As a result, Hyuga Fū was surprised to discover...
His son had a very solid grasp of this common knowledge and possessed seasoned experience.
Some of his methods were things even a Ninja like himself, who had been carrying out missions for years, hadn't thought of.
Yet his son, a held-back Ninja Academy Student, could perform them naturally.
It was as if he had suddenly mastered them.
However, he didn't ask much; as long as his son knew how to do it, it was fine.
The father and son had spent four or five days on the road coming here.
On the way back, they had been walking for a full ten days and still hadn't reached the Village.
After twelve days, they finally returned to Konoha.
After settling Hyuga Fū into the Hospital, Hyuga Aokawa rushed into the Hokage Office.
He reported all the information he had gathered to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was shocked and immediately forwarded the intelligence to the relevant Anbu departments for a thorough investigation.
Afterward, he highly commended the achievements of the father and son.
He gave them a round of encouragement, ranging from the Village's will of fire values to personal self-improvement.
After a long speech, he finally got to the material benefits.
He provided a subsidy for Hyuga Fū's treatment, waiving the fees at Konoha Hospital.
He also recorded an A-rank mission on their records and issued a reward of 150,000 Ryo.
This made Hyuga Aokawa incredibly happy.
With these 150,000 Ryo, it could largely offset the impact of the Hyuga Clan reducing the branch family's pensions.
After submitting the mission, Hyuga Aokawa headed home first.
His grandmother was at home; if he stayed out too long and didn't return, the elderly woman would worry.
When he got home, his grandmother asked about Hyuga Fū's whereabouts.
Hyuga Aokawa made up a random excuse to brush it off... The next day.
Early in the morning, the school was crowded; before he knew it, the new term had started.
Hyuga Aokawa stood at the school gate, scanning the newly assigned class lists on the wall.
Ever since Kakashi graduated early and set a record, a trend of striving for early graduation had quietly emerged in the school.
The Village seemed to have tacitly approved of this trend and secretly lowered the standards, resulting in many classes being under-enrolled.
Thus, the school decided to merge and reorganize some classes.
Hyuga Aokawa's original class was broken up, and he was assigned to transfer into another class to continue his studies.
"Building A, third floor..."
Hyuga Aokawa found his name on the class list.
He turned here and there, checking room by room, until he finally found his new class.
The classroom was already packed with people; some were talking, while others were playing with paper airplanes.
Boys and girls were playing around in various ways.
A female teacher came out of the faculty office and walked toward his classroom.
She had her hair in a single ponytail, with bangs sweeping across the corner of her eye, and wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
Her professional teacher's attire was very proper; she looked like a strict teacher.
Judging by the teacher's photo on the class list, this should be his homeroom teacher, Inoue Reigetsu.
Hyuga Aokawa quickly went up to meet her and explained his situation.
Hearing this, Inoue Reigetsu's face darkened, her eyes filled with a bit of helplessness.
Even though not many people in the class she was responsible for had graduated early, leaving few vacancies.
Yet the school still squeezed in a student for her, assigning her a held-back student.
And he was a well-known problem student in the school.
Sigh! This year's performance bonus is going to decrease again.
She looked at the handsome student before her, sighed, nodded, and led Hyuga Aokawa into the classroom.
Walking to the podium, Inoue Reigetsu slapped the desk hard.
"Quiet!"
Her stern voice instantly drowned out the noise. Seeing that the little ones below had quieted down, she pulled Hyuga Aokawa over.
"This is a new transfer student, Hyuga Aokawa!"
"Everyone should learn from each other from now on."
After saying that, she looked at Hyuga Aokawa: "Why don't you introduce yourself to everyone?"
Hyuga Aokawa nodded and stepped onto the podium.
He introduced himself generously: "Hello everyone! I'm the new transfer student, Hyuga Aokawa."
His handsome, clean face combined with a sunny smile instantly attracted the attention of the whole room.
The room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in enthusiastic cheers and screams.
"Ah! The new transfer student is so handsome!"
"What transfer student? Don't you know Senior Aokawa? He's a famous heartthrob in the school."
"Really? Then I announce that Uchiha Toshihiko is crossed off my husband list and replaced by Hyuga Aokawa."
"Fengling, you're so fickle."
"I can't help it, he's too good-looking. I can only say sorry to Toshihiko."
The girls in the class had shining eyes and were very happy.
"Tch! Whatever, another pretty boy."
"Exactly, I don't know what he's so smug about."
In contrast, the boys in the class cast hostile glances one after another.
For a moment, all sorts of voices arose.
Inoue Reigetsu thought to herself, "As expected," he started causing a stir as soon as he arrived.
The noise from below made her feel a surge of irritation; she picked up her ruler and slapped the podium hard.
"Alright, quiet!"
The noisy shouts below fell silent once more.
She turned to Hyuga Aokawa and pointed to an empty seat in the last row.
"You sit there. Your desk-mate is also from your Hyuga Clan."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher."
Dodging several small hands trying to secretly slip him notes along the way.
Hyuga Aokawa finally reached his seat, only to find that he had been assigned a female desk-mate.
She had her head buried under the desk, doing who knows what.
"Hello, I'm your new desk-mate, Hyuga Aokawa," he greeted.
There was no response; she remained with her head buried.
Hyuga Aokawa didn't mind. He sat down and picked up the stack of newly issued textbooks on the desk, flipping through them to see what the courses were.
Good grief, it seems everything from astronomy to geography has to be studied.
A full stack of eleven books.
But these were just the basic courses.
Besides these, there were other additional courses.
Things like "Information Gathering," "Wilderness Survival," "Tracking and Counter-Reconnaissance," "Emergency Treatment"... a whole bunch of them. No wonder these people of the Ninja World, who have superpowers and use Chakra as energy, are all complaining about the workload.
The most exaggerated one was the will of fire.
A single sentence from the First Hokage had developed into five or six books, including "Origins and History of the Will of Fire," "Future Development of the Will of Fire," and "On the Contemporary Will of Fire."
Having been full of confidence about performing well, he couldn't help but take a deep breath upon seeing so many courses.
After a moment, the female desk-mate finally made a move.
She peeked up cautiously, like a little mouse.
Like a rabbit emerging from its burrow, she revealed her jade-white eyes, blinking as she observed her surroundings.
Seeing someone suddenly sitting next to her, she was first a bit dazed, then sat up straight in a fright.
The cute animal pattern printed on the front of her clothes trembled along with her.
Her little cheeks, which had been stuffed full and were chewing happily, instantly froze.
Her eyes were wide and round, like a startled rabbit, very cute.
"I'm your desk-mate, Hyuga Aokawa." Hyuga Aokawa smiled and extended his hand.
Her eyes were clear, and her small head didn't seem to have reacted yet.
A moment later, she suddenly panicked and hurriedly stuffed the remaining half-piece of bread in her hand into her mouth.
She chewed haphazardly a few times, swallowed with difficulty, and then picked up her water bottle to take a huge gulp.
Finally, she wiped her hand on her clothes before cautiously reaching out to shake Hyuga Aokawa's hand.
The female desk-mate was very beautiful!
Her skin was fair, her nose small and exquisite, and she looked very innocent and romantic.
As he lightly held her small hand, a sensation of smoothness and softness came from her fingertips, along with a hint of coolness.
"My name is... Hinata Ayane."
She gave an embarrassed smile, her eyes curving beautifully like crescent moons.
Only when she turned around did Hyuga Aokawa realize he hadn't seen the whole picture earlier.
She was wearing a loose white T-shirt with cute little animals drawn on it.
Having inherited the excellent genes of the Hyuga Clan, her figure filled out the loose combat uniform perfectly.
It tapered into sharp curves at her abdomen, creating a strong contrast with her still-childish face.
Looking at her smooth, blackish-purple long hair draped casually over her shoulders, Hyuga Aokawa felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
"Have we met somewhere before?" Hyuga Aokawa asked.
Hinata Ayane was taken aback, a thoughtful look appearing in her eyes as if she were trying hard to remember...
After a moment, she shook her head and said, "I don't really recall."
Hyuga Aokawa also felt he was overthinking: "Maybe I remembered wrong."
Hinata Ayane blinked her beautiful eyes and looked curiously at her new desk-mate: "When did you sit here?"
"I've been here from the start. I even greeted you just now, but you might not have noticed."
"Haha, sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
As she spoke, she seemed to suddenly remember something and turned her body sideways.
She whispered, "Um... do you want to eat this?"