Although Shigeo had been transferred to the advanced class where most of the students consisted of clan children and civilians with high potential, he was still bored.
After all they were teaching him things that he already knew of like the leaf sticking exercise and various other things. The only thing that really got his attention was fuinjutsu or the concept of seals. It was one of the few subjects that interested him in the academy.
Though they only talked about what they were used for and didn't teach it in the academy due to the lack of seal masters. Though this didn't discourage Shigeo as he went to the library both civilian and the academy library to find knowledge of seals.
He had some knowledge of it due to knowing the Naruto anime but even then it wasn't really talked about. The only thing he knew of it in the anime was that the 4th hokage was proficient in it and even used a sealing jutsu to seal the nine tails.
From the books and records he got from both of the libraries, he learned more about them and that there were a few clans that had excelled in sealing. All were extinct but the most recent were the Uzumaki clan which Naruto was from. Towards fuinjutsu it stated that the Uzumaki's were naturally gifted with them and even had a bloodline called 'Uzumaki Sealing Chains' which could be used by a select few Uzumaki clansmen.
Though from the records Shigeo found the Uzumaki's used seals and fuinjutsu to counter ninjutsu but most of their techniques had disappeared by the end of the 2nd Great Ninja War due to the forces of three great villages destroying Uzushiogakure.
---
"YOU FOUR!" Iruka yelled as he used his big head jutsu.
In the back of the class he was yelling at the four stooges Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji. It was because they didn't seem to put any effort in trying to learn the leaf sticking excercise.
"How can you all learn if you all don't try!" He yelled at them
The four kids argued how lame it was before Kiba ran to the window and left followed by the rest of the other three.
"Bye Iruka Senei!" Naruto yelled as he left to follow the other three.
"All of you, Get back here!" Iruka said yelling at them. While the other students laughed.
"Ugh it's them again, why are they still here" One student said
"I know right, they are all the dead last" Another said
All other students talked about how they were a disgrace but Shigeo only laughed internally as they were making fun of the clan heirs. Not only that but he knew that those four would be leagues above the cannon fodder that were gossiping.
Shigeo only sighed as he stood up and turned towards Iruka. "Iruka-sensei, I'll go find them" Shigeo said as he walked out of the class.
"Ah, wait Shigeo... and he's gone" Iruka said as he sighed.
"Honestly how could Shigeo-kun hang out with those losers?" One fan girl questioned
"I know right?" Another said
This was all that was being asked as they all didn't know why Shigeo bothered to even be near the supposed deal last of the academy.
"Hey, don't disrespect them!" One girl said
"Hah?! What's it to you, Ino?" One of the kids said
"Two of them are my childhood friends!! And don't question Shigeo-kun too, he's been friends with Shikamaru and Choji since they were 6. Of course he would hang out with his friends!" The short platinum blonde haired girl said. To which started an argument with the other classmates.
She used to be one of the many fangirls of Sasuke Uchiha but one time when she tried to give said boy a flower he just turned his back on her. She remembered she was crying after being rejected before she saw Shigeo along with Shikimaru, Choji, and Naruto.
The three except for Shigeo began to tease her when Shigeo walked to her. She thought he was also going to tease her but to her surprise he just took the flower that was meant for Sasuke before he put it behind her ear and told her that she would be prettier if she was smiling instead of crying. It was at that moment that she started liking Shigeo.
After that she began to hang out more with Shikimaru and Choji in hopes to meet Shigeo more often. She also stopped fangirling since she heard how serious Shigeo was set on getting stronger which also fueled her to want to get stronger and took her training more seriously.
"*sigh* Be quiet all of you!" Iruka said sighing.
---
Shigeo was seen walking out the academy as he booked it to a place he knew the others were at. He then went to the park and saw that the others were under a tree eating chips when Naruto spotted him.
"OH, Shigi!! Oi over here!" The blonde said yelling at the other side of the park. He could only sigh as he walked over to them.
He could only sigh at how loud his blonde friend was. No matter how many times he and the other tell him, it seemed that Naruto turned a deaf ear to it.
"You are all in trouble. Iruka sensei is probably going to tell your parents" Shigeo said as he neared them.
"Ugh! What a drag" Shikamaru said as he thought of his mom. While Kiba looked visibly terrified.
"What! Oh man, my mom's going to kill me!" The Inuzuka said
"Yeah tell me about it" Shikamaru said as he sighed.
"What's so hard about sticking a leaf on your forehead anyway?" Shigeo asked as he got mixed reactions.
"Too troublesome" Shikamaru said as both Kiba and Choji said "Don't wanna"
"It's too hard!" The blonde yelled out
Shigeo could only sigh at the four at them before he turned to the blonde and asked "How could you become the hokage when you can't even do this much Naruto?" while he was getting a grin from the blonde.
"Don't worry Shigi, I'll be hokage anyway and then I'll get rid of classes!" Naruto said getting a laugh from Kiba.
"Oi, Kiba why are you laughing!" Naruto yelled
"Because that's so stupid" "Kiba said laughing.
The other three just watched as Kiba and Naruto butt heads before shaking their heads started their own conversation.
"Oi, Shigi. Mom was asking if you wanted to join us for dinner" Shikamaru said catching Shigeo's attention.
"Hmm? Sure I haven't visited in a while, plus I wanted to talk to your dad about something" Shigeo said getting a raised eyebrow from Shikamaru. What Shigeo wanted to tell Shikaku was the treatment Naruto was getting in the academy.
It seemed that other than Iruka, the other teachers don't bother to teach him and just outright fail him while the ones responsible for handing the practice shuriken and kunai purposely handed him faulty ones.
---
"Ah, Shigi-kun look how you've grown" Yoshino said as she pinched Shigeo's cheeks.
"Ah, please stop aunty!" Shigeo said as he tried to dodge.
"Yeah mom, can you stop" Shikamaru said as he grumbled and was embarrassed at how his mom acted in front of his friend.
"Shi-ka-maru!" She said as she pinched Shikamaru's cheeks " I heard from your sensei, you ditched class again!"
"Ow ow ow! Mom that hurts!" Shikamaru said as he tried to get rid of his mom's hand out of his cheek.
"You better not make me hear that again!" Yoshino said getting a nod from Shikamaru
---
Soon after dinner, Shigeo along with Shikaku were sitting face to face as they played a game of shogi.
"Shigeo, you wanted to tell me something?" Shikaku said moving one of his silver generals.
"Yeah, someone from my class is not being treated right" Shigeo said moving his lance.
"MM, who is it" Shikaku said with interest evident in his voice.
"It's Naruto Uzumaki" Shigeo said as he looked at Shikaku who looked surprised for a moment before he composed himself.
"...Tell me the problem" Shikaku said a little serious.
"Other than Iruka sensei, the other teachers don't treat him right. They don't even check his work and just flat out fail him and they also ignore him when he asks for help. Not only that but they purposely give him faulty tools when practicing Kunai or shuriken throwing making him get bad scores" Shigeo said.
Shikaku was quite surprised at how detailed Shigeo told him about the mistreatment of Naruto before he asked " I see, though why didn't you just tell Iruka then since it seemed that the teacher was the only one who cares to teach Naruto"
"I thought about it but I would rather tell a jonin instead. Plus what if the other teachers found out I snitched on them, they might start to target me as well." Shigeo said as he sighed.
"..." Shigeo could only stare at Shigeo for a moment before he nodded " Alright thank for telling me. I'll tell the hokage. Bye the way I won" Shikaku said as Shigeo's king was surrounded.
'With this I should be able to get the hokage to have a good impression of me. There isn't anything suspicious about me or my background. From their view I'm just a talented academy student, I don't have anything special they know of like my kekkei genkai so they shouldn't be wary of me' Shigeo thought.
The first time he met Naruto in his first year of the academy he stopped training for two months because his haki caught someone tailing him. It should have been an anbu, it was probably because he was a child that they didn't see him as a threat and entered his observation haki's radius. It was only thanks to that he knew of them.
{a/n: before all of you call bs, 20 meters is actually quite long. It's half of the statue of liberty so he should know if someone were to be following him}
'I should probably stop training for the next month or so just to be safe' Shigeo thought.