Rock Lee, reporting for duty!

Inside the Ninja Academy.

A vein bulged on Iruka's forehead as he lectured in the lecture hall. He forced himself to keep teaching, thinking he could just pretend he hadn't heard that thunderous snoring... how was he supposed to do that?!

"Naruto Uzumaki, stand up right now!"

A piece of chalk shot mercilessly toward Naruto's head like a shuriken as he slept sprawled over his desk. Yet even in his sleep, Naruto raised a hand on instinct without opening his eyes and casually swatted the chalk away as though shooing a mosquito.

"Um... Naruto-kun, Iruka-sensei is about to get angry..."

Seeing that Iruka was about to erupt like a volcano, Hinata, who shared Naruto's desk, hurriedly gave him a discreet nudge beneath the table.

"Ah, huh? Is class over?"

Naruto slowly lifted his head from the desk, yawned, and looked blearily toward the lectern. Then, as though realizing something, he hastily adopted the attentive posture of a model student, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him.

"...Iruka-sensei, why did you stop halfway through the lesson? It's so interesting, I can't wait to hear what comes next!"

At those words, most of the class cast admiring looks his way. That was their boss Naruto for you. Despite his young age, everyone acknowledged him as their leader, and his sheer shamelessness was unrivaled.

Iruka was stunned too. Naruto was always fidgeting, chatting with Hinata beside him, or goofing off with the other students, but this was the first time he had outright slept in class.

He had originally thought something might have happened to Naruto last night and intended to leave it at waking him up. But now the little brat was turning the tables on him!

"Very good... since you love sleeping so much, you