It had been five years since Akio had entered the Ninja Academy, and recently not that long ago, his twin siblings had started going to the academy to become ninjas in the future.

Akio was now in the bathroom, getting ready for today. He then walked out of the bathroom wearing a white and slightly black high-collar jacket with the signature black star on the back. Underneath the jacket, he had on a black shirt, along with a brown belt on his black pants. He also had bandages and a shuriken holster on his leg and black ninja sandals.

He tossed his dirty pajamas away in the hamper before walking over to his dresser and grabbing a grey headband with the Hidden Leaf symbol on it, and wrapping it around his forehead.

Two days ago was the graduation exam, and yesterday everyone was given the day off to get their shinobi picture taken.

"Akio, come and grab your lunch!" His mother called out from downstairs.

"Coming!" Akio called back, grabbing his Kusarigama and securing it away in a scroll for until he needed it for training later.

Akio then headed on downstairs and grabbed his lunch from his mother after hugging her goodbye as he set off for the academy as. Megumi got ready to take the twins to school.

*********

As Akio had arrived at the academy, he noticed that he was running late and that his mother was just trying to get him to hurry up for no reason.

As he saw, the only person there was Sasuke Uchiha; he sat at his desk, focused ahead with his hand clasped together, resting against his chin.

Akio wonders what is going through the Uchiha's head as he hasn't been the same since the Uchiha massacre and hardly talks to Akio, not even to train together.

He shrugged his shoulders, deciding it wasn't his problem to worry about Sasuke as he walked to his usual spot in the back near the window. He sat in down and pulled out a complex book about different types of poison and antidotes. He always found poison to be an exciting concept for fighting opponents.

He placed the book flat on his desk and rested his fist against his right cheek as he used his left hand to open and turn the book's pages. The book was complex and used advanced terms for the herbs and poison names, and the only people in his class that understood it were Shikamaru and Sakura.

As time passed, away the classroom began to fill on up with more students. Before he knew it, one of his good friends walked over to him.

"What are you reading?" They asked, making Akio look up from his book to see a boy with both black hair and one red eye while a grey patch covered the other one. He also was wearing a teal turtleneck shirt underneath a long dark blue cloak and anbu-styled black pants.

"Oh, hi Kenzou," Akio greeted and held up the book showing him the title.

"The study of Poison is not a surprising choice," Kenzou said, looking at the title as he sat next to Akio.

Akio nodded and was about to continue his book when he noticed Naruto walk into the classroom and take a seat near Sasuke.

"What is he doing here? I thought he had failed the exam?" Kenzou questioned in confusion and slight annoyance.

Akio doesn't hate Naruto and hates how people mistreat him; he admits Naruto's pranks are a pain to deal with, but still, he feels the boy deserves to be treated better than how he is now. He then focuses his attention back on his book as he hears from behind him two familiar voices complaining about who was first inside.

Then for a few moments, it was quiet before a giant swarm of girls began to fight over who gets to sit next to Sasuke. He sighed at how girls always had to fight over Sasuke but was glad that his own fangirls seemed to be leaving him alone today.

"Good morning, " A soft-voiced greet from beside him.

He looked up to see his classmate Mai who he hadn't learned much about her family except her family had characteristics of a Hyena. She wore a black and yellow kimono with knee-length black shorts and a blue headband around her neck.

"Good morning Mai," Akio smiled as she took the empty seat next to Kenzou and Akio after Kenzou moved over to the other chair.

"You're able to understand that?" She asked as she noticed the words in the book.

Akio nodded as he focused on his reading tuning out the fangirls up front.

"I'm so jealous. I saw that book in the library, and I could barely understand the terms in that first sentence, and you're almost done reading the book," She sighed.

"Hey, the book is not for everyone Mai, so don't worry, you will find something you are good at," Akio said, trying to make Mai feel better.

"I'm not that smart. My academics was only the seventh best in the class, and my clones for the graduation exam weren't even that good," She sighed.

"Oh, you worry way too much," Kenzou stated, glancing over at Mai.

"Listen, you don't have to be good at any of that. What is important is showing how well of shinboi you can be with your strengths," Akio said, placing a hand on her shoulder for encouragement.

Iruka-sensei then walked inside of the classroom, holding his signature clipboard in his hands. He walked to the front of the class and stood up in front of his desk with a warm smile and a look of pride on his face.

"Starting today, you are officially shinboi, but you are only at the first rank, Genin. The journey that lies ahead is a difficult one. To advance to the next rank, you will gain experience carrying out missions, training, and receiving guidance. Therefore you will be put in teams of three led by a Jounin sensei. They will lead to complete mission success and give you the proper guidance needed to become a true Shinobi," Iruka-sensei informed, gaining the class's attention.

The classroom was in a buzz over the new information. Some were not happy about the teams of three. Akio closed his book and thought about how the teams were going to be determined as he awaited for Iruka-sensei to continue.

"I will now announce the team," Iruka-sensei said, looking at the clipboard in his hands as he got ready to announce the teams.

The teams that Iruka-sensei called out were the following.

Team 7 - Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha.

Team 8 - Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame.

Team 10 - Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi.

Team 12 - Mai Haiena, Akio Ōshiro, and Kenzou Yuhi.

Akio had to admit that Team 12 seemed pretty balanced. Kenzou was the muscle, and what he lacked in intelligence, he made up for it with his strength and speed. While Akio himself was intelligent, and his abilities focused more on strategy, ninjutsu, genjustu, and of course, his clan weapon specialty. He wasn't the rookie of the year like Sasuke, but he made it to a close second, while Kenzou was lower due to his low intelligence score. Finally, Mai struggles with both attributes. Her role is more of a caring and gentle ninja. So having her in a team of more skilled ninja make her an excellent future healer for the team.

Iruka smiled. "Your Jounin sensei will be here to come to get you after lunch, and you will spend the rest of the day with them, so after lunch, come back here to wait for your Jounin, and good luck," Iruka said, walking out of the classroom after dismissing everyone for lunch.

Mai looked at Akio."I'm glad we're on the same team. I don't think I would do well with classmates; I don't know that well," She said.

"Well, do you know Kenzou?" Akio questioned, seeing his other teammate getting ready to go eat lunch.

Mai looked  behind her at Kenzou and smiled briefly."Not really, but I had worked with him a few times in the past," She said, resting her chin against her shoulder.

Akio chuckled, seeing that Mai here seemed interested in Kenzou. He thought she liked Sasuke Uchiha went the way she used to try to talk to him, but now he guessed that maybe he was wrong about that. As he stood up and grabbed his lunch, he noticed Sakura, who was slumped in her seat earlier, sit up straight and wave back at him with a smile and blush on her face.

He smiled back before heading on off to have lunch with Mai and Kenzou once they found where he went to eat.

🌌 🌌🌌

Chapter Ended

The third chapter, Luminous Blossom, has been published. Akio and his classmates graduated from the Ninja Academy and are now place in their assigned teams. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Q:What do you think of the teams, and who do you think team 12 sensei will be?