Naruto: Pride - chapter 4 (Patreon)

After taking a day to read and investigate about my whereabouts, I decided to go home and rest for the day, human bodies were… annoyingly weak in these aspects, with their needs and other things that wasted my time. Anyways, as soon as I got home, Shikaku the man who I call father, called me to his office.

Inside his office, he told me I had been… transferred two years ahead in the ninja academy, because I had shown incredible talent and skills for the first years, this was to be expect, but for some reason he seemed disappointed? Not that I care, I was too intrigued about the possibilities that this new classroom would offer.

“You know there is a reason why we the Nara don’t shine in school right?” Shikaku questioned, and the answer was simple the clan was lazy, the elaborated answer was… because they didn’t want to move forward too fast.

“Of course, I just rather spend my time in something… more productive than ignoring the teacher,” I answered, giving him a smile.

“Very well,” Shikaku sighed.

“Is that all, father?” I inquired, ready to go back to my room.

“It is,” He nodded and I left.

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Next day, started like always, with me waking up early in the morning to experiment with my chakra, so that I could then have a balanced breakfast, this time however, I walked with Shikamaru to school.

“A year ahead of me, huh,” Shikamaru sighed, “What a troublesome little brother,”

“I do apologize brother,” I smirked, “I suppose now, father and mother expect more from you, I am truly sorry, for raising the rather low bar,”

“Hm,” Shikamaru chuckled, “Can’t raise what never existed to begin with,”

“Haha, I suppose you are right,” I chuckled, it was rather amusing to chat with him at times.

“I know you are very smart Hokori… and very strong for your age, but… I guess what I’m trying to say is… don’t do anything stupid…” Shikamaru sighed, was this his attempt to be a big brother, this was remarkably sad, as if mere children could harm me in anyway.

“Duly noted,” I nonetheless nodded, if anything to keep him and everyone at peace.

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The classroom, was different to the one the first years had, this one looked more like an auditorium, every kid inside was biologically older than me, between four and three years older than me, as for the teacher, she looked, more capable than the last teacher I had, so I suppose so far this is a better begging.

“Class, today we have a transfer from class A first year,” The teacher announced, “He proved to be far ahead for the year he was assigned, and now he will be with us for the remaking of the year, all welcome, Hokori Nara,”

Eyes moved towards me, like bees to the honey, one can hardly blame them, the introduction, my stature and the architectural design of the room was made for this type of stuff.

“Go ahead and tell the class something about you, like your name and what you like,” The teacher said, patting me on the back while doing so.

Telling them my name… a bit redundant if you ask me, she already said it… oh well, “As the teacher said, my name is Hokori Nara, I am six years old, will be seven in October, I like learning new stuff, improving myself and reading, a pleasure to meet you all,”

“Very good, now take a seat wherever you like,” The teacher who apparently had forgotten all together to give me her name, said, “Oh, almost forgot, my name is Rukia Aremeshi, you can call me, Aremeshi sensei, or teacher okay?”

It seems I spoke too soon, she remembered, “As you wish,” I nodded and went to take a seat, and immediately noticed I had three options, one… a seat between a bunch of girls that were screaming for me to sit with them… that’s a no, then a seat close to a kid with unnaturally thick eyebrows… that’s another no, then the last seat, right beside a member of the renowned Hyuga clan, they were quiet, polite and more importantly didn’t bother anyone, option C it is.

As I took my seat, the Hyuga eyed me giving me an unnaturally long scrutinizing look, “Make a portrait, it’ll last longer,” I smirked, wondering why he was staring so much.

“I apologize, my name is Neji Hyuga,” Neji said with a composed tone.

“A pleasure to meet you,” I replied, giving him a quick look before returning my attention to the teacher who was patiently waiting for me to finish my fruitless socialization.

“Well, now that is settled, let’s go to the gym, today we have Taijutsu sparring matches,” The teacher announced, interesting the art of hand to hand combat, this class was already proving to be, more entertaining.

On my way to the Gym, I studied the kids and their behaviors, how they looked at each other, and what they talked about, most of them whispered amongst each other that they didn’t want to find Neji, or Lee… others that they wanted to fight me, because for them I was an easy prey, others… simply talked how they would beat Neji and Lee today.

This will be interesting, with a smile I followed the teacher to the gym, where every sat in line on the floor, waiting to be called by the teacher if I had to guess.

“Let’s first try Hokori vs Neji, I want to see where you stand,” The teacher smiled, and Neji stood up getting into a circle in the middle of the gym.

By the looks of the kids and the whispers running around, I had been matched with the strongest brat in the room, this however didn’t face me at all, while… hand to hand combat was one of my… not so developed skills, this fight was against a kid, and it would be easy.

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I lost… three attacks and I was out of the ring, I was.. humiliated, beaten by a child! Me! PRIDE! I had to restrain myself to not decapite the little insect with my shadows, how could this be! He was a child! And I am the first Homunculus! Pride the Arrogant!

And the worst part was, I had to do the seal of reconciliation, with a smile… it burned me to the core.

“How was school honey?” Mother asked as soon as I walked in, and I… told her what had happened, the Hyuga had been trained in something I never had the need to master, I wasn’t Wrath, I never had touch my prey with my bare hands, but… if I have to, I will.

“I was humiliated in a Taijutsu match,” I growled, “the Hyuga barely took a few hits and I was down, I want to learn how to fight, I refuse to be humiliated once again…”

Mother eyed me for a second, and smiled, “Well… I can teach you, at least until we find what style suits you the best,”

“It would be appreciated mother,” I sighed, no more I would suffer such humiliating fate.

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For the next few days, I trained with mother, where she taught me the basic forms and techniques of Taijutsu I never had the chance to learn because the first year curriculum sucks, and because she was training me, she eventually forced father to teach me a technique from the clan, with the pretend he was neglecting my training, which was entirely true.

Reluctantly Shikaku did as he was told, and taught me how to do the shadow imitation technique, a rather simple technique which I would use would be to trap my prey for my other shadows to destroy.

Going back to my Taijutsu training, I soon discovered I could boost my entire body like I did with my shadows with chakra, increasing my overall strength and speed, and soon, started to rank up in the Taijutsu ladder of skill, but even then… Neji seemed to be one step ahead of me.

In every other class, I was above him, Shurikenjutsu. I was the first in the class, thanks for Wrath. After all, throwing weapons of all sorts to human targets was what we used to do to burn the time we publicly called father son time.

Ninjutsu, also ahead of him, the point was, I was ahead of him in every other subject, but in the Taijutsu class, him and surprisingly more humiliating the thick eyebrow kid were above me, it took me a month to reach rank three in the Taijutsu class… a month were I… Pride had to exert myself, and even then… I was still below himself this was… I don’t know what it was, but I didn’t like it!

“Hokori,” Neji called, and I had to remind myself not to kill him.

“Yes?” I turned around with a smile.

“You have been invited to the Hyuga compound, are you available today after classes?” Neji inquired, and I nodded, mostly out of curiosity, “Very well, then I shall walk you to the compound after classes,”

“Very well,” I nodded, putting aside my rage… it was unbefitting of me to show such rage, I was Pride, and I had better control of myself.

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Hokori Nara - Academy Ranking - Male Ranking - Third Year

Ninjustu : 1st Rank [Hokori’s control of his abnormally high amount of chakra is… well, abnormal, he can control and direct his chakra with no problems whatsoever, and while his repertoire of justus is limited to one, I have no doubt he already knows the applications of chakra, like walking on trees and water,]

Taijutsu: 30th Rank > 3rd Rank [Note to other teachers, Hokori has showed unnatural progress on this class, within a month, he reached the top three, and while he still has a long way to reach the 1st rank and the 2nd rank, he already has surpassed the rest of the kids leaving them behind,]

Genjutsu: 1st Rank [Hokori while not knowing any genjutsus, has has proven to be remarkably versed in the art of dispelling them, and not only that… his resistance to then is… uncanny, the few times I have managed to put him in one it hasn’t been without effort, and when he’s in on… he seems unfazed by what he sees, shrugging it off… not matter how bloody it is, analysis is required,]

Bukijutsu: 1st Rank [The way Hokori handles his weapons it’s… strange, but seems to be effective, though it is shown he has no like for them, he knows their purpose and their use, and can aim pretty well with them, his skills on this area are only surpassed by Tenten,]

History and Theory: 1st Rank [His history knowledge, and theory of ninja arts is… awe inspiring, it easily shows how much time he spends reading, a true genius indeed,]

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