Time passed quickly. Ethan lived a quiet life in Konoha Village, although there was a small ripple in his life: the old man who adopted him passed away from a serious illness when he turned eight.
Ethan personally saw the old man off and protected his soul, making it easier to send him to heaven in the future to enjoy a carefree and peaceful life.
Konoha asked for Ethan's opinion, considering whether to place him in an orphanage or arrange for another guardian.
However, Ethan had the inheritance left by his "grandfather," and before the old man passed away, he also handed over the inheritance of Ethan's "biological parents" that he had been holding onto.
Ethan was not short on money. As long as he used his funds wisely, it would be enough to support him until he graduated from the Ninja Academy.
So he refused Konoha's suggestion and chose to live alone. If he weren't afraid of attracting attention, Ethan could have lived without eating or drinking, but then Orochimaru and Danzo would have come together to dissect him.
Konoha didn't dwell on this matter further, nor did they force him into an orphanage, because Ethan was now considered one of their own.
Ethan was already a proud student of the Konoha Ninja Academy.
As children of Konoha Village, once they reached the required age, they were sent to the Ninja Academy for basic testing.
Those with good aptitude and potential would stay and become students of the Ninja Academy, the preliminary members of Konoha's ninja force. Living in Konoha, Ethan naturally couldn't avoid this process.
Moreover, for many ordinary people, becoming a "Ninja-sama" was a dream that could make them laugh in their sleep. Many families hoped their children could achieve success, and the quickest path in this world was to become a ninja.
The Ninja Academy in Konoha provided this opportunity to countless civilian families. No child would refuse to become a ninja, and no one would stop their child from entering the academy.
If Ethan didn't want to be seen as strange, he had to participate in the test. Considering his situation, he controlled his strength well and positioned himself as an average civilian student with decent performance. This allowed him to blend in smoothly with the other ninja hopefuls.
Just like that, he became a successor of the Will of Fire, although Ethan felt that no one in Konoha believed he could truly inherit the so-called Will of Fire. After all, he was just an inconspicuous ninja student from a civilian background, and people weren't even sure he could graduate.
However, blending into the Ninja Academy had obvious advantages. At the very least, Konoha would consider Ethan's personal wishes to a certain extent. If he were just an ordinary civilian orphan, he wouldn't have had any say.
Aside from that, there were no more ripples in Ethan's life. Each day, he bought cheap food, cooked simple meals, occasionally bought a few basic daily necessities, and even for ninja tools, he chose affordable ones or made substitutes himself.
To the people of Konoha Village, Ethan was a sensible and frugal child. Many neighbors would purposely prepare extra fish, meat, or egg dishes to share with him. Although they never asked for anything in return, they often discovered their firewood chopped or their damaged doors and windows repaired not long after.
Although Ethan lived a peaceful life without doing anything earth-shattering, his neighbors and those around him liked him very much. More importantly, as Ethan grew older, he gradually became a delicate and beautiful young man (the adjective is not wrong). Who wouldn't like a child who was both beautiful and sensible?
No one knew how painful and conflicted Ethan felt during countless decisions.
Should I try to get close to Uzumaki Naruto?
Better not. Naruto's current situation was deliberately created. That old man, the Third Hokage, still spied on Naruto using a crystal ball from time to time, and that old ghost Danzo was also secretly keeping an eye on him. If Ethan recklessly approached Naruto, it would be like poking a hornet's nest, and his peaceful life would be over.
So, not only did Ethan avoid approaching Naruto, even though he had plenty of topics he could use to get close, he never intended to interact with the protagonist of the story.
Then, maybe interacting with others would be better? Like the adorable Hyuga Hinata?
He remembered in the story that Hinata was bullied by some bratty kids when she was little and was saved by Naruto... That involved Naruto again. Besides, Ethan felt that constantly teasing little girls was a very bad habit, so he gave up on that idea.
As for the kidnapping incident that led to Hyuga Neji's father's death, there were too many people and complicated factors involved. Even his own elder brother could decide to let his younger brother die, so why should Ethan, an outsider, get involved?
And then there was Uchiha Shirou... Wait, Sasuke was also under constant surveillance. Getting close to him was also inviting trouble.
Besides, Sasuke came from a prestigious clan and had become difficult after his entire family was wiped out. He probably wouldn't even bother with a civilian like Ethan.
For these reasons, Ethan spent many conflicted nights.
As for training, he wasn't in a hurry. His integration with the rules was still ongoing, and he had no idea how long it would take to complete.
He just practiced ninjutsu and chakra control casually. This stuff was too basic. He figured it out at a glance. To stay low-key, he produced only a small amount of chakra and worked hard not to stand out at school.
However, as time went on and the number of classmates gradually decreased, the number of civilian students dropped rapidly, and Ethan still attracted some attention.
For example, some of the ninja teachers who also came from civilian backgrounds, as well as neighbors, would encourage him. Some teachers even hinted that if he had any questions, he could feel free to ask them anytime.
After all, civilian ninja couldn't compare to those from clans. Clan children had elders at home to guide them and even inherited secret techniques to study.
Civilian students could only rely on the academy and had no one for one-on-one guidance. Some might even misunderstand a concept and never realize it until the day they died in battle.
That's why, in times of war, those who died the most were always civilian ninja. If it weren't for so many years of peace, Konoha wouldn't have been able to accumulate so many civilian ninja.
Ethan remained politely grateful for these seniors' kindness. Occasionally, he would pick a question that wasn't too simple or too difficult to ask, making sure not to waste their good intentions.
Just like this, he blended in until the final year. Ethan was twelve. As graduation approached, he noticed that there weren't many students left in the entire grade.
He still remembered that among these dozens of students, only nine went on to become excellent ninja.
Although the rest completed their studies at the Ninja Academy, like most civilians, they didn't achieve anything worth mentioning.
"It seems I've included myself..."
He was now one of these civilian ninja. He used to wonder whether he'd meet a strict team leader who would tell him to go back to the academy if he couldn't pass the assessment.
But after thinking about it, he realized something. Konoha needed elites, but it also needed a large amount of cannon fodder. In wartime, civilian ninja were cannon fodder.
During peacetime, there were tons of low-level missions waiting to be completed. You couldn't expect elites to go around catching cats or cleaning garbage.
And as for newly graduated genin? How many of those did you get in a year? Most of the low-level missions were handled by civilian genin.
In other words, if Ethan kept up his lukewarm performance, he would graduate smoothly, become a genin, and then be buried in endless low-level missions, running around all day just to earn pitiful rewards...
"Seems pretty boring..."
After honestly holding back for twelve years, he couldn't hold back anymore. He wanted to stir things up, so he caused a little trouble and defeated the famous genius Uchiha Sasuke in a taijutsu sparring match.
"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh..."
The classmates watching didn't care about the reason, especially a certain child of destiny known as the Dead Last. Seeing the usually arrogant Sasuke stumble, he was more excited than anyone.
More importantly, since Ethan had always been low-key, his performance in every subject was average, and combined with his very misleading appearance, everyone assumed his taijutsu must be terrible.
That's why when Ethan defeated Sasuke in taijutsu, it caused such a big reaction.
"The winner is Ethan. Alright, you two can come down."
Seeing that Sasuke still wanted to charge forward, Iruka quickly stopped the match and declared Ethan the winner, also recording the result.
Perhaps because of this outstanding performance, Ethan would be slightly more valued and assigned to a more reliable team leader, which could potentially change the fate of a civilian ninja.
As for Sasuke? He didn't need these things at all.
Ethan naturally understood why Iruka did it, but it wasn't appropriate to thank him directly. Saying it would just make things awkward, so it was better to act like he didn't know.
The matter didn't end there. After school that day, Ethan had just walked a short distance from the academy when Sasuke stopped him.
"I want to spar with you in taijutsu again!" Sasuke said through gritted teeth, glaring at Ethan. "I absolutely cannot lose to a girl..."
Before he could finish, Sasuke was already on the ground again.
"After being classmates for so many years, you still haven't figured out my gender?"
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
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