While Kiseki waited for his next match, he began paying much closer attention to the fights between his classmates. At first, he could not help feeling that the situation was somewhat unfair. He was only five years old, while some of the other students were already six, and although one year did not sound like a huge difference, at their current age it mattered quite a bit. The students from Itachi's group had already spent around a year at the Ninja Academy, while several of the five-year-olds were only just beginning their formal training.
Even so, Kiseki understood why the Academy had ended up organizing the classes this way. Konoha was still recovering from the Nine-Tails attack. A huge number of people had died that night, including parents, young children, and entire families. As Kiseki observed his classmates more carefully, he eventually noticed something that had completely escaped him before.
Most of the students in his class came from shinobi clans, there were very few civilians.
That was strange. Under normal circumstances, Kiseki would have expected a much larger number of children from civilian families, but in this class the situation was almost completely reversed. There were Uchiha, children from other shinobi clans, and only a handful of students without any ninja background. To Kiseki, that showed just how badly the Nine-Tails attack had affected the civilian population. The major clans had suffered losses too, of course, but they had organization, shelters, trained shinobi capable of protecting their families, and much stronger internal structures. Civilians had been far more exposed.
Kiseki continued thinking about that until he suddenly heard his name again.
"Kiseki Haruno versus Itachi Uchiha. Both of you, come forward and perform the confrontation seal."
Kiseki raised his eyebrows slightly.
Of all the people he could have been matched against, it just had to be Itachi, as he walked toward the center of the training field, a small smile appeared in his mind.
"Perfect. What better way to lose than against the genius of the class, Itachi Uchiha? Still... I'll try to give him at least a little bit of a fight. I want to see how far behind him I really am."
His original plan had been simple: win one fight and lose one, placing himself somewhere around the middle of the class. However, after observing the class more carefully, he began to reconsider. Almost everyone, except for around five children including himself, came from shinobi clans. That meant many of them had probably received basic training at home even before entering the Academy.
If a supposed five-year-old civilian suddenly began defeating multiple clan children who had more preparation than him, that could attract exactly the kind of attention Kiseki wanted to avoid.
His first victory had not been particularly strange. He had defeated another civilian child who also lacked a proper combat foundation. From this point onward, it would probably be better to lose while still showing enough resistance to avoid looking completely useless.
"I'll change the plan. I already won once. If I lose the rest while putting up a decent fight, it'll still look completely normal."
Once both of them reached the center, Kiseki and Itachi properly performed the confrontation seal.
"Begin!"
They moved almost at the same time.
Itachi advanced with enough speed to immediately force Kiseki to focus. His first attack was a direct punch toward Kiseki's chest. Kiseki read it in time and lowered his body to avoid it, but the instant he moved, he realized that was exactly what Itachi had expected him to do.
A kick was already coming toward him, kiseki's eyes widened slightly, the first punch had not simply been an attack, it had been meant to force him into a specific movement.
Kiseki tried to dodge toward the opposite side, but once again found his options limited. Itachi had already predicted the reaction and had been gradually guiding him toward the edge of the field.
"Seriously?"
Kiseki understood what was happening almost immediately.
If he stayed where he was, he would take the kick, if he tried to move forward, Itachi had the perfect position to continue his attack.
And if he moved backward.
Kiseki glanced behind himself.
The boundary line was directly behind him, he did not have much time to decide, kiseki stepped backward and deliberately left the combat area, the fight was over.
As he regained his balance outside the boundary, Kiseki could not help cursing internally.
"This kid already thinks like this at his age"
Itachi did not just have much better physical conditioning than him, he had planned a short sequence from the very first attack. He had used the initial punch to influence Kiseki's movement, followed immediately with a kick, then gradually reduced his possible options until he was forced to choose between taking the hit or leaving the field.
Kiseki released a small sigh.
"But well he's Itachi Uchiha, after all."
He looked toward the boy standing across from him.
"The second greatest filial son in the shinobi world and a genius among geniuses."
The teacher, seeing that Kiseki had completely crossed the boundary, immediately raised his voice.
"Winner, Itachi Uchiha. Now perform the reconciliation seal."
Itachi and Kiseki obeyed without any problem. Both completed the seal before returning to their respective places as the next matches continued.
During the rest of the practice, Kiseki was called several more times, and he lost every single match.
However, he never made the losses look too obvious. He dodged, analyzed his opponents, looked for openings, and put up enough resistance to show that he understood the basics of combat, but in the end he always allowed himself to be defeated by the children from shinobi clans.
That caught the teacher's attention slightly.
Among the roughly five civilian students in the class, Kiseki was clearly the one who thought the most during a fight. He did not simply throw punches without any purpose. He observed, retreated when necessary, and tried to take advantage of his opponent's mistakes.
For a moment, the teacher even considered including that detail in his report to the Hokage.
Then he looked at the results again, one victory against another civilian student, several losses against clan children, nothing truly extraordinary.
"He's still just a civilian. If he had managed to defeat, or at least draw against, one of the clan children, maybe he'd be worth taking up some of the Hokage's time."
In the end, the teacher decided not to give the matter any further attention.
Kiseki would never know it, but that day he had managed to dodge a small bullet without even realizing it.
After all, losing the rest of those matches had turned out to be a much better decision than he had imagined.