Why Pick on Anyone Else When You Could Pick on This Plague God

Sasuke, sitting in the back row, watched the scene and let out a cold snort through his nose.

Where had this idiot found such a moron? For the past three years, Sasuke had watched with his own eyes as Naruto ground him into the dirt in taijutsu, then left him eight streets behind in shuriken practice.

Itachi Uchiha had not taught ninjutsu to outsiders, but Sasuke often caught Naruto huddled with his big brother, muttering over how to cut down on hand signs. Naruto's speed and dexterity with seals were so far ahead that Sasuke could not even be bothered to try catching up.

What Sasuke did not know was that hand signs were, put plainly, fixed hand positions meant to help chakra flow more smoothly through the body's meridians.

There had been no such thing back in the days of the Ninja Sect.

It had been Indra, some ancient ancestor of his from who knew how many generations ago, who had painstakingly devised them to make chakra easier for the Ninja Sect's people to use.

Naruto now possessed the mental strength of two lifetimes. His control over chakra had long since left Sasuke in the dust.

He was not yet at the point where he could clap his hands together and make anything happen, but he had already trained the chakra flow and transformations of the first six seals to the point where he could perform them without forming hand signs.

A guy like Zabuza Momochi needed to painfully grind through more than forty seals to use Water Dragon Bullet, yet why could masters of Water Release like Mei Terumi and Tobirama Senju get the job done with just a few? That was the reason.

At an even higher level, people like Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju could make the chakra inside their bodies change however they wanted and mold it into whatever form they pleased.

At their level, hand signs were nothing but superfluous decorations.

Naruto was nowhere near those big shots yet, but copying the hand signs of a lowly Genin was as easy as playing around.

Sasuke had been waiting to see Naruto slap the guy back. Instead, Naruto grinned, raised a middle finger at the Genin, and spat out two words.

"Dumbass."

Then he turned and left. As he strode out through the examination hall doors, he looked utterly carefree.

Every examinee in the room was dumbfounded.

What was this supposed to be? Was he just forfeiting and running away?

The ANBU lurking in the shadows nearly choked on his breath.

Over the past few years, Naruto had caused one mess after another. Anyone who dared provoke him usually had their grudge settled on the spot by this young master.

After he started leaning on the Hyuga Clan, he became even more arrogant. These days, the villagers treated running into him like running into a plague god.

The ANBU had lost count of how many times they had cleaned up after him. Before, they had feared he would be attacked by other villages or that the Nine-Tails would break out and level the streets. Now, they spent every day worrying that some villager would slip a sack over his head in the middle of the night and knock him unconscious.

For someone like that, people should be avoiding him at all costs. Yet this guy had actually rushed to provoke him. What else could he be but a dumbass?

Worst of all, Naruto had to remain in the Ninja Academy. That was an order personally approved by the Third.

A Jinchuriki was indeed a strategic weapon, but not some disposable one-shot tool.

If they truly followed the old method of sealing the Three-Tails into Rin and using her as a one-time nuclear deterrent, that would be a complete waste.

A Jinchuriki had to gradually learn to suppress the chakra inside them, grow stronger without going berserk, and become the trump card a village could use to contend with other nations.

If they simply threw him into the enemy's home territory as soon as war began and let the Tailed Beast blow everything up, where would the Tailed Beast's dignity go?

Only Sunagakure, with its pathetic sealing techniques that let Gaara go berserk every other day, treated Tailed Beasts like suicide bombs.

Naruto's life belonged to Konoha's Jinchuriki. He had to be steeped in the Will of Fire, learn ninjutsu, build up his strength, and eventually become a suicide ninja who could charge through the battlefield without restraint.

Now that Naruto had dropped the task in his hands and quit, the ANBU watching him nearly failed to catch his breath.

Just as Naruto was about to step out through the academy gates, an ANBU flashed into place before him.

Naruto tilted his head at him, a smile curling at his lips.

"What? If I'm not up to it, I'm not allowed to forfeit?"

The ANBU's mouth twitched twice.

"Stop messing around. Don't you want to become Hokage?"

Naruto chuckled.

"I changed my mind. I'm going to marry into the Hyuga Clan and become their live-in son-in-law."

Only one line remained in the ANBU's mind.

Live-in son-in-law, my ass. If you really married into the Hyuga Clan, the Third Hokage would chop himself to pieces.

"Someone is already investigating the examiner's cheating. You'll definitely receive an explanation."

The ANBU said it with a dark expression, though his mask kept Naruto from seeing it.

"Wouldn't it have been fine if you'd handled it like that from the start? You had to make me walk all this way. Let me tell you, who even wants to be a ninja? The pay's low, the benefits suck, and you carry your head on your belt. Wouldn't opening a ramen shop be better?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the ANBU, grumbling obscenities under his breath as he turned around and sauntered back toward the examination hall.

Behind him, the ANBU clenched his fists until they cracked, nearly unable to stop himself from throwing a punch.

When Naruto returned to the examination hall, he happened to hear the Genin in charge of hand signs shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Why?"

A masked ANBU showed no expression as he delivered his words flatly.

"A ninja who throws a tantrum during a mission does not meet the virtue requirement of the ninja's eight tests. This time, you will return to the Ninja Academy and repeat your studies. If it happens again, forget about becoming a ninja."

After saying that, he reached out, stripped the Genin of his forehead protector and ninja tool pouch, and shoved him into the examinees' line.

The overage Genin stood there in a daze, lowering his head to look at the strange gazes cast his way by the six-year-old brats below him.

"I refuse to accept this! I want to see Lord Hokage, I—"

"Examination qualification revoked. Throw him out."

The Genin's head was filled with question marks.

Naruto swaggered past him again, casually tossing out two words.

"Dumbass."

"You—"

Naruto ignored him and walked straight up to the Genin examiners overseeing the three tests of virtue, strength, and speed. Without changing expression, he said one sentence.

"I forfeit."

The three Genin did not even blink. They swiftly stamped a huge perfect score onto Naruto's exam paper.

Shikamaru and the others stared at Naruto with their heads full of black lines. Good grief, how was he even more overbearing than the children of prestigious clans like them?

Ino, Sakura, and Hinata had their eyes glued to Naruto's carefree back, shining brightly enough to serve as light bulbs.