“Inuzuka Kiba, wins!”
Unlike Sasuke’s clean and decisive one-hit victory over Sakura, Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba fought back and forth for a while before their sparring match finally reached a conclusion.
As Iruka’s judgment fell, Inuzuka Kiba excitedly raised his hands high.
The small Akamaru in his arms also barked twice, expressing joy at Kiba’s victory.
“Damn it! I was so close to winning!”
Naruto showed regret on his face; a lapse in judgment on the final blow caused him to hand over the victory.
“You’re a hundred years too early to beat me, Naruto!”
“What did you say!”
Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, two guys with similar personalities, started arguing again over a disagreement.
Seeing that the two were about to make a scene, Iruka, their homeroom teacher, stepped forward to stop them: “Enough, one victory means nothing, and one defeat means nothing… Learning from victory and defeat, examining your current self and growing from it, is the purpose of this match—”
Dealing with the two most typical troublemaker students in his class, Iruka clenched his fists and gave Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba each a rap on the head.
The sound was loud, but he didn’t use much force; it was mostly a warning.
“—Now, both of you, form the seal of reconciliation!”
Teaching according to their needs, Iruka showed more of a strict teacher’s attitude towards Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba.
As expected, they obediently reached out their hands and were eventually shooed back to the student line by Iruka with the reason “don’t get in the way.”
“Third match, Hinata versus Ino!”
Hearing her name, Ino hurriedly stood up.
“Good luck, Ino.”
Sakura stood by with her fists clenched at her chest, cheering for Ino.
“Mm!”
Ino nodded with a smile.
Then she saw Sakura say the same words of encouragement to Hinata, who was sitting in front of them and hesitatingly getting up slowly.
“Thank you, Sakura…”
Hinata responded in a soft, timid tone.
She had thought that given the relationship between Sakura and Ino, Sakura would surely be looking forward to her defeat.
“We’re classmates and partners. Didn’t Iruka-sensei just say it? The purpose of sparring isn’t competition, but for each other to grow. Good luck!”
Saying that, her pure white eyes looked at Ino again, “Ino, please… please give me some guidance…”
“Me too, please give me some guidance, Hinata.”
Facing the kindness released by Hinata, this gentle yet timid girl, how could Ino possibly refuse?
But Ino still cast a subtle glance at Sakura.
Sakura was good in every way, treating everyone equally, but Ino, who had the deepest bond with Sakura, occasionally wished she could have her kindness all to herself.
The slight resentment that suddenly rose in Ino’s heart was quickly dispersed by her, and Sakura didn’t sense anything unusual at all.
Sakura glanced at Hinata and Ino, who were forming the Seal of Confrontation before their battle, and heard the sound of arguing coming from the group of boys.
“It’s Naruto and Sasuke arguing.”
Nara Shikamaru’s lazy words came over, explaining the cause of the commotion in the boys’ line to Sakura.
Sakura’s position was right at the edge of the boys’ and girls’ lines.
Previously, Ino was on one side of her, and Nara Shikamaru, who was also sitting at the edge, was on the other.
“Arguing again? Those two really never stop.”
Over the past month, besides daily graffiti on the Hokage Rock Faces like a clock-in routine, the other thing Naruto did every day was get into arguments with Sasuke.
“They have a really good relationship.”
Having become accustomed to this, Sakura tossed out this evaluation and stopped paying attention to the disturbance among the boys.
Just as Sakura was about to refocus her attention on Ino and Hinata, who had already started fighting, Nara Shikamaru, who always found things troublesome, took the initiative to speak again and offered a suggestion to Sakura: “It’s better if you go take a look. The reason for their argument this time seems to be because of you.”
“Me?”
Sakura quickly turned her head and stared at Nara Shikamaru: “Me?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the reason?”
“Didn’t hear clearly. I feel like it would be very troublesome to hear too clearly.”
“…”
Wow, is your character setting that consistent?
Sakura complained in her heart, but she was more concerned about why Naruto and Sasuke would argue because of her.
That kind of thing, please no!
I hope we’ll be the kind of good friends without any special feelings for a lifetime!
“Tsk, make way!”
Sakura pushed past Nara Shikamaru, walked by him, and blended into the boys’ line, heading towards the source of the argument.
“Shikamaru, you clearly heard everything. If you don’t explain it clearly, won’t Sakura misunderstand?”
Watching Sakura walk further away, Akimichi Choji, who was beside Nara Shikamaru, spoke up to point out Nara Shikamaru’s lie.
“Whether I explain it clearly or not, with that person’s personality, she’s going to go over there anyway. Besides, except for those gossiping girls, anyone can see that she doesn’t have any romantic thoughts about boys at all—so of course, I can save my breath and take it easy.”
Yes, Nara Shikamaru’s personality was just like that, finding everything troublesome and wanting to resolve things easily.
And speaking of “breath.”
Nara Shikamaru looked at Akimichi Choji, who had pulled out a bag of potato chips from somewhere, and uncharacteristically took the trouble to advise him: “I don’t know who the next two for sparring are. If you eat that kind of thing and your name is called next, your stomach will be very uncomfortable during the fight, Choji. You might even lose because of it.”
“It’s fine! I’ll digest them all before it’s my turn!”
Akimichi Choji was full of confidence in his stomach.
Saying that, he handed the opened bag of potato chips to Nara Shikamaru and asked, “Shikamaru, want a taste? This is the flavor Sakura recommended to me before. It’s surprisingly delicious!”
“No, it’ll be troublesome if Iruka-sensei catches me eating during class.”
…Setting aside the daily interaction between the good friends Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji for a moment, Sakura quietly approached the vicinity of where Naruto and Sasuke were.
Only by being there in person could Sakura feel how serious this noise coming from the boys’ group, which could reach the girls’ line, actually was.
Most of the noise was made by Naruto, who appeared quite agitated now.
As for Sasuke, the person Naruto was arguing with, he seemed much more indifferent.
Sasuke remained silent during this argument, letting Naruto perform his monologue.
If Naruto hadn’t pointed the finger directly at Sasuke, Sakura wouldn’t even have been able to confirm that Sasuke was the other party involved.
Then, Sakura couldn’t stay calm.
She heard Naruto shout:
“Sasuke, you bastard, have you really not noticed Sakura’s feelings at all?!!!”
“?????!!!!”
Sakura’s head was full of question marks, followed by a terrifying fright upon closer thought.
Knowing she couldn’t let Naruto continue his nonsense, Sakura suddenly jumped up and covered Naruto’s mouth which was full of lies.
“Wow! I don’t have a shred of feelings for him! Stop twisting the truth here, Naruto!!!”