Second Chance

Chapter 12: Woah! Hold Up

(1 week later - Classroom - 2 PM)

This is the time that some students dread. To those who like history, Russia or anything related to it, the class discussion would probably make them ecstatic. To those who doesn't like history, the lesson would seem like another irrelevant stuff that they have to deal with. Most girls would have gotten bored or asleep at this point, but they are not. Reason? Their history teacher is guy in his mid-twenties who got a model like look and posture. In short, their teacher is quite handsome.

Since Obito is the only male in the class, with real war experience, he should be interested in the lesson, but as everyone knows, Obito, like Naruto, hates history lessons. Strangely, the content of the discussion had managed to pique his attention.

"It was said that the Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in the history. That is justifiable because the city of Stalingrad was under attack for at least five months. The buildings saw a lot of brutal hand-to-hand combat between the Soviet troops and German soldiers..."

Obito is listening intently to what his teacher says. He had not heard such atrocities before. Of course, he had known about the Yellow Flash turning the tides of the Third Shinobi War all by himself, teleporting straight into the enemy camps and slaughtering the enemy ninja. The future 4th Hokage would just make quick kills and not waste time, then teleport to either the next enemy position or to Konoha. It was clean, fast, and efficient. On the other hand, the Battle of Stalingrad was pure hell. Contaminated water systems, winter, lack of food, destroyed buildings, brutal hand-to-hand combat, and diseases were just some of the reasons why it is considered hell.

"...In the middle of the five-month long battle, the Soviet Union launched Operation Uranus, a massive Soviet counter offensive. The operation included a massive two-prong attack along the flanks of the Germans and it resulted to the encirclement of an entire German army..."

'The books say that the German 6th Army has around 280,000 men. If the entire army was encircled, then that would mean capture or certain death.' Obito mused to himself, clearly fascinated at how the battle turned out.

"Hey, Obito. I know you are wondering about the 6th army as well, but, were there any efforts to save the army from certain destruction? I mean, 280,000 lives are certainly not few." Chiyo whispered to her seatmate.

"I know, but damn, that was one hell of counter offensive. Kudos to the Soviets." Obito replied, his voice slightly louder than usual because of his piqued interest.

"Oi, you're making sound like the Soviets were good guys, don't you know of the other atrocities they did?"

"They aren't certainly good. Yeah they did a lot of bad things as well, but they did it because they are told to. What was their country again?"

"Soviet Union, I think the full name is Union of Soviet Sociali-" Chiyo is cut off from explaining to Obito as she soon found her teacher looking at them.

"Hey, you two, Obito and Chiyo, you seem engrossed in your conversation back there, do you understand our lesson or do you have any questions?" The teacher spoke with a slight smirk.

"Uhh yes sensei, were there any efforts to rescue the encircled German army?" Obito spoke out, even though it was Chiyo who started their little conversation. She was still flushed at this since their names were called for a not so good reason.

"Well yes, there are rescue efforts, but only a small amount were rescued. The Luftwaffe planned to keep the army supplied by paradropping vital supplies to them, but still, it was not effective. The Axis forces farther out tried to relieve the trapped 6th Army but things did not work out as well. Thank you for pointing out that important detail, well, any more questions?" Their teacher answered enthusiastically. He explained and simplified everything so that his students would understand the lesson.

"Alright class, this topic is quite long and time-consuming so we will just continue our discussion tomorrow, class dismissed."

"Uhh Chiyo, what were you saying again?" Obito resumes their conversation.

"The country's full name is Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. Sometimes, you will see СССР instead of USSR because their language and alphabet is different." Chiyo replied.

"Woah! We, are, speaking Japanese, right? As you guys call it. We also speak Japanese in the Elemental Nations, though it sounds and looks somewhat ancient. Then, I heard about English language being used all around. I always manage to get the gist of English texts even though I haven't studied much of it yet. Then, you tell me, there is another language here? Just how many languages does this world have?"

"Obi-kun don't make a fuss about it.
There are quite a lot of languages here, such as, German, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Arabic, and others. USSR used Russian as its official language. Just search it in the library or online, I heard Russian is quite popular and interesting these days. I think it is because of their national anthem or some jokes or memes." She replied cheerfully at his amazed reaction.

"Well, thats interesting but I gotta go now, see ya around."

"You too Obito, byeee."

Their class still has a discussion about Stalingrad tomorrow and the first thing the Uchiha did is look for some Russian books in the library. He asked the librarian for any Russian book, article, or text they have, but sadly, there is no Russkiy material around so he just resorted to his most trustworthy partner in studies, the Internet.

"Hehe, lets see what this Russian language is all about..." He said to himself, interest and curiosity evident on his voice. After a few seconds, results popped up. And he stared at it, as if it was Rin.

"Its just like English, whats so different about it. Wait, wtf, hold up... These look like symbols or some shit. This letter (Ж) looks like some sort seal, this one (Ш) looks like the markings on Gaara's gourd..." He was so dumbfounded. What he thought was another easy language for him to learn is actually quite difficult. Unfamiliar characters, new sounds, rules and stuff. He will study it later on.

"Ok ok, now onto their national anthem."
The good boy clicks a video, and then, a red flag with yellow hammer and sickle pops up, the music starts.

Soyuz nerushimy respublik svobodnykh
Splotila naveki velikaya Rus'!
Da zdravstvuyet sozdanny voley narodov
Yediny, moguchy Sovetsky Soyuz!
Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
Druzhby narodov nadyozhny oplot...

"Woah, their music is quite catchy. And it certainly sounds so patriotic and inspiring. I wish we have something like this in the Elemental Nations. A song or music that represents a country and a hidden village."

Obito Uchiha has decided. Russian is very interesting and he will learn it, no matter what happens.