Using My Chakra to Pick Up Girls? You're Going Too Far, Kid

Hana Inuzuka had grown into quite the young lady, and you were serving her up...

(╯‵□)╯︵┻━┻!

Is there anything in that head of yours besides freeloading ninjutsu?!

"Why does Number Three Training Ground feel so much bigger?"

Hana Inuzuka stared blankly at the dense forest before her.

At her feet, Haimaru ran around like crazy, darting back and forth in excitement.

"Has your dog not been out for a while? It's got plenty of energy."

Naruto leaned over, laughing as he pointed at Haimaru, who was sniffing everywhere and marking its territory.

Hana Inuzuka nearly choked, shooting Naruto a vicious glare.

"Haimaru is a Ninja Hound! Don't compare it to some stray mutt running around the streets!"

"Oh, I thought this thing had been bred from a husky..."

Naruto scratched his head awkwardly. It looked far too much like the Alaskan malamutes he had seen in his previous life.

Ninja Hounds had long since become an independent race within the Summoning Realm, with their own territory, circles, and culture.

Just like the missions Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke, and Naruto had taken from the old cat lady, the society of ninja beasts was not much different from human society.

"Why can't your Ninja Hound talk? I remember Kakashi's summoned dogs could speak human language."

Hana Inuzuka rolled her eyes and explained helplessly.

"Those are specialized tracking dogs, and they need special training too. Ninja Hound language isn't the same as ours, got it?"

"Besides, instead of asking pointless questions, why don't you hurry up and look for the mission scroll? We've been dawdling for almost an hour and haven't found a single damn clue!"

Hana Inuzuka vented all her frustration at Naruto.

Ever since entering the forest, this guy had just trailed behind the two girls, doing nothing useful and only dragging them down.

The expectations she had initially held for Naruto were starting to waver. Was he really as powerful as the rumors said?

Maybe the teachers he had encountered at school were just too weak?

Both she and Izumi were top students at the academy, especially Izumi, who had graduated first in her year.

On the night of the clan massacre, Izumi Uchiha had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Hana herself had lost her father on Nine-Tails Night and awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan.

Seeing Hana Inuzuka getting a little anxious, Izumi Uchiha hurriedly comforted her friend.

"Hana, don't get worked up. It's only been an hour. Captain Yamato gave us a whole day. Naruto only spent one year at the academy, so it's normal for his foundation to be weaker."

Then she added to Naruto.

"Take your time. We'll definitely find it. The captain said this exercise was meant to show us where our weaknesses are."

Izumi was so understanding that Naruto's fondness for the little girl soared.

What a kind girl. Yet she had died at the tender age of thirteen.

Damn it, Itachi Uchiha really was a beast. He could actually bring himself to do that.

Naruto grinned at Izumi.

"When I came over earlier, I think I saw a scroll tucked away in a corner. Want to go take a look?"

Following the direction Naruto pointed, Haimaru pulled a mission scroll from a gap between two large trees.

Hana Inuzuka immediately fixed Naruto with an irritated look.

"Did you deliberately want to watch us make fools of ourselves? You found it ages ago, didn't you?"

Naruto did not deny it and spread his hands.

"I just wanted to train you two."

"Hmph~"

Hana Inuzuka haughtily turned her head aside and opened the scroll in her hand.

"What's the exercise about?"

Izumi Uchiha quickly leaned over to look.

Hana Inuzuka's face fell as she handed the scroll over.

"What?! We're supposed to find the trail of an escapee in Number Forty-Four Exercise Ground and locate him?!"

Izumi Uchiha cried out as she stared at the scroll.

Hana Inuzuka was full of indignation.

"Starting us off with such an outrageous exercise? Number Forty-Four Exercise Ground is the Forest of Death! It's crawling with snakes and bugs. I don't want to take a mission in that hellhole."

Izumi could not help laughing beside her.

"Don't be silly. We're ninja. We'll have plenty of missions like this in the future."

With no choice, Hana Inuzuka muttered softly.

"But I just want to work in the medical department as a veterinarian..."

Naruto's eyelids twitched several times when he heard that. So Hiruzen Sarutobi had assigned him a veterinarian.

Still, Naruto understood that in the Ninja World, the skills medical ninja used to treat people and beasts were not all that different.

Though Hana Inuzuka complained, her feet did not stop moving as she headed straight for the Forest of Death training ground.

Outside Number Three Training Ground, Yamato froze for a moment.

They found it that quickly? To guard against the Inuzuka Clan's noses and the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, he had specifically scattered scent-masking medicine and set up a small barrier.

Quietly following behind them, the group arrived at the Forest of Death.

This time, Haimaru came through. It immediately picked up the corresponding scent from the trace left on the scroll.

"Woof! Woof!"

Haimaru barked twice, then bolted into the depths of the forest.

Hana Inuzuka panicked behind it.

"Haimaru, slow down! There are lots of dangerous beasts in there!"

Hana Inuzuka had perfectly proven that bad luck came true faster than good luck.

Before her words had even faded, a giant forest python camouflaged in a tree shot out. It opened its jaws and swallowed Haimaru whole.

Hana Inuzuka: "...Aahh!!"

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter!"

Naruto's calm voice sounded behind her. Two high-pressure wind blades instantly sliced the giant python into several pieces.

Haimaru wriggled out from the mangled corpse.

Seeing that Haimaru had not lost a single hair, Hana Inuzuka finally calmed down.

The attack had come too suddenly. Her legs went weak, and she fell backward.

Naruto had somehow already moved behind her and caught her slender waist.

"What's there to be afraid of? I'm here."

Seeing Naruto's handsome face, Hana Inuzuka's face instantly turned bright red.

At this moment, Kiba Inuzuka still had no idea that Naruto, the boy who skipped class with him every day, was hitting on his older sister...

Red as a boiled crab, Hana Inuzuka shrank behind Izumi Uchiha.

All her earlier high spirits had vanished.

Seven-year-old Naruto was already about as tall as them, and after that dramatic rescue, Hana Inuzuka's heart began pounding wildly.

Unlike her mother and younger brother, she was not so blunt by nature. Now, in front of Naruto, she was so shy that she could barely handle it.

Izumi leaned close and quietly teased her. The two girls giggled in the gloomy forest.

Naruto led them to a clearing in the woods.

"Let's start investigating from here."

Naruto said to the two girls.

"Oh... okay."

The two girls hurried over. "What do we check first?"

Naruto: "..."

Sure enough, these academy-trained Genin were far too different from ninja who had clawed their way through the chaos of war.

That was also why clan-born ninja were so sought after.

Naruto pointed to a footprint in the moss and told them.

"These little details are what you need to notice. There's a good chance someone deliberately left it behind."

Then he walked ahead and picked up a branch broken into two pieces.

"This was also left by the target."

Izumi Uchiha's eyes lit up. "I get it! That guy stepped on a dead branch and broke it!"

Naruto smiled. "Half right."

He held the broken end of the branch before the two girls.

"This kind of branch isn't dry enough to snap apart just from being stepped on. Look at the cut surface. It was clearly sliced by a sharp weapon like a kunai."

"Whoever forged the scene was probably too careless. It was crude as hell."

Hana Inuzuka and Izumi Uchiha looked at Naruto with worshipful expressions. The way he spoke so confidently instantly turned the two girls into his fangirls.

Naruto casually tossed the dead branch to the ground and continued scouting ahead.

"Don't get discouraged. The footprint in the moss could have been left by an animal, but only people create false clues."

Izumi Uchiha's eyes lit up.

"So we're heading in the right direction!"

"Smart."

Naruto smiled and praised her, then waved at the two girls and pointed to a stone on the ground that had been flipped over.

"Look here. The underside is dry, while the top is damp."

"A stone?"

The two girls were stunned.

Hana Inuzuka excitedly raised her hand to answer.

"I know! This is another clue left by the target!"

Izumi Uchiha asked another question beside her.

"Could this also be a clue deliberately fabricated by the target?"

Naruto smiled. "It's possible, but the moisture on this stone tells us our target left not long ago. I'd estimate he passed through here about fifteen minutes ago."

The two girls immediately understood. Their eyes sparkled as they looked at Naruto, their faces filled with admiration.

At that moment, inspired by Naruto, Hana Inuzuka sniffed hard. "That smell is...!"

She excitedly ran to a cluster of small flowers and said to Naruto with an eager look, "Look here!"

Naruto and Izumi followed Hana Inuzuka over. She pointed at several small flowers that had been trampled flat and said excitedly.

"Did someone step on these?"

Naruto nodded encouragingly.

Hana Inuzuka immediately lifted her head high like a kitten that had just been praised.

"Good job. Let's go."

Naruto led the two girls toward the direction they had tracked.

It had to be said that in this primeval jungle, traveling by leaping through the trees was much faster than running on the ground.

In the distance, Yamato watched Naruto's every move as he recorded the exercise, deeply impressed.

"His practical experience is actually this extensive? Is this what a genius is? No wonder he's the son of that senior teacher."

Naruto then led the two girls along the clues and into a ravine.

It was as if Hana Inuzuka and Izumi Uchiha had opened the door to a new world. Along the way, they learned quite a few practical tracking methods.

Imitating Naruto, Hana Inuzuka looked left and right, carefully inspecting every stone along the path.

Naruto laughed at Izumi Uchiha, who was crouching in the stream and staring at a stone with fresh marks on it.

"Stop looking. Those are marks made by fish rubbing against it."

"Oh."

Izumi stood up awkwardly. "So it doesn't even count as a false clue?"

Naruto burst out laughing.

"Exactly. That's the greatest use of fabricated clues: making you think everything you see was left by the enemy."

"As long as you can throw the pursuers off for even a little while, escaping becomes much easier."

"How could anyone deal with that? If it were me, I really wouldn't be able to find the escapee."

Izumi Uchiha looked unwilling to accept it. As the top student of her year, she felt like a joke compared to Naruto, who had skipped grades. "I still need to work hard and learn more tracking methods."

Naruto laughed again, unscrewed his water bottle, and leisurely sat by the stream to take a drink. Then he handed it to Izumi Uchiha. "Here, have some water."

Izumi Uchiha took it on instinct and answered, "Okay."

Only after swallowing a mouthful did she realize it. Her little face instantly reddened. Wasn't that obviously an indirect kiss with Naruto?!

Naruto teased Izumi Uchiha and Hana Inuzuka.

"You two have already done very well. The Inuzuka Clan's tracking abilities and the Uchiha Clan's perception are among the very best of all Konoha's ninja clans. Getting this far is already impressive."

Hana Inuzuka asked Naruto unwillingly.

"How do you know so much?"

Naruto gave a mysterious smile.

"Secret. Let's move on to the second part of the exercise: wilderness survival~"

At that moment, the Nine-Tails inside Naruto's body began shouting at the top of its lungs.

"You brat! You had me scout the area just to help you pick up girls, didn't you?! Isn't that going too far?!"