The young kids around me "Ooohh"'ed and "Ahhh"ed at the Hokage's disappearing act, I instead was appreciating his trick; using a shadow clone not only saved him time as he didn't have to come to the Academy, but it also let him leave dramatically.

Most kids started to talk amongst themselves, not wanting to be left out I looked for Sasuke but the baldie had abandoned me! From a little far away I could see Sasuke's bald head stick out like a sore thumb as he followed a group of kids being herded by an adult, all of them being shorter than him made him stick out even more. I wanted to go and talk with him but I was stopped by a middle-aged lady who stepped in front of me.

"Go to your teacher, this place is for first years only," she said sternly.

"Ma'am I am a first-year!" I replied, confused as to why I was being told to leave.

The lady shot an eyebrow up, "You? First year?" she asked again.

I simply nodded to which she shrugged her shoulders and asked me to stay there, herding another group of kids away.

Group by group, children seemed to leave and after a few minutes, only 60 or so kids remained in the once-populated area. None of us were talking to each other save a few who looked like they knew each other beforehand, before things could get too awkward however, a man wearing a forehead protector with the leaf village symbol on it arrived.

"Alright, first years follow me," he said, we all started to follow the man but he glanced back and looked at me, singling me out. "This is for first years only" he said, giving me another stern look similar to the lady.

Now, even more confused than before, I told him that I was also a first-year. He looked surprised for a second before shrugging and continuing to lead us. I was wondering why two people had already questioned my place in the group, but that was before I looked around and noticed that the other kids were also staring at me.

It didn't take long for me to realise the reason.

'Shorties… they're all super short…' I noticed.

The tallest one of the bunch was a kid with black eyes squinting at me, and I was almost a head taller than the boy.

I spent all my time around Sasuke and I was similar in height to him, considering that he was tall for his age, I must've stuck out among younger kids especially.

'Heh…' For some reason I felt smug about that fact... that's right, crane your neck up to look at me plebians.

We arrived at what looked like an open field with markers laid about, other than the man who led us, three other adults sported similar headbands and clothing were also there, clipboards in hand.

The man who led us introduced himself as Jinbei and split us into four groups, ordering us to stand beside one of the three ninjas waiting in the field while another group followed him.

I was assigned to a gruff-looking young woman who looked at us with a petrifying gaze, she made us fall in line and spaced each of us a metre from another. I stifled a smile that threatened to spread across my face and did as she said so; the thrill of joining the Academy was stronger than ever.

"Now… drop down and give me 20."

Stifling my smile got a hell of a lot harder.

-----

After the push-ups which we were asked to do more and more of until no one was able to complete them, it was running circuits, sit-ups, and now I was at the final test, a race.

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I managed to do 100 pushups and would've kept going, but the instructor asked me to stop and move on to the next rotation with my group, the other kids were tired and eyeing me curiously as I had done them with little effort, but I didn't pay them much attention for now.

I honestly considered hiding some of my capabilities but that idea was foolish, Hiruzen already knew what my abilities consisted of thanks to the reports that Tokei was probably making, if my abilities are inconsistent then he may come to conclusions I'd rather he not. Also… hiding my strength was boring.

I'm sure that one day I'll have secrets I need to keep and cards I'll hold close to my chest but this was not the time for that.

The kids started talking to me after I got first place in the sit-up competition, I naturally talked with them also but they were a little strange.

"Woah… hey dude do you have abs? My dad's a ninja and he told me that the very best ninja can cut fruits with their stom-" a blue-haired pipsqueak started blabbering to me a short while ago.

"Your red eyes… are you an Uchiha?" a girl with a serious expression asked.

"That was so cool! Hey hey, wanna be friends?!" asked a blondie with unusually large eyes.

The strangest interaction I had however was a pair of kids with black hair and dark eyes that glared at me, it seemed like they wanted to talk to me but held their tongue; the dark-haired boy's glare was particularly familiar as he had been eyeing me since we were in a group with all the first-years.

I tried to talk to those who spoke to me as best I could but the instructor for the race blew his whistle and called us to attention. This was Jinbei, the same man who had ushered us to the field in the first place.

"When I whistle, go. Until then… stay," he said in a tone rich with gravitas.

'A man of few words huh…' I thought.

Jinbei stood about 6'3 and had close-cropped grey hair that was nearly trimmed; the scar across his right cheek only completed the badass ensemble the man sported. He stood at the starting line and there was a clone of him at the finish line, 500 metres away, holding a stopwatch.

"…" The man said nothing as he looked at all of us individually, the whistle was still in his mouth so we were all ready to move at a moment's notice.

"…"

"..."

"..."

'This is getting ridic-"

*TWEEEET!*

Instantly, everyone broke out into a sprint, rushing forward to reach the finish line. I held nothing back and drove my feet into the ground, kicking the dirt back and flew forward.

I looked around me and was surprised to see that there were kids who hadn't fallen behind me yet, namely the two black-haired children and the blue-haired boy from before who all were a metre or so behind me.

I kept up the pace, pushing myself to go even faster, satisfied at the fact that the thumps of their feet were getting further and further behind me, I think I even heard them start to grunt as they pushed themselves but I paid them no mind.

It was no competition, I reached the finish line before any were close. I stared back at them running with all their might to catch up to me, strangely, some small part of me wanted to goad and mock them.

'I'm getting cocky… let's tone it down.' I noticed my behaviour and subdued it, I wasn't used to winning any type of physical competition, it was an intoxicating feeling to know that you were objectively superior to others in any one measure of value. The fact that I'd be gloating to children also helped me shoot down ideas of bragging easier.

Second place was the dark-haired boy who chased me, and third went to the blue-haired short stack who had a dumb smile on his face, celebrating his placing. The dark-haired girl got fourth and was positively fuming, it seemed she didn't expect this outcome.

Jinbei seemed to record our data on a notepad, something that every other instructor also did.

Afterwards, the instructors all ushered us into a large lecture hall, they introduced it as the Assembly hall where large-scale meetings of students would sometimes take place. Jinbei stood at the centre of the hall and explained the process of attending the Academy, what was expected of us, the names of the other instructors and what we could expect in the coming days.

I eagerly soaked up all the information, I'd never attended a school in person before so this was a new experience for me.

"We're going to leave class by class, when you hear an instructor call your name, huddle around them" Jinbei ordered.

"Aoki," Jinbei called out, shocking me upright as I was the first one on the list.

I huddled up next to him as he and the rest of the instructors called upon the students, after we were separated into groups, Jinbei led us outside the room and into a hallway that had various photos of ninjas, teachers, students and there was even a portrait of Hiruzen.

Jinbei stopped in front of an innocuous-looking door and turned around, stopping the group and scrutinising us for a moment before attempting a… a smile? It looks more like he's stretching his lips as far as he could but the sentiment was there.

"Welcome to my class children. Your life as a student begins now."