School, slacking off, and stripping the land bare

The next day.

Hyuga Seigo began his life as a student.

"The sun's shining overhead, off to school I go. The birds chirp morning, morning, morning—why've you got explosives on your back..."

"I'm going to blow up school... never late a day... pull the fuse and run away... one big boom... and school is gone..."

Hyuga Seigo sang his little song as he headed to school on his short little legs.

Blow up school?!

The passersby looked thoroughly exasperated.

What kind of little brat was this?

Oh, he was from the prestigious Hyuga clan. Never mind, then. Not their problem.

"Hyuga Seigo, why are you late again?!"

"This is the third time this week."

Iruka roared.

"Teacher, your vocal cords are practically showing. Only three times this week? Isn't that an improvement...?"

Qingwu picked at his ringing ears as he defended himself.

"You little brat! It's only Wednesday. Get outside and stand there!" Seeing Qingwu like that only made Iruka angrier.

"Yeah, yeah." Qingwu obediently walked out.

Perfect. He could catch a little more sleep.

His title of "sleeping champion" wasn't for nothing.

"Ahahaha! Shikamaru, Choji... look at him! What an idiot...

"A complete idiot... he couldn't even think of something as simple as coming in through the window... hahaha..."

Using both hands and feet, Naruto laboriously climbed up from outside the window, inch by inch. When he saw the scene before him, he couldn't help clutching his stomach and laughing.

"I—"

Standing beside him, Shikamaru's face instantly darkened with exasperation, and he silently groaned. You damned idiot. We're done for now!

"Shikamaru..."

Choji looked innocently at Shikamaru, his eyes full of helpless confusion, as though asking, What do we do now?

"Hmm?! You lot, too..."

Just then, they discovered to their horror that Naruto's laughter had been so loud it had successfully caught Iruka-sensei's attention. His piercing gaze shot straight at them like twin bolts of lightning.

Shikamaru helplessly spread his hands, indicating that there was nothing he could do either. At this point, they could only accept their fate.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Nara Shikamaru! Akimichi Choji!"

Sure enough, the next second, Iruka roared furiously, "You lot, too! Get out right now and stand outside!"

Iruka was practically going mad with anger. These troublemakers caused problems one after another, and not a single one gave him any peace. He felt as if his hairline had receded another few millimeters.

Damn it, he didn't even have a girlfriend yet.

"Nooo! Please, Iruka-sensei... we know we were wrong..." Naruto was dumbstruck, filled with regret. If he'd known, he wouldn't have gotten so carried away.

But Iruka remained completely unmoved and continued shouting, "Get out! Right now!"

"Ugh..." Shikamaru sighed deeply, utterly drained. How had he ended up with such an idiotic teammate today? Just his rotten luck.

"Fine, we're going. Why get so worked up...?" Naruto muttered.

And so, the dejected trio of Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji had no choice but to slink out of the classroom.

The moment they stepped outside, a familiar voice greeted them. "Yo! You're here, too..." It was Qingwu, grinning at them.

Qingwu was in an especially good mood now, because he finally had company for his punishment.

"Man... what a drag..." Shikamaru said.

Choji said, "Mm-hmm... crunch, crunch..." His hands never stopped moving. Those potato chips were delicious.

Naruto said, "Haha! Finally, I'm not alone."

Qingwu said, "Right? That's fate for you."

And thus, the Ninja Academy's F4 assembled for the first time.

And so, Hyuga Seigo embarked on his relaxed, carefree school days.

Morning sunlight spilled across the school grounds, and a light breeze brushed the leaves with a rustle. Qingwu walked into the classroom with a spring in his step and a faint smile on his lips.

"This really does feel a bit like college in my previous life! Hehehe... boys, Daddy's here..."

At school, he and his friends formed a distinctive little group—the Skip-Class Quartet.

Given a second life.

Qingwu wanted to be a child, to play and fool around.

To let the weary soul from his previous life.

Take a break.

Over those three years, they often escaped class together to find their own moments of fun. Sometimes they sneaked onto the playground to play, chasing and roughhousing with one another; occasionally, they pulled little pranks that left the teachers unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Those boys.

Could fall asleep standing up.

Each slept more soundly than the last, even snoring.

Hyuga Seigo, in particular, could catch a piece of chalk thrown by a teacher between his fingers while he slept.

When asked how he did it...

He replied, "Nothing special. Just practice."

What a master of showing off.

Fighting was an everyday occurrence, too.

Naruto and Choji tanked the hits.

Shikamaru provided support.

Qingwu roamed around, striking where needed.

With their teamwork.

Even the older kids got beaten until they howled.

Their specialty was ganging up on people.

They never fought alone.

They were little terrors through and through.

Because of their special backgrounds—either children of major clans or a jinchūriki—the school could only let them be, with standing outside as their harshest punishment.

What they heard most often was Iruka-sensei's furious roar: "You four again! Get outside and stand there! You're responsible for today's cleaning, do you hear me?!"

Qingwu's response was, "Piece of cake."

Shikamaru said, "I can't sleep unless I'm standing in this spot anymore."

Choji said, "It's fine. We've got Shikamaru. Crunch, crunch... barbecue-flavored chips are so good..."

Naruto said, "Hehe... I've got them."

None of them blamed Iruka, because most of the time, he quietly cleaned up their messes, apologized to the parents of the students they'd beaten, and even stayed to help them clean.

Hehe... we were wrong.

But we're not changing.

Anyone who runs their mouth deserves a beating.

If they say it again next time, we'll beat them again.

That was the consensus among Qingwu's quartet. Even the normally unmotivated, laid-back Shikamaru stood firm on it.

Qingwu: What kid doesn't get into fights?

He hated it most when people pushed their luck.

If one beating didn't teach them.

Then give them a few more.

More often, though, Qingwu and the others liked heading to the river together, bringing their rods to fish along the bank. Qingwu, the slacker...

"Slurp... Shikamaru, your move."

"Oh... now it's yours."

This was Qingwu and Shikamaru's favorite time: two lounge chairs, a pot of good tea, an occasional lift of the fishing rod, a few words exchanged, and a few moves played. Life couldn't have been more leisurely.

Two slackers.

"Fishies, Lord Naruto is here!" Naruto and Choji, meanwhile, went into the water to catch fish and shrimp.

"Hehe... leave this to me. When I used to have nothing to eat, I often came here to catch fish." Naruto simply wanted to show off his fishing skills.

"Mm-hmm! Naruto, you're amazing."

But the moment those words came out, his friends' expressions froze. They exchanged glances and all decided to treat Naruto a little better from then on.

"Ahahaha... I'm not that good." Naruto actually grew embarrassed and worked even harder to catch fish.

Only, as he lowered his head, his eyes were red.

Teuchi, Grandpa Third, there are people in the village who accept me now. Hehehe...

Meanwhile.

Choji was muttering, "Garlic-grilled fish, braised fish, fish in spicy broth, crucian carp soup, stir-fried river shrimp... slurp... mm-hmm... we'll have Qingwu make all of them... slurp..."

Hinata and Ino occasionally joined them for meals, too, but since they were well-behaved girls who didn't skip class, they only came on weekends.

They missed out on quite a few treats.

Still, perhaps because the boys spent so much time outside chasing chickens and dogs and catching fish and shrimp, their fitness and agility were excellent. Without realizing it, they learned tree climbing and water walking, pulling ahead of their peers.

They all did fairly well in practical combat, too. That was another reason Iruka cut them some slack.

Shikamaru: Qingwu, you've been guiding us behind the scenes, haven't you? You're surprisingly reliable.

Choji: Dad said I just had to stick close to Shikamaru.

Naruto: I knew it! I'm a genius!

Qingwu: This is all thanks to Daddy, got it, boys?

Besides these fun activities, Qingwu also often teased his classmates Ino and Hinata. Watching their faces turn bright red filled him with a sense of accomplishment. These little girls are so cute.

"Mm, right. I'm still little. I don't understand anything."

"It's just teasing. Being a kid is great. I love being a kid... hehe..."

"Watching them grow up is so nice..."

He attended school by day, and at night, Qingwu used the Cube Teleportation Gate to roam all over Konoha. Then he browsed the book collections of every clan, large and small, recording everything with the Divine Self Ten-Tails.

Of course, it was only records and hidden lore of the Ninja World. The ninjutsu and secret technique materials all had restrictions on them, and Qingwu couldn't be bothered to break those. He already had enough moves.

In truth, he was also waiting for an opportunity.

To copy the Scroll of Seals.

It had a much richer collection of forbidden techniques.

Then Qingwu took up a life of resource gathering.

"Hardly anyone comes to this dense forest. If I dig up a few trees spaced far apart, nobody should notice... mm... they won't..."

"Medicinal herbs are good stuff, too. Dig them up!"

"A litter of wolf pups. Take them, take them..."

"What's this? Holy shit! An Illusion Wolf Beast, that companion Naruto had in the movie... seems pretty strong..."

"A white tiger. I'll take it..."

"Holy shit! A wild boar over three meters long. I'll take it. Damn, if I raise enough of these, they'd make one hell of a charge..."

"A litter of rabbits, some pheasants... mm-hmm, I'll take them. The beasts will need food, after all..."

"..."

With all this knowledge, the Ninja World clans' understanding of the world, and the resources Qingwu had scavenged by stripping the land bare, the Small World began expanding faster. It had already reached five kilometers.

"Hehe... I love gathering resources..."

The Demon Refining Pot had given him a hint: a world's transformation could drive the transformation of its master. Lower dimensions had their own advantages, namely the abundance of abilities that defied normal limits.

Take a world-creating technique like Limited Tsukuyomi, for instance.

Even in mythical worlds, it was exceedingly rare.

Once it appeared, it would shake the entire world, followed by a bloody struggle to claim it.

The black cubes involved the power of space.

Yin-Yang Release involved the power of creation.

The Sharingan reflected the heart—the power of thought.

Then there were the gravitational and repulsive forces of the Rinnegan and tenseigan.

Rinne Rebirth.

With a soul and a body, it could bring someone back to life. The power of reincarnation.

The Kurama clan's five-sense-controlling genjutsu interfered with reality, involving the power of truth and illusion.

Dust Release involved earth's power of annihilation.

As far as the Demon Refining Pot was concerned, a world like this was practically a treasure trove for a world master like Qingwu.

Simply copying its abilities could perfect the power of his world.