The protagonist is me?

Back to the starting point, the third Training Ground.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, the trio, stood, sat, or leaned against tree trunks, listening to Kakashi-sensei's lecture.

Kakashi stood straight with his arms crossed.

Glancing at the three in their varied stances and expressions, Kakashi instructed, "Gather here again tomorrow at 8 AM. Bring your ninja tool pouches, and don't forget them."

After speaking, he stroked his chin as if recalling something.

"Alright, that's all."

Naruto climbed up from the ground and asked curiously, "What's the specific mission tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Practice battles."

"Oh."

Naruto mumbled. This was probably the real test they were supposed to have today, but he had ruined it.

Practice battles?

They really did need that.

Otherwise, if the teacher didn't understand the students' combat strength, and the students didn't understand the teacher's strength.

Let alone trust, even cooperation would become a problem.

Was this good? No, it wasn't.

"Alright, that's all for today. Now, dismissed!"

With that, he turned to leave.

But Naruto didn't want him to leave so easily. Did he think he could just offend the great monk and run away?

"Wait, Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto called out to the departing Kakashi. He put on a pained expression, staggered unsteadily towards Kakashi, clutching his stomach with one hand and reaching for Kakashi with the other.

"Sensei, I'm so hungry. I want to eat Ichiraku Ramen."

Kakashi dodged Naruto's grasping hand and looked at his performance expressionlessly. "If you want to eat, then go eat."

"But I don't have any money."

Naruto gestured to the other two behind him and said pitifully, "Besides, Kakashi-sensei said yesterday that I would vomit today, so I didn't eat yesterday and ran 500 laps this morning."

As he spoke, he swayed a few times, making it seem like he would collapse at any second.

"Kakashi-sensei, I feel like I'm about to starve to death."

Sakura came over to support him and also said, "Kakashi-sensei, I want to eat ramen too."

This was her second chance to eat with Sasuke, and she intended to seize it.

Hearing this, Kakashi looked at the third person.

"Sasuke, what about you?"

"It's fine if I don't eat ramen too," Sasuke changed his tune under Naruto's hint and Sakura's pleading gaze.

"Alright, then I'll treat you all to ramen."

"Hooray!" Sakura almost jumped up.

"I want 10 bowls!" Naruto shouted.

Night, at home.

Naruto returned home, burping.

Lying on his bed, he first opened the title he had just obtained today.

[Title: Genin All Attributes +5% Chakra ×120% Chakra Recovery ×120%]

+5%, +20%, +20%.

Wow, was this the power of a title?

Naruto had never seen such a huge increase before.

The other badges were all 0.1%, 0.2%.

This title directly gave 5%, 20%.

Don't let the small numbers fool you; with his attribute values around 300-400, 5% was an increase of 15-20 attribute points.

And the most exaggerated was his chakra. A 20% increase directly added over 2 million to his chakra.

2 million chakra, that was about the same amount as Shukaku.

It was a bit much.

This main quest, which takes 6 years to complete, is quite something.

And if a 'Genin' title is already this strong, how powerful must 'Chunin' and 'Jonin' titles be?

What about the even stronger 'Hokage' title?

At this moment, Naruto suddenly felt a bit of ambition for the Third Hokage's seat.

You know, becoming Hokage has always been my dream, Uzumaki Naruto's dream.

Close the interface.

Naruto first went to the training space to greet the Nine-Tails.

Looking at it, the Nine-Tails seemed to have gotten rounder again.

Perhaps it's because its color is close to orange, or maybe it's been drinking too much soda, but the Nine-Tails has gotten a bit fatter lately, tending towards becoming a big orange cat.

He wondered how a being made of chakra could gain weight.

Could drinking soda and eating fried chicken increase chakra?

With questions in his mind, Naruto prepared to explore the game's final feature.

The Duel Arena!

[You have entered the Duel Arena]

[You can challenge opponents here and participate in the ladder rankings. Players with high rankings will receive fixed rewards.]

As soon as he entered, two large buttons appeared before Naruto.

[Match] / [Ranked]

He tried clicking [Match].

[Searching for a match...]

It just kept showing "Searching."

As expected, everything was within his predictions.

Fortunately, he couldn't find an opponent. Otherwise, Naruto would have had to check if there were any other players in the entire ninja world.

Clicking [Ranked] yielded the same result.

This seemed to be a useless function.

After searching for a while, Naruto found a leaderboard.

[Heaven, Earth, Man, Yellow] four leaderboards.

These four corresponded to: Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and Kage.

Naruto was curious about the rewards, but since no one was playing ranked matches with him, he had no record and couldn't get on the leaderboard, let alone anything else.

No way?

Is this all the [Duel Arena] has to offer after 9 years of waiting?

Naruto was speechless.

Could this also be something useless?

Unwilling to give up, he fumbled around for a bit longer and found a new mode that seemed accessible.

[Training Mode]

He clicked to enter.

His vision suddenly switched to another interface, with a 5-minute countdown at the top and character thumbnails below.

[Please select a training partner]

Although the thumbnails were quite small, Naruto could still see several familiar faces among them.

Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi

Hatake Kakashi

Are these all challengeable opponents?

They must be NPCs from this world, right? They are also famous characters from the original story.

If that's the case...

What about me, Uzumaki Naruto?

As a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, I must deserve a name, right?

Naruto started searching for himself, and several entries appeared consecutively.

Uzumaki Naruto (Genin, 12 years old): Exactly my current age, probably just graduated from the Ninja Academy.

Uzumaki Naruto (Genin, 16 years old): Wait, I'm still a Genin at 16? Oh, so this is Naruto from the original story, never mind.

Uzumaki Naruto (Genin, Six Paths, 17 years old): What does Six Paths mean? Sage of Six Paths?

Uzumaki Naruto (Seventh Hokage, 32 years old): Wait? I'm the Seventh Hokage?

Naruto grew more and more confused as he read. How did he become Hokage? Wasn't he the main villain?

No.

This work is called Naruto, and Hokage is definitely the protagonist.

Could it be that I'm the protagonist?

Then what about Sasuke?

Uchiha Sasuke (Genin, 12 years old): Hmm, no problem.

Uchiha Sasuke (Rogue Ninja, Hawk Team, 16 years old): Huh? Rogue Ninja?

Uchiha Sasuke (Akatsuki, 16 years old): What's Akatsuki? This outfit looks familiar; the few people I just saw were all wearing it.

Uchiha Sasuke (Six Paths, 17 years old): Six Paths again?

Uchiha Sasuke (Traveling the World, 32 years old): Huh? Retired?

Naruto felt he understood this world quite well, but he hadn't expected he was still too shallow.

He didn't even know who the protagonist of this world was.

Naruto had previously guessed that the protagonist of the Naruto world was most likely Sasuke, and he himself was the big villain BOSS.

The source of his guess was that he, Uzumaki Naruto, was hated by everyone in the village and had the Nine-Tails, a Tailed Beast that could always tempt him towards destruction, sealed inside him.

And Sasuke?

He was born the young master of the Uchiha clan and experienced a clan annihilation, no, a clan destruction script.

This was clearly protagonist treatment.

In the end, you're telling me Sasuke actually defected and became a Rogue Ninja, and he's the future Seventh Hokage?

What?

So I, Uzumaki Naruto, am the real protagonist?

Thanks to Chiba Natsuha for the 100 coin tip.