Learn a bit more, and people will notice…
Because three troublemakers emerged in the first-year class, Iruka decided to rearrange their seats together for easier management.
Upon hearing the teacher’s words, Shikamaru immediately let out a huge sigh of relief, swiftly packed his belongings, and squeezed in next to Choji.
He was certain that if he stayed in his original seat—with one Sakura Haruno, one Naruto Uzumaki, and one from the Uchiha clan—he’d be exhausted to death within two years.
Naruto and Sasuke would start fighting within three seconds of being together.
After giving Naruto a beating, Iruka placed Sakura Haruno in the middle to act as a buffer between the two.
A bruised and swollen Naruto slumped limply on the desk, sighing miserably. He squinted his swollen eyes pitifully at Sakura, who, while Iruka wasn’t looking, slipped him a small cookie.
Naruto expertly moistened it with his mouth, nibbling on it bit by bit like a cat. The sweet, fragrant taste calmed him down.
Sasuke watched them out of the corner of his eye—not because he craved the cookie (he didn’t eat that stuff), but because he was observing Sakura Haruno’s rapid note-taking with one hand.
She lazily yawned, her eyes wandering indifferently toward Iruka, yet without even looking, she effortlessly extrapolated theories and drew diagrams without a ruler, all with terrifying precision.
Sasuke felt threatened. He narrowed his eyes. Was she a genius? Birds of a feather flock together—they were friends, so that proved he was a genius too…
“Sakura, I want more.” The giant baby-like, whiskered Naruto opened his mouth wide, eagerly waiting to be fed.
Sakura Haruno stuffed two candies into his mouth, then gave him a light knock on the head. “Pay attention in class. Try slacking off again, and you’ll stay at the bottom.”
Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki were also friends… Birds of a feather… my foot.
Sasuke silently suppressed that dangerous thought. It definitely wasn’t true that just because they were friends, they were all equally geniuses or fools—otherwise, what was up with Naruto Uzumaki?
Sakura Haruno’s mind raced with various training methods. Her training plan was step-by-step.
From ages six to twelve, she aimed to perfect all her foundational skills. Then, after team assignments, if she ended up with Kakashi as expected, she’d start exploiting his ninjutsu.
Kishimoto’s setting portrayed Kakashi as a ninjutsu encyclopedia, but that aspect was never fully showcased.
Even if a team leader wasn’t considered a teacher but merely a superior with no obligation to teach them, it was still a waste of the guy’s vast ninjutsu knowledge.
Based on his anime personality, if she stood out enough, the likelihood of Kakashi teaching her approached eighty percent—the guy loved geniuses.
As long as she maximized her learning potential, Kakashi would see another genius (even if it was the result of her effortless daytime performance and tearful nighttime training) and would surely pave the way for her.
It wasn’t that she was opportunistic—it was just that, to live a lazy, peaceful life, this path was the easiest.
Plus, with the System occasionally rewarding points to shape herself, she might eventually latch onto Granny Tsunade’s coattails and become Sakura with the Strength of a Hundred.
Ah, you say catch up to Sasuke and Naruto? No, no—impossible, absolutely impossible.
Even if the entire Shinobi World combined, it couldn’t compare to those two cheat characters who broke the Hokage power system.
She’d rather cling to the eternally youthful Strength of a Hundred and lazily blend into the background as part of the scenery.
【Please actively share your study notes with Sasuke Uchiha and study hard together with him, making progress every day.】
It seemed her misunderstanding had made the System take things seriously. At their age, they really should be studying hard and making progress every day.
Sakura Haruno treated this task like picking up money, moving most of her notes in front of Sasuke without any resistance.
Sasuke turned to look at her in confusion, only to see Sakura silently mouth the words: “Lending them to you.”
Sasuke was taken aback, then watched as she took out a few more sheets of scratch paper, swiftly drawing a pile of steps and diagrams. After finishing, she placed them in front of him for him to study.
Little Sasuke lowered his head and saw that all the data on the scratch paper was clearly organized, likely in a simplified breakdown even Naruto could vaguely understand.
Was he really that weak in her eyes? Did he need to be taught like this?
Immediately refusing to admit defeat, Sasuke puffed up his cheeks. He also picked up his notebook and wrote down various insights, using this action to tell her that he could understand too, and could even extrapolate further.
Sakura Haruno glanced over. Oh, you little rascal, you’re not even close yet, and you already want to compete with me? She had lived many more years than him—how could she possibly lose to this little brat now?
She also got fired up, quickly pulling out various even more difficult problems.
Come on, let’s hurt each other. Let me show you the terror of mathematical formulas, you coward.
Sasuke indeed wilted. This was too terrifying—these things were way too difficult. How could she understand and solve them?
He seemed to see a giant shadow filled with numbers, covering him, drowning him, dragging him down into an abyss where he would never be first, howling in despair.
Sakura Haruno also felt she was being too terrifying. Writing so many horrifying formulas—was she trying to give Sasuke a lifelong shadow over studying? He already had enough shadows later on; she should spare him.
So she seriously laid out all the problem-solving approaches, one by one, in the simplest way possible, for him to see.
Studying could still be fun. Learn more, or else when you go to Orochimaru in the future, he’ll look down on you for being an uncultured elementary school graduate.
Sasuke stared for a long time and finally fell silent again. He rested his chin on his hands, blankly staring at the blackboard.
Thinking he had calmed down and understood, Sakura Haruno ignored him and continued feeding restless Naruto while listening to the lecture.
So she didn’t notice the blush spreading from little Sasuke’s chubby cheeks to behind his ears.
He thought of Shisui and his own brother, who had always studied together, improved, and sparred. So, like his brother, did he also have a good friend to study with now?
Shikamaru, who had just been moved to a different seat, was lying down sleeping when he heard constant scribbling sounds. Who’s calculating what? He secretly glanced up and saw Sakura and the Uchiha kid competing to calculate various Ninjutsu formulas.
Listening to the sound of pen tips falling, one extremely complex formula after another reached Shikamaru’s ears. He couldn’t help but scratch his ears. His dad always said he was a genius.
No, he thought Sakura was much more of a genius than him.
So he was just an ordinary student, nothing more. What did that mean? It meant he could continue slacking off with peace of mind.
Could hard work surpass a genius? No way.
So an ordinary person like him didn’t need to work hard—he just needed to lie flat. How nice.