Chapter 9 – Class

“What are you doing here?” Sango spoke to the shy Hinata who was looking at her feet “The entrance ceremony will start shortly.” The 3rd Hokage himself will give a speech at the beginning of the academy year; everyone was excited to have the chance of seeing the Hokage from a close distance. After the speech, the students will be assigned to a class where they will stay until they graduate so they couldn’t miss it.

“…t-too m-many people.” If Sango didn’t have a very good hearing, he may have missed Hinata’s words, her shyness was worse than when the original story started.

“Let’s go back or we will miss the ceremony.” Without waiting for Hinata’s answer, Sango took her hand in his and began to walk towards the academy, Hinata’s face was bright red but it wasn’t anything like love as she was only eight, it was her shyness acting up. Unable to free her hand from Sango’s grip, or it was more that she didn’t have the courage to do so, Hinata couldn’t do anything but let Sango guide her to the academy.

They arrived shortly and walked towards the auditorium where the students were formed in rows, the discipline of the new students was unexpected but many were children of ninjas so they were taught from small, the children of normal people followed the example of the others but they still couldn’t stop speaking excitedly between themselves.

Sango and Hinata arrived just in time and took position at the back of a row as the Hokage made his way to the small podium.

“*Ahem* *Ahem*”, The 3rd Hokage cleared his throat in an attempt to quiet down the children, it didn’t take long for them to focus their gazes on the Hokage.

The speech was long and boring, the Hokage spoke about love for the village and its people to persevere and endure the hard times and keep a healthy mind and body and more nonsense that made it hard even for Sango to keep his focus, to say nothing of the other students that started daydreaming.

“Old man! Make it quick!” An unexpected voice resounded in the auditorium, attracting everyone’s gazes, Sango followed the voice and found a yellow haired boy, that was Naruto who had a sleepy face.

“*Ahem*” The Hokage began clearing his throat again with an embarrassed expression, but thanks to Naruto’s yell the Hokage finished his speech faster and then left.

Sango could see that as soon as the Hokage left a man approached Naruto with an angry face, he was of average height and build with brown hair in a ponytail and a scar running across the bridge of his nose, Sango recognized that man, despite him being different because he wasn’t a drawing but a real person, he was Iruka Umino or better known as Iruka sensei.

Sango didn’t dislike him but he felt that Iruka was a bit too naïve, he gave too much of himself for the good of others, forgetting about himself, Sango remembers that even in the new Boruto anime that followed Naruto’s child, Iruka was still alone after that many years.

Helping others is good if you don’t forget about yourself, at least that was the conclusion Sango reached after living under the control of the organization where his purpose of living was only for the good of the organization. He understood that a person can easily be taken advantage of by the people they want to help, and, in the end, they will be the losers with no one to blame but themselves for their naivety. That said, he doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t help one another but they should be careful in doing that, and never forget about their own happiness. But what is happiness? That question is also hard, the answer is dynamic and prone to changes, something may make a person happy today but that may not be so the next day. That is also part of living, the search for happiness isn’t just reaching an objective but also finding what that objective is. For Sango the answer is firm, he wants to live by his own rules, to be the maker of his own future, a future where he loves and is loved in return, something he never experienced but very much longs for.

Realizing that he lost himself in his own thoughts, Sango shacked his head and moved to the wall where the papers that told the names of the people assigned to what class.

To Sango’s relief, he was in Class 11, the same class as Hinata and the main class of the original story.

While the others children were happily discussing with their parents, Sango made his way to his classroom in advance since he didn’t have any reason to stay in the auditorium, it was unexpected for him to find someone else there, a black haired youth, despite being much younger than he remembered, Sango recognized the youth as Sasuke, one of the main characters of the anime.

At the sound of the door opening, Sasuke looked in his direction, then he resumed to look to the blackboard. His expression was very serious and dark, as if someone just murdered his family.

Sango walked and sit at the back of the class where he could survey all the seats, he couldn’t feel comfortable presenting his back to other people, even kids, all day, he wouldn’t be able to relax, then he proceeded to wait with his back straight, a habit he developed under the organization.

He didn’t have to wait much, but more than he thought, before people started flowing in the classroom, each finding a seat to sit close to their friends, of course, since he didn’t know anyone the people that sat beside him were children who wanted to be alone or didn’t have anyone to sit with.

When he saw Hinata he waved to her, bringing a trace of pink to her cheeks.

It was a strange feeling to see all the characters from the anime, he saw Ino, Shikamaru and even Sakura, they were all very small but still easy to recognize.

The last to arrive was Iruka followed by Naruto who found a seat at the back of the class, Iruka walked behind his desk and clapped his hands once, attracting the attention of all present.

“Eh, nice to meet you all, I am Iruka Umino and I will be in charge of this class.” He introduced himself, then looking at the seat arrangement he said, “I see you all found your seats, sadly we already have decided on your seats assignments.” Then he made everyone move in accordance with his instructions, in the end Sango was placed at the front desk besides Sakura.

“Hey, I’m Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you!” Sakura was as lively as he thought, and she took the initiative to introduce herself.

“I’m Sango, it’s nice to meet such a beautiful lady.” His words brought shyness to Sakura’s face and she looked almost like Hinata to Sango’s amusement, she was still a child after all, she wasn’t as fierce as in a few years.

“That’s good, now it is your turn to introduce yourselves, lets start in alphabetical order.” So, everyone started to introduce itself to the whole class.

It didn’t take long for Sango’s turn “My name is Sango, 8 years old.” His introduction was short, he attracted the attention of everyone because of his appearance so he wasn’t very comfortable, he was used to be a shadow.

“Very well, now I will explain our curriculum for the year, please listen carefully.”