Second period was still taught by Iruka.
Naruto was still lying on his desk and sleeping, while Iruka gritted his teeth in anger at the podium.
However, when Iruka remembered Naruto’s earlier appearance, as though he had been scolded silly, he still held himself back.
He thought that Naruto was going to be kept behind afterward anyway, so he might as well keep him a little longer.
With this thought as consolation, Iruka was no longer quite as angry.
After school, most of the students happily put on their backpacks and went home.
A few students stayed behind to clean, while a very small number of students headed toward the teachers’ office.
Naruto was one of them.
Unlike the other students who were dejected because they had to go to the office, Naruto was the only one who was especially happy.
Naruto’s cheerful appearance made almost everyone think that he was going there to receive a reward, causing the other students along the way to look at Naruto with extremely hostile and angry expressions.
“Kun-ge, look at that brat. He’s actually so happy about going to the office. He’s obviously here to laugh at us!”
“Exactly! This brat is really too hateful! Let’s find a chance to teach him a lesson later.”
“Alright, let’s do it! Give him a beating!”
Several students whispered among themselves beside Naruto.
Naruto heard every word clearly, but he simply pretended not to hear them.
With the soul of someone in his twenties, he had long since disdained arguing with a bunch of children.
When he entered the office, Iruka was writing something in a notebook.
Seeing Naruto come in, he immediately put down his pen, and his relaxed expression instantly became tense.
“Naruto, what was wrong with you today? You slept all day. What did you do yesterday!”
“I…”
“Enough! You don’t need to explain! First, copy this set of notes for me! After you finish copying them, take them home and study them properly. I’ll ask you questions tomorrow.”
Iruka looked impatient as he casually tossed the small notebook beside him to Naruto.
It contained the material covered in class today.
Naruto opened the small notebook and took out his own notebook.
Looking at the nearly identical contents in the two notebooks, he didn’t know what to do for a moment.
Normally, he should say that he already had notes, but he wanted to be kept behind a little longer, so he didn’t know how to respond.
However, Iruka clearly still had unfinished business.
After giving his instructions, he casually pointed at the chair beside him.
“Sit there and copy. You can go home whenever you finish copying.”
“Ah… ah!”
Naruto weighed his options and decided that even sitting stupidly in the office was better than being dragged away to train, so he sat down on the chair.
He sat there for more than ten minutes.
Iruka put down his pen, let out a long breath, and stretched lazily.
He then looked at Naruto and discovered that Naruto hadn’t even started writing.
His expression, which had just relaxed, immediately darkened again.
“Naruto! Didn’t I tell you to copy the notes? What are you doing!”
At this moment, Naruto’s mind had already wandered far away.
He was startled by the sudden shout and hurriedly opened his notebook, but before he could start writing, Iruka had already walked over and snatched up the notebook.
Looking at the neat notes, he was almost unable to believe his eyes.
He checked the cover several times and confirmed that Naruto’s name was indeed written on it, but no matter how he looked at it, such neat handwriting didn’t seem like something a little boy like Naruto could produce.
“When did you finish copying?”
“Huh? Uh… this, this… well…”
Naruto was left speechless.
He definitely couldn’t say that he had asked Hinata to copy it for him a long time ago, but coming up with an explanation on the spot was genuinely difficult.
Just then, someone suddenly knocked on the office door.
“Excuse me, is Iruka here?”
Naruto and Iruka instinctively looked toward the doorway.
Kakashi pushed open the door with one hand in his pocket and walked in just like that.
[Holy crap! How did Kakashi find this place? Is he here to drag me away? Wouldn’t that mean my plan of sleeping in class, getting punished to stay behind, and avoiding training is going to fall apart?]
“Kakashi-senpai? Why are you here? Is there something you need?”
As a junior, Iruka was extremely enthusiastic when facing Kakashi, whose seniority and strength far surpassed his own.
He immediately went forward to greet him.
Kakashi glanced at Naruto without leaving any trace.
With only that brief exchange of glances, Naruto sensed an enormous amount of hostility contained within it.
[Damn it, why are you looking at me like that? Could you be plotting something bad?]
Kakashi had long since become accustomed to Naruto’s slander.
By now, he could genuinely remain calm and simply pretend he hadn’t heard it.
He smiled and greeted Iruka.
“Well, Iruka, I’m here to pick up Naruto. I waited at the school gate for quite a while but didn’t see him. I didn’t expect you had kept him behind.”
“Pick up Naruto? Kakashi-senpai, are you responsible for picking Naruto up after school?”
“Strictly speaking, no. Since I’m responsible for teaching Naruto, I came to pick him up. From now on, I’ll come to pick him up every day. I’ll have to trouble you to keep an eye on him then and make sure he doesn’t run away.”
“You’re personally teaching him?”
Iruka’s voice immediately rose considerably.
He looked at Naruto with an expression of disbelief.
As Kakashi’s junior, Iruka was quite familiar with Kakashi’s accomplishments.
The son of the Konoha White Fang, Kakashi graduated at the age of five, became a Chūnin at six, and became a Jōnin at the young age of twelve.
After joining the ANBU, he even became an ANBU squad leader.
For such a genius among geniuses to personally teach someone, it was easy to imagine that person’s future achievements would certainly not be low.
Yet that person turned out to be his own student.
Kakashi shrugged and lightly patted Iruka on the shoulder.
“Well, that’s how it is. Naruto’s condition in class today probably wasn’t very good, right? I hope you can be a little more understanding about that. After all, he has to train with me until very late every day, so do you think you could stop keeping him behind?”
Iruka suddenly understood, and all his previous anger instantly disappeared.
He excitedly slapped Naruto on the shoulder and looked at him with an extremely encouraging gaze.
“So that’s how it is! Sorry, it seems this teacher misunderstood you. I didn’t expect you to work so hard. Don’t worry, I absolutely won’t keep you behind after school anymore. Just follow Kakashi-senpai to train.”
In reality, Naruto was already completely dumbfounded.
Iruka’s slap had even knocked the pen Naruto had just picked up from his hand onto the desk.
He looked at Kakashi, then at Iruka, and felt his head buzzing.
“No, I… Iruka-sensei, you…”
Before Naruto could finish speaking, Kakashi grabbed him by the back of his collar and lifted him up, completely unwilling to give Naruto another chance to speak.
“Well, that settles it for now. Iruka, you get back to work. We’ll be leaving first.”
“Alright, Kakashi-senpai. Goodbye.”
The two waved goodbye like old friends, while Naruto anxiously flailed his limbs, trying but failing to break free.
“No! Iruka-sensei! You can’t! Save me! I don’t want to train! Iruka-sensei!”