The Ninja Academy had quite the straightforward curriculum. It had a six-year sylbus, with each year focusing on some of the basics. Given the usual entry age of six, the average goons graduated around the age of twelve. Graduation required ability to perform three E-rank jutsu: Clone, transformation and substitution.

  Yukito attended the first-year css. It mostly focused on hand-to-hand combat training and chakra manipution. But Yukito was already capable of infusing chakra to enhance his body, and he had trained in boxing for the entire previous year. He was promoted to the next css after just one week.

  Yukito had another reason for joining the Academy. He wanted to influence the storyline. Many major characters should already be here. Mikoto Uchiha was in the final year—easily the most popur student in the whole academy. The eccentric Hyūga brothers were in the final year too. And then there was a huge variable: Nawaki Senju wasn’t dead!

  In canon, Nawaki died during the Second Shinobi War at the age of twelve. But here he was—alive and well—four years after the war ended. Not only that, he was the homeroom teacher for the third-year css!

  Yes, Yukito had been promoted to the third year. It had only been about a month since he’d started, and now he was in Css 3. He had been practicing a new technique the night before and ended up getting te. As he peeked through the cssroom door, he saw a gentle, idiot-looking guy in chunin attire lecturing about chakra refinement. Suddenly, a certain redhead shouted:

  “Nawaki-sensei! Someone’s te and peeking through the door gap!”

  Yukito cursed inwardly. Sure enough, it was Kushina Uzumaki. What the hell did Minato see in this annoying troublemaker?

  Still, Minato had better taste than his son. Young Kushina was far better than the trash Naruto had eyes on during his academy days.

  Yukito had to admit, Nawaki had a real talent—for making css painfully boring. With both Senju and Uzumaki bloodlines, he had no difficulty using chakra. It came as naturally to him as breathing does to anyone else. A fish can't teach a nd animal how to swim, can it?

  The cssroom was almost like those in modern universities—a podium at the front, and tiered seating arranged like steps. The teacher could easily see everyone’s face. Yukito introduced himself at the front, then took a seat on the second bench of the third row.

  He gnced around. There was a Hyuga with the signature white eyes, an Uchiha funting the cn's logo seemingly everywhere on his body, and a round, football-shaped kid—probably an Akimichi. What was the name of Kiba’s cn again? Oh, and of course, there was Kushina Uzumaki, sitting alone on a bench, radiating oppression. Yukito also spotted Namikaze Minato with his shiny blond hair—like a tiny sun in the room.

  ?The css ended after Nawaki yapping some more times about chakra refinment. They were given a lunch break. Yukito decided it was a good time to approach Minato, so he grabbed his wooden lunchbox and stood up. Pstic didn’t exist here to pollute the shinobi world.

  But his pn hit a snag—Kushina blocked his path.

  “Hey-hey, you were throwing kunai eyes at me during css, y’know? You got a problem with me or something?”

  She is practically grinning, mischievous gleam in her eyes. She is picking on me!'??Now I'm seriously disappointed on you, Minato! What kind of hooligan you loved? Were you into femdom?

  Yukito began walking, slowly, half-frozen. This was a big opportunity—if he pyed his cards right, he could befriend the fiery Kushina! He can farm knowledge- ahem, learn together about Uzumaki cn's knowledge!

  He grinned back.

  “You have beautiful hair. Are you an Uzumaki?”

  Kushina’s face went through a speedrun of emotions—disbelief, shock, happiness, then smug satisfaction.

  “How’d you know? I am Kushina Uzumaki, y’know! You’re Yukito Kasugano, right? Are you from a civilian family? I’ve never heard of a Kasugano cn, y’know?”

  She’s kind of adorable when she’s not shouting. I can sorta see what Minato saw in her.

  Yukito invited her to eat together. Over lunch, they chatted about the vilge, chakra refining, and various jutsu. Yukito could feel Minato’s jealous stares—and had to suppress a ugh.

  Kushina turned out to be kind and compassionate, just like she was in original work. Sure, she had a temper, but after seeing her cn massacred before her eyes and facing discrimination in Konoha, it was pretty much normal. Still, she didn’t let it break her. In fact, she was far better than someone like Sasuke Uchiha—who had a simir past, but chose the path of arrogance, snobbery, and self-righteous hypocrisy. Kushina had every reason to become a vilin, but she didn’t.

  By the end of lunch, Yukito had gotten pretty close to her, using bits of knowledge from his past life. He eventually excused himself and went to greet Minato. The jealous look in Minato’s eyes nearly made him ugh out loud, but he managed to keep it in.

  Not that it mattered—Minato wasn’t the type to hold a grudge over something so trivial. Yukito learned quite a few things from talking with him. This world had a few noticeable differences from the Naruto timeline he knew.

  ‘Must be the butterfly effect,’ Yukito thought.

  The day wrapped up with a practical css. Yukito had a bit of trouble with the hand signs, but he knew he’d get the hang of it with more practice. Afterward, he headed to the river bank. There, he started skipping stones across the water, silently sorting through the knowledge he’d gathered about this world.

  After constructing hidden leaf vilge with Hashirama Senju, Madara got tricked by Bck Jetsu's writing on the Uchiha ancestral stone tablet. He eventually left after having conflict with Hashirama about Konoha's foreign policy. They had a final battle on Valley of the End. Faking his death, Madara escaped with Izanagi and Hashirama's cells in his mouth. He awakened rinnegan and summoned Gedo statue, the empty husk of 10 tailed beast. Madara pnted his rinnegan eyes on Nagato Uzumaki, and currently alive with life support, ahem, I mean— chakra support from Gedo Statue. He is now searching a gullible Uchiha kid with grudges towards whole world. He'd eventually get Obito in upcoming 3rd Shinobi world war.

  If Yukito takes away Nagato's rinnegan, the plot will fall apart completely. Yukito will gain immense strength as well. But Yukito decided not to do that. Those weren’t his, so he can't turn on/off them at will. Definitely not because rinnegan doesn’t look as cool as sharingan!

  Rinnegan have some super cool abilities, but currently, he cks foundation. His needs to survive the upcoming turmoils. In order to achieve that, he needs strong defensive measures. He can withstand taijutsu, genjutsu or weapon based martial arts. He only cks protective measures against ninjutsu. He had two defenses in mind— Infinity/limitless technique from jujutsu kaisen, and Pretā Path chakra absorption of Rinnegan. There isn't any shinobi alive or dead who understood chakra as much as he did. His chakra also isn't tied to any elements. He knew what he needs to do. It's time to create my own ninjutsu!

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  This is going to be the first step of defying the plot, and ending of this happy-go-lucky vibe. From next chapter, it will be packed with adventure, action, death, meticulous pnning and betrayal. If you're reading, please make some comments. Your words are huge motivations for me, as I am a very novice writer. Thanks for reading!