Eyes of the Moon

The Academy

Naruto POV

After a long week of training from Gin-Nii and Tenten-Nee it's finally time for me to go to the academy. While I'm not too strong as of right now, I'm definitely stronger than most Genin, with my Kenjutsu being able to press Tenten-Nee, who's been a Genin for a year and is a Kenjutsu specialist. My Taijutsu has blossomed under strict training from Gai-Sensei and Lee-San, I'm now able to keep up with most Chunnin with weights removed and I can keep up with low level Chunnin or high level Genin with them on. I've started learning Fuinjutsu but haven't gone much further than perfecting my calligraphy. The thing I'm most proud of though, is mastery of both my bloodline and a couple of Kekkei Genkai Titan-Nii gave me. He said they were Kekkei Genkai anyone could use if they had a good affinity for them, and luckily I had two: Shadow Release and Plasma Manipulation. When I asked why it was called Plasma Manipulation and not Release he told me that with the manipulation it's much more powerful as it can be freely manipulated for anything, not just for battle. I've learned Shadow style: Element Shuriken and Plasma Manipulation: Thunder Step, making me a speedy heavy hitter, with Element Shuriken being my most destructive technique and Thunder Step being my fastest manoeuvrability technique. In regards to my Bloodlines, I can now summon 5 Chakra chains at once, two Chakra scimitars, 5 Chakra kunai consecutively and a decent Chakra shield. With my Runāaizu I can now freely manipulate my wind and fire elements and am in the beginning stages of the water release. I can also control the Jū ichi-bi Chakra Cloak to move and protect allies, though I can't get it to harm anyone. Apparently it's a purely defensive cloak, which is for the better as I don't have any defensive techniques. Anyway I decided not to bring my Katana or Fuinjutsu sash, wanting not to stick out, but that went out the window the minute I stepped in there, as just about everyone knew about my status as the Yondaime's son. I didn't like the sudden attention, but thankfully my teacher Iruka-Sensei noticed, and told everyone to give me some room. After that incident, the day was quite enjoyable, with Iruka-Sensei giving us an informative speech about what we will be covering, the meaning of being a Shinobi, what we should have and if we couldn't get them then we would be supplied with a set once we graduate and finally how the exams worked.
I found myself enjoying the lessons, having nothing but the utmost respect for the Shinobi of the past and our teacher who treated me like anyone else. When it came to break I was sitting in the shade of a tree when a bug came crawling on my sleeve. I quite liked bugs and creatures, so I decided to give it a gentle pat causing it to rub it's carapace happily against my face, before flying off to a boy with dark hair, sunglasses and a high collar trench coat. After striking up a conversation with him, I learned that he was called Aburame Shino, and apparently his bugs liked me, something I quite liked. I also befriended Yamanaka Ino, a girl I came to respect as while she was an Uchiha Sasuke fangirl, she still her eyes set on her goal, I found we hit it off well which led to me getting to know the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho group of our generation. Nara Shikamru was quite the laid back person who liked to spend his time playing shogi or cloud watching and I wholeheartedly joined in with both. Akimichi Choji was great fun to be around and the two relished the ramne eating contests they would have. However there were a couple of people I didn't like. Uchiha Sasuke being one of them. Being the poster child for pain and being waited on hand and foot had definitely gone to his head, and whenever he saw someone display more skill than him or something he didn't know, he'd demand they teach him with the excuse if him being an elite Uchiha so they should be happy to share. He'd once tried to get me to teach him the secret to my Shadow release since I was practicing my own Jutsu with it at school, while I didn't like him I decided to humour him and tried to teach him the basics, he failed miserably, having no affinity for Shadowmancy. I also didn't like His other teacher, Mizuki. He had an aura of hatred around him when I was near him so thick you could cut it with a kunai. I endured anyway. However I could see some of my classmates were needing help so decked to ask them if they wanted to come by I home to train and revise. To my pleasure I got a couple of yes' them being from Hyuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. I could clearly see that Hinata suffered from lack of nerves and was indebted to me for saving her. Kiba however was the opposite, he was too brash and overconfident at times. I decided to ask Titan-Nii to see if he could help me get them to rub off on each other. He agreed so we set up an excercise where they had to land a singular hit on him each. At first Hinata was scared for fear of accidently harming him but Titan-Nii assured her that even if he did get hurt, he'd heal fast. Kiba was overconfident as usual, seeing that their opponent had Bandages on his eyes. He told Hinata that no matter what happened to him or her the other would have their back. This seemed to bring out her backbone as she slipped into a Jukken stance. To Titan-Nii's credit they soon found it shocking that after a half hour they still hadn't landed a single blow on him and he could see them, even from behind him while he was wearing his bandages. This infuriated Kiba to no end while Hinata encouraged by his words calmed him down and devised a plan. After a good 15 minutes they charged. Kiba used his Ninja Art: Man Beast Mimicry to drive him back into a waiting Hinata whose Juken was able to partially stun him and Kiba took the opportunity to sweep his legs. After that the two of them were ecstatic at their skills and teamwork. But Titan-Nii and I didn't miss the blush on Hinata's face when Kiba slung an arm around her and complimented her. A year passed, and all of us were getting better and better. Ino turned out to have an Earth affinity so Titan taught her some Restrictive Jutsu to keep opponents in place while she used her mind jutsu on them, and if she was out of Chakra, he taught her how to use senbons. Shikamaru had a Shadow affinity so I taught him my Element Shuriken if it comes down to a last resort and taught him how to use a bo staff. Choji had a Steel affinity,so Titan taught him a Biding jutsu that absorbs incoming damage and then channels it out through his attack, and combining it with his clan jutsu, it was a lethal combination, Titan-Nii gave him a shield in case he met a blade wielding opponent he couldn't deflect. Shino had a Light affinity so Titan-Nii taught him a light deflection Jutsu to hide his bugs from view so they could eat the chakra of enemies without their knowledge. He was taught how to use twin sickles. Kiba had a fire affinity, so he was taught a fire claw Jutsu to supplement his Ninja Art, and was give a set of gauntlets that could conduct fire. Hinata had a water affinity, so he helped her created create her own rendition of the Juken, she called it Gentle fist:Flowing tide. She was given a pair of gauntlets that channels water chakra like Kiba's. I trained my abilities and am now able to manipulate all 5 main elements at will with my Runāaizu. I'm also able to hold it for longer, the longest being 2 hours. We were resting after a strenuous training session when Ino voiced the question we were all asking.