A Melon Head Leaps Out of the Crowd

"Hey? Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee, you're back too!" Naruto greeted the three of them with a grin when he returned.

"Yeah." Neji said, "Thanks to Tenten's tools."

Rock Lee gave a thumbs-up in agreement. "That's right. We hid inside Tenten's Big Turtle Shell and managed to hold out."

Tenten knocked on Rock Lee's head and corrected him, "What turtle shell? It was a shield, a shield!"

"Is that so?"

"Of course it is! Apologize to the shield that saved your life!"

"Sorry!"

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all laughed along. Their class was surprisingly lively.

"Huh? You're not dead yet, Wide Forehead?" Ino said something vicious in the brightest tone.

Hearing Ino's voice, Sakura was delighted at first, then her expression immediately changed. "What did you say? You're the one who'd die in a place like this, you Ino Pig!"

After confirming that the other was safe, the two girls immediately started bickering. Anyone who didn't know them might really think they had some irreconcilable blood feud.

This time, though, there was no Shikamaru complaining about how troublesome women were. Naruto looked carefully and realized that Temari had been the one to bring them back...

It looked like a classic case of a beauty saving a hero.

After returning to the lounge, Fu followed them inside. "Let's play together! How about Poker? Or Sugoroku? Musical Chairs?"

The three exchanged glances, and Naruto said, "We've got nothing else to do anyway. Let's play some Poker."

"Yahoo!" Fu happily sat on a stool, swaying from side to side as she waited for the cards to be dealt.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura played with her until late at night, when Kagen and Yoro finally dragged Fu away with her face covered in paper slips.

"Let me go! I finally got a good hand..."

After Fu left, Naruto shut the door and thought for a moment. While Sasuke and Sakura weren't paying attention, he quietly said, "Woof."

He remembered swearing in the Death Forest that if he ever played cards with someone from the Uchiha clan again, he would be a dog. Sasuke hadn't cheated today, but Naruto felt that a vow was a vow.

The night passed without incident. In truth, Sasuke had heard Naruto imitating a dog but chose not to expose him.

Early the next morning, all the examinees gathered in the plaza.

Gaara stood on the platform and announced loudly, "All examinees, you have worked hard. For certain reasons, the Chunin Exams are hereby suspended."

"What?"

"How can this be?"

The crowd below was Buzzing with Discussion. They had suffered for days for nothing, and nobody would be happy about that. If they had been eliminated, they could at least blame their own lack of ability, but having the exams suspended for no apparent reason was hard to accept.

Gaara continued, "Detailed reports on your performances during the exams will be submitted to the leaders of your respective villages. Whether you are promoted to chunin will be decided by them."

Hope flared up among the examinees once more. So they still had a chance? Kazekage-sama had handled this matter openly and fairly!

It seemed the examinees were fairly satisfied with Sunagakure Village's handling of the matter. They packed their things and headed home.

Fu was no exception. She reluctantly told Naruto and the others that she couldn't leave her village whenever she wanted, but they had to visit Hidden Waterfall Village to play with her if they got the chance.

Before she left, Naruto gave her a kunai. He couldn't remember how the Seven Tails had been captured, but whoever it was, Naruto would make sure to teach them what a real surprise was when the time came.

But Fu clearly hadn't thought that far ahead. She happily flew up, pounced on Naruto, and gave him a solid hug. "Thank you! This is the first time I've ever received a gift!"

"You don't have to be so dramatic. Get down first!" Did she have to hang her whole body on him for a hug? His girlfriend was watching from behind, and Naruto felt a little guilty.

Fu obediently jumped down, then spun around in midair in distress, like a bee doing a figure-eight dance. "But I didn't prepare a Return Gift for you. What should I do?"

Naruto hadn't cared about getting anything in return to begin with, so he reassured her, "It's okay. I've already received your thoughtfulness. You don't need to prepare anything special."

"As long as there's thought behind it?" Fu landed in front of Naruto, leaned her face close to his, and asked as if seeking confirmation.

"Y-yeah." Naruto felt as though Hinata's eyes behind him had widened like bells. A chill ran down his back, and he hurriedly leaned backward.

"I see!" Fu smacked her palm, took off the Red Long Backpack from her back, and stuffed it into Naruto's arms. "Everything I brought with me when I left the village is in here. I'll give it all to you. This is my thoughtfulness, so I didn't specially prepare a gift~"

Kagen and Yoro called to her from a distance, "Fu! Hurry up, we're leaving!"

"Coming!" Fu answered, then did a backflip and flew backward toward her teammates, waving as she went. "Bye! I'm really happy I got to know you all!"

"That's not what I meant..." Naruto's voice drifted away on the wind.

Sakura slung an arm over Naruto's shoulder. Maybe Naruto had called her Sakura Bro too many times; she now instinctively treated him like one of the boys. She teased, "The bag has allll the things a girrrl takes with her when she goes out~"

"Gulp." Naruto swallowed. The bag suddenly seemed a little hot to hold, but tossing away a gift someone had given him didn't seem right either.

"Naruto-kun has made a very good friend." Hinata's gentle voice sounded beside Naruto's ear, making him envision two machetes, a nice boat, and a happy ending.

At that moment, Naruto's Desire to Live reached unprecedented heights. He turned around and cautiously asked, "Hinata-chan, could you do me a favor?"

Hinata tilted her head. "What favor?"

Naruto held the bag out to Hinata. "Actually, I have too much luggage to carry, so I can't take this bag. Could Hinata-chan hold onto it for me?"

"I see. Then I suppose there's no helping it."

Seeing Hinata reach out to take the backpack, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. He had survived.

But at that moment, a Melon Head leaped out of the crowd. His eyes seemed to burn with fire as he shouted, "Naruto-kun, that's terrible! It's only one extra bag! How can you give it to someone else just because it's heavy? Our youth should not lose to something so insignificant as—"

Bang! Tenten knocked Rock Lee flat with one punch. "Hahaha, um... his head got squeezed a little when he left this morning. Please continue, don't mind him..."

Rock Lee stubbornly raised his head. "No, Tenten, don't stop me! I—"

Bang! Tenten grabbed one of Rock Lee's legs and dragged him away. "It's fine, it's fine. I'll take him to get some medicine..."

"Pfft~" Hinata laughed. Actually, she could tell that Fu was merely a little oblivious and didn't care what gift she gave Naruto.

She had only been pretending to be a little upset. When she felt that Naruto-kun cared about her feelings, it would make her happy—but now that Rock Lee had caused such a scene, the mood was completely gone.

Seeing Hinata like that, Naruto more or less guessed what was going on. He stuffed the bag into Hinata's arms, freed both hands, and tugged at her cheeks. "Well, well. You've learned to trick people now. Who taught you that?"

"No!" Hinata broke free from Naruto's clutches and ran toward the road back to Konoha.

Naruto chased after her relentlessly. "Confess right now!"

Inside the Sealing Space, the Nine Tails yawned and thought, Is this brat stupid? Didn't you used to tell me in stories that the prettier a woman is, the better she is at lying?

Asuma stood beside Kurenai, lit a cigarette, and sighed. "Being young is great..."

"Yeah," Kurenai replied. If you can't talk, talk less. Are we really that old? She looked at Asuma's face full of beard. What did I even see in him?

"As expected of your student, Kakashi!" Another Melon Head leaped out from the crowd. Guy looked utterly excited. "He actually thought of running back to Konoha by turning it into a chase!"

"Huh?" Kakashi could tell with his toes that Naruto had absolutely not meant it that way.

Guy darted in front of Kakashi. "Kakashi! Let's have a long-distance running contest! Whoever gets back to Konoha first wins!"

"I refuse." Kakashi turned a page back in his book. Guy had been so noisy that he hadn't been able to read several lines clearly.

"Why?! This is a challenge filled with my youthful passion and hot-blooded spirit!"

"If you have to ask why..." Kakashi said unhurriedly, "It's because I care a lot about what happens next."

If Naruto had been there, he definitely would have said that Copy Ninja Kakashi truly lived up to his name—he could even copy Shino's lines.