Graduation Ceremony

What a wonderfully comfortable night!

He slept straight through until dawn.

This was Menma's first time since coming to this world—aside from when he had been an immobile infant—sleeping until morning. Before this, he had always gotten up at first light.

It was a rare experience.

Combined with what had happened last night,

it left Menma standing by the window, gazing at the distant scenery with a long-lost sense of ease and refreshment.

After tidying up and finishing breakfast, Menma put on his usual clothes for going out. After tying his Konoha Ninja Headband around his forehead, he pushed open the door and strode toward the Ninja Academy.

This time was different from before.

Menma did not deliberately take roundabout backstreets with fewer people.

He simply walked along the main road by the shortest route, just like every other Ninja Academy student. Bathed in the morning light, he saw the streets already crowded with people, storefronts thrown open, and a scene buzzing with noise.

But this time,

Menma did not hear any of the veiled insults he used to hear. The moment those civilians spotted the distinctive Konoha Ninja Headband on his forehead, every one of them instinctively stiffened their faces.

Ninjas were the most special existence in this world!

They could still dislike Menma. They could still gossip about him and isolate him in private. But they absolutely could not display their malice as openly as they had in the past.

Or rather, they could no longer make it so naked and obvious!

Nor could they curse him to his face when few people were around, as they had when Menma was younger.

The difference in status between ninjas and ordinary civilians was as vast as heaven and earth!

At that moment, the way they looked at Menma became timid and apprehensive.

Menma's expression remained unchanged as he passed through them with a calm face. It was not as though he had some twisted desire to see how differently these ordinary civilians treated him. He merely felt that he could finally walk openly along the main road.

After all, no one could accept the malicious looks and even curses those people had directed at him before. Menma had no masochistic tendencies, so naturally, he chose paths with few or no people. Now that he had officially become a ninja, he no longer needed to be bothered by such things!

As he passed through the crowd,

the ordinary civilians all seemed to pretend they had not seen Menma.

Only after Menma's figure gradually disappeared into the distance did they finally stare at his departing back with complicated expressions.

I never thought they'd really let this brat become a ninja!

What on earth is the Third Lord thinking?

Sigh...

Honestly...

They knew perfectly well that from today onward, everything would be different.

Naturally, the departed Menma could not know what those ordinary civilians were thinking. Even if he did know, he would not care in the slightest.

What he was considering now was how the upcoming class assignments would be arranged, and exactly who he would be teamed up with.

After all, although he had taken the place of Naruto from the Original Work, he was not Naruto!

In this timeline,

Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina had given birth to twins.

He was Uzumaki Menma!

And he had a younger brother, Namikaze Naruto.

With one extra person, things would naturally be different.

The only thing that could probably be confirmed was that his instructor would likely still be Kakashi Hatake. After all, there was no one in the current Konohagakure more suitable than Kakashi Hatake.

It'll depend on what that old man has in mind.

Menma arrived at the Ninja Academy, which was already bustling with voices, and a faintly contemplative look appeared in his pupils.

He stepped lightly into the Ninja Academy.

Along the way, the graduates from his year whom he saw all wore excited, eager expressions. They seemed to be envisioning themselves becoming ninjas, effortlessly completing all kinds of high-level missions, and then becoming heroes of the ninja village.

As for those people's fantasies,

Menma could only say that Konoha had been far too peaceful these past few years.

It had turned the graduates of recent years into flowers raised in a greenhouse—these ordinary graduates.

They were far too naive.

To put it bluntly,

after graduating, dying on any random C-rank mission would not be surprising at all.

Geniuses were a minority, after all.

Those who received preferential treatment were likewise a minority.

That was abundantly clear from the Original Work.

Not everyone was qualified to join a team led by a Jonin, and not everyone could distinguish themselves in such a cruel Shinobi World.

Among those top-tier ninjas who had shaken the Shinobi World, whose Hands were not stained with blood? Whose great reputation had not been built upon mountains of bones!?

Without talent, without a background, and without the ability to adjust one's mindset in time,

to put it plainly,

these people's futures did not look promising at all.

They could only become one of those countless bones.

Menma himself was no exception. The resolve he had made and the path he was destined to walk—one misstep, and he too would be nothing more than a pile of dry bones.

That's also one reason Konoha is constantly weakening. Staying vigilant in times of peace is the true principle...

Menma lightly shook his head inwardly.

"Oh!? Isn't this our top student? You're actually so late today. The Graduation Ceremony is about to begin!"

"Woof, woof, woof!"

The moment he entered the classroom,

before Menma even reached his seat,

a somewhat high-pitched voice reached his ears, along with the yaps of a young puppy.

He did not need to turn around.

Menma already knew who it was.

In their classroom—or rather, in their entire year—there was only one student who brought a puppy to school. That was Kiba Inuzuka, from the Inuzuka Clan, which was famous for raising Ninja Hounds.

Kiba was also one of the few classmates Menma had exchanged words with at the Ninja Academy. Although Menma had been unwilling to interact with his classmates and had never taken the initiative to speak with them,

some people still wanted to approach Menma of their own accord.

Kiba was one of them.

Menma could not exactly respond to someone's friendliness with harsh words, could he? Of course, at most, they only maintained an ordinary classmate relationship.

"Ah, it's Kiba. I trained a little longer last night, so I overslept today. But I'm not late, am I?"

Menma smiled slightly and responded softly.

"Tsk, tsk. You're already the top student, yet you still work this hard, Menma."

Kiba said in amazement.

"Woof, woof, woof!"

"That's why Menma has always been first in our class, Kiba. Menma isn't like you."

From the seats beside them,

two more figures walked over.

The person on the left was built large enough to make two Menmas!

As he said this, he was also stuffing chips into his mouth like there was no tomorrow.

This person was Choji Akimichi, the biological son of the current head of the Akimichi Clan. The young man who had come with him, wearing a pineapple hairstyle and an indolent expression, was Shikamaru Nara—the character known in the Original Work for having an intelligence level off the charts!