Busy Defecting, No Time for Romance

As for Naruto Uzumaki stealing the Scroll of Seals, it did not cause much of a stir in the village.

This farce had been the Third's plan all along.

Things ended as he had intended. After Kakashi brought back Mizuki and Naruto, the Third issued a gag order to everyone involved that very night.

Many people woke up the next day without even knowing that the Hidden Leaf Village had nearly suffered another Nine-Tails' Rampage.

So when the Third, acting as an elder, defined Naruto's theft of the Scroll of Seals as a thoughtless prank by a youngster—

Naruto knew that, after a full two years since his transmigration, his secret arrangements—whether hiding his abilities and playing the fool or improving his attitude toward the village—had finally borne fruit after the Scroll of Seals incident.

Naruto's dream of "wanting" to become Hokage had received the Third's approval.

Naruto's punishment amounted to nothing more than a verbal warning from the Third, and the matter of the Scroll of Seals was settled.

Just like that, another three days passed in the blink of an eye...

Naruto replaced the goggles he had worn on his forehead with a Konoha ninja forehead protector.

Two days ago, during the day after the Scroll of Seals incident, Naruto had passed the graduation exam and obtained his ninja qualification.

After all the procedures and arrangements, today had finally brought the Ninja Academy's graduate orientation.

At the orientation, graduates who had obtained ninja qualifications would be assigned to mission teams led by Jōnin.

In other words, at an age when children in his previous life had only just entered middle school, people in the world of Naruto were already starting "work."

But that was hardly unusual in the world of Naruto. The history of ninja was the history of war.

In the original Shippuden story, the entire shinobi world had only enjoyed surface-level peace for a little over a decade before Uchiha "Madara" immediately launched the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Years of warfare had forced people in the world of Naruto to mature far earlier.

As usual, Naruto entered the classroom through the back door.

The graduates in the classroom were all familiar faces.

Other than Team 3, led by Might Guy and graduated the year before, all of Konoha's future Rookie Twelve were present.

"Naruto, this is the graduate orientation."

Seeing Naruto enter the classroom, Shikamaru Nara, his long black hair tied into a pineapple-shaped ponytail, gave him a friendly reminder.

"Of course I graduated too! Look!"

Naruto grinned and pointed at the forehead protector on his brow.

"I see. Then congratulations on graduating."

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto's forehead protector, waved a hand, and unilaterally ended the conversation.

Shikamaru spoke listlessly, his eyes half-lidded and his attitude thoroughly negative.

Someone unfamiliar with him would probably think Shikamaru was being dismissive, but that was simply his personality.

The fact that he had congratulated Naruto already showed that Shikamaru and Naruto got along fairly well.

"Hehe."

Naruto answered with a foolish grin.

After transmigrating, Naruto had not deliberately approached Shikamaru. He had merely reined in some of the hostility that had once made the original Naruto seem prickly all over.

As a result, Naruto and Shikamaru had gone from barely being able to exchange a word—

To occasionally speaking like this, neither close nor unfriendly.

But that was enough. Naruto's relationship with Shikamaru would make its way back to Shikamaru's father, Shikaku Nara.

And Shikaku Nara played the role of a strategist and adviser in Konoha.

Naruto did not know how much effort Shikaku Nara had put into helping the Third protect him from Danzo's covetous gaze.

But as long as Shikaku Nara leaned toward approving of Naruto, his attitude and opinions would greatly influence the Hokage's decisions.

To the current indecisive Third, someone like him was irreplaceable. He could effectively prevent Danzo from inciting the Third and persuading him to move against Naruto.

After ending his conversation with Shikamaru, Naruto began looking around the classroom.

Although everyone had arrived according to the usual class schedule, the Ninja Academy teachers would not formally begin the orientation until around ten in the morning.

Waiting around doing nothing was truly boring, so Naruto chose a seat that would make him feel a little more at ease.

"N-Naruto..."

The moment he sat down, a whisper-like voice reached Naruto's ears.

The voice was so quiet, and the classroom was so noisy with excited graduates—

That if Naruto had not been paying special attention to its owner—

He might not have heard the call at all.

"Hinata."

The seat Naruto had chosen was right beside Hinata Hyuga.

The little girl before him had short black hair and unique pure white eyes without pupils. Shyly, she rubbed her fingers together.

"N-Naruto... congratulations... on graduating..."

With Naruto looking at her, Hinata, already unbearably shy, spoke even more softly.

Hinata hunched her neck and stared fixedly at her hands, not daring to turn her head and look at Naruto.

"Oh! Thank you!"

Naruto leaned over of his own accord, bringing his face into Hinata's line of sight.

"N-No, no need to thank me."

At the sight of Naruto's face, Hinata's entire face turned bright red, her ears flushing crimson as well.

It felt as though she would faint if she kept looking at Naruto's face.

Naruto stopped while he was ahead and no longer teased Hinata.

Teasing Hinata had only been a whim of the moment.

Or rather, as long as he remained in Konoha, Naruto would continue disguising himself as this harmless, innocent figure.

It was not as though Naruto was genuinely interested in Hinata as she was now. Even though he knew the girls among the Rookie Twelve would grow into graceful young women in the future—

They were still just little girls now.

Naruto's preferences were perfectly normal. Toward Hinata, he felt more like an adult teasing a child.

If he were to have any other thoughts about Hinata, they would only arise in the future.

Still, whether he would even cross paths with Hinata in the future remained unknown.

After all, Naruto's mind was currently filled with how to smoothly carry out his defection plan.

Naruto's defection plan had only just begun to get on track. He had no time to date little girls.

Romance was the sort of carefree thing...

Naruto shifted his gaze to Sasuke Uchiha on the other side of the classroom.

This time, Naruto had not acted like an idiot as in the original story, fighting Sasuke Uchiha over Sakura Haruno.

So things on Sasuke's side were rather interesting. Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka flanked him from left and right, pinning Sasuke in the middle of his seat as they loudly argued over him.

Romance was better left to those two carefree little girls.

Of course, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno were also still children who did not understand what love was.

They constantly clung to Sasuke simply because they thought Sasuke Uchiha's cool, handsome face looked good.

"I still prefer quiet girls like you, Hinata."

Naruto withdrew his gaze and teased Hinata again.

Compared to the commotion around Sasuke, staying beside quiet Hinata allowed Naruto to properly think through all the plans in his head related to defecting.

Hinata had not even recovered from her earlier blush when she suddenly heard Naruto say that.

The redness that had faded slightly from her face instantly flared up, becoming even deeper than before.

Hinata only felt lightheaded. Then she slumped onto the desk.

It seemed that Hinata would not raise her head again before the orientation officially began.