"All right~ Everyone can see right through your little scheme." Seeing Sakura still stubbornly deny it, Hao Shuai called her out.
"Actually, you don't need to force yourself to compete with Naruto and Sasuke. You're just an ordinary person, after all—not like Naruto, who has a cheat code, or Sasuke, who has a bloodline advantage."
"I understand, Big Brother Hao Shuai." Sakura nodded, appearing to agree. But inside, she was roaring, "Are you kidding me?! I can accept that Sasuke has a bloodline advantage, but that blockhead Naruto? What cheat code does he have?!"
Hao Shuai didn't need to read her mind to guess what she was thinking, so he smiled and said, "What? Think I'm talking nonsense? Then answer me this: What's Naruto's surname?"
"Uzumaki Naruto. Isn't his surname Uzumaki?" Sakura asked, confused.
"Then have you ever heard of the Uzumaki Clan?" Hao Shuai asked.
"Hao Shuai, you..." Kakashi grew anxious beside him, afraid Hao Shuai was about to reveal Naruto's background. Naruto and Sasuke, who had been walking ahead, also slowed their pace to listen closely.
"Sorry, Big Brother Hao Shuai. I've never heard of the Uzumaki Clan." Sakura thought for a moment, then shook her head helplessly.
"Sasuke, have you heard of them?" Hao Shuai asked the two-column Sasuke up ahead.
"No!" Sasuke was as brief as ever.
Hao Shuai hadn't expected the Uzumaki Clan to have vanished from public knowledge so soon after the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed. Only the records kept by the major clans remained.
But that had nothing to do with Hao Shuai. He grabbed Kakashi and turned him around so he was facing away from everyone. Pointing to the spiral pattern on Kakashi's back, he said, "See this? It's the Uzumaki Clan's crest."
"Whaaat?!" the three of them cried.
Naruto, Sasuke,