The Truancy List Grows by One

After several days of the Anbu conducting a massive search for spies within the village, all of Konoha suddenly felt much quieter.

Whether they were spies or not, everyone behaved themselves these past few days. Even the street thugs had vanished without a trace.

After arresting a batch of spies and troublemakers within the village, the Konoha Ninja Academy finally reopened today.

The group arrived at school early in the morning.

"Soji, Homura, and Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza, let's go out and find a place to train on our own today." Before class began, Minato Namikaze called over the friends he was closest to in the class and spoke to them.

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For the first time—truly, the first time!

Today was the first time Minato had suggested that they skip class!

In the past, the suggestion had always come from the others. Minato had merely passively agreed or refused.

Since it was the first time, although they were all curious about Minato's strange behavior today, they still agreed.

One after another, they left the classroom and found a secluded spot. Then they used the Shadow Clone Jutsu, had their Shadow Clones return to class, while their real bodies took the opportunity to climb over the wall and leave the school.

However, none of them noticed that after they had all left, a red-haired figure quietly followed them.

They went to the same old place where they had trained before.

Minato was the last to arrive.

"Alright, everyone, find yourselves a place and an opponent to train with." After Soji said that, he was about to pull Uchiha Homura along with him.

"Wait, there's something else I need to tell everyone today." Instead of starting training right away, Minato spoke mysteriously.

Everyone had already been curious about Minato's behavior today, and now they were even more puzzled.

They all stopped in their tracks and waited to see what else Minato had to say.

"Kushina, come out and say hello to everyone. They're all my best friends." As he spoke, Minato waved toward the rear.

A little red head poked out from the grass behind them.

It was none other than Kushina Uzumaki!

"Hello, everyone. I'm Kushina Uzumaki. Please take care of me!" After shyly stepping out from the grass, Kushina greeted them with a flushed face.

The moment he saw her, Soji understood why Minato had been acting so abnormally today. It completely went against his usual character.

"Sorry, I brought Kushina here without asking everyone first. But she doesn't have any friends in class yet, so I wanted to introduce her to all of you." Minato explained awkwardly.

"It's not Minato's fault. I was the one who asked him to introduce me to some friends. If anyone should be blamed, blame me." Seeing Minato's embarrassment, Kushina hurriedly stepped forward to explain on his behalf.

"Hehe, I'm Hyuga Soji. Kushina, you should already know me, right? Let's formally get acquainted today." Soji was the first to speak. He did not want Minato and Kushina to remain awkward any longer.

This was a small matter to begin with.

Besides, their original agreement had been that anyone in their class who could independently use the Shadow Clone Jutsu could come to this little spot. The other students simply did not qualify.

And Kushina Uzumaki clearly met the requirements to join their small group.

Since she met the requirements, what right did they have to blame the two of them?

Soji's words quickly snapped the others out of their daze, and they all introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm Uchiha Homura. In the future, I'll become the strongest among us."

"Hello, Kushina. I'm Shikaku Nara."

"Hello, I'm Inoichi Yamanaka."

"I'm Choza Akimichi."

Their acceptance made Minato and Kushina breathe sighs of relief.

Minato even shot Soji a grateful look.

If Soji had not taken the lead in breaking the silence, who knew how long that awkwardness would have lasted.

"Thank you for accepting me." Kushina's eyes brimmed with tears.

Kushina had only just experienced the destruction of her clan. Then, only a few days after arriving in Konoha, she had been mocked and bullied by her classmates, and then kidnapped by enemies.

For an eight-year-old girl, the emotional torment had been enormous.

Now, friends were finally willing to accept her. All the grievances Kushina had buried in her heart finally burst forth at once.

"From now on, we'll all be Kushina's friends. If you ever have any difficulties, we'll definitely help you." Minato looked at Kushina and said gently with a smile.

"Mm."

After wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes, the group quickly got along.

Kushina had originally been an optimistic, cheerful, and positive little girl back in the Land of Whirlpools. She was merely returning to her true self now.

Because of the newcomer, they did not do any strenuous training that day. After a brief warm-up, they sat in a circle and got to know one another.

Through Kushina, they also learned about her tragic background and encouraged her to face the future positively.

"Don't worry, I'm fine now," Kushina said with a smile.

"So the Cloud Hidden Ninja who kidnapped you wanted to obtain the special Chakra inside your body?" Shikaku Nara immediately picked up on the key point.

Kushina's kidnapping had caused the academy to suspend classes for several days, while the Anbu had been dispatched in force.

This was no secret among the ninja clans, so they all knew about it.

"Yes. When the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed, they placed a tracking seal on me. But after Minato and Soji-kun rescued me, Lord Hokage helped remove it. I won't encounter something like this again."

Kushina only said that she possessed special Chakra, but did not directly reveal that it was the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

After all, the Hokage had instructed her not to tell anyone about it.

She was also afraid that if they learned about the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside her body, they would stay away from her. They were friends she had only just managed to make.

Especially Minato...

Perhaps only Hyuga Soji knew about this, but he was not stupid enough to say it outright.

Leaving aside how he would explain where he had gotten that information, there was no benefit in saying it even if he could bluff his way through. He was not an idiot!

"But those Kumogakure ninja are truly awful. They actually came all the way to Konoha to kidnap a little girl." Choza Akimichi indignantly spoke up for her.

"Hey, hey, hey, is that really the important part? Shouldn't the important part be that Soji and Minato actually took down three spy ninja?" Inoichi Yamanaka said, looking strangely at Hyuga Soji and Minato Namikaze.

After hearing Inoichi's words, the others were also shocked. Then they turned strange looks toward the two expressionless people involved.

"Haha, we were just lucky," Minato said with his usual humility.

"Standard procedure. Don't panic. Sit down!" Soji waved his hand jokingly.

He did not want them to keep dragging the topic back to him.

It had not been easy for an outsider like Minato Namikaze to overshadow him at the academy. Soji did not want to continue drawing attention to himself.

Since no matter how much he showed off, he could not surpass Minato, he might as well let Minato stand at the forefront alone and take the heat.

Given the methods currently available to improve his strength, Soji figured that at best, he could only tie with Minato.

Since he could not shine alone, he might as well bide his time and build his strength.

Soji's joking behavior also made the others stop focusing on his strength.

The Third Hokage had not announced that Soji and Minato had taken down three Cloud Hidden Elite Shinobi. He had only said that they were three spy ninja.

Kushina Uzumaki was probably the only person present who knew the truth, since she had overheard quite a few conversations while pretending to be unconscious.

But since Minato and Soji had no intention of boasting about it themselves, she would not disrespect their wishes by casually telling everyone.

If they had to analyze the strength of everyone present—

Soji and Minato were the strongest. Their displayed strength had already faintly surpassed the level of a Chunin.

Today, Soji might win once, and tomorrow Minato might win it back.

Next was Kushina Uzumaki. With the Uzumaki Clan's physique, she was naturally blessed with an enormous amount of Chakra.

Combined with the Nine-Tails sealed within her, she had already reached the ceiling of Genin strength.

After training for a while longer, she would reach Chunin level.

Then came Uchiha Homura. With the abilities of his one-tomoe Sharingan and his ability to use C-rank Fire Release ninjutsu, he could also be said to be close to the ceiling of Genin strength.

Finally, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were roughly equal in strength, all above average among Genin.

The strongest among them might not have reached Jonin level, but they were only eight years old!

The normal requirement for graduating from the Konoha Ninja Academy was to reach Genin level, while all of them had already far surpassed it.

The group remained at their secret training base until school let out in the afternoon, then went home.

As for the Shadow Clones, they simply left the academy, found an empty place, and dispelled them.

And so, life gradually returned to calm. Nothing earth-shattering happened, and there were no world-saving missions that required a few academy students who had not even graduated to complete.

Every day, they went to and from school, occasionally skipped class, and went out to train.

Kushina Uzumaki also gradually became closer with the group.

However, precisely because they became familiar with her, everyone discovered that beneath her optimistic, cheerful, and positive personality lay a fiery, unyielding nature.

Why say that? Ever since Kushina had beaten up a group of children after school on the day she was kidnapped—

When school resumed, she had gained the nickname "Blood Red Pepper."

But because Minato had said he liked Kushina's red hair, she no longer cared about the teasing from the other children.

However, during one training session, the two sparring were Uchiha Homura and Kushina Uzumaki.

At the time, Homura had a death wish and blurted out, "Blood Red Pepper, is that all you've got?"

The consequences were too horrible to look at.

Kushina had already been just a little stronger than Homura, but that one remark poked a hornet's nest.

Enraged, Kushina's red hair stood on end strand by strand, and she looked like the embodiment of a demon.

She immediately pinned Homura to the ground and beat him senseless.

Soji had truly been afraid that Kushina might accidentally rage hard enough to bring out the Nine-Tails, so he had retreated far away.

The others found this baffling. Why was Soji so timid?

Well, Homura ended up with another bruised and swollen face, that much was unavoidable.

This also showed them another side of Kushina Uzumaki, the girl nicknamed Blood Red Pepper.

After that, whether anyone else dared or not was another matter, but Uchiha Homura never again dared to casually mention that nickname in front of Kushina Uzumaki.

As time passed, the friendship between them steadily grew deeper.

They also became far less guarded when speaking with one another.

Everyone had noticed the sickeningly sweet atmosphere Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki constantly gave off.

So they occasionally could not help teasing them about it once or twice.

At first, the two would blush in embarrassment.

Later, perhaps because they had experienced it too often, they could actually accept it calmly without blushing, their hearts racing, or their breathing changing.

Soji could not help sighing that children in this world matured early.