In the autumn of Konoha's sixtieth year, a delegation from Kumogakure arrived in Konoha.
Iruka Umino announced the news during morning class. Naruto Uzumaki had been using his textbook to hide his face while secretly eating a red bean bun. Hearing the words "Hidden Cloud delegation," he looked up, red bean paste still stuck to the corner of his mouth, and asked blankly, "What's Hidden Cloud? Can you eat it?" Kiba Inuzuka slapped his desk and burst out laughing, while Akamaru barked several times along with him. Sasuke glanced at Naruto from his seat by the window, the corners of his mouth turning down slightly, but said nothing. Shikamaru Nara lay sprawled across his desk and yawned, muttering, "What kind of friendly visit are they stirring up now? It's always like this."
Standing at the lectern, Iruka explained a little more—Kumogakure was the ninja village of the Land of Lightning, and this delegation had come to Konoha to sign a new alliance agreement. The group was led by a Kumogakure jonin commander. They had arrived the previous evening and were expected to stay for about a week. He said it as casually as if he were informing them that next week's class schedule would change. But Shinichi noticed that when Iruka mentioned "alliance agreement," his brow furrowed slightly before quickly returning to normal.
Shinichi's pen stopped over his notebook. A Hidden Cloud delegation. There had been an incident mentioned in his previous life's Naruto—Hinata had nearly been kidnapped by Kumogakure ninja when she was young. The original story never specified exactly when it happened, but judging from the timeline, it should have been around the time before or after Hinata entered the Academy. He had initially thought it was merely background mentioned in a certain volume of the original work,