‘Has it nearly been a year already?’ Hiro sighed as he leaned back in the uncomfortable chair provided by the academy, ignoring whatever Yuto sensei was talking about as usual.
Today was his birthday in this life and it brought nothing but bad feelings. It reminded him of his old birthday. Both lives shared the same birthday, February 25th. Hiro had long determined that that had been no coincidence, but it was useless to ponder over. He had long decided to forget about everything personal regarding his old life. It would do nothing but hurt him.
Next month it will have been a year since he woke up and three months since Kushina agreed to teach him, but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed in his progress. If he were to bet on it, he would say that every kid from a clan could beat him in combat. Sure, nobody was better than him at fuinjutsu, but nobody in his class even practiced it!
He was a middle-of-the-road aspiring ninja, nothing special at all. This was good—as he wished to remain unseen—but he wanted to be a secret master. There was no secret! He was an average student!
“What’s the matter?” Hiro looked over to see a concerned-looking girl with black hair and green eyes. Hiro looked confused, prompting her to elaborate. ”You look upset.”
Hiro whispered back, “Don’t worry about it.”
She was visibly upset at this comment.
Hiro recognized her. She was top of the class—and probably set to be rookie of the year. What was her name again? It probably was not important. What was surprising was that she wasn’t from any clan that he could tell, he probably would have remembered her name if she had been.
The class grades are based on six categories: ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, cooperation, positivity, and class attitude. She had good results on five—she was sure to let everyone know it—as taijutsu hadn’t been tested yet, but would be sometime at the end of the semester according to Yuto sensei. The other three were based on the knowledge of theory.
Yuto clapped his hands as he realized the class attention had slipped from his grasp. “Pay attention, I have an announcement. Starting next week through the end of that week we will begin the taijutsu examinations.” He could clearly see the classroom light up, some students more eager-looking than others. “Do your best because this will be worth one-sixth of your entire grade. You are dismissed for lunch.”
Hiro plopped down at his usual spot outside. A certain swing under a tree out in front of the academy. He had his usual lunch: onigiri.
Emi, rank one in the class sat down in front of him on the ground and crossed her legs.
“Can I help you?”
“What happened to you? It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”
Hiro was confused. This girl acted as if she knew him but he couldn’t remember her. Was she someone that the old Hiro knew?
Hiro decided to play it safe and pretend as if he remembered her. “Ah, sorry bout that. I’ve just been super busy these days.”
The girl was thoroughly confused. Just because you’ve been busy doesn’t mean you can act as if someone doesn’t exist. Ever since she had been with him in the academy he was such a loner. Nobody knew what he did, and he wouldn’t speak to anyone.
“If you don’t want to talk to me then just say that. I missed you ever since I was adopted, but I was so happy once I found that we were in the same class at the academy, you’re so alone now.” The girl had tears welling up in her eyes, which made Hiro feel sorry for the little girl.
Hiro could now gather some things about this girl as she provided context. They must have been friends from the orphanage until she was adopted and her adoptive parents sent her to the academy.
“Emi,” Hiro remembered her now. She was technically the first person he had spoken to. He now understood why she made it a priority to say goodbye to him when she was adopted around a year ago. He wasn’t worried about it at the time because he never thought he would see her again.
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“Yes, it’s Emi Fuma now though. My parents are from the Fuma clan.”
‘No wonder she’s top of the class. She has the resources of the Fuma clan at her disposal.’ Hiro could not remember much about the Fuma clan from the original story other than they were skilled at kenjutsu. Perhaps they are a dying clan and need children.
“The Fuma clan? Does that mean you are skilled with the sword?”
“My dad says I am prodigious, that means good,” Emi explained.,
“I know what that means, I’m not a child.” Hiro deadpanned.
Emi could do nothing but look at him oddly in response before changing the subject, “How come you’re so busy?”
“I have to train a lot.”
“Ugh. Me too. My parents train me all day it feels like. Who trains you?”
Hiro thought about that for a second. ‘Kushina and Minato told me that I can’t tell anyone that she is training me. I guess it’s to protect me. Nevertheless, I don’t particularly wish to tell anyone either.’
“I just train alone.”
They continued to converse until lunch was over and they had to resign to the classroom.
--------
.
“Yo, Kushina I'm here for today’s lesson,” Hiro announced as he walked through the front door. “Are we gonna move onto a steel cube today? How about we do shurikenjutsu, I’m bored of the cube exercise.”
Recently, Kushina has been making Hiro apply seals to a wooden cube to make it stick to a surface on command, similar to chakra adhesion. He had mastered that and now she should be showing him how to do it with heavier objects.
“Nope, not today kid. Where do you want to eat?” Kushina said as she rounded the corner to the hallway at the entrance, dressed as if she were going somewhere. “You didn’t think you could hide your birthday from me, did you?”
Hiro was floored. How did she figure out his birthday was today? He quickly added that to the long list of things he couldn’t understand that was probably “ninja stuff”.
“Uh, what? We aren’t gonna do any tutoring today?”
“Nope! Pick a place, it’s on me.”
“I don’t eat out. I have no clue where to go.”
“What!? C’mon you know a place just tell me.”
“Umm… There’s this place I always wanted to try.” Hiro hesitated as he realized that it may not even be open yet, but it was too late. “Ichiraku Ramen. Have you ever heard of it?”
“That place is so good! That place is a total hole in the wall, but it is the best ramen in the entire Hidden Leaf. Who knew you had such good taste? It seems the student inherits more than skill from the master.” Kushina was excited by Hiro’s suggestion.
“I just heard about it, I’ve never tried it before.”
“That's odd, the place doesn’t get a lot of business.” Kushina pondered before getting back on track. “Hurry up we gotta meet Minato there in five.”
“Five?! We’ll never make it in time!” Hiro said in a panic. “Not only that, how is Minato gonna know that we’re eating at Ichiraku? I just decided that.”
“Nothing stays hidden in the Hidden Leaf Village from the Hokage. He’ll be there and he’ll be there on time.” Kushina said confidently. “As for time, consider this a part of your training. No good ninja is afraid of heights.”
Hiro looked confused for a moment before Kushina snatched him up and began sprinting from rooftop to rooftop.
“Don’t do that again,” Hiro said as seriously as his six-year-old body could muster.
“Pfft. Chill out brat. You’re lucky I didn’t use a Shunshin.” Kushina said as they stood outside of Ichiraku.
“Minato should be here any-”
“Hey guys, I’m not late am I?” Minato said after appearing in a flash behind Kushina.
Hiro looked at Minato suspiciously, ‘Did he just teleport to Kushina when it was time to meet or did he use that pervy crystal ball to know where we are?’
“Hey Teuchi, Hey little Ayame! How have you guys been? I haven’t been here in a while.” Minato said as he pushed aside the curtains and entered the stand. The other two followed suit.
“Hey Minato, Kushina. Are you guys going to have the usual?” The slit-eyed man with a chef’s hat said.
“Yes sir. We brought along someone else today. Say hello to Hiro Tanaka. We’re treating him for his birthday.” Kushina answered.
“Hello. I’ll just have whatever she’s having.” Hiro greeted himself curtly as he pointed at Kushina.
“It’s your birthday young man? In that case, allow me to cover your meal.” Teuchi smiled.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that Teuchi, we were gonna pay for it,” Kushina interjected.
“Oh. In that case, I’ll let you handle it. I have no qualms in making the rich pay.” Teuchi said a little too eagerly.
Minato just laughed at this sight before calming his hot-headed wife down while they waited for the ramen to be done.
“Here you go. Three miso ramen bowls with extra pork.” Teuchi said before leaning in, “So did you guys go crazy and adopt a child? Who is this young man?”
“No, he is a talented student that I found at the academy. Kushina is tutoring him.” Minato explained. “We are far too busy to adopt a child right now. After all Kushina’s pregnant. You didn’t hear that though.”
Teuchi nodded and made a zipping motion across his lips which were curling upwards.
Hiro was shocked. He swiftly looked up at Kushina to see if she was going to snap at Minato for revealing such a secret. Not even he had been told about that. Although he had already known. Much to his surprise Kushina was not upset with Minato as she didn’t even bother looking up from her bowl. This couple must have trusted this man, and Kushina must have trusted Minato to tell whoever he deemed fit to know.
‘That explains why Teuchi was so kind to Naruto. He knew his parents all along! I bet Kushina comes here all the time. If memory serves correctly, he even attended Naruto's wedding—and gave him free ramen for life.’
Minato pointed at Hiro, “Now you can’t tell anyone about this okay? I’m trusting you.”
‘You should be telling that to Kakashi. He’s the one who accidentally slipped that info to Obito.’ Hiro quickly erased that thought from his head. He wasn’t even going to think about that.
“Yeah, that makes sense. I did notice she was looking a little fat.” Hiro said nonchalantly as he hid his smile by lifting the ramen bowl to drink the rest of it.
Needless to say, a welp was soon developed on top of his head and ramen juice was spilled everywhere.