed to produce geniuses strong enough to maintain balance.
Even after Hashirama's death, Konoha had continued to stand tall.
Still… Naruto found himself agreeing more with Uchiha Madara's philosophy.
Peace through domination. Unity through conquest.
Of course, Madara had failed because he never built a coalition of shared interests. No one wanted to follow him in shattering the illusion of peace.
Naruto knew that, for now, he lacked the power to take action.
He needed strength—overwhelming strength. Only then would he have the authority to reshape this flawed world.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.
"Class assignments are beginning! If your name is called, proceed to your assigned classroom and wait for your instructor!"
"Ono Jiro! Class C!"
"Oboro Genya! Class B!"
Names were read out one after another.
"Uchiha Roku! Class B!"
"Inuzuka Kiba! Class A!"
"Sakura Haruno! Class A!"
Naruto listened quietly as name after name echoed through the courtyard. Many sounded familiar.
It wasn't that Class A was inherently better than the others—but it was clearly the most special.
Almost every child from Konoha's major clans was placed in Class A. A few civilians were occasionally added—mostly by luck or rare talent.
For example, Sakura Haruno had also been placed in Class A—along with a few other standouts.
"Uchiha Sasuke! Class A! Uzumaki Naruto! Class A!"
Hearing his name, Naruto raised an eyebrow. As expected, he'd been placed into Class A.
But what caught his attention even more was the name announced just before his.
Uchiha Sasuke.
He turned to look at the boy now stepping forward—dark hair, serious face, wearing the unmistakable fan crest of the Uchiha Clan on the back of his shirt. His expression was calm, aloof… and just a little smug.
He looks like such a little shōta, Naruto thought with amusement. Sasuke before the Uchiha Massacre really is kind of cute…
Right now, he was just a kid trying to act cool, puffing himself up with quiet pride.
Still, Naruto had to admit—the Uchiha genes were something else. Even at this age, Sasuke already had striking features. No wonder he would later become the object of affection for half the girls in the Academy.
Sasuke, meanwhile, glanced at Naruto when he heard the name Uzumaki Naruto. His brows furrowed slightly.
This boy seemed... strange.
Why did the adults call him a demon fox? He didn't look different. In fact, he looked completely normal.
But I'm different, Sasuke thought, puffing his chest. I'm an Uchiha.
The pride of the clan had been deeply instilled in him by his family. While Sasuke wasn't yet arrogant or hostile, the seeds of superiority were already there—passed down through whispered praises and the clan's prideful air.
Still, unlike some of his older kin, he hadn't yet developed the Uchiha's infamous arrogance.
The students began finding their assigned classrooms and quietly took their seats.
Well—mostly quietly.
There were always a few restless kids glancing around, wide-eyed, soaking in every detail of this new environment.
Naruto scanned the room. These were his classmates—those he would train, grow, and live alongside for the next six years.
He spotted a kid with red fang-like markings on his cheeks—Inuzuka Kiba, if he remembered right. Though still young, Kiba's trademark energy was already showing. His ninken partner, Akamaru, hadn't been assigned to him yet, but Naruto knew it was only a matter of time.
Next, he saw a chubby boy munching on a bag of chips like it was the only thing that mattered in the world. That had to be Akimichi Choji.
And right beside him, slouched over his desk with a lazy look, was a pineapple-haired boy with half-lidded eyes—Nara Shikamaru, most likely already thinking life was a drag.
Further away, a blonde girl sat primly at her desk—Yamanaka Ino. Even at this age, she was already peeking at Sasuke from the corner of her eye, whispering with a group of other girls, all giggling and staring dreamily.
Naruto couldn't help but sigh.
Kids in this world really are precocious... Most of the girls already understood the basics of romance, unlike himself in his past life, where the concept of love didn't even cross his mind at their age.
His gaze shifted and softened when he spotted a familiar face.
Hinata.
Without hesitation, Naruto walked over and took the seat beside her.
"Yo, Hinata!"
Hinata's head jerked up slightly. Her eyes met his, and her cheeks instantly turned red.
"N-Naruto-kun… i-it's b-been a while…"
Her voice was soft and stammering, her fingers nervously tapping against each other. Her face was flushed from ear to ear.
Naruto couldn't help but grin.
Still the same shy Hinata.
...
TN:
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