“N-Naruto-kun, y-you, you, why are you here?”
“Me? I just finished eating and was getting ready to go home.”
“I-Is that so? I-I also… being able to meet you here, i-it’s really great.”
After just a simple exchange of a few words, Hinata’s heart was already pounding like a little deer, her face flushed red, and her tongue seemed to be tied in knots, making her speech clumsy.
Naruto found little Hinata even more adorable.
“Haha~~ Hinata, you really look cute like that.”
“C-C-C-C-C… Ugh!”
Naruto had only said it casually, but to Hinata, it was like being struck by a comet.
She felt a deafening boom in her head, and then everything went black as she fainted.
“Lady Hinata!”
The guard beside her hurriedly caught Hinata and tried to wake her, but there was no response.
When he touched her forehead, it was burning hot, as if she had a high fever.
“Bastard! What did you do to Lady Hinata?!”
The guard glared angrily at Naruto.
Numerous veins bulged around his Byakugan, clearly showing that he had activated it.
Naruto had never expected that merely calling her cute would make Hinata faint so easily.
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t spout nonsense here. What do you mean, what did I do? Hinata and I were more than a meter apart. I never touched her from beginning to end, so how did it become something I did?”
“Hmph! No matter what, brat! You are not allowed to get close to Lady Hinata again in the future, or I’ll make you regret it!”
“What the hell? Are you sick? Have you gotten so used to being a dog that now you bite anyone you catch?”
Although Naruto really hadn’t done anything, Hinata had indeed fainted because of him, so at first, he hadn’t wanted to get into a conflict with the other party.
But the guard kept pressing him, and Naruto couldn’t tolerate it anymore.
The guard was already angry, and now that he had been called a dog, his face immediately twisted with rage, and killing intent radiated from his entire body.
“Bastard! You’re courting death!”
“Oh? You want to kill me? Then use your Byakugan and take a good look around. See whether someone like you can really kill me.”
Not only was Naruto not afraid, but he was extremely disdainful.
Only then did the guard discover that there were several ANBU members around them, including even Root members.
After Kakashi resigned from the ANBU, the Third Hokage sent others to continue monitoring Naruto.
In order to persuade Danzo, the Third Hokage also gave Root the authority to monitor him.
When Kakashi was around, these people only dared to watch from afar.
Now that Kakashi was gone, they no longer had any reservations, which was why the guard could easily discover these ANBU members through his Byakugan.
“There are actually so many ANBU! Just who are you…”
“Hehe! Now you know, right? If you make a move, the consequences aren’t something a branch family member like you can bear. If you’re really worried about Hinata’s safety, you should hurry up and take her back instead of wasting time arguing with me here. I don’t have that much time to keep you company either. See you.”
Naruto waved his hand and walked past the guard without any concern, heading toward his home.
After walking some distance away, Naruto’s calm expression became serious.
He couldn’t help clenching his fists, but then he relaxed and gave a bitter smile.
“Old man Third, I knew you’d pull something like this. But then again, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be the Third.”
In reality, Naruto didn’t know that there were ANBU around him just now.
Even now, he didn’t know that Root was also there.
But based on his understanding of the Third Hokage, the Third would definitely send people to continue monitoring him.
He had only been bluffing that guard earlier.
He knew that once a fight broke out, as long as his life wasn’t truly in danger, those ANBU would never intervene.
And that guard definitely wouldn’t kill him either, so if they fought, he would definitely end up getting beaten for nothing.
Even if there were no ANBU monitoring him and his bluff failed, the consequences wouldn’t become any worse.
But if his bluff worked, not only could he avoid a beating, but he could also confirm the fact that there really were ANBU monitoring him.
No matter how he looked at it, he wouldn’t lose out.
It was just that this trick of borrowing a tiger’s power could only be used once.
After all, a great clan like the Hyuga only needed to investigate a little to discover that these ANBU weren’t secretly protecting him—they were monitoring him.
…
Two months quickly passed, and the Ninja Academy finally began its new term.
During those two months, Naruto had thought life would be difficult, but unexpectedly, he had lived quite comfortably.
Kakashi wasn’t as strict as he had imagined.
After testing Naruto and discovering that his chakra nature was Wind Release, he threw two ninjutsu scrolls to Naruto and then began a hands-off approach.
Sometimes, he wouldn’t even ask about Naruto’s training progress for an entire day, only mentioning it briefly during dinner.
Naruto arrived at the academy right on time.
The first class was the Third Hokage personally giving them a speech.
Naruto listened absentmindedly, and the second class was taught by Iruka.
“Hello, everyone. Let’s start with introductions. My name is Iruka, and from now on, I’ll be your teacher. Now, I’ll be teaching your first lesson. First, I’ll tell you what chakra is. Chakra is formed from…”
Iruka enthusiastically explained from the podium while Naruto lay listlessly on his desk, feeling drowsy.
Hardly anyone was listening seriously during this lesson.
First, everyone had just started school and wasn’t yet familiar with classroom discipline.
Second, most of the children from clans already knew about chakra.
Iruka’s main purpose in teaching this lesson was for the civilian children, so even though most of them weren’t paying much attention, Iruka didn’t get angry.
At the same time, Itachi, after seeing Sasuke off at school, was walking down the street.
He was about to return home when Kakashi suddenly blocked his path.
Itachi was somewhat surprised by Kakashi’s actions, but he didn’t react too strongly.
“Kakashi-senpai? Is there something you need?”
“There is indeed something. Come with me.”
Kakashi didn’t explain further.
After leaving those words behind, he walked straight into a shop by the roadside that sold dango.
Itachi frowned slightly and only followed after hesitating for a moment.
After the two sat down, Kakashi ordered a plate of three-color dango.
He had specifically ordered it for Itachi.
Over the past two months, he had learned through Naruto’s inner thoughts that Itachi liked eating it.
Sure enough, the moment the dango was placed on the table, Itachi’s hand unconsciously moved as though he wanted to take one, but he immediately restrained himself.
“If there’s something, just say it.”
Kakashi smiled and nodded.
“Before I say it, can you let me see your Sharingan?”
Itachi’s expression changed, and his eyes instantly transformed into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
However, Kakashi shook his head.
“That’s not the level of Sharingan I’m talking about. You know as well as I do that I have this level too.”
As he spoke, Kakashi pushed up the forehead protector covering his Sharingan, revealing his eye, and continued.
“You awakened it, didn’t you? The Mangekyo.”
Itachi’s pupils suddenly contracted.
The three tomoe spun rapidly and soon transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
At that exact moment, the environment around Kakashi and Itachi changed.
The noisy shop disappeared, replaced by a desolate expanse of black earth.
A blood moon hung in the pitch-black sky, casting a red filter over the barren world.
At this moment, Itachi’s gaze also became hostile.