“Naruto, when did you get back? Don’t you have classes this afternoon?”
After Naruto returned home and finished lunch, he heard a knock at the door.
When he opened it, he found the Third Hokage standing outside with his usual kindly smile.
“Oh, Grandpa Third. I just came back for lunch. When did you get here?” Naruto asked.
“I happened to be passing by and saw someone moving around inside your home, so I came over to take a look. I didn’t expect it really would be you,” the Third Hokage replied.
“Who else would it be? This place is so poor that even thieves would turn their noses up at it,” Naruto said.
“Hehe. So, how was school? Did you make any friends?”
The Third Hokage smoothly brushed past the subject of Naruto’s poverty and instead asked about school with an extremely kind and concerned expression.
“Mm! I made one friend.”
Naruto deliberately put on an excited expression.
Inwardly, however, he scoffed.
Don’t think I can’t sense you constantly spying on me with that crystal ball of yours.
That was right.
Ever since Naruto completed his chakra nature transformation training, he had become capable of sensing the Third Hokage’s surveillance.
“Oh? You made a friend so quickly? What’s his name?” the Third Hokage asked, his expression growing even gentler, as though he were sincerely delighted for Naruto.
His acting was certainly impressive.
“His name is Shikamaru Nara,” Naruto replied.
“Shikamaru, is it?”
The Third Hokage immediately sounded impressed.
“Grandpa Third, you know Shikamaru?” Naruto asked in surprise.
“Of course. The Nara Clan is one of Konoha’s greatest sources of wisdom. Although Shikamaru is still young, with the excellent bloodline of the Nara Clan, I’m sure he’s a very intelligent child,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
“Wow, Shikamaru is amazing!” Naruto exclaimed.
“Hehe. Naruto is amazing too. Your very first friend turned out to be someone so impressive,” Hiruzen Sarutobi praised.
“Really? I’m that amazing?”
Naruto’s tone sounded doubtful, but his mouth had already stretched into a wide grin, his face filled with happiness and pride.
“Hehe. As long as you keep moving toward your goal and never stop, even becoming Hokage one day isn’t impossible,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said with even greater satisfaction.
Every word was filled with subtle guidance.
Just like every single meeting they had shared over the past three years.
“I’ll work hard! I’m going to become just like you, Grandpa Third, and have my face carved onto the Hokage Rock!”
“Mm, very good. That’s the spirit. I believe in you, Naruto. Make sure you don’t disappoint me,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said happily, having achieved his objective.
“Mm! I won’t let you down, Grandpa Third!”
Naruto eagerly rubbed his hands together.
“All right. You live close to the Academy, so hurry back and get some rest before the afternoon lessons. I should return to the Hokage’s office and rest as well. Being Hokage keeps me very busy. I still have plenty of work waiting for me this afternoon,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
“Okay. Goodbye, Grandpa Third!”
Naruto hurriedly waved.
“Goodbye, Naruto.”
The Third Hokage waved back and left.
The moment he disappeared, Naruto’s expression immediately cooled.
Now that he had begun attending the Ninja Academy, Naruto could clearly sense that the surveillance on him had relaxed considerably.
Aside from the Third Hokage occasionally spying on him through the crystal ball, the ANBU assigned to monitor him were now keeping more than twice their previous distance.
That meant Naruto could finally allow his true expressions to show whenever no one was around.
Naruto locked the door and headed back to school.
Once he entered the Ninja Academy, the sensation of being watched vanished completely.
Clearly, not monitoring students inside the Ninja Academy had become an unspoken rule.
Of course, if a genuine threat emerged, that unspoken rule would immediately cease to exist.
And that was precisely why such rules remained unspoken.
The afternoon was still devoted to chakra-refinement training.
Naruto and Shikamaru simply slept through the entire afternoon.
After all these years, Naruto had long since grown accustomed to keeping himself busy.
Now that he suddenly had nothing to do, the natural sleepiness of a child overwhelmed him.
He slept extremely comfortably, all the way until the final bell rang.
“Two students successfully refined chakra today. The rest of you don’t need to panic,” Iruka said.
“Go home tonight, carefully review what I taught you, eat properly, get plenty of rest, and continue refining chakra tomorrow morning.”
“All right. Class dismissed.”
After speaking, Iruka turned and left.
Naruto was the second student out of the classroom.
The moment he left, he headed straight toward the forest on the outskirts of Konoha.
Over the past three years, as his strength had increased—and as he had grown thoroughly tired of eating fish—Naruto’s range of activity had eventually expanded into the forest.
He had set traps in quite a few places throughout the woods.
Over the past three years, Naruto’s efforts had visibly improved his standard of living despite his monthly allowance still being only one thousand ryō.
At the very least, he no longer needed to scrape meat scraps from butcher stalls just to have something to eat.
Of course, that was not solely because Naruto had learned to hunt.
Hunting merely improved his meals.
No one would buy the animals Naruto caught, so naturally it did nothing to increase his income.
The real reason was that Naruto had discovered stores specializing in food that was close to its expiration date.
Their products were around ten times cheaper than normal food.
Moreover, compared with ordinary shopkeepers, the owners of these stores treated Naruto considerably better.
At the very least, even if disgust showed in their eyes, their mouths remained friendly.
After all, the people who ran stores like these were hardly respectable figures themselves.
They were also looked down upon by many of the other villagers.
Naturally, Naruto was different from his counterpart in the original story.
He refused to eat expired food.
Whenever he bought anything, he carefully checked the expiration date.
It was troublesome, and he basically had to make another trip every other day.
But that was still better than eating food that had already expired.
Naruto suspected that the original Naruto simply found checking dates too troublesome and did not want to waste time on it, so he bought everything in bulk without thinking.
That eventually resulted in his home being filled with expired food, some of which he continued eating even a month after it had gone bad.
Whenever the transmigrated Naruto thought about it, he could not help sighing.
The original Naruto really had been absurdly hard to kill—practically like a cockroach.
Before long, Naruto arrived in the forest.
He checked several places where he had set traps.
His luck was good.
He had caught two rabbits and one pheasant.
Naruto happily located fresh rabbit trails and pheasant tracks, reset his traps, and then cheerfully headed home.
There would be delicious meat for dinner again tonight.
After living alone for three years, Naruto’s cooking skills had improved rapidly.
Especially after he found a discarded cookbook outside Shūeidō, his cooking had practically reached professional-chef level.
Truthfully, if the villagers of Konoha did not despise and reject everything Naruto did, he could have made a fortune simply by opening a barbecue stall.
Unfortunately, for now, he could only enjoy his cooking himself.
Served them right for missing out.