The time Kusuri spent deciphering the scrolls was more than well spent, but that time eventually ran out.
Since he was officially six years old, he was old enough to enroll in the academy, whose school year was fast approaching.
In fact, according to his grandparents, he had already been enrolled for a while.
That fact was quite surprising to Kusuri, as he had assumed there would be some kind of requirements on his part like a test to see if he had the potential to be a proper ninja, but the bar for acceptance was apparently lower than he expected.
Either way, his first day was approaching quickly, and preparations had to be made.
He had to get all kinds of notebooks, pencils, and other school supplies, for the academic portions of the academy's curriculum, and, surprisingly little else. He didn't need any kunai or shuriken or anything of the like, which was a bit of a surprise, but it also made sense. You don't really want six-year-olds handling sharp, steel objects without proper training first.
His grandparents appeared to be even more excited than he was, as they were bursting at the seams with excitement at seeing their little Ku all grown up and entering the academy. Not to say that he wasn't excited too, it was just that he expected he would spend most of the first year or two bored by the simpler concepts.
More days passed and the first day of the Academy's school year finally arrived.
Kusuri woke up in a chipper mood and then went downstairs for breakfast without missing a beat. He was met by freshly made tamagoyaki and green tea. He ate quickly, talking to his grandparents, who were also at the table. The moment he was finished, he rushed back upstairs to change out of his pajamas.
He changed into a simple pair of grey pants and a similarly colored shirt, both with maroon accents. Next, he slipped on a purple jacket his grandparents had bought as a present for his first day.
Looking to the clock, he noticed he had less time remaining than he thought, and rushed back downstairs once again, before bursting out the door with a quick goodbye.
He made his way over to the academy at a light, steady jog, not wanting to waste any more time than he already had.
He jogged past numerous houses and businesses, many he had grown to recognize over the past six years. He hadn't been to most of them, but they were useful landmarks whenever he got lost.
Finally, he arrived at the academy proper.
The building was large, its three stories standing imposingly over the surrounding buildings.
It was also the place he would be spending much of the next six years.
It was a bit of a weird feeling for Kusuri, having to go to school again. He had gone through much of it before, sure, but there were plenty of new things he had to learn as well. Plus, with all the free time he would have thanks to what he already knew, he would have plenty of time to train or just enjoy himself. He intended to relish his free time far more than he had in his past life; his schooling there was something he never wanted to relive.
He entered the gates swiftly and quickly made it all the way to his designated classroom.
A full forty-five minutes before he actually needed to be there.
He liked being early.
----------
The teacher arrived roughly 15 minutes after Kusuri had, and after noticing he wasn't the first one there, adopted a rather perplexed look. The teacher thought it was a bit odd, but didn't care enough to ask. He then began preparing a variety of papers for when the class was meant to start, trying to ignore Kusuri's presence.
At about twenty till, some people began to file in, the rate of which increased as the start time got closer.
Kusuri thought he would recognize at least some of them, but to his surprise, not a single one of the people who entered the room was even vaguely familiar to him. At some point during that time two people had moved to sit on either side of him, but he hadn't really been paying attention.
He was rather confused; how does a year that only had nine graduating students have this many people he doesn't recognize? He knew that a large portion of said graduating class had failed, but, with a class this size, that must've meant at least half again or even more people had flunked over the six years prior.
His answer as to how that was the case was answered rather quickly when their teacher, a chūnin Kusuri didn't recognize, began to speak.
"Hello everyone. I know you're all excited about orientation, but I'm afraid I need to give each of you some bad news," he said frankly, "Most of you will not be here after the next six months."
Shock filled the room in an instant, but Kusuri was unphased. Considering the ease of enrollment and class size, he was sure some kind of weeding out would happen.
"For the next six months, you will be largely focusing on your academics with functionally no real ninja training," the teacher continued, "To be a ninja, you need chakra, something I'm sure few if any of you can currently utilize. All time outside of academics will be focused on teaching you all to sense your chakra, then to control it, and finally to utilize it. There will be deadlines to meet on each of these metrics, and if you fail to meet them, you will have your enrollment transferred to a normal school. Do you all understand?"
The class resounded with a meek and scattered, "Yes sir."
"Up until one o'clock in the afternoon, you will be in your academic classes, today included. The remaining two hours will be focused on your development. All of you already know your schedules, so just make your way to your first class by eight thirty once I'm done with the rest of orientation.
The teacher continued along with the rest of the orientation, but the mood was clearly soured by his initial proclamation. Many of the students had gloomy expressions, mainly those who weren't in a clan and thus weren't hopeful of their chances with such an announcement.
Eventually, the spiel finished, and they moved to their first class of the day. For Kusuri, that was history, one of the few topics covered that was actually new ground for him. As it was the first day, he learned little, as it was mostly icebreakers and the like. That pattern repeated for many of his other classes, although he thought it was rather pointless if most of the students were going to flunk out anyway.
Lunch arrived after a while, and Kusuri decided he would try to avoid conversation and sit alone eating the bento his grandfather had made for him.
That plan was thwarted when two people from his class wandered over to sit with him. He thought they were the people who were sitting next to him, but with how little he had been paying attention, he really wasn't sure.
The pair was a boy and a girl. The boy had very short, spiky white hair and marked clothing that gave him away as a Hatake, and the girl had dark brown hair and simple clothing that gave her away as clanless.
From their demeanor, they clearly knew each other and seemed to be curious about Kusuri.
"Do you mind if we sit with you?" the boy asked.
Not wanting to feel rude, Kusuri said no.
The pair quickly introduced themselves as Tagayasu Hatake and Nori Kato. They then asked Kusuri's name and he obliged.
"Did you know about the deadlines beforehand?" the boy asked abruptly, "I mean, I knew because my cousin told me, and Nori knows because I told her, but how did you know?"
Kusuri didn't feel the need to severely alter the truth, and, thus, didn't.
"There are too many students," Kusuri answered.
"What?" Nori answered, a bit confused.
"There are too many students. Graduating classes at the academy can be as low as the single digits, it doesn't make sense for there to be this many students unless most of them aren't expected to make it."
"Huh," Tagayasu said, lost in thought, "I guess that makes sense. You're pretty smart!"
Now, Kusuri liked to think himself rather hard to manipulate, but he also really liked being complimented.
That was until he remembered this was coming from a six-year-old and thus not really that high of praise.
"Oh, by the way, you can call me Taga! No one calls me Tagayasu, it's too much of a mouthful."
"Duly noted."