The class soon came to an end, and Iruka left the classroom to give the students a break.
Naruto looked around as the room came alive again.
All the girls crowded around Sasuke, with Sakura and Ino being the most excessive, trading thinly veiled barbs with each other.
Naruto couldn’t understand why girls this young would become hostile toward each other just because they liked the same boy.
“They sure mature early.”
Yawning, he dropped his head onto the desk and went back to sleep.
Some time later, Iruka returned.
The second class began, and this time, Iruka was teaching the Transformation Jutsu.
[Ding! Your Transformation Jutsu has been diligently attending class. Its mastery has reached the Transcendent level!]
[Ding! After listening to the entire lesson, your Transformation Jutsu has achieved enlightenment and automatically evolved into the Shapeshifting Jutsu!]
[Shapeshifting Jutsu: An unrestricted Transformation Jutsu capable of transforming the user into an object of any size or type. The transformation will not be dispelled even if the user is attacked.]
When Naruto woke up, he discovered that he had somehow learned an incredible new jutsu.
With this technique, he could even transform into the Nine-Tails without a problem.
“Sigh. My jutsu are way too capable.”
Naruto pushed himself up from the desk and found that more than half the students had already left.
Just as he was about to leave as well, several boys walked over and surrounded him.
“Hey, kid. Come with us,” the boy in front said.
Judging by their unfriendly expressions, this was probably some kind of school bullying.
“Looks like the old Naruto got bullied quite a lot,” Naruto thought.
He glanced at the students nearby.
Not one of them showed him any sympathy.
They all simply ignored what was happening.
As if it were only natural for him to be bullied.
Naruto gave a self-mocking smile.
“Let’s go.”
With that, he walked straight past them with the same listless expression as always, taking the lead toward the door.
Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought Naruto was the leader of the group.
The boys froze for a moment and exchanged confused looks.
“Why’s this guy suddenly so obedient?”
“Who cares? We’ll beat him up outside and take his money!”
They followed after Naruto, flanking him on both sides in case he suddenly tried to run.
This wasn’t their first time bullying Naruto.
But it also wasn’t the first time he’d managed to escape from them.
The group made its way down the corridor of the school building.
Iruka, who happened to be in the faculty office, spotted Naruto “leading” several students outside.
“Has Naruto started forming his own little gang?”
“He wasn’t yelling and causing trouble today, so I thought his personality had finally improved…”
Iruka frowned.
After thinking about it, he decided to follow them and see what they were doing.
He was worried Naruto might be gathering a group to bully other students.
Iruka normally treated all his students equally, but the demon fox sealed inside Naruto had, after all, killed his parents.
At times like this, he couldn’t completely avoid making prejudiced assumptions about Naruto.
Naruto and the other students left the academy and entered a narrow alley.
“They went into an alley?”
Iruka was puzzled.
What were several academy students doing in an alley?
Could it be…
Iruka suddenly realized that although Naruto had been walking in front, the other students had actually been surrounding him from behind.
More importantly, Naruto had always been hated by the other students.
How could anyone suddenly be willing to become his follower?
The moment the thought occurred to him, Iruka’s expression changed.
“Damn it! Naruto’s in danger!”
He immediately rushed into the alley.
But when he turned the corner, all he saw were several students lying on the ground, groaning in pain.
As for Naruto…
He was already long gone.
With the physical strength of a Chūnin, Naruto had simply relied on brute force to beat up several students his own age.
He had also sensed Iruka following them, so he’d slipped away ahead of time.
He had no intention of revealing too much.
Beating up a few students his own age would, at most, make him seem like a particularly capable academy student.
But if Iruka had actually watched him fight, he might have noticed something unusual.
After all, Naruto wasn’t much of an actor.
[Ding! The host has defeated enemies using taijutsu. Your taijutsu is extremely excited and has automatically learned Leaf Whirlwind!]
“Another new skill. Nice! Time to celebrate with some Ichiraku Ramen!”
…
Iruka carefully examined the students who had been beaten and found that they had only suffered minor superficial injuries.
He brought them back to the academy and began questioning them.
“What happened? Where’s Naruto? And who beat you up?”
The boy who had been leading the group answered, “Naruto did it. He threatened us and forced us into the alley. Then he beat us up and jumped over the wall to escape.”
Iruka wasn’t an idiot.
The way these boys had surrounded Naruto earlier hadn’t looked anything like people being threatened.
If anything, Naruto had looked more like the victim.
“Tell me the truth!”
“And how could Naruto possibly beat all of you?”
The boys exchanged glances, innocent expressions plastered across their faces.
He really had beaten them.
Still, none of them spoke.
They didn’t want to admit that they had been bullying Naruto for years.
Seeing this, Iruka immediately threatened them.
“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll ask Naruto tomorrow. I’ll ask the other students too. And if I find out you’ve done something seriously wrong, you can expect to be expelled!”
Of course, the threat of expulsion was just that—a threat.
Iruka was far too kindhearted to take away their chance of becoming ninja simply because they had bullied another student.
But the boys didn’t know that.
Frightened by his words, they immediately confessed that they had been bullying Naruto for several years.
Of course, they also told him that Naruto had beaten them up today.
Whether Iruka believed that part was up to him.
Iruka was astonished that Naruto possessed that kind of strength, but even more than that, he was furious.
Students in his own class had secretly been bullying one of their classmates…
And they had been doing it for years!
“All of you are receiving a major disciplinary demerit!”
“And tomorrow, in front of the class, you will apologize to Naruto!”
“But we’re the ones who got beaten up this time…” one of the students muttered under his breath.
“Hm?”
Iruka glared at them.
The boys immediately shuddered.
“We understand, Iruka-sensei! We’ll definitely apologize to Uzumaki Naruto tomorrow!”
Seeing their sincere attitudes, Iruka’s expression finally softened somewhat.
“I’ll also have Naruto apologize to you tomorrow. But don’t think that means you were in the right! I want to see a proper attitude from all of you tomorrow. Understood?”
“Understood!” they answered in unison.
“Good. You can go home.”