Sasuke pushed himself up from the ground, his knees not yet steady, when a circle of people had already surged around him.
“Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?”
“That guy definitely pulled some kind of trick!”
Several girls offered words of comfort, and someone reached out to help him up.
After standing up, Sasuke pulled his arm away to avoid the extended hand.
He didn’t look at anyone, walking forward with his head lowered, as if the surrounding voices and people didn’t exist at all.
When passing through the crowd, his shoulder brushed against Sakura’s.
Sakura opened her mouth, wanting to call his name, but the voice stuck in her throat and didn’t come out.
Sasuke’s figure finally disappeared into the shade of the trees outside the door.
Iruka stood on the sidelines, retracting his gaze only after Sasuke’s figure had completely vanished, and let out a soft sigh.
“That child is too proud.”
After all, possessing the Uchiha bloodline and losing to a recognized loser must not feel good inside.
But this is school; we can’t just stop class because one person was knocked down.
Iruka lowered his head to look at the list again, cleared his throat, and raised his voice: “Alright, next group, Nara Shikamaru versus Akimichi Choji.”
Naruto stood in the line, his gaze falling on the two figures slowly walking toward the center of the playground.
Shikamaru walked with a posture as if he hadn’t woken up yet, one hand tucked into his pants pocket, and the other hand raised to wave perfunctorily to show he had heard.
Choji, on the other hand, walked quite fast.
As soon as he reached the center of the field, he squatted down, pulled a bag of potato chips from his pocket, tore it open, and chewed a couple with a crunch.
“Start.” Iruka raised his hand slightly.
Choji stuffed the potato chip bag back into his pocket, swinging his fist as he smashed it toward Shikamaru.
Shikamaru sidestepped to dodge, the fist brushing past his clothes.
“Hey hey, if this hits, it’ll be tough.” Shikamaru frowned, taking two unhurried steps around.
The few people watching around the edge of the playground watched with great interest, some cheering for Choji, and others starting to place bets on who would win.
Naruto was standing in the crowd, watching in a daze, when his shoulders were suddenly hooked from behind.
“Hey hey hey, you brat, confession brings leniency.”
Kiba’s voice was very close, his arm wrapping around the neck and pulling towards his embrace, with moderate strength.
Naruto feigned discomfort: “Let go, I can’t breathe.”
Kiba didn’t let go, instead reaching out his other hand to pinch Naruto’s face.
“Tell me, who on earth are you?
“How could a genius possibly appear among our truancy quartet group?!”
Naruto rolled his eyes: “Who would use the Transformation Technique to turn into my appearance.”
Kiba pinched twice to confirm he didn’t feel the abnormality of the Transformation Technique, released his hand, but still tilted his head to look him over, his face written all over with disbelief.
“Then how did you suddenly become so strong?”
“Yesterday you were still pinned to the ground and beaten, today you turn around and pin someone else to the ground and beat them, who are you trying to fool?”
“Could it be that you were acting all this time before?”
Naruto tilted his head: “Probably because I went back and slept yesterday, and suddenly became enlightened.”
Kiba stared at him for several seconds, his nose twitching.
There was a faint fragrance on the clothes.
Although it had become much cleaner, the aura was indeed Naruto’s.
Moreover, Akamaru had been wagging its tail on top of his head all along.
It certainly wouldn’t release such goodwill to a stranger.
“Your sleep was way too powerful, wasn’t it?” Kiba finally released his arm, stepped back half a step, crossed his arms and snorted, “Enlightenment shouldn’t be able to turn out like this.”
Shikamaru and Choji in the center of the field had already finished a round, with the two of them tied.
Shikamaru took the excuse of being ‘too troublesome’ to voluntarily admit defeat, and after winning, Choji took out the remaining potato chips to continue eating.
At this time, Shikamaru heard Kiba’s voice, walked over and yawned.
“Although it really is quite troublesome…” Shikamaru raised a hand to rub his eyes, “However, I am also a little bit curious.”
“In the past, you never looked at the blackboard during class, but today you actually listened all along.”
Choji also followed over, chewing potato chips in his mouth and vaguely chiming in: “Yeah, it really is different from usual.”
The three of them surrounded Naruto in the middle, their respective gazes falling on Naruto’s face.
Naruto, stared at by three pairs of eyes, didn’t panic, just reached out to scratch the back of his head, smiled, and said in a relaxed tone:
“Just suddenly figured out some things, that’s all.”
“Alright alright, school is about to end.”
After speaking, he squeezed out from the gap between Kiba and Shikamaru, walked forward two steps, and then turned back to wave at the three of them.
Kiba shouted from behind: “What is this!
Saying things so vaguely!”
Shikamaru looked at Naruto’s back, narrowing his eyes slightly, and then let out an even bigger yawn.
“Forget it…
It’s better to think less about troublesome things.”
Choji acknowledged with a sound, and fished out another unopened pack of potato chips from his pocket.
Naruto walked a few steps, and when passing the edge of the playground, out of the corner of his eye he glanced at Hinata standing in the corner.
She was holding a textbook and standing under a tree, her shoulders hunched, her whole person hidden in the tree’s shadow, constantly looking in his direction.
Naruto looked over in that direction, and happened to meet Hinata’s gaze.
Hinata was originally still peeking, and was caught dead to rights by this collision, her entire face turning red from the tips of her ears down to the root of her neck.
She immediately lowered her head, almost burying it into the textbook, her two hands hugging the book even tighter.
Naruto originally wanted to greet her, but seeing that she had already lowered her head, he didn’t say much more, turned around and continued walking toward the school gate.
Hinata only dared to slowly raise her head after Naruto had walked far away.
Leaves fell on her shoulders, and the red on her face hadn’t faded clean yet.
…
On the other side, Hokage Office.
Third Hokage sat behind the desk with a pipe clamped in his mouth.
An Anbu wearing an animal mask knelt on one knee in front of the desk.
“Hokage-sama, regarding Uzumaki Naruto’s performance today, this subordinate has an important matter to report.”
Third Hokage nodded, took the pipe down from his mouth, and motioned for the other party to continue.
The Anbu recounted the entire process of Naruto battling Sasuke.
From Naruto taking the initiative to ask for a battle with Sasuke, and then easily defeating him.
As an Anbu, his main responsibility was actually to be in charge of watching over all of Naruto’s actions.
But today, Naruto suddenly went from a tail-ender to a ‘genius’ who defeated Sasuke.
It indeed made people feel very abnormal, and ultimately he still chose to report this matter to Third Hokage.
“After school yesterday, who did Naruto meet, and where did he go?” Third Hokage clamped the pipe back into his mouth and took a deep breath.
The Anbu shook his head: “No, this subordinate followed the entire way.”
“Yesterday after Naruto was defeated by Uchiha Sasuke, he went straight home, didn’t contact anyone on the way, and didn’t go out after returning.”
“This morning he came to school normally, and did not leave the school in between.”
After hearing this, Third Hokage was silent for a moment.
“Just a single night…
going from a tail-ender to an Uchiha genius who defeated the top of the grade?”
His voice when speaking was very light, as if talking to himself.
“You continue to keep an eye on Naruto, and report immediately if there are any abnormalities.”
“Yes.”
The Anbu acknowledged, his body flickered, and he disappeared in the office.
Third Hokage leaned against the back of his chair, his gaze falling outside the window, puzzlement lingering in his eyes.