Academy Days (Solo)

Class was boring as usual. Izuna had spent most of it daydreaming about storms and shinobi, his heroes from days past clashing in epic battles of fire and wits… It just seemed to make the clock move slower… Despite all his futile attempts to claw his way out of this damned classroom nothing seemed to suffice. He was cursed to endure the endless droning of his sensei until he turned 12. Then he would become a genin and leave this festering mound of wasted time. Izuna did not enjoy the ninja academy.

Through his internal ranting and moaning he missed most of his sensei’s speech only catching the end....
“This next assignment will be a group project. We will see how well you work with others as well as test your information gathering skills.”
His sensei was definitely overinflating how important this lesson was. Izuna was not convinced about its usefulness to being an actual Shinobi. He didn’t really believe it would test “information gathering” much at all. Although he was intrigued on who he would be paired with. He would have to wait until class was out before the groups would be revealed. Another fifteen minutes of monotonous misery for the poor boy.

His group mates turned out to be unimpressive, he had hoped he would be paired with other clan kids, a Yamanaka or a Inuzuka would have been great, a fellow Uchiha would have been a dream come true. Although he would even be willing to put up with a lazy Nara over just a group of civilians. It wasn’t that he had some kind of elitist problem with working with clanless kids, just that they reminded him of his situation a bit too much. In a group full of clan children he could pretend he was special, a Uchiha, one of the greatest clans in history. But among these kids he was just another kid, a reject of the Uchiha destined to live out his days among civilians for his inability to perform fire Jutsu.

It irritated him so much! He loved fire, he was constantly playing with it, setting things alight and clowning around with the dangerous element. He was fascinated by it. The way it danced upwards from its fuel and brought heat and light to the world.

But he just could not make his chakra produce any fire Jutsu.

His mind wandered again, back to days better left in the past, when he had still lived in the Uchiha district. When he was six they had tried to teach him to perform the fireball like most of the kids his age, but when he could never even get a spark out he had been subjected to an element test, and he failed it. As far as he or the Uchiha were concerned anyway. Being lightning nature was akin to failing the test.
Izuna loved his nature, he loved storms and the power that they brought, but he hated it for not being the correct one. For robbing him of his place within the Uchiha. A place he would seize back… One day.

He snapped out of the daydream. His groupmates were looking at him expectantly. He must have missed out on whatever the conversation had been about.
“You guys want something” he yawned after asking.
All he got was a scowl from both. “Our project is about the Sarutobi clan in the warring states period slackass” the boy snapped at him childishly.
He didn't care much for civilian anger, it didn't phase him at all, maybe that was where he was elitist. Or a childish “I'm better than you” attitude. One or the other.

“Sarutobi?” He ran through what he knew about that clan. They had been rather irrelevant before their legendary leader Sasuke had taken over, he didn’t know much about them other than that. He would rather hero worship Sasuke than bother learning about the ancient practices of the clan.

“Let’s just do some basic whatever Sarutobi blah blah to start, then we can talk about Sasuke Sarutobi for most of it” He was mostly interested in the legendary man, the rest of this project was a bore.

Of course they decided that more effort must be put in. Why does he even bother?

He ignored their meetup plans for the evening, he wouldn't be caught dead spending an evening on a written project if he could train instead.
He had long since figured out how to do the academy clone jutsu, laughably easy once he could grasp his chakra. It just made it even more infuriating that he couldn’t do the most basic fire style jutsu his clan asked him to perform.
He began his evening training routine like always, using the clone jutus to make a replica of himself, then have the replica go through the motions to perform the fireball jutsu.
Maybe he had just missed something. Maybe he had overlooked something. That element test had been wrong and he would figure out what the problem was today.
But who was he kidding? There was no mistake and just like every time he had tried before he ended up blowing hot air and spittle, not a fireball.

The rest of the evening consisted of kunai and shuriken practice, and some running exercises to keep his speed and stamina up. He had no idea how to reinforce these things with chakra yet so he figured this was the most effective way he could train right now.

Apparently skipping on evening study was a quick way to piss off your group mates. Low and behold he had been tattled on. His sensei proceeded to spend his recess break lecturing him on why he should take the academy more seriously and why his group wasn’t going to pass if he kept up his streak.
Izuna was pissed that he couldn’t get Kunai practice during the recess break.

He skipped on the project the next day as well. When the day came to present he had to improvise the majority of his presentation. He defaulted to doing exactly what he said he would and droning on about Sasuke Sarutobi’s life and battle tactics, mostly the battle tactics. The group ended up barely getting a passing grade. Izuna didn’t care, a passing grade was all he needed in the written portion.
WC 1058

The day had started normally enough. Izuna arrived just before class started, took his seat next to the only other Uchiha in his class, made a joke about how boring the day was going to be and slumped into his seat.

The day was not going to be boring. Izuna was about to enter into the first real step to becoming a shinobi.
His sensei made the announcement shortly after morning attendance.

“With your Genin exams coming up in the next month we are going to switch focus from written exams and theoretical knowledge to actual field exercises and survival training. So starting today, we will be running you kids through a series of exercises and tests in multiple locations across the village. We intend to test your most basic survival and tactical skills in anticipation for your entrance into the shinobi program. With all that being said I hope to see you all do well out there. Impress your teachers and make your village proud. I will now turn you over to Hisoka sensei for the first day of survival training.”

With his brief speech concluded his sensei briskly left the classroom and a short fair skinned woman with messy waist length black hair took his place. She had a hunched posture and a lazy disposition, this impression was reinforced when the first thing she did upon entering the classroom was yawn loudly. Before standing straight and fixing the up and coming shinobi with a stern gaze. But her voice still came out strained and tired sounding.

“Attention to me students. My name is Hisoka Nara and I will be your instructor for this first day of survival training. I expect you to listen well because I don't intend to repeat anything.”
She stifled a yawn after the first part of her speech.
“This first day we will be easing you into things, we will split you into groups of ten, and I will supervise each group. You were not told of this exercise because we will be testing your ability to improvise when unexpected change occurs.”

Another yawn cut her speech off in the middle. The reaction of the students so far was mixed. Alot of them were excited about the change of pace, others were cautious of what this could mean for their scores. Others were panicking inside at the sudden revelation. Izuna was definitely in the first group.

“I will be reading out the groups now, this 30 person class will be split into three, I want you to assemble on your respective benches. You will then be given further instruction.”
With that the Nara instructor began reading from a predetermined list of names. Izuna ended up paired with Nao Yamanaka, Katsou Sarutobi, and a handful of other civilian kids whose names he didn’t bother remembering.

The Nara had led them to the entrance of Training field 25, where she instructed them to split into their groups.
“Each of your groups have been assigned an active Genin on a E rank Mission. They will supervise your progress reporting back to me your status, achievements, ailments, and any other information I require. Do not worry, while this is a survival exercise none of you are in any real danger of injury or death. We will ensure that. Before continuing I will introduce each of you to your Genin supervisor.”

Izuna’s group had been assigned a quite experienced 14 year old Genin named Hiroko. He was unremarkable, looks wise anyway, short cut brown hair on a boyish face. His green eyes shone like the leaves around them, he looked over his new underlings with mild boredom.

“These Genin will also act as sources of information, they can teach you to hunt, fish, cook, set up a tent, and whatever other survival skills you will need for the next week.”

She paused to examine the reactions of the students to this new piece of information. Indeed they would be dropped into this forest for a week, with no prior warning whatsoever. A Lot of the kids looked mortified now, realizing this exercise would continue to escalate as it went on. Izuna even felt a twinge of hesitation himself, before squashing it down. No way he could become a proper Shinobi if he couldn’t handle a week in the woods.

“You may drop out at any time but realize this… Those that fail this exercise will be unable to graduate and become Genin this year. You will be forced to redo the year despite any other scores you may have.”

This most recent information drop properly ruffled some feathers. Kids started protesting and making known their frustration at this situation. Izuna didn’t actually care about this detail. Not like his written scores were much to go by anyway.

“Those of you who know Ninjutsu are strictly forbidden from using it, all ninjutsu is disallowed in this exam with the exception of academy techniques like the Clone and Transformation jutsus. With all that said, I wish you all luck and hope you pass this first test of your abilities as a shinobi.”

Upon saying that the Nara woman disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The Genin assigned to the groups quickly caught their groups attention and funneled them along to wherever they were supposed to go. At this point Izuna figured the exercise was just an elaborate camping trip. He would crush this exam, ace his genin exam and become a Shinobi his clan could respect!

The day seemed to pass by in a flurry of activity. Their Genin supervisor, Hiroko, divided them into pairs and sent them off to accomplish certain activities. Five of the group and Hiroko himself stayed at their campsite, preparing tents, gathering firewood, and constructing other essential campsite basics. Izuna had been assigned the group that was expected to find something to eat. Be it by foraging, hunting, or fishing.

The larger group of five students decided to split themselves into two smaller sub-groups. The smaller team of two including the Yamanaka were going to forage for berries, fruit, and root edibles. While the other squad would attempt to hunt some wild game. This hunting team was where Izuna ended up being assigned to. Along for the ride with him were Katsou Sarutobi and a civilian boy named Lori. Katsou took the lead of the group.

“So what exactly are we hoping to hunt? Deer, rabbits, maybe waterfowl?”. The group of students were crouching on the forest floor. Already itchy and somewhat miserable in the humid forest. They had managed to fashion a couple makeshift spears by tying kunai to young trees they had cut from the ground. If they could catch a smaller deer in ambush the spears would do the job. But setting snares to catch rabbits would likely be more successful. Waterfowl were tricky, they would be easy to kill with simple kunai or shuriken, finding a large body of water that the birds frequent would be a feat for the kids.

“We should set up a couple snares around the camp, then go looking for bigger game.” The civilian Lori gave his own two cents on the matter.
“Makes sense. Ok let's get the snares set up then we will plan further.” Katsou gave them a pointed look and stood up. Izuna took out the rolls of ninja wire that their Genin supervisor had provided them. About a half hour later and they had cobbled together several rudimentary snares. Izuna doubted half of them would even work. They set them up before making their way into the bowls of the forest. Each armed with a kunai spear and trying their best to be silent but very aware of their surroundings.

They had split up when they found the lake. Planning to meet up back at camp. It would be more efficient to hunt smaller prey individually. Izuna was currently creeping through boggy mud in a cluster of reeds. His goal was morbid but efficient. It was springtime, Waterfowl like geese ducks, and even swans would be making nests and laying eggs at this time. Izuna planned to steal some, even take one of the parents down if the opportunity presented itself. That should feed the camp for tonight and make a good breakfast tomorrow.
The parent’s turned out to not be so happy about his robbing of their nests and Izuna turned out to not be quite so ready to carry several adult geese back to camp. He settled for just one. A big male goose that decided hissing and wing flapping was not enough and had actually jumped at him. Izuna may be an academy student, but he had spent his life honing his skills with kunai. He dispatched the offending bird without much effort. The smell of its blood ensured he was not challenged again after that.

He was pretty sure he had several leeches on him by the time he crawled out of the swamp. Eggs from various birds in an improvised pouch he had made on his shirt which while he held the goose slung over his shoulder. Izuna began making his way back to camp being very careful so as to not break any of the spheres of nourishment he had taken charge of. They were going to be eating well tonight, no matter what the foragers had found.

About halfway between the camp and the lake Izuna heard it. There was a ruckus about north west of him and he had no idea what it sounded like. Grunting? Slurping? He spent several minutes thinking through the decision to actually check out the source of the commotion. Eventually his curiosity overcame his caution and he made his way to the source of the noise. Being careful now to break any of the eggs he had gone through so much trouble to acquire, while also using his best ninja stealth skills Izuna made his way towards the mysterious ruckus.

It was a boar. A big one at that standing almost as tall as a man and weighing 10 times as much the lumbering beast was tearing up an entire clearing in its endless search for nourishment. Izuna couldn’t believe its size, he had read about these animals and knew they could grow to be as big as this one was, but seeing something in front of you was very different from reading about it in a book. They had to bring it down. That would show his teachers. If they could bring down a beast like that surely they would pass this exam with ease, probably even get to skip their genin exam. Izuna was getting more excited by the possibilities the more he thought about them, jumping to conclusions the entire time.

He retreated from the great beast as stealthy as he had approached it, the brute was far too busy rooting to care about the tiny boy and his clutch of eggs anyway. He managed to make it back to camp without incident where he learned the other hunters had killed a goose between them. None of the snares ended up working however, a small nick in their otherwise pretty stellar record. Hiroko told them that they had outdone most other hunting teams in this exercise, although Izuna figured they had lucked out slightly with the lake. He planned to take the other hunters aside later, to plan for the real hunt.

They spent the evening eating and were rather merry considering the situation the group of preteens found themselves in. Food had been found and their most immediate worries had abated. Izuna was spending the evening hyping his hunting squad up about the boar hunt they were going to do the next day. Hiroko topped the day off by informing them that they would be learning chakra control exercises in the following days, as this event was not simply for wilderness survival, shinobi education still mattered.
The Chakra control exercises took the entire next day. With the hunters bringing back enough food for the group to eat comfortably, the day’s activities switched away from survival and focused on proper shinobi training. Izuna had been able to stick the leaf to his forehead on his first try. It was a test his mother had taught him years ago, most of the other clan kids, and a couple civilians also easily demonstrated the most basic of chakra control. So Hiroko switched them to tree climbing instead.

Izuna had started out pretty confident of his ability to get to the top by nightfall. This confidence was no longer present. He had failed to get more than a couple steps up the tree, his record currently being six and he had no idea how he had managed that. Out of the group that could originally skip the leaf test he was by far the worst at the tree climbing test, and it pissed him off in all kinds of ways. Frustration was not very conducive to progress and his increasing agitation only served to make his attempts fail more. But he was a stubborn bastard, and one that didn’t like losing to anyone, especially his classmates. So he kept trying for most of the afternoon.

At a certain point he decided to try and find shortcuts or ways around what Hiroko wanted him to do. This eventually resulted in him switching his stance around. Rather than running up and attempting to sprint or walk up the tree, he found leaping from one leg to the other got him a lot more progress. So his tree walking technique looked like he was taking massive strides rather than “walking”. Nevertheless it ended up working, he made more progress in the last hour of practice than he had the entire day, and more importantly he was second place in total progress. Only the Yamanaka had managed to outdo him today, and she had managed to fully climb the tree in the first two hours. So Izuna counted his progress as a win.

They had to ration the leftover food that evening if they wanted to have anything for breakfast the next morning. Izuna promised himself once again that he would bring home the boar! They wouldn’t need to think about food again for the rest of this outing if he did. He made his hunting plan with the other four members of the hunting and foraging squad. He planned on bringing the hulking beast back for supper the next evening.

“First we agitate the pig, if we can piss it off enough to chase after one of us we can lead it into an ambush.” Izuna was drawing a crude map on the ground with a stick, his classmates listening to his insane plan in trepidation.

“So we find the pig, then we find a depression or something in the ground around it. We plant a bunch of spikes and sharp objects there while the squad hides in the surrounding bushes with kunai spears. It comes charging brainlessly through the trap and impales itself a couple times. Then we strike with the spears, it should bleed out quickly with so many holes in it.” Izuna finished the morbid and in his mind, masterful plan with a grin.

The reaction from the rest of the squad was apprehensive but excited. They all knew the prestige such a kill would bring, but there was risk involved. None of them were skilled shinobi, they barely knew tree climbing and maybe a couple clan ninjutsu, nothing that would save their hides if the plan went awry. But one by one the children made the fateful choice to throw their lot in with the maniacal Uchiha. Izuna’s grin kept growing as more of the kids agreed to the general plan.
“You guy’ll see, we are gonna be eating like Daimyo tomorrow evening.” The hunt was on and Izuna was going to bring it to fruition.

They set out early in the morning, they briefed Hiroko that they would be restocking the camp’s food supplies before setting out. They were in the clear that way. They had stocked up on extra kunai spears and made a bunch of shorter spears to plant into the ground, as a backup plan they would also pepper the area of the ambush in shuriken which would act as improvised caltrops. Izuna was confident the plan would succeed, he was in a good mood going through the forest. The sun was blocked by a layer of clouds and Izuna hoped it would rain later. He loved the storms despite how inconvenient it would be for campfires.

Nao Yamanaka was their primary tracker, she was a sensory type and despite not really knowing quite how her abilities worked yet she was able to pick up on a beast like Pigiron relatively easily. That was the name they had given the big boar, crude iron suited him. They crept through the forest towards where Nao could sense him, their hunting strategy being discussed along the way.

“This was your idea, no? You should absolutely be the bait.” Katsou that sneaky bastard. Izuna couldn't argue though.

“Yeah i'll do it, been practicing the body flicker anyway if it goes bad.”

“We aren’t allowed to use Ninjutsu, you know that! Just stick to your own terrible plan and everything will work itself out won’t it.” Katsou was being extra sassy today.

“You agreed to my “terrible” plan didn’t you? You should have more faith in your strategists, that habit might bite you when you're a shinobi.”

“Agreeing to your plan isn’t an issue if you're the bait, not my well being being put between ten trees and a ten ton boar.” Katsou wasn’t having Izuna’s retorts, and Izuna was getting tired of arguing with the Sarutobi. Thankfully Yao intervened.

“You two shut up, I can hear him already, we should split up and try and find a good place to spring the trap.” She whispered harshly, giving them both quick glares before looking around them for a place to spring the trap.

“Ok, Yao and Katsou go that direction, split up after a bit, I’ll take the other two and we will split off to scout possible sites as well, everyone meet back here in 15 minutes. I hope your internal compasses are working.” Izuna gave a smartass grin before signaling for the two kids to follow him north, the other two went south as they scouted around the clearing the pig was currently rooting in.

Fifteen minutes later they met back up. A quick discussion revealed Yao had found a good enough spot. Now they had to set the trap and bait the pig. Easy peasy. The trap was rather ingenious for a bunch of 11 year olds. A slight depression in the ground had been filled with deadly kunai stakes. Just ahead of the depression a bunch of kunai were arrayed like caltrops, intended to impede the animals ability to stop if it wanted to. Behind the death trap they had arranged a couple of larger bushes to give the impression that the depression was never even there, they used moss and other smaller ground based plants to hide the caltrops. A safe zone was marked out for Izuna to move through without getting injured, it was narrow and diagonal Izuna would only make it with chakra enhanced leaps, the pig had no chance if he wanted to chase after him. The four other students were hiding in the forest growth on either side of the trap, ready to spring into action as soon as the boar fell into it. The trap was set,now all Izuna had to do was lure the massive pig into it.

The pig was making quite the ruckus, Izuna crept up so he was within shuriken throwing range and moved up to his feet. He rotated his body so he could throw the shuriken and bolt immediately afterwards, the pig was absolutely faster than him, chakra enhancement or not. But the head start and short distance to run should mean he wouldn’t be punted across the forest if he timed his moves right… and didn’t trip. His heart was pounding in his chest and adrenaline was coursing through his veins, he hesitated for a second before being invigorated by the distant sound of thunder. The boar lifted its head and noticed him.

“Now or never, Ancestors guide my next moves.” With a short prayer and more courage then he should have felt in the situation Izuna threw the shuriken straight at the brutish animal, he then turned and bolted towards the trap. An enraged squeal told him he had struck true. The ground shook as the beast began bearing down on him. Almost a ton of muscle and fury barreled through the forest towards his small frame. But Izuna was fast enough and before long he made the first leap through the safe maze in the otherwise deadly depression. Three more jumps later and he felt the impact of the boar's snout colliding with his back… He barely had time to consider the situation he was in before he was flying through the forest, striking several trees on the way and landing in a crumpled mess of pain and wheezing.

The others had emerged from their hiding places as soon as the boar crossed the line marking the start of the trap, only to watch in horror as the animal simply moved through the deadly spikes and flung their classmate 20 meters across the woods. The trap hadn’t slowed him down at all. He was far from unharmed sure, kunai spears impaled his underbelly and neck like needles and his hooves were ruined by shuriken caltrops but the enraged animal kept moving, straight towards their downed teammate.

Katsou took the initiative to keep the beast from finishing Izuna, he threw his kunai spear and switched to his secondary. A quick volley from the other students didn’t seem to affect the monstrous beast. It was even angrier now and switched targets to one of the newly emerged humans. The plan had failed miserably, they had not accounted for how big the beast really was, it was shrugging off their improvised spears and didn’t seem to feel pain, only rage. The children now panicked, two of them fled immediately while the two clan kids moved to throw their secondary spears before taking the hint. The boar went for Lori next, he was significantly less lucky then Izuna and was run over by the large beast. The situation had become desperate.

Izuna forced himself to stand, he could hear the terrified screams of his classmates and he wouldn’t lie down like a dead man while they were savaged for his failed plan. He took a kunai from his pouch and ran back to the scene of the disaster. Just in time to see Lori being trampled under the hooves of the beast. Izuna’s vision was tinged red in anger and panic, he could see the muscles and tendons beneath the boar’s hide. He quickly formulated a plan. The beast came charging back at him, recognizing its original target and determined to end him. Izuna sprang up a particularly sturdy tree using it as a springboard to launch himself over the charging animal. He brought his last kunai up and cut across the boar's left hind leg. Where his eyes told him an important muscle was. He could already tell the boar was going to pivot towards him, he began moving out of the way.

The dance between them continued for three more cuts from his razor sharp kunai, before the large beast could no longer maneuver its hind legs. Izuna had completely avoided all of its attacks, it was almost too easy, his eyes showed him everything the animal was going to do before it did it. He was too laser focused on his task to think about why but Katosu saw it. The crimson eyes of the Uchiha clan were fully visible, one tomoe spinning lazily around the pupil. Yao had moved to check on Lori’s condition. Izuna gracefully moved around the beast, jumping out of its line of sight before pulling one of the embedded spears from its hide, he pivoted sprung forward and before the animal could react buried the weapon in its right eye, the sharingan making his aim precise and deadly. The spear moved straight through the ocular organ and into the brain behind it, the pig barely had time to squeal in pain before its body began shutting down. Death was almost instant.

Izuna stood over his prey, its remaining eye wide open in alarm but completely dead to the light. He now realized something he had never considered. He turned to Katsou and said,

“So how are we going to get it back to camp?” His tone was monotone, like he was unphased by what had just occurred, too focused on the task to consider how close to death they came.

“GUYS, HIRO NEEDS A DOCTOR NOW!”  Yao’s voice pierced through the air and spurred Katsou into action.

We need to get him back to camp, Hiroko can get him to the hospital from there, Izuna, Yao, you two are the fastest here take him back and bring more people to carry the pieces of meat back to camp, we aren’t going to leave this carcass here to rot.” Katsou was calm under pressure it seemed. His orders brought Izuna back to the situation they were in.

“Izuna! Please turn those eyes off, we don’t know if it counts as Ninjutsu and they are kind of freaking me out.” Yao’s plea surprised him.

“Turn my eyes off?” What was she talking about?” That's when he began to feel the burn in his eyes. They were  “That's the sharingan isn’t it! Tell me Yao, what do my eyes look like?” Izuna was starting to get excited, the thrill of the hunt, the brewing storm, and this new revelation that he had unlocked his legendary bloodline was turning his mood damn near euphoric. His teammate's misfortune was almost forgotten in the onrush of joy, hell, he couldn;t even feel his own bruised bodies protest at his actions through the haze of elation.

“Yes it’s the sharingan, shouldn’t you know that?” Yao was halfway between crying and panicking. She was in the polar opposite mood after this traumatic experience. The confirmation however, only further strengthened Izuna’s ecstatic mood. He practically carried Hiro back to camp by himself.

Hiroko was furious at them. Apparently getting their teammates some life threatening injuries was against standard protocol for this exercise. Izuna figured he should have expected something like this considering he was throwing a bunch of overambitious kids into the forest and expecting them not to try and bring down the biggest animal they could find. Nonetheless he took the Genin’s screaming lecture in stride before informing him of the mighty prize they had felled. The Genin seemed overwhelmed with the sudden information overload, and simply organized the group to recover the boar's carcass before nightfall. They ate well that evening. Izuna was getting kicked off the hunting squad though.

Being on campsite duty sucked. He had no action all day, on the hunt he could put his mind and skills to use, here he was wasted. And what better way to put the joy of unlocking his bloodline to rest then preventing him from training with him for at least another four days. He didn’t want Hiroko to find out he had used the sharingan to bring down the pig, luckily no one in his hunting group had blabbed so far.
Despite his removal from the hunting squad Yao and Katsou were the majority of his social life for the next, relatively uneventful, four days. The three of them simply outclassed everyone else in the group. They had figured out tree climbing and Yao had admitted to him that she and Katsou practiced water walking when hunting around the lake… They hadn’t figured it out yet and Izuna was damned if they beat him to it.

By the end of the exercise Izuna had mixed feelings. He couldn’t say he hadn’t enjoyed the experience. Despite his longing for a shower and his close brush with death, the power and control over his chakra the exercise had given couldn’t be ignored. He had gained valuable experience and increased ability. Not to mention his legendary bloodline was now active. But man did he really need that shower, and a soft bed would top off the end of this “field trip”.

WC 4777
TWC 5835

The sun was beginning to set over the village of Konoha. Izuna was currently making his way through the linear streets of the Uchiha district. He was here to attend the annual fire festival of the legendary shinobi clan, a clan he was a part of no matter how much they wished he wasn’t. He was able to enter into the district this one time every year. The fire festival was open to all Uchiha, bastards with the wrong element or otherwise. He vividly remembered most of the district from his childhood, though it seemed to grow every year. The streets were currently filled with people, all of them looked eerily similar in the way the Uchiha do, not quite as bad as the Hyuuga but still enough for him to be glad of his bastard lineage. Probably the only time he ever felt that way.

He made his way through the reserved crowds. Uchiha would act like Uchiha, even during their greatest festival. He was just planning on having fun for the evening. His Genin exam was coming up and he figured he wouldn't have much free time after he became a proper Shinobi. But for tonight, he would impress his clan and earn some well deserved acknowledgement.

He made his way to the sparring ring, He had timed his arrival at the festival to coincide with the event he most wanted to participate in. The Pre-Nin spars, where the most promising Genin and academy students would spar with taijutsu. Izuna didn’t even care what the winner received, he only cared about demonstrating his ability to the clan. His sharingan would give him a major advantage over the other kids, most of whom would not yet have unlocked it. It would also be a good reason to flex on the class.

But first he wanted to visit old elder Eko, the old man had taught him many things in the last year, since his handy defeat at Onabi’s hands he had taken far more initiative in finding someone to teach him. Eko had been a welcome surprise. A cranky old coot for sure, but a former shinobi who didn’t mind teaching a bastard basic techniques and concepts, it filled his day and Izuna learned the ropes. Despite his unkind attitude the man’s teaching methods were stellar, Izuna had gone from a mediocre student to a very promising Genin candidate in less than a year since he started learning from him, that’s progress.

He made his way to the old man’s residence. He lived alone, He had always lived alone as long as Izuna remembered. He knew his wife had died nearly two decades ago, the man had never been the same since. He knocked on the door politely and spoke up.

“Elder Eko? It's Izuna, I would like to speak with you.” He spoke formally and to the point. The old man wouldn’t tolerate any less, Izuna had never been able to get more than short sentences and one word responses from the man, obviously his screaming reprimands didn’t count.. He didn;t have to wait very long before the door opened and Eko Uchiha was staring him down.

“What’s this about brat?”

“I’m about to take my Genin exam sir. So I wanted to thank you for the many things you taught me even though you had no real reason to.”

The elder looked thoughtful for a second before leveling him with his stare again.

“You would be thanking me plenty by passing the exam and using the knowledge I gave you to serve the village. If you pass your exam, I expect you to still come to me for training, you still have much to learn about the ways of the Uchiha. And if you fail your exam you will be in for the worst disciplinary training of your life. I don’t waste time on failures.” The old man’s hard eyes made every word sound harsh and direct.

Izuna nodded his head at the old man, once. He turned to leave without a goodbye, Eko wouldn’t want one. His heart felt lighter now that he had gotten some confirmation that the old man would continue to train him after being a Genin. Frankly Izuna didn’t think he had scratched the surface of what the man could teach him. He could easily endure the man’s quirks and quick temper in exchange for the knowledge he bestowed on him, though he was far from close to the old man, Izuna still knew he had done the right thing with his thank you speech. Now he had some purebloods to beat up before going back to his last week at the academy. Izuna couldn’t wait to graduate.

He made his way back towards the sparring ring and the rest of the festivities. There was a long road ahead of the young Uchiha, if he thought a controlled loss to a cocky Hyuuga was bad, there were plenty of trials ahead and whether Izuna had the mental fortitude to face them would only be revealed in time. He walked along the tidy streets contemplating the next day’s training session. He hoped it was going to storm.

WC 865
TWC 6700

EXIT
Claims:
1000/1000 False Surroundings Technique C Rank
1000/1000 Hidden Arms
1000/1000 Gigavolt C Rank
1000/1000 Lightning Rod C Rank
1000/1000 Ninjutsu Amplifier C Rank
500/500 Genjutsu Amplifier D Rank
500/500 Thunderclap Arrow D Rank
700/4000 Sharingan Two Tomoe
67 Stats for 6700
15 Vigor
25 Chakra
27 Speed

Approved