CH_30

CH_30

Takuma peered inside the auditorium hall. Last week he was here giving his graduation test; the place looked spacious back then, spacious enough to test bukijutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu all under the same roof without interfering with each other. Today, the same hall was decorated for a formal event, jam-packed with chairs; even the raised stage in the front had a podium setup on it. All of the preparation for the convocation ceremony

Seeing so many adults in the academy made the sight seem even stranger. He looked down at his clothes; he had dressed his best for the formal event— saying that, labeling a light blue shirt and black pants as formal wear was stretching it. But it was the only option he had. The rest of his wardrobe was made up of easy-to-move-in active wear. The thought of renting a kimono for the event had crossed his mind, only to cross out the idea as overdoing it (plus not renting/buying saved him money)— but it seems he was wrong. The hall had plenty of men and women wearing kimonos and hakamas for their children's convocation. He even spotted his classmates dressed up nicely for the day.

'Too late now,' thought Takuma as he smoothed out his shirt before stepping inside the auditorium and making a beeline towards his seating appointment he had gotten at the academy gates.

His seat was at the end of one of the middle rows. He looked to the seat beside him and sighed. Everyone else was accompanied by their parents; only he was alone.

'—I will be there—'

He was the only 'orphan' in his class. It was a wild coincidence, given how many lives had been lost in the Kyuubi attack, but most of his classmates had at least one of their parents alive, and those who had lost both their parents were in the care of their relatives. He was the only parentless orphanage orphan.

Unlike any other school in the Leaf village, the shinobi academy had zero tuition as everything was paid by the state— it was only fair when the students were trained to become child soldiers. Free schooling meant no expense on education, which tend to be the biggest expense in raising a child. His thoughts were pessimistic, but after pinching pennies for a year, his views could be summarized well— 'Money couldn't buy happiness, but no happiness would live without the support of money.'

Soon the crowd began to come together in a neat congregation. The adults were mostly shinobi, accustomed to discipline, so the ceremony proceeded smoothly. The headmaster (there was one) addressed the crowd with a winding speech that Takuma eventually tuned out in favor of gazing at the parents to see if he could see the similarities between them and his classmates. All Inuzukas had the red fang marking on their face. Hana's mother looked much wilder than her. Izumi looked a lot like her mother, especially her eyes, except for the hair— the mother had black hair unlike Izumi's brown. The Akimichi father and son duo looked like a pair of dumplings, one small and the other big. Momoe's parents looked uber-wealthy with their composure and clothing— the Okubo parents and child looked like the perfect family set.

"... and so, I humbly welcome Lord Hokage," said the headmaster.

Everyone in the room stood up, and Takuma hurriedly followed their lead. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of the Leaf village, stepped into the auditorium with three shinobi in standard Leaf shinobi gear accompanying him. The Hokage was dressed in his traditional Hokage haori over a full-length red kimono and the wide-brimmed red Hokage hat to complete the set.

His eyes went to the second-floor corridor, and he blinked in surprise to see multiple fully hooded people that weren't there before looking down at the event. He narrowed his eyes to look when he caught a glimpse of a white mask under the light tan robes. They were ANBU— Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (Special Assassination and Tactical Squad). As Takuma looked at one of them, the ANBU operative looked at him.

'Shit, he caught me,' Takuma turned his head immediately. He didn't look back at them.

The Third Hokage spoke some words about the children being the village's future and how this day, officiating the beginning careers of a full batch of new genin, was one of the events he looked forward to every year. This speech, Takuma listened with wide-open ears.

The convocation ceremony began soon after. One by one, children were called by name to come forward with their parents to receive their graduation scroll. Those graduating with ordinary scores went first. Some had parents who were shinobi, and others were born to civilians. Takuma was thankful that the ordinary score list wasn't by scores, or he would've been called first— or maybe that would've been better.

Takuma glanced beside him. Some parent sat beside him. He had been asked if he wanted to bring someone, the orphanage matron maybe, but he had refused. He looked around the hall, only to sigh.

"...Takuma," the headmaster's voice sounded.

Takuma stood up and made his way to the front, feeling nervous under a hundred pairs of eyes. He told himself that even if most were looking, they weren't paying attention as he hadn't been when others went to the stage. It helped, but only a little. He climbed the steps of the stage alone and stepped towards the Third Hokage to receive his graduation scroll.

"Takuma," the Hokage smiled down upon him, "Kusoke's pupil. I see that you are doing well this time around."

Gazing up at him this close, Takuma could see the same crinkles around the Hokage's eyes, the sagging skin, and the graying hair. He was at least as old as Maruboshi. It's rare, he knew, for shinobi to survive so long. At once, Takum was struck with the realization that he was standing before someone who was really, truly strong.

"I know you will become a great shinobi one day. Word hard and never doubt that this village is very proud of you."

Takuma stiffly nodded and focused on making sure his toes that were visible in his open-toed shinobi sandals (he really needed to buy new shoes) weren't wiggling. He didn't know how else to respond and stuck to the nod.

The Hokage turned and picked up a forehead protector with a blue headband and the Leaf insignia engraved on a metal plate. Takuma received the forehead and looked down at the gleaming metal to see his own reflection in it. The symbol of his status— that he was now a genin, a shinobi of the Leaf.

He looked at the Hokage and bowed to him. As he turned to walk away, Takuma looked around the hall, his eyes scanning the faces, looking for one particular one. He didn't find it in the seating area. As he was about to stop looking and get off the stage, Takuma looked near the back of the auditorium.

"Nothing special," Takuma grinned. "Just wanted to know who's the oldest shinobi in the Leaf."

Maruboshi sighed with a smile on his lips.

They ordered food (Maruboshi did for both of them), and after a year, Takuma enjoyed a meal he hadn't made. The food was much better than his home cooking. In the past year, it wasn't his shinobi skills that had improved the most; that award went to his cooking. He had gone from boiling eggs and cooking instant noodles to whipping up three nutritious meals a day.

"I have a present for you, young— no, Genin Takuma," smiled Maruboshi. He slid a wrapped package across the table.

"Oh! You didn't have to," said Takuma, genuinely surprised. "Can I open it?"

Maruboshi nodded, and Takuma tore into it. He would've carefully unwrapped it if he was frequently gifting people things, but that wasn't part of his life.

"This..." Maruboshi's gift was clothes. There were two identical packages in the gift, and Takuma recognized the color as a very particular shade of blue, iconic in the Leaf village. It was the blue that the majority of Leaf shinobi wore as part of the standard Leaf shinobi gear. The gift was the standard Leaf shinobi gear without the flak jacket.

"You are now a shinobi, and I thought you would appreciate something practical and immediately usable," said Maruboshi.

Takuma rubbed his finger over the red spiral symbol present stitched on both sides of the vest. "Thank you," he smiled softly. He did appreciate the gift.

"Tell me about your teammates," asked Maruboshi. "Do they tell you about your team leader nowadays? In my time, they didn't tell us that during graduation."

Takuma looked up from the gift, confused. "No one told me about teammates; they just told us to assemble at the academy the day after tomorrow," he said. Was there a meeting after the convocation he was supposed to be at?

"It should be along with your graduation scroll," said Maruboshi looking at the scroll lying on the side of the table. "You haven't opened it yet?" The seal was still on it.

"Ah no, I didn't," Takuma picked up the scroll— he was too engrossed by the forehead protector.

Takuma gently clipped the wax seal over the scroll and unrolled it. There was another length of paper rolled along with the main scroll. Takuma pulled it out, and one side had printed words on it.

But as he read the words, Takuma's excitement turned into confusion. He gave the paper to Maruboshi. "What does this mean?" he asked.

Maruboshi looked at the paper. His eyes widened, and his lips parted as he read the words on the scroll.

Name: Takuma

Rank: Genin

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Assignment: Genin Corps

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