Mizuki had no idea, though.
At the very moment Naruto had turned to leave, the corners of his mouth had lifted into a faint, mocking smile. In Naruto's eyes, Mizuki was nothing but a hopeless idiot.
Steal the Scroll of Sealing?
What kind of fool could come up with such a stupid plan?
He hadn't considered its feasibility or chances of success at all.
Someone who was simply lost in his own ambitions—what else could he be but a fool?
"Well, let me make good use of you, Mr. Mizuki! I hope you won't disappoint me."
Naruto left the examination room.
He paid no attention to the strange looks from the students around him.
Naruto knew perfectly well why his classmates were looking at him so strangely. They hadn't seen the Forehead Protector that marked him as a successful Konoha Ninja, and the examination room wasn't completely soundproof, so they had probably heard some of their own Iruka-sensei's voice from inside. Unlike the dead-last Naruto from the original story in his previous life, Naruto in this life was one of the top students in his class, with consistently high overall grades. He was especially strong in theory, ranking in the top three and occasionally taking first place. His practical skills were even more outstanding; in the entire class, only Sasuke Uchiha, who ranked first, could get the better of him.
Of course, they had no idea that this was because Naruto was holding back.
Otherwise, given that Sasuke still couldn't use his newly awakened Sharingan—the Night of the Massacre had driven his brother to awaken the One-Tomoe Sharingan, though Sasuke himself hadn't realized it—Naruto could beat the daylights out of him in no time.
Even so, from his classmates' point of view,
shouldn't Naruto have passed the graduation exam with ease?
It was true that they'd seen Naruto struggle with the Clone Technique during their studies. But so much time had passed. Surely someone as clever as Naruto would have mastered it by now?
That was what nearly everyone present thought.
And yet the final result had really taken everyone by surprise.
For six years,
Naruto Uzumaki had consistently ranked among the top five in his class, but he hadn't managed to graduate. No wonder nearly everyone present stared at him in astonishment as he came out. Of all those people, only one looked at him with concern.
That was the young lady of the Hyuga Clan—Hinata Hyuga.
Unlike everyone else,
at that moment,
as Hinata watched Naruto's retreating figure,
a trace of deep concern showed in her pale eyes, and her hands twisted together without her realizing it.
"Naruto-kun..."
Naruto had already hurried away and naturally paid no mind to what his classmates thought.
He didn't leave the school. Instead, he went straight to the roof of the Ninja Academy, found a quiet spot, and lay down at his leisure.
"Now I just have to wait for that idiot Mizuki to come find me. If I remember right, it'll be around dusk, after the exam is over? Hmm, looks like I can take a little nap first..."
Naruto folded his hands behind his head and gazed up at the blue sky and white clouds, his eyes relaxing to a lazy squint as he thought to himself.
This was a golden opportunity.
If he missed it, there wouldn't be another.
This time,
he couldn't be like the idiot Naruto from the original story.
The Scroll of Sealing was enormous, yet all he'd read was the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. It was one of Konoha's most precious collections, recording nearly every A-rank and higher-level ninjutsu. Naruto had to learn two techniques from it, no matter what: the Reaper Death Seal and the Flying Thunder God Technique. The latter went without saying. Developed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and later refined and popularized by Naruto's father, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, this Space-Time Ninjutsu would be of immense use and significance to Naruto. As for the former, Naruto was simply curious about this world. He wanted to find out whether the Death God and Jashin described in the original story actually existed. The Dead Demon Consuming Seal was one of the best ways to investigate.
Aside from those two,
there were the other advanced techniques and forbidden jutsu.
If he had the chance,
Naruto planned to learn all of them. He didn't need to master them right away; as long as he understood their principles and Hand Seals, he could study them at his own pace later.
"This is the most important step..."
Naruto thought to himself.
Just as Naruto was thinking through the first step of the story to come,
suddenly,
he opened his eyes and sat up.
"Wait! What if Mizuki doesn't follow the original story? What should I do then?"
To put it bluntly, after coming to this world,
the original story was something he could only use as a reference.
If he still treated the so-called plot as an answer key to copy from, Naruto could say with absolute certainty that he wouldn't even know how he died.
Would Mizuki come to him as he had in the original story?
Most likely, yes.
But the Uchiha Clan Massacre five years ago had already diverged slightly from the original story, so Naruto couldn't help wondering whether the Scroll of Sealing plot might change this time, too.
It might seem as if Naruto hadn't done anything yet to alter the original story.
But the truth was, the moment Naruto had arrived in this world—whether he had crossed over into his own body or been reincarnated outright—his fate had already veered far from the original. And even if nothing major had happened, he'd still had a different childhood from the Naruto in the original story. He hadn't caused trouble like the original Naruto, nor had he been a dead-last.
When you looked at it that way,
some things had already changed.
So Naruto had every reason to worry: what would he do if the story deviated from what he expected again?
The answer was, nothing!
"If Mizuki really does something different from the original story, then I'll be in serious trouble..."
After thinking it over, Naruto's face took on a bitter smile.
Because Naruto realized
that he really had no way to do anything about it.
Without Mizuki urging him on,
he'd have no plausible chance to "play dumb," steal the Scroll of Sealing, and learn from it.
He'd also lose the chance to graduate right away.
The first problem wasn't so bad. It would just mean missing one opportunity to get stronger, something he could make up for in other ways later.
The second was what mattered most.
If he really couldn't graduate this year,
the problems that followed would be far too many.