Naruto - Pride: Chapter 3 (Patreon)

[Pride - POV]

I didn’t expect anything from the ninja academy, it was run by humans after all, so my expectations were none, and even then, the academy managed to disappoint me, the classes were dull and monotonous, teaching nothing of use about this foreign land and its specific whereabouts, or how to use the mysterious energy they call chakra, the teachers were useless, forcing a useless curriculum that served no purpose.

Teaching things like, how to read, basic math, and other skills that only a feeble-minded idiot would need help to learn, the whole thing was beyond moronic, but I suppose not all things were bad, this gave me time to explore other horizons, I had many things to do before moving forward, like gauging the power of the human of this kingdom, so far chakra has proven to be quite the tool, meaning for now, I had to tread my actions lightly. As for other things, I had to be careful around the enigmatic problem that Danzo represented. After all, I had no idea why he was interested in me.

If he was a threat, he would be dealt accordingly, human threats are quite tenacious, like bugs, they don’t know when to give in, so it’s best to squash them before the become an infestation, now the question was, was Danzo a tool, or a possible infestation?

“Hokori, are you paying attention?!” The teacher who I had not bothered to learn his name, shouted at me, if only he knew I could kill him while he sleeps, oh well, the things I do for the sake of keeping a charade.

“There is no need for me to pay attention,” I boringly replied, “The curriculum of this class is dull, resulting in a tiresome experience for me, all you are teaching is and should be basic knowledge, alas it seems it’s not, so here I am trapped,”

The teacher smiled ever so lightly, but even behind that smile I could see a hint of aggravation, “Very well, then you won’t mind if I give you a test, right?” a challenge, what a humorous development.

“By all means,” I grinned. One of the few things that kept me sane, was the fact that I didn’t have to hide much of my personality around these humans, for them, a six year old behaving like I do, was normal.

“Very well,” The teacher chuckled, taking out a sheet from his desk, what a fascinating turn of events. The teacher was already prepared for this scenario, “Here, once you’re done, give me the test back, you have all day to finish it,” all day? That was an insult to my intelligence.

“Will do,” I nodded, taking the test to my desk, noticing the glares from the many kids in the class, that whispered, asshole, showoff, stupid, and many other derogatory comments about me, some of them went straight for the clan, though I am not sure, if calling the Nara, lazy assholes was entirely wrong.

Ignoring the kids, I took a set on my desk, and started the test I had been given, the questions were laughable at best, with things like correcting the grammar of a paragraph, solving some basic math problems, and more, then the questions turned to stuff they hadn’t teached yet, and there it clicked me, the teacher had a test ready, because they wanted this occurrence to happen, to filter the cannon fodder from the so called geniuses, this test was to see how far I had progressed on my own, remarkable… Well, if they want to see how far ahead I am, I will happily oblige.

After coming to that realization, I finished the test, and handed the paper to the teacher, all in under twenty minutes. “I am done, may I be excused for the rest of the day,”

The teacher, who had my paper at hand with a flabbergasted look nodded, hm, all day, that is something you would tell to Gluttony, not me, “Then, I’ll see you tomorrow,”

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[Sumikawa Hyosu - POV]

When I was told by the hokage himself, that the youngest child of the Nara’s main family, was a genius, I was… confused, all Naras to some extent are geniuses, to the point, there was no point of saying they were, so when the Hokage told me to look over Hokori Nara, I was… intrigued, at first the kid seemed excited to come to the academy, already a red flag for a Nara, but then… he got bored, almost immediately.

But even ignoring me, he would get perfect scores in every test, in every assignment, so… I pushed him, I wanted to see how much he knew, and how much of a genius he was, and gave him a test, the test alone proved nothing, beyond the fact the kid knew most of the curriculum taught in the academy, at least the theory part of it, so when I gave him the test, no first year, or second year should pass, I was shocked to see that once again, he had gotten a perfect score.

And not only that, it took him nineteen minutes, and forty two seconds to finish it, to say I was astonished was selling my surprise short, “Kids… take the rest of the hour to rest, I have to do something,” I told the class, leaving them alone for a while, as I headed straight to the hokage’s office.

“Mr Hyosu?!” The receptionist exclaimed, as I entered the building, “Is there something wrong?”

“No, just…. Wanted to report something to the Hokage,” I chuckled, realizing that entering the building alone, when I should be teaching, made this whole situation look bad. I can only imagine what she thought.

“Oh… well, you are in luck, he doesn’t have anyone inside his office right now,” the receptionist smiled, “Go ahead, I’ll let the guards know you are coming,”

“Thanks,” I smiled, giving her a small bow of gratitude, before leaving.

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[Pride - POV]

The library was so much captivating, unlike the so called school that forced me to mindlessly waste ten hours of my day, oh well, I suppose for now I have to endure, anywho, the library was a wonder for a mind craving for knowledge, and I craved knowledge more than anything right now, reading through the books, trying to see if the world I knew was recorded in any part of their history, but nothing, nothing about alchemy, nothing about Homunculus, and nothing about Amestris… granted my access to the library was heavily limited by my age, and rank on the ninja world, but still… to find no words about Amestris or alchemy made this whole ordeal… all the more intriguing, perhaps I was in an entirely different world, one where nothing I knew existed, that would answer many of the questions I have…

“I suppose that’s enough research for a day,” I sighed, if the books were useless to me, then I would continue with my experiments.

As I left the library, I saw a blonde kid run past the building screaming a bunch of nonsense that ended in believe it, holding two cans of pain in his hands, this was unimportant what really got my attention was what I felt coming from him, it was… rather animalistic, primal… on his shadows I could see a fox, trapped within him… even if it was for a brief moment, “Well… this world got all the more interesting,” I grinned, making a mental note to check who the blonde menace was, and what exactly he was.

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[Hiruzen Sarutobi - POV ]

I eyed Sumikawa Hyosu, the teacher of the first grade of the academy, and the test he had given me, to think Hokori was this gifted, to get a perfect score on this was… quite the accomplishment, I haven’t seen anyone like him since… Itachi.

“I don’t think he should remain in my class… his genius is being wasted with my curriculum,” Hyosu advised.

“Hm, what a troublesome situation,” Shikaku, my Jonin commander sighed, “I suppose if he himself said he was bored… then I can’t argue with him getting ahead…” he scratched his head worryingly.

“I think putting him in the third year class will satisfy his intellect, and force him to interact with the class,” Hyosu nodded.

Third year, where Neji Hyuga the upcoming start of the Hyuga clan was, I suppose it’s a good fit, “Very well, any objections, Shikaku?” I eyed Shikaku who simply shook his head.

“None at the moment, Hokage-same,” Shikaku yawned.

“Then it’s settled, Hokori is as of this moment transferred to the third year class,” I declared, sealing the papers to make it official.