In the classroom of first-year Class Eight at the Ninja Academy in Konoha, in the Land of Fire, Iruka was delivering an impassioned speech at the front, while everyone below was drowsy. Whenever Iruka spoke about the life of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, he could not help feeling proud, because in the eyes of their generation, and even the next, Hiruzen Sarutobi was a being akin to the God of Shinobi.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi's plan to turn himself into a god was somewhat crude, judging by the final results, it had achieved some success. Under Hiruzen Sarutobi's long-term brainwashing, many villagers believed he was the supreme being who had led the village to grow bigger and stronger and achieve glory once more. He was this village's Kage, the God of Shinobi, the...
"Third Lord Hokage is the strongest ninja I've ever seen..."
"The Will of Fire lives on without end. We should..."
"For the village's peace, for the village's interests, we can choose to sacrifice ourselves when necessary..."
"Hmm?"
An idle glance back brought Iruka's attention to Naruto, who was once again slumped over his desk. He appeared to be sleeping quite peacefully, too. Iruka's face turned black as ink. This Naruto Uzumaki really refused to behave.
"Naruto Uzumaki, stand up!"
Hearing someone calling his name, Naruto initially thought he was still dreaming and hearing things. When he looked up again, he saw Iruka's dark face. Unsurprisingly, Naruto received a scolding.
"Naruto Uzumaki, I really don't know what to say to you. You're like a rat dropping that spoils an entire pot of soup."
"You're wasting everyone's time. Don't you know that time is life? If you waste one minute, with forty-five people in the class, that's forty-five minutes. You're robbing people of their money and their lives."
Iruka's words instantly sent the quiet classroom into an uproar. None of them had expected their teacher to say something like that. They also looked at Naruto with some concern, wondering how he would respond to Iruka. After all, what Iruka had said was far too cutting.
Still a little dazed from waking up, Naruto began doubting himself after hearing such an outrageous statement. He rubbed his eyes and looked in disbelief at the furious Iruka standing at the lectern.
These classmates around me clearly aren't people from my original world. I should have transmigrated, right?
"Could it be?"
A terrifying thought suddenly occurred to Naruto. He looked nervously at Iruka at the lectern, hesitated, then asked:
"Change for odd multiples, keep for even ones?"
Hearing Naruto's words, Iruka looked up at him in confusion, unable to understand what he was trying to do. Before Iruka could lose his temper, however, Naruto continued questioning him.
"Imperial jade liquor?"
"How are you?"
"How 'bout a bowl of spicy pepper soup at noon?"
"So close, so beautiful, spend the weekend in He..."
Under Naruto's repeated questioning, Iruka looked at him with some concern. Although he did not think much of this student, it was still rather pitiful to see him suddenly babbling nonsense as though he had gone stupid.
Seeing Iruka's pitying gaze, Naruto was baffled. How does this guy not know any of them? But the problem is, people in the Naruto world shouldn't be saying such bitter, nasty things.
"Naruto Uzumaki, what on earth are you babbling about? If you're feeling unwell, hurry up and see a doctor."
Iruka knitted his brows. Looking at Naruto's vacant expression, he ultimately softened. At the very least, he had to let the child see a doctor.
He had heard that the kid next door had gotten his head caught in a closing door, and afterward, he would often babble nonsense and stare into space, saying he was Emperor Huang Tian and could shatter mountains and rivers with one finger. He also said he wanted to find a pink female rabbit, that spicy rabbit heads were delicious, and that he wanted to resurrect his lover.
Shaking his head, Iruka pushed all those stray thoughts aside. The most important thing now was to make sure nothing went wrong with a student in his class. At the very least, nothing could go wrong during his lesson. As for anything happening during someone else's lesson, that had nothing to do with him. Wasn't that right, Mizuki?
Naruto shook his head, stopped paying attention to Iruka, and sat down on his own, somewhat annoyed at himself for his earlier mistaken judgment.
"Well, who would've thought people in this world could be so bitter and nasty too?"
Naruto did not want to bother with Iruka either and simply ignored him. He might as well grind the system's daily missions to prepare for improving his combat power and pulling new ninja later.
Seeing Naruto ignore him, Iruka felt as though his kindness had been thrown back in his face. Honestly, Iruka was rather unhappy at that moment. When he saw Naruto lie down on his desk and go back to sleep, he snorted.
"Hmph, all that sincerity wasted on a dog."
Yet Naruto never spared Iruka's impotent rage so much as a glance. He did not even take him seriously, which sent Iruka into several fits of outrage.
Iruka was filled with regret. Had he known, he would never have softened. There really was a reason the villagers called Naruto Uzumaki a demon fox. With such a vicious heart, he clearly was no good kid.
Naruto would have scoffed at that. What a joke. He was a ninja, not some well-behaved little baby. He was a cold-blooded, ruthless killing machine...
Iruka had already decided to team up with the other teachers in his office to target the problem student Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto simply did not know yet. Even if he had known, he would not have taken their petty antics seriously. His future lay much farther ahead. As for whatever isolation Iruka arranged, Naruto felt no emotional stirrings whatsoever. After all these years of being isolated by these ignorant villagers, did they still not understand who was isolating whom?
He still had many things to do and plans to lay, but the most important thing was to improve his own strength first. After all, a blacksmith had to be strong himself to forge iron.
After school, Naruto had several little tails following him. They obediently followed behind him without a word until their parents called them home for dinner. In the end, only Hinata was taken home by a Hyuga Clan servant, while the three tails behind him continued following Naruto.
Looking at this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Naruto was somewhat speechless. He should never have let these people know he could cook. Great, now he really had invited wolves into his home. Somehow, the three had hit upon the same idea and agreed to mooch a meal at his place, without even asking whether he, the host, was willing.
Before Naruto could flare up, however, they scrambled to explain.
"Naruto, hold on. We're not coming over empty-handed to mooch a meal. We're bringing our own ingredients."
"Right, right, Naruto, we'll even pay you a cooking fee. Your cooking is just too delicious. Compared to you, my dad is absolute trash."
"Same here."
Hearing Ino's outrageously disrespectful words, Naruto's mouth twitched. It seemed Inoichi Yamanaka's precious little girl was not quite the source of warmth and comfort he might have hoped for.
Just as Naruto was about to refuse again, he saw Ino pull a fistful of banknotes from her pocket, followed by Shikamaru doing the same. Choji was the most ridiculous of all. Naruto watched as he took off the blue triangular "underpants" on his head and pulled out a small red cloth pouch, then stuffed every banknote inside into Naruto's arms with a deeply pained expression.
Looking at the banknotes Choji had shoved into his arms, Naruto felt a little worried. These really are okay, right?
"All right, Naruto, we're going to buy the ingredients for tonight. See you at your place in a bit."
Before Naruto could say anything, Ino and Shikamaru shoved their money into his hands as well and hurried away.