Seasons changed, and two and a half years passed in the blink of an eye. During this period, the entire shinobi world was calm, as was Konoha Village. After the brutal Third Shinobi World War and its subsequent events, the shinobi world finally ushered in a rare period of peace. Although localized conflicts and skirmishes never truly ceased, no major wars broke out. The Five Great Shinobi Villages were all quietly licking the wounds left by the Great War.
Konoha Village, outside the gates of the Ninja Academy. A large crowd of parents had gathered here with their children. Outside the school gates, several notice boards covered in countless names had been posted. Today was the Ninja Academy's annual enrollment day, and all these parents were here to see if their children had been accepted. Within the crowd, some cheered with joy, while others hung their heads in disappointment.
"Alright! I got accepted!"
Among them, one figure in yellow stood out conspicuously. He jumped high, his expression ecstatic. Yet, around him, everyone else deliberately kept their distance. This small, lonely figure was Naruto Uzumaki.
"Tch! Childish!" Not far away, young Sasuke Uchiha, hands stuffed in his pockets, wore an arrogant, coolly detached expression. He glanced at the jumping Naruto, scoffed disdainfully, and turned to leave.
Six months ago, Itachi, having just turned eleven, had already joined the ANBU Black Ops directly under the Hokage. Without his older brother's constant company, Sasuke's proud and solitary nature gradually began to surface. To demonstrate his maturity, he had refused his mother's offer to accompany him, coming to register at the Ninja Academy alone.
Near the front of the crowd, Hinata Hyuga peeked out timidly from behind Hiashi Hyuga's legs, curiously observing the bouncing Naruto. Behind them followed several members of the Hyuga clan, displaying the full bearing of a great shinobi clan.
On another side, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Chouji Akimichi were gathered together, each accompanied by their respective fathers. A year ago, the Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara clans had coincidentally all appointed new clan heads. The new generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had officially stepped into the core leadership of Konoha. And as the successors of the next generation, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Chouji Akimichi were already well acquainted before even entering the Academy.
On the inner grounds not far from the school gate, a line of temporary registration desks had been set up, and a large group of parents had already begun registering their children. The few Ninja Academy teachers responsible for student registration were all new hires this year; they would also become the homeroom teachers for these newly enrolled students. Iruka Umino and Mizuki were among them.
In the Chūnin Exams held a year ago, both Iruka and Mizuki had successfully passed, becoming bona fide Konoha Chūnin. Among those who took the Chūnin Exams at the same time, Tatsuya was also familiar with Sakawa and Yuhi Teru; they too had successfully obtained the rank of Chūnin. Sakawa and Yuhi Teru remained with the Military Police Force, while Iruka and Mizuki applied to become teachers at the Ninja Academy.
Due to the large number of students meeting the Academy's selection criteria this year, Iruka, Mizuki, and the others were busy until noon before finally getting a break. In the afternoon, they began organizing the student class assignments. These assignments had already been decided by the Ninja Academy's upper management; the teachers were merely responsible for organizing the lists.
During the organizing process, these newly hired teachers were undoubtedly most concerned about which students would be assigned to their classes. Based on the information they had gathered beforehand, several of this year's incoming students were from major ninja clans. Such as Sasuke Uchiha of the Uchiha clan, Hinata Hyuga, the main family heiress of the Hyuga clan, Ino Yamanaka of the Yamanaka clan, Kiba Inuzuka of the Inuzuka clan, Shikamaru Nara of the Nara clan, Chouji Akimichi of the Akimichi clan, and so on. These children from the major ninja clans were the focus of their attention. Based on past experience, the vast majority of talented ninja came from these clans. After all, with different starting points and resources, the chances of future success and the level of achievement naturally varied significantly.
When the final class assignment lists were compiled, everyone cast strange glances at Iruka. Because all the children from the prominent ninja clans had been assigned to Iruka's class.
"Iruka, your luck is way too good!"
"What luck?! This is obvious favoritism! It's not fair!"
...
Some complained, others were envious. The disparity was simply too obvious. If they hadn't all known Iruka's background, they might have genuinely suspected underhanded dealings were involved. However, what they didn't know was that there were indeed backroom deals involved. The village had intentionally gathered the children of the major clans into one class, and Iruka had been personally selected for the role by the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Third valued Iruka's gentle and positive personality.
"Haha! No need to envy Iruka, he's going to have plenty of trouble ahead," Mizuki's voice suddenly cut in while the others were expressing envy and complaints. He plucked a student file card from Iruka's hand and showed it to the group.
The others looked closely and immediately fell silent. The envy and complaints on their faces gradually faded, replaced by expressions of disgust and scorn. The name registered on this student file card was Naruto Uzumaki, with his photograph pasted next to it.
In Konoha, Naruto had another name: the Fox Demon! Many Konoha villagers who had lived through the Nine-Tails Attack regarded him as the source of the calamity; they hated and detested Naruto.
Seeing their reactions, Iruka simply smiled, reached over, took the file card back from Mizuki, and said nothing.
By the time they finished organizing the class information, it was already evening. After saying goodbye to Mizuki and the others, Iruka walked alone towards Ramen Ichiraku. Iruka didn't have many hobbies, but Ichiraku ramen was his favorite food.
As he walked down the street not far from Ramen Ichiraku, Iruka unexpectedly saw a familiar figure. Illuminated by the dim lamplight, a man wearing a mask covering one eye leaned silently against a wall by the street. It was Kakashi.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Seeing Kakashi, Iruka quickly called out a greeting.
Kakashi looked up at Iruka. "Iruka, I need to talk to you about something."
Hearing this, Iruka looked surprised.
Ten minutes later, inside Ramen Ichiraku, Kakashi and Iruka sat side-by-side at the counter, bowls of steaming hot ramen already placed before them.
"Kakashi-sensei, you said you needed to talk to me? What is it about?" Iruka asked, turning to Kakashi with a puzzled expression as he picked up noodles from his bowl. They were contemporaries and friends, yet this was the first time Kakashi had sought him out for help. Iruka was very curious about this.
Kakashi paused his noodle-lifting action, turned to Iruka, and said, "I'd like to ask you to look after a student for me."
"Who?" Iruka asked, his eyes flickering slightly.
As an elite jōnin of Konoha, Kakashi-sensei really does get different treatment. I only just received the complete student list recently as a homeroom teacher, yet he already knows ahead of time.
Kakashi said gravely, "Naruto Uzumaki."