In the gloomy streets of Kirigakure, a figure could be seen moving like the wind through the roofs. The mist clouded the entire village yet he pierced past it like gusts of wind.
The figure landed before an old bleak building that everyone in the village seemed to avoid. It was enormous in structure, only second to the Mizukage building. Several buildings were attached to it and a giant symbol resembling the kanji word for 'water' was painted at the very top of it.
Karna advanced toward the building while everyone that passed by him looked at him with a narrow and isolating gaze. He casually ignored them and entered the building.
Upon entering, an incongruous picture was captured in Karna's eyes; Unlike the outside, the inside of the building was extremely attractive. He moved through an oval corridor where walls on both sides were embellished with paintings depicting the war and the shinobis of the past.
Karna reached the end of the corridor and met a shinobi wearing a mask on his face. Karna handed him the paper that the Mizukage had given him before. The shinobi paused a second and looked deeply at Karna. Resembling a chunin from his attire, he attentively read the paper with his sharp eyes unconcealed by the mask.
"Come with me." The shinobi said as he got up from his chair and moved to one of the doors attached to the corridor.
Karna followed the chunin slowly, and passing through the door, he appeared before a place that left him completely shocked.
'This is completely contrasting to what I had thought,' Karna thought as he saw the large classroom before him with less than ten students seated in the front row looking at him with frowns and narrow eyes.
The chunin who had bought him reached the podium and handed the papers to another shinobi with clothes similar to his, pinstriped material worn as bracers and greaves which merge into their sandals. He wore a full-black shirt and pants over which they wear the village's standard grey flak jacket.
After handing out the papers the chunin left the classroom. Karna watched him disappear from the classroom and then retracted his gaze to focus on the man on the podium.
The man on the podium noticed Karna's gaze and sighed softly. Then he sifted his gaze toward the classroom.
"Kids, we have a new student joining us from today onwards. His name is Karna. It's been only two days since he joined the village along with his family. So, I hope you guys will get along well and make it easy for Karna to adapt to this place." The man announced to the class. The latter part of his monologue almost felt like a plea to the students, but when Karna looked at the unchanging frown hanging onto all faces directed at him, he saw the man's plea go disregarded.
"Sigh! I'm responsible for you as your homeroom teacher as well as the theoretical teacher for the next four years. My name is Shinichi Funato; I'm a chunin of the Kirigakure. Please take care of me." Karna looked at the man claiming to be Shinichi who came before him and patted his head slightly. He wore a genuine smile as he ruffled his hair.
'A Funato is a teacher in the academy!? Can people from the Funato clan be this gentle!? Has the world already gone senile?' Karna exclaimed inwardly without any changes on the surface.
"I'm Karna; I've only recently turned six. Please take care of me, sensei." Karna said as he gently bowed.
"Haha, finally a gentle one. How long have I waited for you? I will take good care of you. Now, move to your seat beside Kenji there." Shinichi seemed excited as he pointed at a seat for Karna.
"Heh? Why me?" Kenji, the only person without a frown, suddenly woke from his nap and revolted against the teacher's decision. Shinichi didn't bother to look at him and just smiled at Karna as he sat in his seat.
"Alright class. Since everyone has settled down today we'll start with the basics of ninja pouches and how to carry them with efficiency." Shinichi pulled out a chalk from the table before him and went on to write on the blackboard.
"Oi, Gaki! I'm saying this for the first time and the last time: don't move your tongue and keep that head low at all times so that I don't have to beat some sense to you. Am I clear?" Kenji demanded an answer as he yawned and cleaned his ears with his pinky.
'Would you look at that? How cute!' Karna thought as he looked at Kenji with a slit-eyed smile.
Kenji looked at Karna smiling at him, Karna's eyes nearly closed and his mouth stretched to the limit.
'Huh? What is this uneasy feeling?' Kenji thought as he looked around the class, but there was nothing special to note in his eyes except for that eerie smile from a second before.
'Ah, whatever!' Kenji jiggled his head and bought his head down again onto the table, completely ignoring the lecture.
Karna looked at Kenji with amusement as if he had found a new toy to play with. Then, he moved his eyes to the front, he had a lot of knowledge to absorb today.
A gentle breeze passed through the class. It was the sign of the rainy weather loosening its clutches and the arrival of spring.
With the flow of the seasons, time too flew in parallel, spring came and then departed again, and so did the other seasons. Two years passed too quickly but little has changed in Kirigakure except for the passing of the seasons.
The internal strife within Kirigakure has intensified to the point where people are actively protesting against it. But, they're being put down the moment they raise their voice against the higher-ups of the village.
"It's a bad move," Karna muttered sitting atop a large tree branch with his upper body held by the trunk and one leg bent beside the other. He chewed a thin piece of grass as he looked far away with his ethereal golden eyes.
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Up next: "The situation in Konoha"
~Karna receives vital information about Konoha and plans for the future.
[A.N: sorry for the short chapter. The next two or three chapters would be a bit short since I had written those long ago. But, after that, each chapter increases substantially in words and also quality.
Also, Kenji is my favourite character in this fic. I like him even more than the mc and had the most fun writing him. I think he's the closest I could've gone to exhibit realism in my fic. I hope you guys would love him too in the coming chapters.]