After Makoto and his group traveled to the Naruto World, they spent the entire first semester of their first year at the Ninja Academy taking cultural classes.
The curriculum was varied, covering everything from [The Will of Fire, Endlessly Inherited] and [The Strongest Hokage of All Time, Sarutobi Hiruzen] to [The Innately Evil Land of Lightning]. Summarized in one sentence, it was… the ultimate Genjutsu, the Will of Fire.
Among this group of Transmigrators, the one who excelled the most in cultural studies, besides the original honor student Haruno Sakura, was Yukino.
After all, her entrance exam scores at Shuchi'in Academy were said to be second only to Kaguya. Cultural classes were a breeze for her.
It wasn't until the second half of the second year that physical training classes officially started.
Fortunately, this was a time of peace, and the students were just a bunch of five or six-year-old kids. The training intensity was comparable to an ordinary sports school back in the present world.
When it came to physical training class, Yukino immediately wilted.
Although she had some athletic sense, her stamina was terrible, making her look particularly struggling among the other kids.
In contrast, Makoto caught up from behind… among the class, only Naruto and Sasuke, the two natural powerhouses, and those from Taijutsu Clans like Inuzuka Kiba could barely stay ahead of him.
Stamina was pretty much the only thing Naruto had going for him at this stage.
He was still the same hopeless underachiever as in the original work, with Hachiman coming in second-to-last.
However, Makoto always felt that this guy was deliberately holding back.
He remembered that Hachiman's original cultural grades were quite excellent, and while his sports weren't top-tier, they weren't bad either. He shouldn't have fallen to second-to-last.
He figured it was because he was in this unfamiliar world full of superpowers, and he was being cautious, keeping a low profile.
To be honest, that wasn't a bad choice at all.
Looking solely at physical training results, Makoto was solidly in the top five of the class.
Days passed by. Both the fellow Transmigrators and the natives like Naruto and Sasuke gradually discovered the strange thing about Makoto… the guy was fanatically obsessed with training.
Every day, after completing the training Iruka assigned, he would voluntarily stay late to practice more before finally returning to the orphanage.
After this happened many times, Iruka had to forcibly drag him away from the training ground, afraid he'd train himself to death.
That excitement… they would think he was having a blast if they didn't know better.
But Makoto himself thought it was perfectly normal.
Weren't there people in the present world addicted to lifting weights?
Besides, this was actual superpower training, way more thrilling than lifting weights. Why was it strange to be addicted?
After advancing to the second year, the curriculum finally added basic Chakra Refinement lessons.
This made Makoto even more pumped, like he'd had a shot of adrenaline.
Unfortunately, actual ninjutsu wouldn't be taught until the third year, even the most basic Clone Technique.
However, the addition of Shurikenjutsu to the physical training class still excited him for a good while.
Too bad Shurikenjutsu was the specialty of the Uchiha Clan.
No matter how hard Makoto trained, he could only firmly hold second place, with the top spot firmly occupied by Sasuke, no matter how hard he tried.
This time, it taught Makoto the importance of bloodline.
Morning.
Two figures arrived at Konoha's main gate one after another.
Konoha's gatekeepers, Hagane Kotetsu and Kamizuki Izumo, were long used to this.
Nishikawa Makoto from the second year of the Ninja Academy, and Rock Lee from the third year, ran around Konoha every morning before dawn, earning them the title of [The Two Training Maniacs of the Ninja Academy].
"Amazing, Makoto!"
After finishing a lap, both soaked in sweat as if pulled from water, Lee showed a row of neat white teeth and gave Makoto a thumbs-up. "Your speed is completely keeping up with mine!"
Because during training at the Ninja Academy, Iruka was always worried Makoto would overtrain and would often forcibly chase him away.
So a year ago, Makoto had gotten into the habit of going to the outskirts training ground to practice alone, and it was there he met Lee.
The two hit it off immediately, agreed to train together, and gradually became close.
"Still not enough." Makoto wiped the sweat from his face, looking at Lee with slightly complicated eyes.
When he read the manga in his past life, he greatly admired this hard work genius. Unfortunately, Lee was the type who peaked at the start, and that peak marked his decline.
Although his fight with Gaara was enough to be recorded as a classic Naruto battle, a mortal ultimately couldn't overcome those with special bloodlines.
Sasuke had matched Lee's years of hard work speed in just one month, making him look like a fool.
You could only say Lee was born in the wrong world.
If he had gone to the One Piece World, maybe with a Devil Fruit and Haki boost, he could have overtaken others.
He might even have gotten the '200-fold effort' buff from the 'Runaway Marine King'. (T/N: It's Koby.)
But in Naruto, without a bloodline, he had almost no hope of rising above.
"Makoto, here's some water."
A sweet, gentle voice sounded.
Airi, with her pigtails, bounced over and handed him a flask.
Lee, who had been smiling brightly just a moment ago, twitched his mouth.
It was well known that nothing chilled a brother's heart more than seeing his friend get handed a drink by a pretty girl after a basketball game.
If it were Sasuke, he wouldn't care. But unfortunately, Lee's sexual orientation was perfectly normal.
'Damn it. Tomorrow, I'd really crank up the intensity for this guy.'
The thing was, Lee's looks were indeed... hard to describe.
Whereas Makoto's looks could rival Sasuke's.
But Airi kept such a close watch that she didn't give any other girl a chance to get close.
Makoto tilted his head back and chugged the entire flask. Airi immediately pinched her nose, pretending to be disgusted, and urged him: "Hurry up, go take a shower! You stink! Today's the first day of school!"
That's right. Starting today, Makoto's class officially advanced to the third year and could finally learn the most basic Three Basic Techniques.
"Train again tomorrow."
Makoto nodded to Lee, then headed back to the orphanage with Airi to wash up.
As luck would have it, they ran into Yukino, Chizuru, and the others who were just about to leave for school.
Two years had passed. Although these Transmigrators saw each other often, they were far from being close.
Except for Makoto and Airi, who were almost inseparable, the others weren't even friends.
The problem was these people's personalities were too eccentric:
Yukinoshita Yukino, who had high self-esteem but lived in an ivory tower, disconnected from reality…
Hikigaya Hachiman, who was withdrawn and habitually used self-destruction to solve problems…
Eriri, who looked like a refined lady but behind the scenes was a hentai doujinshi artist…
And Ichinose Chizuru, who had a face like the school idol but secretly worked as a rental girlfriend.
This lineup was indeed destined to become legendary.
So, even after two years together, they were at best roommates, not friends.
Seeing Makoto and Airi drenched in sweat, Yukino just glanced briefly, pretended not to see them, and walked straight past.
After that brief interaction right after the Transmigration, they hadn't spoken a single word in two years.
In Yukino's eyes, Makoto was just a muscle-headed brute.
And Makoto couldn't be bothered with this young lady who was out of touch with reality.
Hachiman looked at Makoto, who looked like he just crawled out of the water, and silently sighed: 'What a training maniac.'
As for Chizuru, Eriri, and the others, they only had one thought… to return to the real world as soon as possible.
They still had families in the present world. Especially Chizuru, whose grandmother was terminally ill and needed her constant care.
Just because your Mizuhara-san loves to squeeze money from naive guys, she's still a good girl.