Naruto yawned, planning an escape, as sandaime began the lecture. It was an occasion. The class had left the classroom and was gathered atop the hokage building.

“I’m going to tell you guys a story,” he began, “About the legendary loud ninja of the leaf.”

“Eh? A story? Not some boring poem this time?” Naruto asked, bored already.

“Be quiet and listen, Naruto!” Iruka scolded.

The third coughed to get their attention. “It was many years ago. Long before I became a ninja. The loud ninja, Kai, was already a legend. From the day he received his very first assignment to the day of his death, he had never failed a single mission.”

“Wow,” Naruto breathed in awe. He was already drawn in.

“Now, Kai wasn’t a regular ninja. He was actually quite the opposite. You all know that ninja’s must be masters of stealth, right?”

The class nodded.

“Well, Kai didn’t believe in stealth. Rather, he was the leaf’s loudest ninja. You could hear him plainly if he was trying to hide in, say, a bush.”

By this point, even Shikamaru had lost interest in the clouds. This was a story he hadn’t heard before.

“Kai was at his best in the middle of the battlefield. He’d kill all the enemies before they could warn each other he was coming, so when he appeared in front of his target, no one was expecting it. His ninja way was: Stealth isn't needed to complete missions!”

Naruto burst out laughing. “That’s my kind of ninja!” He was immediately shushed by his classmates, before Iruka could yell at him.

“Many people admired Kai. Though he could be deadly, he was a great ninja with a big heart. Don’t forget when there are those who admire, there are those who hate very close behind. And Kai had many people who hated his methods. Each time he returned from a mission, he was praised, as well as scolded. When the hidden leaf pulled out of war, he was scolded more than praised for his work. Pretty soon, there were no longer those who praised him. He was looked down upon by his fellow villagers. Before a particularly difficult mission, he was lectured by the first hokage himself. Kai was ordered to execute the mission as stealthily as he could bear. Angrily, he agreed to the task and left the village to complete the mission.

“Kai’s mission was to infiltrate a meeting of the ANBU and gather as much information as possible. For the hokage believed there were traitors among the group. As he tried to follow the hokage’s orders, he was quickly found out.”

“Wait, gramps,” Naruto interrupted. “I thought you said he never failed a mission.”

“He didn’t,” the third answered. “His mission was to gather information and it wasn’t hard to pick out the traitors. He wrote it all down in a scroll and left the scroll in a secret place when he knew he had been detected. Before he knew it, they were already attacking him. He told them he wanted to kill a certain member that he had been in a feud with for many years. They didn’t believe him, but couldn’t let him leave with the information he had gathered.” The third stopped, looking at the wide eyes of the children.

“Wait, that’s it?!” Naruto asked, jumping to his feet. “What happened next?”

“Well, he was killed,” the third answered. “Why do you think he was found?”

“Because,” Naruto answered. “He was too loud.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “No, because he was trying to be something he wasn’t. A stealthy ninja.”

“Precisely,” The thid nodded. “The moral is this: find your own path of the ninja. Find your own style and don’t try to change it because of something like peer pressure.”

“Ah, I see!” Naruto exclaimed. “Stealth isn’t needed at all!! The important thing is to bust in and–!”

Iruka hit Naruto on the head with a scroll. “That’s not what Hokage-sama meant!!”