Ino-Shika-Cho Trio

"Honestly, Kakashi-sensei suddenly said he had something urgent to deal with and vanished. He clearly promised to treat us to dinner after today's mission!"

On the streets of Konoha, Sakura complained about Kakashi breaking his promise.

"Maybe Kakashi-sensei was worried we'd see what his face looked like under that mask."

Naruto looked up at the sky and answered Sakura in an unusually calm tone.

"Why? Judging by the part of his face we can see, he seems like he'd be handsome."

"Anyone looks pretty good with a mask on. Maybe Kakashi-sensei has buck teeth or huge lips."

Naruto withdrew his gaze from the sky, turned to Sakura with a faint smile, and shared his opinion.

Naruto had been looking at the sky because he was searching for the Ninja Hawks responsible for relaying intelligence.

When a Ninja Hawk circled at such a low altitude, it meant it was delivering important information.

Kakashi's sudden departure had probably been because a Ninja Hawk sent by Hiruzen Sarutobi had summoned him.

Sure enough, the Chunin Ninja Exams were about to begin.

Anyone observant could have noticed the unusual flow of people through Konoha over the past two days. Suddenly, there were far more unfamiliar faces, and ninja from the village had become much easier to spot on the streets.

Those were only the ninja openly guarding the village. There would only be more hidden in the shadows.

Naruto wondered whether Karin had already arrived in Konoha to participate in this Chunin Ninja Exam.

Identifying Karin would be easy enough. The Uzumaki Clan possessed more chakra than ordinary ninja. If he used the Wind Caress Dawn Technique, then as long as Karin and the Kusagakure ninja had entered Konoha, he would be able to sense them.

Still, Naruto suppressed the urge to use his senses.

This Chunin Ninja Exam was not merely Konoha's internal assessment. It was a joint examination involving the ninja villages of the two major countries, the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, as well as ninja villages from surrounding smaller nations.

During this period, people from all walks of life had poured into Konoha, and the village had implemented its highest level of security.

Naruto did not want to be noticed by Konoha ninja who were likewise proficient in sensory techniques just because he casually used one himself.

Other than the day after returning to the village, when Kakashi submitted the mission report from the Land of Waves and Naruto briefly used the Wind Caress Dawn Technique over a small area to observe members of Root and confirm Danzo's attitude—

He had not used that technique again during this period.

Every possible accident had to be prevented before the Chunin Ninja Exams officially began.

"Since Kakashi-sensei doesn't want to treat us, how about I treat you two to dinner?"

Naruto still acted the same way he usually did around Team 7.

"I'll pass. Today's mission is over, and I'm planning to train."

Sasuke rejected Naruto's suggestion. Without waiting for Naruto to urge him to stay, he directly used the Body Flicker Technique and left.

Ever since returning from the Land of Waves, Sasuke had been obsessed with training, working on ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu across the board.

Whenever Kakashi dismissed Team 7 after the day's mission, Sasuke would immediately leave and train alone somewhere no one knew.

Perhaps it was the Uchiha Compound. Although the Uchiha Clan had been exterminated, Hiruzen Sarutobi had still preserved the Uchiha Compound.

The Uchiha Compound had always been in a corner of the village, close to Konoha Prison. Its location was poor, and putting the land to use again would be troublesome.

Back when the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, established the Konoha Military Police Force, the Uchiha Clan had taken root there.

After the Nine-Tails' Rampage twelve years ago, Konoha's higher-ups had further restricted their range of activity.

Over time, that land had become a symbol of the Uchiha Clan.

So Hiruzen had simply done Sasuke—and likely Itachi Uchiha, who had defected from the village—a favor by keeping the Uchiha "home" within Konoha.

That was indeed the sort of thing the indecisive Third Hokage would do. The older he became, the more childish his political methods grew.

Hiruzen no longer possessed the powerful political skill he had shown when he assumed command in a crisis after the Second Hokage's death and led Konoha from decline to prosperity.

It was as though, so long as his own conscience was clear, the world would remain peaceful as it had always been.

"What about you, Sakura? Are you going to train too?"

Naruto did not care about Sasuke leaving. He looked at Sakura and asked about her plans.

"Me? I don't have anything to do... but..."

Sakura glanced at Naruto, seemingly hesitating over something.

"If it's inconvenient for you too, then let's talk about it another time."

"No! That's not what I'm hesitating about!" Misunderstanding Naruto's attitude toward her, Sakura hurriedly explained, "What I wanted to say was, Naruto!"

Sakura suddenly straightened up and called Naruto's name loudly.

Her abrupt seriousness left Naruto somewhat at a loss.

Then Naruto heard Sakura say, "I hope you can help me train from now on!"

Sakura looked at Naruto with hopeful eyes and waited for his answer.

But Naruto merely stared at her without speaking for a long time.

"I... I know I'm a ninja without any distinguishing qualities or strengths... Back in the Land of Waves, both you and Sasuke were so strong, while I couldn't do anything at all... so..."

Sakura seriously reflected on herself. At this point in the original story, although Sakura's ninjutsu had already fallen behind Naruto and Sasuke's, she could still take pride in her Ninja Academy grades.

But now, even her only strength—her excellent theoretical knowledge—was not much better than Naruto's.

The Naruto of this world, who had originally been gloomy and vicious, was not an idiot either. Although his grades at school had not been outstanding, they had been respectable.

And Naruto, after transmigrating here, had not imitated the original Naruto by becoming a fool who only knew how to pull pranks at the Ninja Academy.

Given how gloomy and vicious this world's original Naruto had been, if Naruto had suddenly started copying the original story's pranks after transmigrating, never mind Danzo—even Hiruzen would have thought Naruto's scheming unfathomable.

So Naruto had merely disguised his predecessor's terrible attitude toward the village as extreme friendliness.

Even that had taken him several months after first transmigrating. He gradually moved through all kinds of mindsets and emotions—from hostility, coldness, and confusion to understanding and acceptance—before finally making himself appear "reasonably" friendly in everyone else's eyes.

Afterward, through his words and actions, he loudly proclaimed that he "wanted to become Hokage," showing that he had turned over a new leaf and would only become a harmless good person to the villagers in the future.

Naruto looked at Sakura. He actually wanted to refuse her request.

Because it was simply too troublesome.

But he also knew that refusing her would be "unreasonable."

"No problem. We're teammates in the same class. Let's call Sasuke along next time too!"

Naruto smiled and agreed to Sakura's request.

He would agree verbally for now. Later, he could just halfheartedly deal with the training until it was time to defect.

"So, what should we eat next?"

After agreeing to Sakura's request, Naruto immediately redirected the conversation with a question.

Come to think of it, he had been in this world for more than two years and had never eaten Ichiraku Ramen.

Let's eat Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto made his decision immediately. He was not on a date with Sakura, so there was no need to care what she wanted to eat.

His earlier question had only been a way to change the subject, so Sakura would not start discussing the details of training before they had even eaten.

Let's go eat Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto had not yet managed to say it aloud.

A female voice that both Naruto and Sakura knew all too well came from nearby.

"Isn't this Sakura? What's wrong? You're in the same class as Sasuke, yet you still can't win his love. You really have no charm at all."

A girl with a light blond ponytail and long bangs on the right side of her face reaching down to her collarbone approached them.

Two boys, one fat and one thin, followed beside her.

All three were people Naruto and Sakura knew.

They had been classmates at the Ninja Academy and were also Genin from the same graduating class.

The girl was Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's romantic rival for Sasuke's affection.

The thin boy was Shikamaru Nara, who had taken the initiative to speak to Naruto during the Ninja Academy graduation briefing.

The fat boy was Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru's good friend.

The three of them were now Genin under Team 10, led by Asuma Sarutobi.

"Ino..."

Sakura had not expected the three from Team 10 to appear. Faced with Ino's usual mockery, she somehow could not summon the interest to retort.

In the past, she would already have flown into a rage and started fighting with Ino over Sasuke.

Ino had not expected Sakura to react like this either. Given the taunt she had just made, Sakura's response should have counted as a verbal victory for Ino.

Yet Ino was not as excited as she had imagined she would be.

She stared closely at Sakura for a while, then finally turned her gaze toward Naruto... Her expression was somewhat strange...

Noticing Ino's strange look, Shikamaru immediately sensed trouble.

"Hey, Ino!"

He hurriedly tried to warn her, but it was already too late.

"What, don't tell me Naruto has already won you over? Your taste is as bad as your charm!"

Ino sneered recklessly, "Naruto, did you threaten Sakura? A gloomy guy like you must have developed dark, twisted inferiority toward the outstanding Sasuke just because you're in the same ninja class as him. So you threatened Sakura into becoming your girlfriend, right!"

"Ino, don't talk nonsense!"

Sakura spoke up, trying to stop Ino's slander.

Naruto raised a hand to stop Sakura.

This was why immature little girls were always so annoying.

"Ino, think through the slander you just threw at me. Does the logic even add up? If I have dark, twisted inferiority toward Sasuke, why would I threaten Sakura into becoming my girlfriend? What strong connection is there between those two things?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Ino, his face utterly expressionless.

Naruto's expression made Sakura instinctively shrink her neck.

"This is bad..."

Shikamaru, who was best at reading people's expressions, also looked as though the situation had gone terribly wrong.

Ino's face did not look much better as she faced Naruto's expression.

It had been two years since everyone present had seen Naruto look like this...

Two years was enough for them to forget many things. But once those forgotten things suddenly resurfaced, they would immediately become vivid again.

They remembered once more that Naruto was not easy to reason with.

Excluded since childhood and without parents, the Naruto of the past had chosen to treat everyone in the village with a gloomy, vicious personality in order to hide his weakness and protect his loneliness.

At the Ninja Academy, Sasuke Uchiha's loneliness had been a rejection of all goodwill.

Naruto's loneliness, meanwhile, had been to answer every malicious person who bared their fangs at him with violence.

However, Naruto rarely displayed that violence, because even during his most gloomy and vicious period, he had never taken the initiative to approach anyone.

Ino Yamanaka was the sole exception.