The dismissal bell had barely finished ringing when Umino Iruka walked out of the school building with a stack of workbooks in his arms. He looked up and spotted three figures at the school gate.
Ino Yamanaka held the redhead's hand as they walked along the roadside, with Sakura Haruno on her other side. The three of them walked close together, chatting and laughing as they left.
As Iruka watched, he couldn't help smiling.
Ever since this kid had joined his class, he had spent all his time either hanging around Naruto Uzumaki or mixing with Sasuke Uchiha and the other boys. Watching him, Iruka had worried on his behalf.
This was so much better.
A little girl ought to play with other little girls. That's how it should be.
He stayed where he was, watching the three turn the corner before finally looking away and heading back, workbooks in his arms and a cheerful smile on his face.
Uzumaki Hayashi couldn't have been in a better mood.
Ino Yamanaka held Sakura Haruno with one hand and had taken his hand with the other. He walked on Ino's other side, his palm pleasantly warm in hers.
Just consider how he had been treated on his outings over the past couple of days-either two chunin had carried him by the armpits, one on each side, or he had trailed after Kakashi Hatake, scrambling to keep up.
And now look at him.
At last, he could spend time with pretty young girls, chatting and laughing together.
After all these days in Konoha, getting yelled at and getting into fights, he was finally living the life he wanted.
Now this was more like it! This was the treatment someone transported to another world deserved!
The two girls ahead were still chattering away. His hand swung in Ino's grip, lending an extra spring to his step.
He even had the leisure to wonder happily: What did girls talk about when they got together? Clothes? Hair accessories? Or which shop had the best sweets?
He soon got his answer.
"Did you see Sasuke in class today, looking out the window? His profile looked so..."
"I did, I did," Ino Yamanaka chimed in at once. "And that time at the training ground, he just stood there without saying a word. Ooh."
"Right? Right? And when he throws kunai, he just raises his hand, and whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-"
"Hey, what do you think Sasuke usually eats? How does he look that good...?"
The two grew more animated by the minute, moving from his profile to his skills, then from his skills to his grades. They chattered on without a pause.
Uzumaki Hayashi: "..."
Well, damn.
All the way from the school gate to the street corner, neither of them had changed the subject. It was Sasuke this, Sasuke that, their eyes sparkling the whole time.
Were girls in the shinobi world really this simple?
Such a big village, so many interesting things, and all these two had room for in their hearts and minds was Uchiha Sasuke?
What he didn't know was that Sakura Haruno had actually been stealing glances at him the entire way.
She would look at him, glance away, then look again and glance away once more, as though she had something to say but couldn't work up the nerve.
After holding it in the whole way, Sakura Haruno finally couldn't take it anymore when the flower shop was nearly in sight.
She slowed down, leaned closer, and lowered her voice like someone doing something sneaky.
"Um... Hayashi."
"Hmm?"
"You..." Sakura Haruno's voice grew quieter and quieter. "You don't... have any feelings for Sasuke, do you?"
Uzumaki Hayashi froze.
"Feelings? What kind of feelings?"
He genuinely didn't understand. He was a man through and through-what feelings could he possibly have for Sasuke?
Sakura Haruno's face flushed bright red. She stumbled over her words, unable to get a coherent sentence out.
"Oh, come on-"
Ino Yamanaka laughed beside them and reached out to pull her back. "Of course he doesn't! If you ask me, he's more likely to have feelings for you than for Sasuke!"
Sakura Haruno looked up, meeting Uzumaki Hayashi's face head-on, and blushed even harder.
"N-no, he doesn't!"
Uzumaki Hayashi smiled.
"Of course," he said as though it were obvious. "Sasuke definitely doesn't rank as high as Sakura in my book."
He wasn't just being polite.
As he looked at the blushing girl beside him, a different scene came to mind.
Years later, that very hand would split the earth with a single punch. And throughout Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, everyone else got nerfed, but not her. That monstrous strength of hers was beyond reproach.
That punch alone was enough to make calling her "Big Bro Sakura" right then and there entirely worthwhile.
And just look at how badly Sasuke had been nerfed in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Some prison thug had nearly taken him down single-handedly.
The more he thought about it, the more reasonable his words seemed, and a look of approval crept onto his face.
Sakura Haruno had no idea what he was thinking.
All she saw was that, after she had asked him such a bizarre question, he hadn't gotten upset. Instead, he had praised her with complete sincerity, then looked at her with open, wholehearted approval.
The guilt in Sakura Haruno's heart instantly multiplied several times over. All the chatter and enthusiasm she'd had along the way wilted at once, and even the tips of her ears turned red.
And deep inside her, another Sakura Haruno had already grabbed her head and started howling-
"What did you just ask him?! He never meant anything like that! And you still asked! You actually asked!"
"How could you even say that out loud? What if he gets the wrong idea? What if he thinks you're treating him like a rival?!"
"How embarrassing-!"
"U-um..."
Sakura Haruno suddenly stopped, pulled free of Ino Yamanaka's hand, and circled around to take Uzumaki Hayashi's other hand.
"L-let's go! Aren't we going to the flower shop?"
The three set off again. This time, Uzumaki Hayashi walked in the middle with a girl on either side, chatting and laughing as they headed for the Yamanaka Clan's flower shop.
With each of the two girls holding one of his hands, Uzumaki Hayashi felt his delight climb another notch.
A moment ago, only Ino had been holding his hand. In practically no time at all, he had upgraded to two.
At this rate, wouldn't he have everything his own way in class from now on?
Life was good.
They hadn't walked much farther before they reached the flower shop.
The shop was small, with several flower stands outside. Red, yellow, and white blossoms bloomed in a riot of color, and their fragrance reached them from a long way off.
A figure stood in front of the flower stands by the entrance.
A man dressed as a jonin, wearing a green vest, stood with his head lowered, carefully choosing flowers. His complexion was poor, and he looked sickly. He picked up a bouquet, examined it, put it back, then picked up another. As he browsed, he gave a couple of quiet coughs.
Uzumaki Hayashi slowed his steps.
Strange.
Why did this man look more familiar the longer he watched him?
He was certain he had never seen that sickly face before. But that build, that stance, and especially those two low, muffled coughs-he was absolutely certain he had heard them somewhere before-
But where?
Before you continue