(April, year 51 AK)
The next day as Yuta was idling around early in the morning and resting after overexerting himself during the past week, he overheard that today is the day when the Ninja Academy will hold an entry exam for the new students.
As of how he overheard it, it was the two older boys, Atsushi Tashiro and Naoto who don't have a family name, are boasting about entering the Ninja Academy non-stop for a while now, it's just that Yuta didn't pay any attention to it before.
Atsushi and Naoto are the only ones among the older kids who didn't disappear that night, there are also a few kids who are four to five years old, and the rest are the youngest ones.
As for why Naoto doesn't have a family name, that is quite common in the village to not have one, especially among the orphanage kids. Sometimes the whereabouts of the prior family of a kid are unknown, and if the kid doesn't know his full name or is too young to know it, the orphanage gives a new name to the kid, just the first name without the family name of course.
Later on, when such a person without a family name starts a family of their own, they would take the family name of their spouse or in the case when both spouses don't have one, they'll pick one themselves.
Soon, after some thought Yuta approached Chitose, who was about to leave with two kids for the academy.
"Hey, Koba-san, can I go with you to the academy, please?" Yuta said hesitantly.
"Huh, get lost!" Atsushi, who was beside Chitose, hastily interjected mockingly, "Go run circles as you usually do or whatever! This is my time to shine, you are not stealing it from me! You are not even old enough to enter the academy!", Atsushi said with superiority, while Naoto just stood there silently as if he didn't care.
"Don't be rude, Atsushi." Chitose reprimanded him, she looked at Yuta with a stern look and hesitated for a second, then as if she remembered something, she finally said, "You can come along, Yuta, but we won't be back for a long while, even if you get bored or tired you would still have to follow me and behave."
"I will! Thanks, Koba-san!" Yuta replied enthusiastically.
"Hey, it isn't fair!" Atsushi blurted out, "Why is he allowed to come?"
"Because I said so." Chitose stated, "Now let's get going."
"Don't think you've won! You'll regret this!" Atsushi said to Yuta with anger and turned around to follow Chitose without waiting for a response, "Come Naoto, just ignore this fool!". As Atsushi said that, Naoto snorted at Yuta and followed him.
'Sigh, kids... It's weirding me out to even try to pretend to be on their level of stupidity. My current strategy to outright ignore other kids is proven to be the best one. Even if it results in me being ostracized from the group, I'm all for it if the alternative is to interact and spend time with the likes of them...'
'Did I become arrogant and think that I'm better than them? They are obsessed with becoming ninjas, all they could talk about is "ninja this" and "ninja that", and everyone knows that physical training is bread and butter of any shinobi, but did they ever put even the slightest effort to train? Of course not! Am I better than them? You bet I am! But I also know that there would be plenty of kids who would be better than me if I don't grasp my Time Control ability soon...'
...
'After all, according to that window in the black void, my overall shinobi talent will be "average", whatever that means. I did choose it myself to get the Time Control after all. And I don't have any bloodlines, that are the foundation of power for many shinobi, there are strong shinobi without bloodlines too, but having a strong bloodline and not having one is a world of difference...'
'Chitose, I didn't actually believe she would allow me to go along, I just asked because I was bored and it worth a shot... Even if she looked tough and stern all the time, maybe she isn't that bad after all...'
With those thoughts, Yuta followed Chitose and the two older boys outside the orphanage. The orphanage was in a residential area with scattered old wooden houses with a lot of space in between, occupied by trees and parks.
As the company of one old woman and three kids went down the street, they soon passed the residential area and followed the road with a forest on both sides of it.
"Are we still in the village? Why is there such a big forest here?" Atsushi asked confusedly.
"This is a one of the many training grounds of the village." Chitose replied as they walked, "Ninjas use them for training all the time. Our orphanage located on the outskirts of the village, and the further you are from the village's center, the less populated the area becomes."
"The Ninja Academy is in the center of the village, right? Are we going to make it on time? I don't want to be late on my first day of the academy!" Atsushi said worriedly.
"There is enough time, we will be there in an hour, right before the entrance ceremony starts." Chitose said.
Soon they passed the forest, then a few more small areas with sparsely spaced houses and a few more small forests and even a clearing with a lake, apparently all of those are the training grounds for shinobi. As they go, the area becomes more and more packed with buildings, there are gradually more people on the streets and less training grounds.
After a half an hour of walking they entered the village's central area densely packed with two to five stories buildings made from wood, there are stalls with street food every here and there, small restaurants, shops of all kinds. And the closer they went to the center of the village, the more it looked like a bustling town and less like a village.
'Konoha feels much bigger that I thought!' Yuta was thinking while they keep going, 'From the memories of the original Yuta, I know the way around a few streets from his home to the kids' playgrounds nearby, and a little bit around that area, but that was only a tiny bit of the village.'
As Yuta looked around, he spotted a couple of weapon shops in the area. He really wanted to go and take a look at their wares but sadly he wasn't able to do so right now.
'When we return to the orphanage I should ask Chitose for permission to go outside and look around the village, usually kids aren't allowed to go outside by themselves, but who knows, maybe after this trip she would allow me to do so.'
...
'Now that I'm thinking about it, there are no kids in the orphanage older than these two. I get it that almost everyone enters the Ninja Academy under Chitose's not so subtle encouragement, but some of them tend to fail the entry exam and some of them might decide to not become shinobi, I wonder what happens to those kids, if they aren't in my orphanage, then where are they?'
"Look, kids, there is a Hokage Tower!" Chitose said in a hoarse voice with a bit of awe and pride in it.
Yuta looked at the huge square filled with all sorts of people, but all the people had one thing in common – they all had kids with them of around six years old, all those kids are at least a whole head taller than Yuta. On the far end of the square stood a huge and tall circular building that Yuta vaguely recognized from his memories of the anime from past life.
'It's a huge crowd huh, it's at least a couple thousands of people, interesting, how many kids are enrolling this year I wonder... And if there is someone important among them... I don't remember which year Itachi Uchiha is supposed to enter the academy, but it should be one of these years...'
'In anime there was shown only one class with around twenty kids in it, but I guess it is much more than that each year, there are at least a few hundred kids here for the academy.'
"Beside the Hokage Tower is the Ninja Academy." Chitose said as she led them deeper into the crowd in the square, "Stay close and don't wander off!" She added sternly.
She led them to a place with a bunch of other kids and a few adults, there was a clear distinction between this group and the rest of the people in the square, as there is clearly no parents leading them but rather a few adults, Yuta assumed they are all from the orphanages across the village.
"Stand here and do not go anywhere!" Chitose said in a commanding tone and vent to the group of adults to chat.
Yuta looked around and saw a wooden platform that stood far away from them, people in the area mostly looked in that direction, waiting for something.
"Hey! Aren't you too young for the academy?" Yuta heard a boy's voice beside him.
"Huh?" As Yuta turned around, he saw a taller boy scoffing at him.
"That fool?" Yuta heard Atsushi's mocking voice beside him, "He just begged for permission to come along! Humph, just ignore him."
As the two loud boys start discussing and mocking Yuta further, making a scene, other kids also voiced some comments about it, but as Yuta was sure those kids wouldn't dare to throw hands right here, he just ignored them and resumed his observation of the area.
'I can't see much from here, but in a far distance away I can see the people from clans, but it's too far away to recognize anyone among them...'
After a couple more minutes the crowd suddenly went silent, and everyone started paying close attention to the wooden platform at the far end.
As Yuta looked over to the platform, he saw a person in white and red, and with a big red hat, as well as a couple of people in a shinobi attire.
The platform was a very far away, and Yuta thought he won't hear anything from here, but the next second a calm and friendly voice of an old man resounded through the whole square, it wasn't loud but Yuta was able to hear it clearly, as if the old man was standing just a few meters in front of him.
"Welcome everyone on this joyful day!" The old man said, Yuta wasn't able to see him clearly but at this point he knew it was the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, "Our great village faced many struggles, but today, on this great day, when a new generation enter the Ninja Academy, we stand together, stronger than ever before!"
Everyone on the square listens attentively to the Hokage, Yuta included. There was something calming and reassuring in the Hokage's voice. But as time flies, Yuta's attention started to waver and eventually he get bored, after that he realized that Hiruzen talking on and on about the greatness of the Konoha village, the hopes for a new generation and things like that, but not much of value actually was being said, he just repeating the same thing over and over again just with different words.
Yuta glanced around him and saw the faces of the kids, adults, and on every face he saw awe and respect, everyone he could see around him was catching every word Hiruzen was saying with utmost attention.
'This feels weird, I feel like I stumbled into a cult or something...' With that thought Yuta pretended to pay close attention to the Hokage and made an effort to blend in with the crowd.
--- AN ---
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