"Alright class we'll start with some history lessons today…" The teacher called out after his lecture of Hiruzen's speech, making Obito who was beside Rin, let out a groan inwardly. The Uchiha hated history with a passion, it made him sleep when his Obā-chan tried to drill their clan history into his thick skull.
The teacher went through his text book lesson, while he tried not to pull his hair out in frustration to not fall asleep from that thrice damned history lecture. His cheeks puffed up childishly in annoyance seeing many of the kids around him had already dozed off halfway through the long lecture and turned his eyes to his side.
He wasn't that surprised at seeing Kajirama and Rin paying rapt attention to the lecture as if it was the most interesting thing they had done all morning and he frowned seeing Rin jot down little notes in her notebook in between the teacher's pauses.
"Only these guys can pay so much attention to these boring lectures…" He pouted to himself and slammed his head on his desk to keep himself awake through the lecture. Rin opened up her book for reference, seeing many little side notes written there which were quite helpful to her as well as gave her some additional knowledge on the topics being explained, while she kept up with both the book and their sensei in full attention.
The teacher looked up when he heard a small yawn only to see half his class asleep and sighed tiredly. Well he couldn't expect anything else in a history lesson, he supposed.
*RINGGGGGGGG!!*
The bell rang making all the children jerk awake in unison, the teacher snapped his book shut and told them about the taijutsu lessons after their lunch break was over.
Kajirama packed his books and took out his sandwich, unwrapping the plastic wrapping and munched a soft bite out of his hand made lunch Biwako given them. Everyone also pulled out their home made lunches and bentos.
Obito grinned, taking out his back and popping his hand in to pull out the bento his Obā-chan had made for him. However, moments later his eyebrows furrowed while he rummaged for his lunch, only for it to turn into a full blown scowl before his face marred one of pure horror. He remembered his grandmother calling out to him, that she had put his lunch on the dining table, but he didn't remember himself him putting in his bad, due to all the excitement he was feeling for today...
He slammed his head on the desk and let out a soft sigh. He had forgotten it at home…
Rin looked to the side after hearing Obito's sigh and was a little confused as to why her friend hadn't brought out his lunch yet. Well, knowing Obito, she already knew what happened, which made her smile knowingly.
"Did you forget your lunch?" She asked. Making him look at him with sheepish expression. He chuckled and looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed that she had pinned the reason right in on the first try.
Obito gave out an innocent blink of confusion seeing two wrapped sandwich being forced into his hands. He looked at Rin and Kajirama, stunned.
"Why are you giving me this?" He asked in a low voice like mosquito.
"Well we do have taijutsu lessons after lunch…" Kajirama pointed out making Obito nod, but not quite getting his point. "…so it will have a lot of physical training and you'll need your energy. You wouldn't be able to go through them on an empty stomach. Biwako-obāchan made me and Asuma three sandwiches in case I got late for home so you can have it if you want…"
"Yeah, you'll need it Obito." Rin nodded with a smile. "Next time don't forget about it, alright?"
"Hai, hai, Kaa-chan…" Although he mumbled in a sarcastic tone, his cheeks was pink in embarrassment.
Rin and Kajirama smiled, and got back to their respective sandwich.
...
"Alright class, it's time for your first taijutsu lesson, so everybody come out now."
After a dozen of minutes, enough for the children to finish eating. The teacher called out from the door making them all start to walk out with Kajirama, Rin and Obito walking out together in the back.
All the fresh admissions of the Academy students stood in the open clearing they were led into by their new instructor. The teacher picked up on his clipboard, that contained all the names and details of all the new students in his palms. He coughed to get the attention of them all, getting quite successful when all the wide and curious eyes turned to him.
"Alright, this is the first day of our regular weekly Academy taijutsu spars we'll have from now on. Now before we begin, go and run a couple of laps around the Academy for a little warm up." He spoke up, getting nods from them. All the students starting running with Kajirama, Obito and Rin getting in the middle of the group.
"Why do we have to *huff* run for this?" Rin asked, huffing in her jog after they had taken two complete rounds of the Academy grounds which were quite large in themselves.
"We have to warm up so we don't hurt ourselves in the spars, plus we just had lunch, so sensei must want us to warm up first." Kajirama answered calmly, not at all fazed at running the laps they were ordered. He thanked his dedication on training his taijutsu for that, Biwako could be quite a demoness when it came to his and Asuma's training, so he was quite used to running laps, not to mention that he also wondered around the forest most of the time.
"You *huff* have an answer for everything *huff* don't you?" Obito remarked at the side in annoyance, his breathing a bit labored but not losing as much as a speck of speed. Kajirama though didn't quite get his point at this.
"Huh?" Kajirama asked intelligently, making Obito and Rin who was closely following to sigh but instead they panted and shook their heads. Kajirama just looked on ahead with a nod when the end came and both his friends collapsed on to their knees from exhaustion. Kajirama himself placed his palms on them and took deep breaths to calm down his slightly ragged breathing.
"Alright class that was very nice for your first day, I'm glad all of you completed your laps." The teacher's proud voice rang in the clearing getting smiles from them all.
"Now come on and gather up around the ring…" He informed and all of his students stood up shakily, completely exhausted from running while Kajirama straightened up with a deep breath, Rin soon followed. They saw Obito still sitting and not looking to get up anytime soon, they at their lone friend sprawled on the ground right now.
"Come on let's go." Rin said softly, extending her hand while placing the other hand on her knee with a soft smile. Obito looked up, brushing his short bangs from his face to look into the twinkling baby black eyes of Rin, as well as the outstretched hand in front of him.
Rin pulled her childhood friend up after they grasped their hands together. Obito dusted the dust off his clothes, then he caught Kajirama in a headlock much to his confusion. He couldn't let his other friend think he wasn't able to get up on his own after all.
"Stop it, Obito." Kajirama annoyingly shoved the other boy to his side easily. While Obito merely laughed.
"Now children, I'll introduce all of you to the sacred tradition of shinobi hand-to-hand combat. These were used by our Hokages themselves to toughen them up…" Their teacher said, perking up most of the ears around the ring.
"We will go through one-on-one paired combat exercises to simulate a situation of real combat and let you have the experience needed when you further your shinobi careers. I'll explain the rules along with the spar so can Ensui Nara and Kō Hyuga please enter the ring?" He called out and the two boys stepped in the ring. One with his hair in a high albeit lazily tied ponytail while the other had his clan's signature pupil-less white eyes to signify his clan status for him.
"Alright now both of you raise your hand like this…" He showed them a half ram seal in front of his chest and both copied the man. "… this is called the seal of confrontation, it usually marks the beginning of a jutsu so it signifies your willingness to fight an opponent. When you end the spar, you both clasp the seals together as a mark of good will and friendship to your opponent, this is called the seal of reconciliation. So now, do the both of you get this much?" He asked the two, instead getting nods from the all of them around the ring in unison.
"So now I'll explain the rules of engagement. The fight ends either when the opponent is put in a position where he can't fight back. No weapons or jutsus except kunais can be used, and that too for only hand to hand combat. No maiming or fatal blows to harm your opponent are allowed. The person who steps outside the ring loses automatically too and I can step in at any moment to stop the spar if I see someone's going to get hurt, do I make myself clear…" He asked sternly, getting nods from the two boys, he smiled at this then he raising his hand.
"Then let's have an honorable first spar, Hajime!" He called out with the Hyuga dropping in their signature taijutsu style, Gentle Fist stance. Though all of them were confused when Ensui turned around and started walking away until he was finally outside the ring. Thick silence reigned in the clearing at the strange actions of the Nara boy.
"Ensui what are you doing?" The teacher finally asked the boy, who merely let out a lazy yawn and shrugged.
"You said that stepping out of bounds signifies defeat sensei, so I willingly lost since one of us must lose for this troublesome spar to end. It is merely logical for me to do so, to end it as quickly as possible, more so since it is too much work…" He mumbled, lazily scratching his head making the teacher slap his hand over his face. Everyone snickered at the teacher's expense who decided to let it go since this was only the first day. And it wasn't surprising for someone from the Nara clan to do this, they were renowned for it actually.
"Alright just please make the seal of reconciliation before you go, if that is not too much work that is…" The teacher said dryly, and sighed tiredly when they did. Though Ko Hyuga did have a small scowl on his face for not being able to have a good spar as he had wanted to but said nothing in the end as both the students walked out to return on their place.
The teacher rummaged through the list and smiled when he read the next two names out loud.
"Akio Inuzuka and Obito Uchiha, step into the ring please…' His voice rang out through the silence of the clearings.
"Go get'em, Obito!" Kajirama cheered.
Rin clapped and shouted in turn. "Good luck Obito!"
The two boys in question stepped forward, their faces completely polar opposites to that of their opponent.
Akio had simple shaggy brown hair with the classic red Inuzuka tattoos donned over his cheeks. His teeth having two feral canines like all the Inuzukas were displayed on show with his smug and prideful grin.
The Obito's eyes looked battle ready while his face was stoic, trying to hide the little excitement that came at the prospect of facing his first opponent on their Taijutsu practice in the academy.
"Alright today's my day. I get to beat an Uchiha down into the ground on my very first day, talk about luck!" Akio boasted proudly, but frowned when he heard a scoff from his opponent.
"As if, baka…" Obito muttered but Akio's sharp ears picked up on his whisper and he scowled.
"You've got something to say?" Akio growled out heatedly, getting yet another snort from the ever stoic Uchiha.
"I said as if a mutt like you could ever even hope to touch me, an Uchiha. We are called the elites of the village for a reason, and I'll show the reason to you right now." He stated confidently, without a hint of doubt in his voice making the Inuzuka glare at him. His fangs were bared while he looked ready to rip his head apart if need be.
"We'll just see about that…" Akio spoke angrily, dropping into the first kata of the Inuzuka's widely known Fanged Taijutsu Style.
"Heh, we will teme…" Obito spoke up, entering the most basic of Uchiha clan's many taijutsu stances. The Uchiha clan had seemingly created many stances over the years by embedding many of their copied stances and modifying them to be used with their Sharingan. Only a select few still used the original and ancient stances of the old times that belonged purely to them now, most of them being considered long since forgotten so seemingly every Uchiha fought in a different way than the other to appear deceptive and unpredictable to enemy shinobi.
"Alright that's enough, break it off you two. Now make the seal of confrontation…" the teacher ordered and nodded when the two boys did so, albeit a bit reluctantly in Akio's case. He pulled his hand up over his head and brought it down to signal the start of the match.
Obito Uchiha focused on the fight, in these past few months he had befriended Kajirama, they occasionally trained together, sometimes for their ninjutsus and a few times sparred against each other in Taijutsu, although he couldn't beat the white-haired boy at least once, which frustrated him immensely and also had hurt his pride as an Uchiha, he knew that he was also improving in his own pace nonetheless, although how he fared against others their age except Kajirama was a mystery, he would soon find out on this spar against the mutt in front of him.
"Hajime!" Their sensei's voice rang through the clearing and Akio was off in a flash. He charged forward with a battle cry, rushing his opponent by running towards him. Obito merely stood fast in his own stance, letting the boy make the first move and take his time to calmly get this spar on the show.
Akio cocked his fist back behind his head and brought it forward. Obito merely slapped it away with the back of his hand to let it whiz past his ear and blocked his left fist with his own right palm. The raven haired kid went to put a huge uppercut under his chin and seemingly end the match but the Inuzuka jumped back a couple of steps to break off their little bout.
Obito yet again dropped into his defensive stance and put his palm in front of his face. His hand made a motion to his opponent to urge him to attack. Akio saw his taunt coupled with his arrogant smirk and the Inuzuka clan's legendary temper kicked in. All he saw was red.
He charged forward, jumping up and aiming a kick for the Uchiha's neck. Obito brought his right arm up and blocked it with his forearm, aiming for his opponent's torso with his free left hand. The blow being quite weak from the lack of precision the completely angered boy was putting behind it.
Akio, still unbalanced from his angered and blind charge, could do nothing more than watch the incoming strike to his stomach and brace for impact while he landed on his feet with a little stumble. Obito mustered up all his strength into the strike, twisting his wrist and embedding his fist into the boy's solar plexus who stumbled back a couple of feet and fell to his knees, clutching his aching stomach with an agonized cough.
Obito ran in and jumped up, twisting his body in mid-air to make his right heel make contact with the feral boy's cheek who rolled sideways and out of the ring's boundary line.
CLAP CLAP CLAP….
The whole audience around the ring clapped for the two, especially the teacher who was pretty loud and felt proud to have such a great spar on seemingly his first day.
"Excellent you two, I couldn't be prouder to see such an excellent spar on our first day. Obito, you were especially excellent, not that I could expect anything less from a member of the Uchiha clan." The teacher praised, the compliment evident in his voice. The spikey black haired Uchiha soaked it all in with a slight puff of his chest and walked back with a smug look on his face.
"Amazing Obito that was so awesome…." Rin exclaimed when Obito was close to her and Kajirama. He walked back on to his place, walking towards Kajirama with a slight smirk sporting his young face.
Kajirama simply smiled. "You did good, Obito."
"Aw shucks!" Obito playfully acted coy as he said. "That's a lot coming from my sparring partner." Obito suddenly gave out a confused look. "I'm perplexed though, I thought that the Inuzuka would be a good opponent to test myself, but why does he seem so... weak?"
Kajirama also noticed this from the mock fight. "Hmmm, maybe he had diarrhea or something? Which made that guy not fight all out?"
Obito laughed uproariously when he heard of that. "Maybe..."
Rin also chuckled at the side because of the joke.
While Kajirama continued with words that trailed off. "Yeah right? Or else all the excitement we felt entering the Academy would be pointless... Let's hope it wasn't so."
"Alright now moving on to the next spar. Will…" He trailed off to see who was matched next and everyone saw his eyes pausing for a moment eyes before he looked back up to the all of them with a forced blank face.
"Kakashi Hatake and Kajirama Ogata please step into the ring." He said in a tone of finality. Kajirama grew a bit nervous, hearing all the whispers and seeing all the pointed fingers with the hushed whispers of 'it's that shinobi's son' being the most prominent in them all. He was confused though when he heard some also pointing at Kakashi, whom he knew somewhat, with some hush whispers of 'the traitor's son'.
"Go on and show him who's boss." Obito chirped up, Rin also cheered for him, each giving him a gentle nudge on the back making Kajirama stumbled a bit but regained his balance to look at their cheery faces, which made the little nervousness he felt lay forgotten.
"Hajime!"