Land of Fire.
Konohagakure.
Konoha Calendar Year 51, March 27th
Village Northwest Central Section, Morita Household.
~Soutarou POV, about five and a half months after the Nine Tails attack~
'Man I miss that brainless blonde… Who am I kidding? I just want to steal her money. This gambling menace somehow was billions and I MEAN BILLIONS of ryo. Which was also why I was wondering why Tsunade doesn't show up on the Bingo-Book… turns out she's not on any kill lists because she's royal blood.'
'I have that same damn blood dammit! Why do I have a fifty million ryo bounty?!? Then this dumb blonde just had to go and make me the main author and every single bill that she passed. Everything from the general academy education changes to the medical reforms, the new departments, and the numerous mandates.'
'At this point she's made it obviously clear I'm her wonder boy to the point there's even speculation that Tsunade's keeping a… Nevermind… Still most villagers who saw me on the night of Nine Tails respect me, hell I'm a walking coupon code. They see me and they beckon me over and thank me before shoving some free stuff into my hands. The pitiful life of a six year old genius. Still… to think I'd have achieved this much in the past two and a half years… Well it's time to truly begin my ninja journey.'
Soutarou loudly said, "I'm heading out!"
The muffled voice of Shizune responded, before Soutarou slipped on his classic ninja sandals and walked out of the house in dramatic fashion. Soon dozens of voices greeted and called out to Soutarou, who kindly replied and exchanged greetings with as many as he could.
As he moved through the village and finally reached the newly built academy, he walked through the tall red gates with the kanji, 忍者学校, for Ninja Academy engraved above it. Stepping through Soutarou was met with the sight of dozens of children and their respective parents along with a group of orphanage children and a singular caretaker with them. At the forefront of the school itself was a stand set up with two teachers greeting students along with a supervisor wearing a Jonin vest behind them. Soutarou glanced at the supervisor who actually straightened up upon feeling Soutarou's gaze and gave him a dead straight salute. To which the two chunin teachers followed suit leading to the long line immediately parting for him.
Soutarou sighed internally before calmly and clearly stating, "Teachers there's no need to differentiate between students. No matter how much you may respect them. Everyone please stay in line. I'll wait my turn properly, like the rest of you. Remember this, rank, status, respect, reputation, and power do not earn you the right to violate the rules or bend them. Sorry for the interruption everyone."
Soutarou politely bowed before queuing up in line behind a pair of Hyuga ninja. The smaller one muttered, "Father, Father that's Soutarou Morita!"
The boy's father's face flushed a bit before saying, "Be respectful Hikaru. It's not proper to point at people."
Soutarou looked up at the father before noticing the glaring headband around his forehead and the similar white band around the boy's forehead before giving the pair a pitying look, before deciding to introduce himself. He tapped the older man's back side and said, "Excuse me, I noticed your son was speaking of me, sir?"
The man shook his hands apologetically before saying, "He meant no harm, Morita-san."
Soutarou smiled before lightly shaking his head saying, "I didn't mean that Hyuga-san, I meant I wish to formally introduce myself, your son has quite the chakra for his age, I'm sure we'll be in the same class together."
The older Hyuga man's eyes widened before he pushed his son back and whispered, "Go on, introduce yourself."
The boy, who was nearly half a head shorter than Soutarou, looked slightly pressured, before Soutarou smiled and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Soutarou Morita. Please take care of me."
The boy bowed in response to Soutarou's light bob of his head and replied, "The please is all mine Morita-san, I'm Hiraku, Hiraku Hyuga. Please just call me Hiraku."
Soutarou nodded before saying, "In that case you can just call me Soutarou, if that's alright with you Hiraku-san."
The boy nodded vigorously before saying, "It would be more than alright Soutarou-sama!"
Soutarou's smile faltered for a moment before saying, "I'm the same age as you, Hiraku-san. Calling me Sama isn't… Nevermind please use which honorific you feel comfortable with, I personally don't mind if you just call me Soutarou."
Soutarou kept the conversation light before letting his gaze wonder over his classmates, before easily seeing that there was not only anyone of interest… Until a rather large chakra attracted his attention.
'This cold chakra… very, very Yin heavy… Is this what a Mangekyo Sharingan feels like? And that must be… Itachi… Uchiha.'
The two boy's gaze crossed before Itachi looked away and Soutarou's eyes narrowed at Fugaku, who responded similarly. They broke eye contact with Itachi asking his father about Soutarou quietly, though to Soutarou's now trained ears it might've as well have been normal volume.
Soutarou's eyes turned back to the gate for a moment as he felt another yin heavy, yet much weaker chakra.
'Izumi Uchiha…?'
'She already has her sharingan opened? Ridiculous…'
Soutarou's eyes locked onto Izumi's before narrowing and hardening a bit. Fugaku, who was watching Soutarou, clearly noticed and realized why as well.
Soutaoru turned his eyes back to Fugaku for a moment with suspicious eyes before focusing in front of him as he finally reached the front of the queue. Once there before he even said anything the chunin stood up and lightly bowed and greeted, "Lord Morita."
Soutarou shook his head and said, "Just Soutarou is fine. I'm your student all the same. Just like how if my last were to be Senju, Sarutobi, Hyuga, or Uchiha you wouldn't treat me any differently. I too am just a child here to learn. Remember what I said, 'rank, status, respect, reputation, and power do not earn you the right to violate the rules or bend them.' Still it's a pleasure to meet you, teacher?"
The chunin replied somewhat delayed and reverently, "Haru Fujimoto. You healed my wounds personally sir during the Nine Tails Attack. If it weren't for you my father would have…"
Soutaoru smiled and said, "I'm just doing my duty. We're all a family here in Konoha, no need to thank me for something that any Konoha shinobi should."
The chunin's eyes seemed to sparkle while internally Soutarou's mental eyebrows twitched.
'Do these idiots ever hear anything I say? What did I just say about respect and courtesy? Whatever, the longer I stay here the more brain cells I'll lose.'
Soutarou smiled and then said, "Fujimoto-sensei. Please verify my invitation to the academy."
Soutarou politely pulled out a paper and handed it over. The chunin didn't even look at the paper and said, "You're all set Morita-sama. Please return to the academy in three days for the first day of class. Though I'm unsure of my ability to teach someone of your caliber I'll try my best to impart my little knowledge to you. Please correct me at any time if I make any mistakes."
'Bastard at least pretend to look!'
Sighing Soutarou began to leave before the other chunin interrupted and said, "Lord Morita may I please shake your hand?"
Soutarou looked at the man and smiled and politely shook his hand, all the while the man thanked him for saving him and his family's lives. Again just as he was about to leave the Jonin then interrupted saying, "I'm Ikkaku Umino… Thank you for firing the signal flare Lord Morita… Without you… I would've lost my life that night. Not only that, I thank you on behalf of all of Konoha. You are our pride and joy."
Soutarou smiled and said, "The pride and joy are you the people I was able to save. Umino-san. Konoha is not simply one person, it is a collective, it is a family that works together… It was not only my efforts that saved lives that night. Even if I may seem impressive, I only did what is expected of me, if not now, then eventually it will be. This is the will of fire that Lord First created and Lord Second and Fourth gave their lives for. Every life counts. Where leaves dance, one shall flames. Those flames are all our will. And they are what lets the next generation bud anew."
As Soutarou finished a young Uchiha boy began to clap causing a domino effect and many others to do the same, Soutarou then bowed and flickered away, in shame.
'Plagiarism at its finest… but to think that bastard Itachi would clap for me. Thank goodness I flickered out of there… lest these bastards put me in a parade next week.'
Scowling and then sighing and making a nice variety of expressions before a somewhat old voice rasped, "Quite the performance, young man."
Soutarou's expression hardened as he immediately threw his guard up and thought, 'Not many people can sneak up on my senses after the training Tsunade-nee-chan gave me. No… it's not even that he's hiding his presence from sensory techniques… he's using a subtle genjutsu that target's sensory-nin's chakra passively… by using that light chakra contact he's inducing his chakra into my system.'
Soutarou disrupted his chakra and began coating his body in active chakra flow. The older man who sat there on a ledge of a random staircase, leading god knows where. The man's seemingly closed eyes opened and narrowed as he merrily said, "Ohoho? Senju chakra coating? How long has it been since I've seen something like this… Not to mention its full body release? Barely six years old and you already have the chakra of a full fledged jonin and extreme chakra control… Very impressive."
Soutarou relaxed, finally asking, "You are Kosuke Maruboshi-san?"
The man pleasantly smiled saying, "I'm surprised someone as esteemed as yourself knows of me."
Soutarou then waved his hand dismissively, "On the contrary, it's you who are esteemed, Maruboshi-san, your experience and longevity in serving Konoha are unmatched. Excuse my rudeness earlier, your genjutsu got me off guard."
The man nodded and said, "You're quite impressive… to have noticed that and immediately gone on guard hearing my voice. Not to mention…"
The man motioned behind Soutarou where a kunai jutted out of a pole.
The man's voice rang out next to him, "...your instincts are sharp."
Soutarou felt a chill run down his spine as he thought, 'Bastard! This old man's an elite jonin? My ass! He's clearly at least S-rank… sure Nono can get around my senses the same way, but I can at least react… either that… or his combat lethality makes him effectively an S-rank, even if in raw power he isn't… this old man is totally elite amongst the Elite Jonin level… Kosuke Maruboshi… The Eternal Genin… no wonder this old fart is still fucking alive! He's a damn hidden master! Dammit, where's my quest to reach the nascent soul realm?! I swear I'll earn back all the interest that he owes my grandfather!'