Hinata

The next day.

Naruto's days continued to be spent on a large number of D-rank Missions. Sakura took Naruto's advice and discussed with Kakashi how to begin her training as a medical ninja.

Kakashi promptly found Sakura a teacher from the Medical Unit: Yū.

Yū was a medical ninja from Konohagakure's Golden Generation, the same era as Kakashi. Although medical ninjas from that time had high survival rates, surviving to the present still made him one of the best among them.

Though he was not as famous as Tsunade, Kakashi had no way of knowing where Tsunade was right now. As a Jonin, Yū was more than qualified to teach Sakura.

"Is this your student, Kakashi?" Yū, dressed in a medical ninja uniform, asked.

Sakura looked nervously at Yū. He was a man in his early twenties, around Kakashi's age. He wore a white medical ninja uniform and a large medical cap on his head.

A large red cross was printed on his chest, while several medical ninjas in similar uniforms beside him also turned their attention toward Kakashi.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Please take care of me," Sakura said, bowing nervously. "My name is Sakura Haruno. Please teach me well."

"Hey, Kakashi, your student has far better manners than you," another medical ninja, Hanfang, said as he stepped forward teasingly.

"Shut up." Kakashi wore his classic dead-fish eyes.

"I heard Kakashi brought his student over?" Another voice rang out from within the medical department. A medical ninja named Sō, wearing a white square cap, came out upon hearing the commotion.

"And she's such a cute girl. That's rare," Yudun, a square-faced medical ninja, said as he emerged from the examination room.

"Is she joining our Medical Unit?" Kito, one of two medical ninjas carrying a stretcher past, stopped and turned to ask.

"That would be wonderful." Hyakusō, the ninja at the other end of the stretcher, smiled. "We've been short-handed lately, so this is a huge help."

"Huh?" Sakura blushed furiously. She had not expected so many people to come over and speak to her, and she looked at Kakashi helplessly.

"Don't be afraid," Kakashi reassured Sakura. "Those guys have always been like that. I got injured too many times, so I gradually became familiar with everyone in the Medical Unit."

Sakura nodded and, still somewhat dazed, began her journey of training with the Medical Unit.

However, Kakashi truly did not have that much time to train three students. Sakura had been handed over to the Medical Unit, while Naruto was still doing D-rank Missions and did not need consideration for the time being.

That left only Sasuke Uchiha as Kakashi's main focus. Perhaps because they were both Sharingan users, Kakashi paid Sasuke considerably more attention.

After all, there were not many exclusive Sharingan users left in the world. Obito's eye was remotely logged into Kakashi's body, and he could barely make use of it.

At present, the only one who could be called Kakashi's most beloved senior disciple was Sasuke.

While nearly every member of Team Seven was busy training, one stray product of Will of Fire education had set up a hammock in Konoha Forest and was sleeping soundly.

After returning from the Land of Waves mission, Naruto paid the price for his recklessness. He had to complete twenty D-rank Missions alone before he could return to Team Seven.

By now, including last night's mission of helping Mrs. Yamanaka find her cat in the Bamboo Forest, he had only completed five D-rank Missions in total.

Then he gave up and lay flat.

"When am I supposed to finish twenty of these? Wouldn't it be easier to pay someone else to do them?" Naruto muttered as he lay in the hammock, gazing at the sky through the gaps in the leaves.

And that was exactly what he did. He accepted a D-rank trash-picking mission from the Hokage Building and paid fifty thousand ryo to hire a Ninja Academy student to do it for him.

"Well, helping poor Ninja Academy students earn money on the side... I really am Konohagakure's greatest philanthropist of this era." Naruto stretched lazily and curled back up in the hammock.

He had completely given up by now and no longer cared if Konoha High Command learned that he could use Lava Release. He could not hide it anyway. Kakashi had probably reported it long ago.

Naturally, he could not be bothered to conceal the fact that he was rich either.

He did not care whether ANBU was watching him. He had completely let himself go. The village could not do anything to him anyway; all of Gato's treasure was stored in his system inventory.

Even if the village wanted to investigate, they would have nowhere to start. Making a small fortune while carrying out missions abroad was a common occurrence in Konoha.

Otherwise, aside from Konoha's elite ninjas, the lower-ranking ninjas could never support their families on mission rewards alone.

It had to be said that the life of giving up was genuinely comfortable.

With his eyes half-closed, Naruto did not know how long had passed before he slowly opened them and vaguely saw a figure standing before him.

"Hinata? When did you get here?" Naruto was startled and began coughing violently.

The girl in the light-purple hooded coat was startled by Naruto's reaction as well. She looked at him at a loss, then quickly looked away.

Nine-Tails' Recognition 2.3%

The mechanical synthesized voice rang out in his mind. Naruto froze for a moment; this time, he had done nothing.

Why had the relationship progress increased?

"I returned to the village yesterday. Teacher Kurenai Yuhi said we won't be taking missions for a while and told us to train individually for the Chunin Exams," Hinata said, her face red as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

Her slender body trembled slightly, as though she were extremely nervous.

"Oh, so that means we're free?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Mm." Hinata nodded.

"By the way, Hinata, how did you find me?" Naruto scratched his head. "This place is pretty remote."

"The Byakugan." Hinata lowered her head somewhat bashfully.

"So that's the Byakugan?" Naruto leaned closer curiously, clicking his tongue in wonder.

"Naruto." Hinata leaned back slightly, closing her eyes as she tried to avoid Naruto's gaze. "That part isn't pretty."

"It's quite pretty."

"Huh?" Hinata looked at Naruto in surprise, her eyes widening. "Naruto, what... what did you say?"

"Looking closely, the Byakugan is actually quite pretty," Naruto said with a smile.

"Mm." Warmth rose in Hinata's heart. In truth, Konoha's other villagers did not treat the Hyuga very well either, believing the Byakugan to be an omen of misfortune.

Even within the Hyuga clan, these eyes had created immense conflicts that could not be erased. Caged Bird, that blue tattoo...

"Hinata, wait here for me a moment." Naruto suddenly ran off.

Hinata stood there in a daze. Hearing Naruto's words, she did not know what to do for a moment.

About half an hour later, Naruto finally hurried back with a small, bulging bundle strapped to his back, as though it contained quite a few things.

"Come on! I'll take you somewhere!" Naruto did not waste any words. He grabbed Hinata's hand and started running.

Naruto is holding my hand?

Hinata immediately felt dizzy, her face flushing once more. She did not even have the presence of mind to ask where Naruto was taking her, allowing him to lead her onward.