Naruto: Stormbreaker

The girl was short, so the mature man that I am said the most adult thing possible to a small child.

"What do you want, shrimp?"

That finally cracked her expression. Anger, to be precise. But she kept staring at me.

I glanced behind me to make sure there wasn't anyone else there.

"Are you lost?" I added.

Her face tightened.

"Do you want me to find your parents for you?"

But instead of blowing up, she chuckled. Just for a second.

Turns out she had more than just that lazy, uninterested look. She struck me as mature. Not in the stuck-up clan kid way. Real maturity. Like someone who could read the room. Clan kids tend to act composed, but they're just good at hiding the childish side. This one was different. My instincts told me she wasn't faking it.

Before I could say more, the instructor's voice boomed, "Alright, kids. Time for the first test. A written exam."

My face dropped.

We were split into groups and escorted to classrooms. The girl kept following me like a shadow, and even when I tried to drift to another group, she stuck close. I was starting to get scared. I mean, worried. Not scared.

So we ended up in the same classroom. They gave us test papers and told us to finish in under twenty minutes.

I suddenly remembered a show from my old world called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Turns out, years of using calculators oh and also chasing blood instead of books did some damage. The questions weren't exactly hard, but watching that girl finish her paper in like five minutes while I was still struggling to remember basic multiplication? Brutal.

I stared at some of the questions like they'd just slapped my mother and spat on my lunch. Most of them, I managed to wrestle an answer out of, but a few… yeah, a few dragged me down to the shameful depths of Guessing techniques. Ancient. Forbidden. Only used in true desperation.

It took me about nineteen and a half minutes to finish. which is insulting if you ask me. More Insulting is that I had to dig through every dusty corner of my brain just to scrape up enough answers to avoid public embarrassment.

After finishing I dropped my pen in shame and resignation. It is in the math gods' hands now.

Once the test ended, we were told to wait outside in our groups. The instructor came around, scanning each group, and started calling out names. Mostly clan kids. Made sense. They probably trained for this.

He chose four from each group. I smirked, waiting for him to reach ours. He finally spoke in his calm but firm voice:

"Nara Shizuru."

The short girl with the long hair stepped forward. I thought to myself, "She's a Nara? Yeah, that explains a lot."

She glanced back at me and gave me a smirk full of mockery. My own smirk faded a little.

"Kaen Uchiha."

A slim, pale-skinned boy with sharp features and messy black hair walked forward, eyes focused and serious.

My smirk turned into a quiet frown.

"Sena Yamanaka."

A girl with light blonde hair tied in a neat ponytail stepped out with grace. Her skin was sun-kissed and her frame was slim but well-trained. Confident and composed.

My frown turned into a nervous chuckle. I was sweating.

"Am I really that dumb?" I whispered to myself.

At the edge of my vision, I could see the Nara girl barely holding in her laughter. A Nara. Laughing. That's practically a world record.

"Noa."

I almost collapsed in relief. I walked forward like I totally expected it, like there was no chance I wouldn't be chosen. Inside, I was thanking every divine being that the shrimp wouldn't have eternal teasing rights.

Once all the chosen kids were picked, they led us to the Academy's running track. A confident smile crept onto my face.

The shrimp looked a bit nervous now.

The Uchiha had fire in his eyes.

The Yamanaka girl walked with a calm, glowing confidence.

A new instructor greeted us. He was different. Calm, not trying to impress.

"Start running the track," he said. "Don't overexert yourselves. If you feel like you can't go any further, just stop."

I blinked.

"That's sinister, especially after that incredible brain washing speech from before" I thought. They were planting the idea that quitting was fine. They wanted to see who gave up. Who pushed through. A test of will, not just stamina.

I looked over my shoulder. The Nara girl was still stuck to me like a shadow. Her expression told me she figured it out too. She caught me looking, and her eyes narrowed with a tiny spark of respect.

"Wow. You got the meaning behind that?" she seemed to be thinking.

I stared at her with a deadpan expression.

She smirked and whispered, "Well, you're not just a dumb ape after all."