Iruka: My budget!!!

Naruto adjusted his angle, gathered his strength again, and swung.

The blond figure was reflected in Sasuke's constricted pupils.

There was a sound of something hard shattering, and then the training dummy's neck snapped clean through. Its head fell to the ground with a thud.

A gust of air surged outward. Though it was not particularly strong, it let everyone watching feel the tremendous force behind that blow.

"Nicely done!"

Hashirama happily praised Naruto. As expected of his own student-just look at that strength. Very good.

Pinned beneath Hashirama, Kurama watched him speechlessly, though he, too, marveled at Naruto's current strength.

Previously, while playing in the hills behind the village, Naruto had knocked down a towering tree with a single punch.

His fist had been scraped up as well, the skin torn and flesh exposed, but two hours later, it had been as good as new.

Holding the trembling Akamaru, Kiba exclaimed.

"Holy freaking crap."

Kiba: Naruto! I acknowledge you! Among all the classmates I have ever met, I would call your Taijutsu the strongest!

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched. He had known it.

This Naruto fellow was now nothing like a six-year-old child. Once, when they had gone fishing, a wild boar had charged out, trying to ambush Naruto's backside.

Then Naruto had beaten it to death with his bare fists.

He had even borrowed a Kunai from the nearby ANBU to cut up the meat and treated Sasuke to a big outdoor barbecue.

The thing was, that had been a year ago, back when they had spent more time playing together.

As for now, heh, Sasuke had no comment.

It was precisely because he understood Naruto's monstrous strength so well that Sasuke had chosen ninja tool throwing, his own specialty, for their contest.

How else could he possibly win?

"Uh... Naruto, you did very well. You can go a little easier next time."

Both shocked and helpless, Iruka looked at the dummy's head, which had rolled over beside him, and spoke with a twitch of his mouth.

Oh no, another one broken. If any more break, we'll go over this year's quota!!!

I wonder if I can get the Third to reimburse me...

Naruto scratched his head, his drifting strands of hair giving him a delicate air.

The point is, the dummy's head is still right by my feet! Naruto, no playing innocent!

"Got it. I'll use a little less strength next time."

Iruka nodded in satisfaction. It seemed Naruto could still be reasoned with, and he was obedient, too.

If he were the sort who refused to follow any rules, Iruka would have no way to deal with him.

Why didn't Iruka use force to make Naruto submit, you ask?

Even setting aside Naruto's status as a jinchūriki, just looking at that broken dummy, Iruka genuinely worried that if he pushed Naruto too far, Naruto would beat him up, too.

"Yes, that's good. Still, both you and Sasuke did very well. How about I reward you by treating you to ramen tonight?"

Iruka recalled the Third's words. He also felt a little inclined to get closer to Naruto himself (definitely not because of Naruto's fists, really!).

He might as well take him to Ichiraku Ramen that evening. Then he would have a reason to report to the Third and could ask about reimbursement while he was at it.

"For realsies? Can we bring Hinata?"

Naruto did not want to leave behind any member of the Konoha F4, so he asked.

"Well, that depends on how she performs next."

There was nothing wrong with bringing a girl along, of course. Hinata was such a tiny little thing-how much could she possibly eat?

(Iruka had eaten out at noon and did not know how much Hinata could eat.)

Hearing that, Naruto hurried back beneath the tree and whispered a few things to Hinata.

Meanwhile, Iruka watched from where he stood as Hinata first blushed, then said something, and finally stood up, the veins beside her eyes bulging...

Wait.

Bulging veins?

Hold on, she had awakened her Byakugan at such a young age?

Iruka had taught quite a few students from the Hyuga Clan, but most had only awakened their Byakugan shortly before graduation.

Even the very few promising members of the Main Family had done so in the middle grades, so it was genuinely rather surprising that Hinata had awakened hers at just six.

Hinata: Actually, I awakened mine at four!

Neji had awakened his eyes, too. Originally, he would have done so at around twelve, but the blows dealt by his young lady had forced that age down to his current seven.

Neji: Even if I can't out-eat the young lady, I can still do my part to keep her safe!!!

Well, even though he had awakened his eyes, he still had not beaten Hinata.

His Gentle Fist had, however, grown more proficient through practice, and he could now perform the Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms.

"Iruka-sensei, um, may I begin?"

Hinata walked up to Iruka, her voice soft and sweet. One listen was enough to tell she was a gentle girl.

"Yes, of course."

Worried that Hinata might feel pressured, Iruka added, "You don't need to compare yourself to Naruto. Just give it your all."

They were all children of major clans, but Hinata was a girl, after all. Even with her Byakugan awakened, she was unlikely to surpass the Uchiha Clan, who excelled at using ninja tools.

After all, they specialized in ninja tools, while the Hyuga specialized in fist techniques.

"Mm, okay."

Hinata nodded, then took the wooden Kunai Naruto had just handed to Iruka.

It's warm. It's Naruto-kun's warmth.

⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄

Watching Hinata stand motionless, Iruka began reflecting on whether he should have put so much pressure on the child. If he had known, he would have simply agreed to Naruto's request.

He had just turned to tell Naruto that Hinata could come along even if she did not perform well when another extremely piercing slicing sound rang out.

He stiffly turned back, only to see Hinata shyly cradling dummy number two's head.

(⊙o⊙)...

Looking at Iruka-sensei's expression, Sasuke silently thought that he was making a fuss over nothing. Unlike him-he had long since grown used to these two freaks.

After all, what had made a proud young master of the Uchiha Clan come dead last for two years running (in the Konoha F4) was neither gender nor friendship, but fists.

"Uh, very good technique. You don't need to do that next time."

The Byakugan could see through things, which helped to some extent in finding the dummy's weak points. Combined with Hinata's strength, that had resulted in number two being beheaded as well.

Iruka deeply regretted not telling Hinata to go easy. Instead, he had said something about giving it her all.

Great. They were definitely going over this year's quota now.

And this was only this class's first day!

I wonder if I can get some reimbursement from the Hyuga Clan...

Tempting though the idea was, the thought of being met with a whole clan's eye rolls the moment he entered the Hyuga Clan Compound made Iruka abandon it.

After all, not everyone was as bold as Naruto. Major ninja clans still exerted a great deal of pressure on ordinary people.

Better go to the Third.

Gathering his thoughts, Iruka led the remaining students through their first close-combat training session.

Yes, every single time, he told them to try not to perform cranial surgery on the dummies like those two things (cross that out), classmates. Though none of the students who followed had that kind of strength anyway.