'...'

'And it's empty.'

Figures, getting here an hour early was excessive even for someone who hates being late as much as myself, it'd be weird if I wasn't the first to arri-

*Rustle rustle*

I heard the unmistakable sound of a packet of chips being rummaged through, it was a sound I was intimately familiar with considering how many of them I've put away myself.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I asked out loud to what I previously believed was an empty classroom.

A head popped up from behind the very last bench, soon followed by an entire body springing up with a bounce.

"OH! Somebody's here! Hello!" waved a child from the other side of the classroom.

The kid stood at a similar height to me and had a mop of sand-coloured hair held up by his headband which stopped it from spilling over to his face. He had a wide smile on his face as he pushed through a couple of chairs to reach me.

The dull classroom's colours made him stick out quite a bit, he sported a grey shirt with a purple vest-like garment layered on top of it, the ensemble was completed with a pair of bright orange pants. Other than his strange fashion sense, there was one other thing that stuck out to me when I saw him walk on over.

'Definitely an Akimichi.'

The kid was rather "rotund" in shape, although despite this, he moved with grace not expected of someone his size.

"My name's Aoki, what's yours?" I asked with a smile, extending a handshake to the kid.

He seemed to light up at my introduction, he grabbed my hands with both of his and shook them enthusiastically, I noticed that they were both a bit greasy from this snack he must've been eating.

"My name's Kuro-"

*SLAM!*

The door flung open with a bang, causing those of us in the room to rocket our heads towards the entrance in surprise.

"Oh, there's people here already," said the intruder.

Kuro-something and I observed the newcomer, it was another child also similar in height to me, except this one was rather thin. The boy had black hair and black eyes reminiscent of an Uchiha, the most striking feature he had was a scar on his chin that travelled up to his left eye.

I noticed that he had oddly shaped bracers on his arms and legs, they looked like multiple tubes tied together into a cylinder. Another unusual part of his getup was the fact that he had more than twice the amount of pouches on his belt than me; just how many Shurikens was the kid carrying?

"Huh? They seriously put me on a team with Kuroda?" The boy said as he noticed the kid standing next to me, his words laced with ill-hidden distaste.

Kuroda stayed silent and averted his eyes for a moment, not responding to the boy's obvious provocation.

The kid didn't say anything more to Kuroda and locked his gaze on me, studying me for a second before introducing himself.

"My names Ichiban, Ichiban Fuma."

I ignored that whole interaction between my two teammates and introduced myself with a smile on my face, extending my hand to the kid.

Ichiban looked at my outstretched palm for a moment before sighing dramatically and squeezing past me, he took a seat on one of the many chairs in the classroom with a relaxed posture.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Before I could say anything, the boy began speaking again.

"Look, you seem like a nice kid Aoki, so I'll be frank. Since I haven't met you yet, you must be younger than me, so I'm sure you're excited 'cause you got to graduate early and you're all hopped up on how talented you think you are, but I'm going to make something very clear..."

He put his feet on the table in front of him and folded his arms over each other with a confident smirk.

"I, the future head of the Fuma clan, am going to be the leader of this team!" He stuck a thumb at himself and grinned.

'...'

I didn't say anything for a moment, but internally I was chock full of a mixture between shock and celebration. Shock as I never imagined in my wildest dreams that he'd barge in and immediately start spouting horseshit from his mouth, and celebration because I finally encountered something I only ever dreamed of meeting.

'I finally found one...I never thought I'd see it in person! The legendary young master trope! It's real!'

Kuroda seemed to have worked up the courage to talk and walked up to Ichiban, "Ichi, don't you think that we should all try and get to know each other first? I think that'd be nice..."

Ichiban just scoffed and ignored Kuroda, looking at me instead, "See Aoki? Listen to me and follow along if you don't want to turn out like... that." He motioned over to Kuroda with a flick of his neck.

'Kid's even comically unempathetic like a real young master, this has gotta be the most cliche thing to happen to me since being transmigrated...' I thought, noticing how the poor Kuroda seemed downtrodden after getting ignored and made fun of by Ichiban.

Even if I was making light of the situation in my head, I was taking his words very seriously. I've dealt with my fair share of bullies in my past life, whether it was during the short amount of times I went to school, or during chance encounters.

They all had one thing in common.

'I've always wanted to beat the shit outta one.'

Kids like this can't be reasoned with, the fact that he came in here with a plan to "become the leader" and started off by disparaging his teammates shows the lack of logic and self-awareness the kid has. Even given his obvious foolishness, I still figured that I'd try my best to negotiate for peace.

"Ichiban, regardless of what's happened between you and Kuroda before, we should do our best to get along with each other. Since we're going to be on the same team from now on, we should all do our best to be friends!" I said with an amicable smile on my face.

I still have the pride of an adult, and as one, I mustn't allow myself to fall to the level of a child due to such simple provocation.

"What did you just say to me? Sorry to be blunt Aoki, but a civilian like you has no idea how ninja teams are supposed to work. Do you think you're better than me because you graduated earlier than I did? Let me tell you this then, the only reason I didn't graduate *EVEN* earlier than you did was 'cause my Clan wanted me to wait, so pipe down alright? Even Kuroda who's part of a clan knows his place. You should too." He said with an ugly expression.

It was really hard to not have my smile splinter into a scowl, the more he spoke, the closer it got to fracturing.

'Young master levels over 9000, holy shit.'

I'm pretty sure he has some sort of inferiority complex due to me graduating earlier than he did, the kids mentioned it twice in the last minute. Arrogance combined with that level of pride is a dangerous combo for ninja.

My words won't mean jack-shit to him, the level of cockyness he has is beyond anything I've ever seen, I'd wager that even Yakumi would be nicer to his teammates at the first meeting than this little shit.

If honeyed words and logic don't affect him, something more drastic has to be done. I need to nip this problem in the bud ASAP, lest the team dynamics solidify and this becomes acceptable.

I was about to dismantle his argument when I heard a light *POOMF* in the background, the sound was so faint that I barely registered it. However, it was too familiar to ignore. The other kids didn't seem to catch it, it seems my enhanced senses surpass even clan kids.

'Ah... I see...' I stopped my eyes from widening as the two were looking at me expectantly for a reply, I didn't want to tip them off.

After a moment of thinking, I came up with a theory as to the sound's origin. I wasn't 100% sure if I was correct, but it gave me an excuse to put a little more venom into my words than I was going to before; I threw caution to the wind and just went for it.

Keeping a smile on my face, I replied to him, Kuroda's eyes threatening to fall out of his sockets as he heard what I said.

"You have a lot of pride in a clan that's just a budget version of the Uchiha, I wonder, in which year that I skipped did you learn how to be that delusional? Or were you just born that way?"

When I tell you the kid's head snapped to me, I mean that with no hyperbole. The boy moved like a damn action figure.

Ichiban slowly rose up from his seat, his words were slow and heavy, laced with as much anger as he could muster.

"... What did you just say to me? How dare you... you piece of-"

*SLAM!*

The door which had already taken a beating from Ichiban's entrance got smacked into the wall once again as a foot almost broke it off its hinges.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"