In the early morning classroom, chalk dust floated in the sunlight.
Iruka helplessly held Naruto’s test paper from yesterday, on which a huge “12” point was circled in red ink.
“Naruto Uzumaki,”
Veins popped on Iruka’s forehead.
“Explain this question—’What are the Three Ninja Prohibitions?’ How did you answer ‘Ramen, pranks, and sleeping’?”
The classroom erupted in laughter.
Naruto scratched the back of his head, revealing his signature goofy grin.
“Heh, because you really can’t touch those three things! Once I start eating ramen, I can’t stop, pranks are too fun, and if I sleep, I’ll miss training…”
Sasuke snorted from the front row.
“Idiot.”
“Who are you calling an idiot!” Naruto slammed the table, and his chair clattered to the floor.
“Silence!” Iruka slammed his blackboard eraser on the podium.
“Naruto, stay after class for tutoring!”
“Ah? No way!”
Naruto’s eyes welled up with tears.
Madara’s soul floated on the murky water, his hand on his forehead.
The Nine-Tails rolled with laughter in its cage, the iron bars rattling noisily.
“Is this the student you taught?” The Nine-Tails’ tail slapped the ground.
“The most ferocious ninja of the Warring States period, teaching a dead last who scored 12 points on a theory test?”
Madara’s Sharingan narrowed dangerously.
“Shut up! I never went to this kind of make-believe school back then.”
“But the ‘Three Ninja Prohibitions’ are the most basic of basics,” the Nine-Tails laughed so hard it had to pound the ground to calm itself.
“Money, lust, alcohol—this brat wrote ramen?”
In the real world, Naruto was slumped over his desk, carving small figures on the tabletop with a pencil.
Iruka’s explanation of chakra theory went in one ear and out the other.
“Dad…” Naruto wailed in his mind.
“Save me… Theory class is so boring…”
Madara’s chakra fluctuated.
Over the past three years, he had taught Naruto countless survival skills, but he had never expected to be defeated by academics.
Madara’s voice was tinged with gritted teeth.
“Concentrate your chakra on the ear meridians; it can enhance hearing. I’ll only demonstrate it once…”
Five minutes later, an explosion suddenly rang out in the classroom.
The ink bottle on Naruto’s desk had somehow exploded, splashing ink all over Sasuke in the front row.
“Naruto Uzumaki!!” Iruka’s roar made the windows hum.
“It wasn’t me!” Naruto waved his hands frantically.
“It was the chakra… no, it was the ink itself…”
Madara in the seal space held his forehead.
He just wanted Naruto to hear the class content clearly, but who knew that the chakra fluctuations caused by this brat could even shatter the structure of an ink bottle.
His orange jacket was stained with ink, slashed by Sasuke with a shuriken in his rage.
“I was first in taijutsu class…” Naruto complained, kicking the railing.
“Why is theory class so difficult!”
Madara’s phantom appeared in his consciousness.
“Because you can’t calm down.”
“Ninja in the Warring States period could lie in ambush and remain motionless for three days and three nights. You can’t even sit still for three minutes.”
“But the words are so dense, they make me dizzy,” Naruto mumbled.
He would fall asleep whenever he tried to read.
Suddenly, Naruto’s eyes lit up.
“That’s right! Dad, use genjutsu to stuff the knowledge directly into my head! Just like last time when you taught me the antidote technique!”
“No,” Madara flatly refused.
“Theory requires understanding, not rote memorization.”
He paused, his tone unusually hesitant.
“Besides… I’m not completely familiar with modern ninjutsu theory either.”
The Nine-Tails’ mocking laughter echoed from the depths of the cage.
“Admit it, Uchiha Madara, you have areas where you’re not proficient.”
Madara’s chakra exploded violently, making the entire seal space hum.
Looking at the two dads in his body starting to fight again, Naruto could only smile helplessly.
In the real world, the rooftop door was pushed open.
Hinata Hyuga, holding a bento box, timidly peeked in.
“Um… Naruto-kun? Would you like to have lunch together?”
The afternoon taijutsu class was Naruto’s domain.
When he broke the school record for the obstacle course for the third time, even the usually stern taijutsu teacher looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“Time: 28 seconds…” The teacher repeatedly checked the stopwatch.
“This already exceeds the level of a typical Chūnin.”
The training ground was silent.
Sasuke’s Sharingan had activated at some point, staring intently at Naruto’s fluid movements.
The dead last’s every move carried an indescribable sense of rhythm, as if it had been tempered a thousand times.
“Next up, shuriken throwing!”
Naruto confidently stepped onto the throwing line.
He quietly asked in his mind, “Dad, how many should I intentionally miss this time?”
“Perform normally,” Madara’s voice carried a hint of amusement.
“Let those brats broaden their horizons.”
Ten shuriken flew through the air.
The first nine hit the bullseye precisely, but the last one drew a strange arc in the air, knocking down all the shuriken Sasuke had just thrown.
“Oops, my hand slipped~” Naruto grinned at Sasuke.
This was the first time in three years he had felt such intense frustration.
How could this theory-class idiot crush him in practical combat?
“Dead last…” Sasuke couldn’t help but clench his fist.
“Who exactly are you?”
The after-school tutoring class was deserted.
Iruka had been summoned by the Hokage at the last minute, leaving Naruto to stare blankly at “Fundamentals of Chakra Theory.”
“So boring…”
Naruto poked the textbook with his pencil, then suddenly had an idea.
“That’s right! Dad said, ‘Practice makes perfect’!”
He sneakily locked the classroom door and began forming hand seals clumsily.
This was the “Chakra Sensory Technique” taught in theory class yesterday, an advanced skill that should only be learned by sixth-graders.
“Child-Tiger-Dog-Ox…”
Pale blue chakra gathered in his palm, but suddenly fluctuated violently.
Papers in the classroom fluttered as if in a wind, and the ink bottle began to tremble.
“Stop!” Madara’s warning came too late.
With a loud bang, the storage locker in the back of the classroom exploded into pieces.
Naruto was blown to the ground by the shockwave, his face blackened as he stared at the ceiling.
“Did I… succeed?”
Madara’s soul chakra churned violently.
In that instant, he clearly sensed something abnormal—a faint trace of the Nine-Tails’ chakra was mixed into Naruto’s chakra.
Deep within the seal, the Nine-Tails’ mouth stretched from ear to ear.
“It’s finally starting…”
In the Hokage’s office, the Third Hokage had two reports spread out before him.
One was Iruka’s “Record of Naruto Uzumaki’s Abnormal Behavior.”
The other was from the ANBU, with the title “Analysis of Suspected Uchiha-Style Taijutsu Traces.”
“What do you think?” the Third Hokage asked the silver-haired Jōnin by the window.
Kakashi’s single eye moved away from “Icha Icha Paradise.” “The taijutsu style can be imitated, but combat intuition doesn’t lie.”
He paused, his gaze sharpening.
“That child… someone is teaching him real killing techniques.”
Outside the window, the setting sun dyed the Hokage Rock blood-red.
The Third Hokage rubbed the crystal ball, which displayed Naruto, pretending to be dead in the ruins of the classroom.
“Arrange special tutoring,” the Third Hokage finally said.
“You will be personally responsible.”
Kakashi closed his book and, before disappearing in a Shunshin, left a sentence.
“Coincidentally… I also want to meet that ‘teacher’.”
____________________
Update: “Monday to Friday – Update 3 Chapters a Day”
“Saturday and Sunday – Off”