No one else could see what Sasuke was thinking at that moment.
Especially not the lovestruck girls.
They gazed at Sasuke with admiration and adoration.
They simply thought his cool, aloof air was one of his greatest charms.
Some of the boys, meanwhile, looked at Sasuke with open displeasure. It wasn't for any particular reason; it was just the mindset of a young boy. Even in the original story, Naruto wasn't the only one who felt that way. Naruto drew attention because he was the protagonist and made his feelings so obvious. In reality, in any world and any era, a student like Sasuke was bound to be "resented" by most of the boys in his class.
Didn't Kiba Inuzuka, Neji Hyuga from the year above, and Rock Lee all want to defeat Sasuke?
That was perfectly normal in the world of boys.
Of course.
The Naruto of this life wouldn't be so childish.
Besides, if it came down to a one-on-one fight,
Naruto could easily trounce Sasuke now. It wasn't for any other reason; Naruto had simply just gone through a fight to the death three days ago. For a Ninja, having experienced a life-or-death battle made an enormous difference in their strength. The person was still the same, and they had learned to control the same things, but a single fight could create such a vast gap.
The thoughts of the boys and girls in the classroom were written all over their faces.
Iruka stood at the front of the room, seemingly unchanged in expression, but inwardly he could only shake his head.
"Alright, I'm going to announce the team assignments. You'll be in groups of three. Call out when you hear your name. Your instructor will come get you in a moment. Understood?"
"Yes, teacher!"
"Good. First, Team 1: Shin Shimazaki, Shohei Matsuoka, Hiro Nagano."
"Here!"
"Team 2: Rin Uesugi, Goro Inui, Mura Tadano."
"Here!"
"Team 3..."
Many of the girls hoped they would get to team up with Sasuke, while the ordinary civilian-born Ninja hoped they could be grouped with classmates who had top marks or prestigious backgrounds. But they were destined to be disappointed. The graduation assignments might look fair and impartial, but these supposed teams had actually been decided long ago.
Who could be assigned to the same team,
and who couldn't,
was all determined by unseen rules.
Ninja from prestigious clans were almost never teamed up with civilians.
Ninja with special status
were almost never within an ordinary person's reach.
Most importantly, you could tell from the instructors assigned to the teams. Ordinary teams were led by Chunin, but some of the more exceptional teams were almost always assigned Jonin—even some of the strongest Jonin. When he'd read the original story in his previous life, Naruto had always assumed that every graduating class in Konoha was led by Jonin. It was only later that he thought about what being a Jonin actually meant.
Setting aside the world-shattering battles that came later,
just consider the period from the death of the First
through the subsequent Shinobi World Wars.
Jonin represented a village's highest combat strength.
You couldn't expect the village leader to spend every day on the battlefield, could you?
No matter which village it was—even one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, representing the highest level of strength—there couldn't possibly be enough Jonin to babysit every rookie who'd just graduated!
During wartime, Jonin represented a village's fighting power.
During peacetime, they also completed all kinds of high-level missions, earning the village hefty rewards!
Therefore,
any team assigned a Jonin instructor
was bound to be exceptional—or, at the very least, highly valued by the village.
The Ino-Shika-Cho team aside, they had always been staunch supporters of the Hokage's faction, so their Jonin instructor was Asuma Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's own son.
Hinata Hyuga was the heiress of the Hyuga Clan.
Kiba's Inuzuka Clan also held a high standing and played an important role in Konoha.
And Shino Aburame went without saying.
The Aburame Clan had strong members not only in the Hokage's faction,
but also among the Anbu trained by Danzo.
Their team was assigned a Jonin instructor as well. Kurenai Yuhi had only just been promoted to Jonin, but she was still a Jonin recognized by the Third Hokage. (A Ninja's promotion required the Hokage's approval and the signing of the corresponding promotion order.)
The previous year's team of Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Tenten had been led by Might Guy, who, at least for now, seemed to be Konoha's strongest representative of combat power. Neji was from the Hyuga Clan, and Tenten might have seemed ordinary, but just look at how many Ninja tools she used and how little she cared about using them. You could tell that even if her family didn't have any particularly powerful fighters, it was still a "wealthy" clan! Yes, a purely "wealthy" clan!
Rock Lee, meanwhile, had earned Might Guy's favor.
And that must have happened before he entered the Ninja Academy—or, at the very latest, before he graduated. Otherwise, given that Rock Lee could only use Taijutsu and couldn't perform Ninjutsu, there was no way he could have graduated from the Academy and ended up on a team with Neji and Tenten.
Then there was Naruto's own team.
Perhaps Sakura Haruno really was the most ordinary and unremarkable person in the original story.
She had a talent for chakra control that sounded impressive,
but it wasn't much use.
Sakura Haruno really did come from an utterly ordinary family. Later, Tsunade took a liking to her and accepted her as a student. Whether that was because Tsunade truly thought Sakura had talent or because of Naruto, only the heavens knew.
As for why she was assigned to Naruto and Sasuke's team,
it might simply have been because Sakura was ordinary.
It wasn't that Sakura was the only possible choice.
She had just been the one picked from among all the ordinary graduates.
To put it plainly,
most of the graduates sitting in this classroom
were considered mediocre by the village. The teams they formed were almost all led by Chunin. Want to team up with a genius? Hoping to have a powerful Jonin as your instructor?
Those people were living in a dream.
"Next is Team 7!"
After announcing the first six cannon-fodder teams in one breath,
they had finally reached Team 7.
The story had gone exactly as it did in the original.
It was precisely what Naruto had expected.
"Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno!"
The three names Iruka called out without hesitation.
"Whaaaat?!"
The girls who had still hoped to be on Sasuke's team all wore obvious looks of disappointment. Every one of them turned to stare at Sakura Haruno with envy, jealousy, and resentment, while she beamed with excitement.
That Broad Forehead girl got to be on the same team as Sasuke?!