After breakfast, Sara and I made our way to the academy. When we arrived, there were only a few people. I split with Sara to get to my desk, sat down, and started working on creating the new explosion seal using part duplicates. For this one, I was going to use duplicates for Chakra Storage Fuin and Chakra Containment Fuin. I started working on it and immediately understood how hard it is to create new fuins. ‘I have a bad feeling about this one.’ I sighed and focused on my work.

I was done in a few minutes and was holding a new fuin I created. I quickly looked at the Skill description.

Bloated Explosion Fuin Level 1/20

o Bloated Explosion Fuin is fuin used to create explosive fireballs.

o Special Explosion Fuin explosion radius 10 meters.

o Increases the effectiveness of all fuin parts by 1%.

o Decreases the time it takes to write this fuin by 1%

‘Bloated Explosion Fuin and it has a lower max level. It seems this one is a dud.’ I put the seal on my pocket. Just as I was about to start grinding Chakra Storage Fuin with the hopes that I could make them catch up to Fire Chakra Transformation Fuin and increase the overall power of my Special Explosion Fuin, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Sasuke looking at me with a smile. “Don’t start again. I am tired of waiting for you here.”

I looked around. Iruka-sensei wasn’t in the class yet. I turned back to Sasuke and asked, “Did something happen, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke momentarily looked perplexed the way I addressed him but composed himself quickly. “My brother wants you to teach me how to make Special Explosion Fuin.”

I raised a brow. “Are you sure you want to do this? It will take away lots of your time and the fuin you make probably won’t be as effective as the ones I make.” I frowned. “Why did Itachi-san decided for you to do this anyway? He told me he wanted to learn it himself.”

Sasuke nodded. “He was going to be the one but my father wanted me to learn it instead. He said Itachi nii-san didn’t have the time.”

“Well if you decided to do it, I don’t mind. Now I will guide you once… Wait a minute.” I looked around to find Naruto talking to some kid animatedly. “Naruto!” I yelled. He turned to me and after I gestured for him to come, he walked to us.

Naruto looked at us smiling. “Arata, do you want to hear how I pranked a genin?”

I raised a brow. ‘So he started already.’ I sighed and pinched my nose. After a while, I smiled, “Naruto. Did you see the explosion yesterday?”

Naruto nodded excitedly. “It was like BOOM fssh BOOM! It was awesome! What happened? Will you give me one of them?” I shook my head. “Then what?”

I pointed at Sasuke, “I will teach Sasuke how I make them. Do you want to learn too?”

Before Naruto could answer, Sasuke butted in, “I don’t think it’s logical to teach Naruto how to make explosives. He doesn’t seem like the responsible kind.”

I nodded. “Yes, but I won’t teach him right now anyway. I will first teach you calligraphy.” Sasuke raised his nose slightly. ‘Uh oh.’ I used Mentoring and saw Sasuke’s current level in Calligraphy.

Sasuke Uchiha

Calligraphy level 4, training levels left for today: 1.

Sasuke smirked and said, “I am already decent with Calligraphy. There is no need to work on it.”

“Then I am decent too!”

Naruto Uzumaki

Calligraphy level 2, training levels left for today: 2.

I nodded and took off two papers and two brushes. “Here. Write your names. I want to see how decent you two before deciding on what to do.”

Naruto nodded easily and took the brush but Sasuke was a bit stressed by the fact that his calligraphy might not be as good as he thought.

“Done!” I took a look at Naruto’s writing and saw lots of mistakes. I sighed and wrote what he did wrong. It took some time but when I finished, I caught Sasuke looking at me writing rather than writing himself.

I sighed and gave the paper to Naruto. “Try to correct the mistakes I wrote on the paper.” He nodded and took off with the paper. I turned to Sasuke. “Come on, write your name, so I can see your level.” He nodded and wrote his name, the best he can, I could tell. After he finished, I inspected his writing and saw a few mistakes but not even close to the number of mistakes Naruto had in his writing.

I wrote his mistakes too and he took the paper and looked at it. “There aren’t as many mistakes as Naruto’s. Does that mean I am close to learning fuinjutsu?”

I shook my head. “You are closer than Naruto but you still have a long way to go. But don’t worry. While you work on your calligraphy, I will work on improving the fuin. So when you are done, I will teach you the improved version.”

Sasuke nodded and went away with his paper in hand.

That left me and myself alone. I was about to start my fuin training when I saw Sara coming. She was walking towards me with two girls in tow. One of them Sakura, the other Ino. I leaned back and smiled at them. “Sara, did something happen?” Sara stopped in front of my desk and smiled cutely. So I pinched her cheek much to her dismay. After that, I turned to her secretly smiling friends. “Ino, Sakura. What is it?”

Ino came forward smiling but eyes on my hands. She then said, “Sara said you killed a lot of rats today. Is that true?”

I chuckled and nodded, “I wasn’t alone though. There were others with me. And things were going bad. Luckily Hana-san -the orphanage matron- came and saved us. Why did you ask?”

Ino just shrugged and they went as they came; silently.