After years of borderline neglect, it was weird to have my new parents be so invested in my life, but their instruction was welcome, so I didn't make a big deal of it. The more they taught me, the faster I could grow.
As time passed, I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed spending time with them. I wasn't sure if it was a childish desire for attention or gratitude for the break in the forced solitude I'd inflicted on myself at the daycare for fear of Danzo's child spies – I'd been very paranoid about being brainwashed into Root – but my relationship with my parents improved drastically in a short time.
It might be because I had time to heal after my death and the loss of my previous family but whatever the reason I started to see them as my parents.
Before I knew it, my parents finally decided it was time for me to go to the academy. Other kids in the clan had been going to the Academy since they were four or five years old, but I needed parental permission to enroll, and my parents had always been away and didn't want me to enroll when they couldn't watch me.
Not that they were watching me much now, but I was finally allowed to go to the Academy, so I didn't complain or point that out.
It meant that I would finally be able to train more about how to become a shinobi, a strong one. My parents training was welcomed but I needed something more than Taijutsu training.
"Have a good day at school, Kagen!" Mom said, trying and failing to subtly wipe the tears from her eyes.
Ah yes, Kagen was my name. Kagen Nara.
I had asked my mom for explaination and she had given me an explaination that sent a chill down my spine and told me never to underestimate any Nara.
My mother liked to say the name 'Kagen' was chosen very carefully.
"Your father wanted something traditional," she had explained, "Something strong. Something that honored the Nara shadow techniques."
Megumi, she claimed, had gone on a very long speech about strategy, legacy, and how shadows could be used to confuse enemies. Hana nodded the whole time, even though she stopped listening halfway through.
The real reason, however, was much simpler.
"You were born quiet," she had told me. "Too quiet. You didn't cry, you didn't fuss, you just stared at people like you were judging them. Very creepy. So I figured something that meant shadow and Illusion was a perfect name for you. Because clearly you were hiding something."
She paused, then had smiled.
"Also, every Nara kid needs a 'Shiki' sound in their name or the clan elders start complaining. They did not give me sweets when I was a child so just for spite, I decided to give you a name without Shiki."
I thought that was surprisingly close with the explaination that I had something to hide. I had a lot to hide after all.
Anyways she and dad had walked me to school and were saying their final goodbye from the edge of the school grounds. They were heading off on a mission as soon as they were done here, but they wanted to make my first day special.
"I will." I said, giving her a hug.
"Make us proud, son." Dad said, his shoulders slumped forward, a small smile on his face.
Dad was kind of lazy, but nowhere near as slothful as the Nara that lazed around the clan compound all day. There were a surprising number of them.
"I will. Bye!" I gave him a quick hug and dashed through the tan dirt of the courtyard into the three-story building, looking forward to learning how to be a super-powered world breaker. This was my first step on the path to mythic power.
I'd taken a placement test with written questions as well as a practical exam prior to my first day. The questions were all easy and the practical was just throwing shuriken at a stationary target, so I passed that easily as well.
Despite my late enrollment, I was put in a class with other kids my age because I was skilled enough to keep up with them.
My class had forty-five students including myself. There were many faces that I didn't recognize. I wasn't surprised. I was early enough in the timeline that I'd experienced the Kyuubi attack, the day that Naruto was born.
It was so early in the timeline that I actually had several Uchiha classmates. They were easy to spot. They all wore dark colors and had their red-white lollipop-looking symbol stitched onto their backs.
The Hyuuga were similarly easy to spot, wearing all white with a curled flame on their backs. I wasn't the only Nara here. Ido, my however-many removed cousin was asleep at the back of the class.
There was a sprinkling of other kids from the Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzaka and Akimichi clans, with a fair few civilians. This seemed to be a class somewhat like Naruto's in that there were kids from different clans gathered together, presumably to foster our 'Will of Fire' and all that.
I didn't really care about the indoctrination, but the diversity of the skill sets in the class would let me measure where I was compared to everyone else my age and show me where I needed to improve.
"Alright! Everyone sit down!" a chunin with brown, braided hair said as she entered the class. "My name is Akira Akiyama and I'll be your teacher this year. Classes have been shifted around and there are new faces, so we're all going to introduce ourselves one at a time. You! You're first!" she declared, having pointed at one of the civilians.
I jotted down quick notes of the names of my classmates in my notebook but didn't really listen to their goals, likes and dislikes. I wasn't planning on making friends. I was going to use my Academy years to give myself as strong a headstart as I possibly could.
"You!" Our teacher's finger fell on me.
I stood and bowed shallowly to my class. "My name is Kagen Nara. I like books and training, and dislike laziness. My goal is to become one of the strongest ninjas in the world." I sat back down. Everyone was looking at me funny.
What did I say?
There was a lot of silence following my introduction. Not the normal, polite silence. The bad kind.
A kid in the back blinked. Someone else slowly turned to look at me again, like they were checking if I'd changed my mind. Even the teacher paused, chalk frozen mid-air.
Right. Of course they were looking at me funny.
I was a Nara. I was supposed to say I liked clouds, naps, and doing the bare minimum required to pass. Instead, I'd just declared war on laziness in front of an entire classroom full of future underachievers.
Ido stared at me like I'd personally betrayed the clan.
I cleared my throat and avoided eye contact, suddenly very aware that I was six years old and had just set expectations I absolutely could not take back.
So yeah.
That was how my first day at the Academy started.