While thinking about tommorow, Kaiji surveyed his small living space.
It consisted of a compact kitchen area, a similarly small bathroom, and the room where he lay.
The building itself housed many similar units, allocated to the village's orphans.
He felt no discouragement. "This is my life now," he affirmed to himself.
As the day drew to a close, he ate an early, light dinner and prepared for sleep.
The next morning, he wake up early, around 5 AM. He freshened up and stepped out of his ground-floor house in the three-story building.
Outside, he performed some light stretching. 'Let's see just how much I can manage,' he thought, assessing his current physical limits.
He decided on two laps running around the village. Starting his run, he observed other shinobi training in the pre-dawn light – some Academy students, others regular village ninja.
'Well, it's obvious,' he mused. 'I wouldn't be the only one training this early.'
After completing the two laps around the village, he stopped, huffing and totally out of breath.
"Looks like two laps around the village is too much," he gasped, speaking aloud to himself. "Though I stubbornly completed it."
He rested at one of the village's training fields. Sunagakure, utilizing the vast desert area surrounding it, had numerous training fields around its corners.
After resting and regaining his breath, he stood up. "Now it's time for push-ups," he announced softly.
He proceeded to perform 3 sets to failure of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and pull-ups.
While he pushed each set to his limit, the number of repetitions was between 25-30 for each exercise.
'Even though my physical strength isn't great,' he acknowledged, 'with the Academy's basic training, I am at least in decent shape.'
He looked around the training field.
"Where can I find a tree here?" he wondered.
Sunagakure had few trees, especially within its training fields.
He mused, 'Maybe because Sunagakure has less trees and water surfaces, they didn't develop the concept of Tree and Water Walking.'
After searching for a few minutes, he located a solitary tree.
"The sun is only just rising," he said, "so I can try Tree Walking for a few attempts."
He focused his chakra on the soles of his feet and attempted the exercise.
After multiple miserable attempts and falls, he decided to head home and wash up.
He had barely managed to ascend 1.5 meters up the tree before losing his footing each time.
After taking a bath and simple breakfast, he get ready for the Academy, he left his house.
It was already around 7:30 AM. As he exited the building, he saw two figures waiting. One was slightly tanned and slim, while the other was a little chubbier.
They were both the same height as him. They were Kaiji's friends. They were waiting for him.
The tanned one was Ren, and the other was Hiroshi.
Kaiji recalled that in this life in the orphanage, he had made a few friends. Ren and Hiroshi were his friends from the orphanage.
In the Academy, they were average students, unlike him, who was at the bottom.
Ren and Hiroshi smiled and ask. "How are you, Kaiji?"
"Good, how about you too?"
The three of them exchanged friendly greetings, simple talks about how their last day had been.
They walked together towards the Academy, located on the northwest side of the village.
To the right of the Academy, a few streets away, was the Village Hospital, and to the left, a few streets distant, stood the Kazekage's Building.
The trio reached their classroom, which was already filled with the chatter of students.
Since they were arriving at their usual time, all the front seats were taken.
They shrugged and took their customary seats at the last benches of the class. Kaiji felt a quiet happiness inside.
In his past life, after college, he had become engrossed in work, and over time, he had drifted away from his friends.
He was genuinely happy to have friends in this life, even though parents were still absent.
Settling down and waiting for the instructor, Kaiji looked around at the other students.
Of all of them, he recognized only one from the anime, Maki. She had short hair, simple styled, along with distinct purple markings on both of her cheeks.
After observing for a bit, he, like the others, started talking about random Academy topics with Ren and Hiroshi.
They discussed the top students in their class. Sunagakure, unlike Konoha and Kirigakure, lacked prominent clans and didn't produce as many young geniuses.
However, they still had some talented children each year.
In Kaiji's class, two stood out, Renji, the top student, who had dark black hair, was not arrogant despite his rank, and possessed a friendly personality.
The second was Taichi, ranked third and fourth usually in spars. He was good in Bukijutsu or Taijutsu but he had a very high Wind Nature Affinity, which made him quite arrogant because he had easily mastered all the D-rank Wind Nature Ninjutsu taught at the Academy.
Since his talent in Ninjutsu is high, it make instructors more focused on him like other Top students.
Kaiji, however, paid little mind to such things. After a few minutes, a Chunin instructor, Kazeo, finally entered the classroom.
"Alright kids," Kazeo said, his voice cutting through the noise, "stop talking." Then classes began.
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