It was a beautiful day with clear skies.
Konoha Ninja Academy.
Today was the opening ceremony. An Yan woke up early, washed up, styled his hair neatly, and changed into clean clothes. Standing in the sunlight, he seemed to be cloaked in a halo. Combined with the boundless energy of a child, he was practically invincible.
After checking his reflection and finding nothing amiss, An Yan bounced out the door. Having just acquired the extraordinary power of chakra, the feeling of leaping four or five meters in a single step was exhilarating.
An Yan's home wasn't far from the academy. He vaulted over a few rooftops, running along the eaves until he reached the large tree at the school's entrance. He hopped onto the swing hanging from a branch and started playing by himself.
It was just past seven in the morning, still early, but people were already arriving. Some children came alone. Seeing An Yan, they walked over and naturally formed a small group.
Other children were brought by their parents, who held their hands while chatting with other adults they knew.
An Yan observed carefully and noticed that most of the children who came alone were from commoner families, without any clan crests on their clothes. Most of the children with parents were from ninja clans like the Uchiha, Hyuga, or Sarutobi.
There was a clear, unspoken division between the commoner children and the clan children. They formed their own separate circles, but the whole scene was still bustling, like a market fair. The atmosphere was strangely divided, and An Yan clicked his tongue in observation.
By eight o'clock, almost everyone had arrived, crowding the entrance. The gates of the Ninja Academy finally opened. The children, holding their admission letters, lined up to enter the school while their parents gradually departed.
A simple stage was set up on the school's training ground. Hundreds of students lined up in a square formation according to height. On the stage, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, stood at the front, flanked by three young guards on each side.
An Yan knew that the six young people beside the Hokage were Tobirama's disciples. Of these six, one would later die, one would vanish without a trace, two would become Konoha's elders, one would become the Third Hokage, and one would become the infamous "Scapegoat Kage." Together, they would influence the next forty years of Konoha's history.
Tobirama always wore a cold expression. He was a reserved person who rarely smiled. Even when facing academy students, his face remained impassive as he stoically recited the Will of Fire, inherited from the First Hokage.
The Will of Fire—everyone knew the drill. First, praise the First Hokage's great achievement of ending the era of chaos to inspire awe and worship in the impressionable children. Then, claim that everyone in the village is family, weakening clan loyalties and emphasizing collectivism. Finally, encourage everyone to fight to protect the village's interests.
Although Tobirama wasn't friendly, his powerful aura was convincing. It made people instinctively believe his words.
No matter the era, leaders' speeches were never short. A few sentences could take half an hour, and a longer speech could last two or three hours. An Yan was getting drowsy, and his feet ached. He was feeling drained when, finally, Tobirama finished his speech.
An Yan immediately snapped to attention and started clapping—an instinctive reaction from his corporate drone days. The surrounding students saw this and followed suit. The applause grew from a sparse patter to a thunderous roar that echoed across the grounds. Tobirama glanced at An Yan for a moment before ignoring him, but Hiruzen Sarutobi gave him a few extra looks, a thoughtful expression on his face.
After the speech, the teachers began to assign classes. The classes had already been decided after the entrance exams, so now it was just a matter of calling out names from a list.
As the teachers called out names one by one, An Yan was assigned to Year 1, Class A. He followed his classmates into classroom 101.
The classroom was arranged in tiers, low in the front and high in the back. Each desk could seat three people, and textbooks were already laid out on them.
An Yan entered the classroom and walked straight to the back, taking a seat in the second-to-last row by the window. The view was good, it was relatively quiet, and it wasn't too secluded, allowing him to oversee the entire classroom.
As the saying goes, "The back row by the window, the homeland of kings." An Yan liked the feeling of sitting high up and observing everything, giving him the illusion of being in control.
Just then, a blonde girl walked into the classroom with a radiant air. Her confident aura and beautiful face made her shine as she moved, instantly attracting the attention of the students. They began to whisper amongst themselves.
"Who is she? She's so pretty!"
"I don't know, I've never seen her before."
The classroom grew noisy, but the blonde girl paid no mind to the chatter. Her eyes scanned the room and quickly locked onto her target: the back row by the window. Good lighting, a position at the back that wouldn't draw too much attention, yet offered a view of the whole room.
She walked straight towards the back. Classmates who knew her greeted her along the way, but she simply responded with a smile and a nod, seemingly accustomed to this kind of attention.
She walked up to An Yan's desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down. She tossed her small ninja tool pouch onto the desk. Her movements were smooth and natural, as if the seat had always been hers.
The moment the girl sat down, An Yan introduced himself.
"Hello, my name is An Yan. I look forward to being your classmate."
The girl turned her head, a hint of surprise flashing across her delicate and cute face. A child from a commoner ninja family had the courage to speak to her first.
The girl's brown eyes met An Yan's. She didn't see the timidity common in children from ordinary families. A smile instantly bloomed on her face.
"Hello, An Yan. I'm Tsunade. It's nice to meet you."
So it was Tsunade, the legendary walking wallet.
An Yan raised an eyebrow, surprised. He had thought she might be a girl from the Yamanaka clan, but he hadn't expected it to be her. After their brief introduction, they both fell silent, caught in that awkward phase of having met a new friend but not knowing what to say next.
While waiting for the teacher, An Yan scanned the students below. He spotted someone with pale skin who looked suspiciously like Orochimaru, but he didn't see the white, spiky-haired Jiraiya.
Weren't the three Sannin from the same period? Shouldn't they be in the same class?
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