Ch. 6 - Graduation

I walked through the halls of the academy, recalling most of the memories made here—the many times I'd made a fool of myself in this very school, where most, if not all, of the instructors were out to get me.

—Haaa

I sighed for the umpteenth time today, something that had become a regular occurrence for me over these past few days, where I'd been too stressed about making a single mistake that might result in my death.

Shaking my head, I rid myself of such thoughts as I turned a corner and arrived a few feet away from my former classroom.

"I won, Ino-pig!"

A sudden screech, as if a fork had been run through a chalkboard, made me pause and cringe inwardly, shivers running down my spine.

I almost felt like throwing up but reeled in that thought, forcing myself to move toward the open classroom door. There, I saw a blonde-haired girl my age and a pink-haired girl about to start fighting.

I forced a cheeky smile as I gazed around the class, my eyes sweeping over everyone as I analyzed them—their postures, their expressions, the clothes they wore, everything.

"Hey, it's Naruto! What's he doing here?"

"I dunno, maybe he's here to beg Iruka-sensei to graduate?"

"Idiot! Look at his waist, he has a Konoha Forehead Protector!"

Numerous murmurs went through the room as all attention focused on me. I even heard a few girls commenting on how I looked a little more handsome.

Yuck!

I forcefully suppressed my disgust at those girls and promptly ignored them, making sure to remember their faces to stay away from.

I had assumed the class wouldn't know who I was, considering my sudden change, but that seemed to be a wrong assumption. Maybe I shouldn't have thought these kids would be idiots?

"Naruto! What are you doing here?!" A sudden harsh and violent voice reached my ears. My gaze, which had been focused on examining the class, shifted to the pink-haired girl—Sakura.

"I graduated, of course." I gave a simple response. My cheeky smile instantly disappeared, replaced by a slightly repulsed expression.

"That's impossible! We saw that you failed to graduate!" she barked a second later, giving me a once-over and noticing my hitai-ate on my waist.

"Well, believe it or not, I graduated." I didn't want to argue with her, but if she pushed things further and annoyed me more, I might be forced to embarrass her here.

So, with that thought, I tried to move past her and go sit in one of the empty seats in the classroom. Keyword: "tried."

"You're not going anywhere until you tell the whole class the truth! You liar!" she yelled, extending an arm in my direction.

—Swoosh

My fist instinctively moved quickly and jabbed out, hitting her squarely in the face. Her head was pushed back with great force, her skin being slightly sliced due to the force of the punch.

She stumbled backward as tears began to well up in her eyes, her cheek sporting a few cuts along with a red hue.

Oops.

At least I controlled my strength by a large margin to avoid hurting her too much at the last second.

-3rd POV-

Sakura had wanted to embarrass Naruto in front of the class—mostly to impress Sasuke and catch his attention. The other reason was to show that she was better than the dumb blonde who had lied about graduating.

What she didn't expect was to be hit squarely in the face, and that too with great force, when she tried to stop him and call him out on his lie.

"You!!!!" she spat with venom—or in this case blood—dripping as she held her slightly bleeding cheek while her face heated up in embarrassment.

Her vision instantly went red as she threw a straight punch at Naruto, only for him to dodge to the left, grab her wrist with his left hand, get in front of her, and pull her over his shoulder, dropping her to the floor with her own momentum.

Huh..?

Was her only thought as the world went blank.

...

Inside the Hokage's office at the same moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi sweatdropped as he watched the fight—no, "fight" wouldn't be the right word.

Around him were Jōnin ninja who were going to be taking on teams of three. Unknown to all but two academy graduates, only nine of them would be truly graduating, with the rest either being sent to the Genin Corps or back to the academy.

"The kid is pretty strong, unlike what the papers say," one of the Jōnin remarked while watching the events unfolding at the academy.

For a fresh graduate, he does have skills far better than his peers. Though... what Hotami says is true. Did he hide his strength during his years at the academy?

A certain one-eyed scarecrow took note of that fact, keeping his gaze on his book while some of his attention focused on the crystal ball.

—Puff

The Hokage gave a puff of his pipe, looking deeply at the crystal ball for a few seconds before replying to the Jōnin.

"He has been hiding his strength and wisdom for a while now because he didn't want to attract attention. That's why I've had to reevaluate most of the teams and make new ones."

He finished, taking his pipe from his mouth and sniffing the bowl end of it, enjoying the scent of fresh tobacco being burnt by a minor fire ninjutsu.

"Ah, that makes sense," another Jōnin nodded along.

Does it?

Some of the Jōnin still had suspicions, all having that simultaneous thought. Though they soon let go of any lingering doubts as the Hokage himself had been the one to provide this information.

Kurenai Yuhi on the side couldn't help but frown, remembering that she wouldn't be able to get the genin she wanted on her team to form a tracking team.

...

Back inside the classroom.

"Whoops." Naruto rubbed the back of his head while looking at the knocked-out Sakura on the floor, not feeling a single touch of regret or pity.

Ino seemed flabbergasted at the events as she turned her shaking gaze towards Naruto, her form shivering slightly in fear of the blonde.

"Settle down class—huh?" Iruka said reflexively as he walked into the classroom in a relaxed manner, a folder in his hand. He waved it, only to stop at the figure sprawled on the floor.

"Sakura?" He seemed confused, seeing her cheek bleeding and the fact she was knocked out cold, but he quickly came out of his stupor and looked around the class, his gaze settling on the two that were near her—Ino and Naruto.

"Fu~ my bad..?" Naruto couldn't help but say as he gave an apologetic smile. At that moment, Iruka probably connected the dots and gave a harsh glare at Naruto.

—Haaa

Here we go again.

~

After five minutes of being lectured by Iruka about not fighting with his classmates over trivial matters, Naruto was finally let go. He walked to the top left of the class, taking a seat next to a lone student.

"Ino, can you take Sakura to Obino-san at the infirmary?" Iruka sighed and asked the other blonde, who was still frozen in place by the events.

Snapping out of her daze, Ino nodded and grabbed the still-unconscious Sakura, hurrying out of the class while sparing a single glance of fear towards Naruto.

"What a bothersome group," a low mutter came from a few seats away from Naruto, promptly ignored by everyone.

"Now that we've settled everything, let's get started. Due to the unforeseen situation of a student graduating later than expected, the papers have been redone and teams had to be recreated from scratch." Iruka spared a glance in Naruto's direction before moving his gaze back to the file in his hands and opening it.

"Each team will have three Genin and one Jōnin sensei. We tried to balance each team's strength, but of course, not everything is perfect. Ahem, anyway..." He paused as he began to read out the names.

"Team one is Aiko Suzuki, Kenta Inoue, and Sho Fukuda. Your Jōnin sensei will be Hotami Saito..." He continued with the names until he finally reached team seven, at which point Naruto leaned a bit forward and rested his elbows on the desk.

"Team seven will be Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Naruto Uzumaki. Your Jōnin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." He paused while reading the team members' names before glancing up to look at them.

"Eep!" Hinata uttered, flinching reflexively and turning her glowing red face towards her left, where a certain blonde was sitting.

The blonde, upon hearing the names of his teammates, frowned briefly before quickly smiling.

Well, it's not that bad, honestly. I just don't understand why it would change so drastically. Maybe because I showed myself to be smart to the old man?

He couldn't help but think inwardly, his gaze shifting downwards to where Shino was sitting before it shifted to his right, where Hinata, blushing and trying to hide herself, was.

Right, I guess I'll need to help her out with her shyness.

"Yo, Hinata. Didn't know we'd end up on the same team!" Naruto gave a friendly smile as he poked Hinata on the shoulder to snap her out of her thoughts.

"E-Eep! N-N-N-Naru-t-t-to-kun..." she stammered, turning fifty shades of red and shivering, on the verge of fainting.

Good thing I have downloaded Grammarly in my brain from my years of reading experience.

He sweat dropped at how many times she had stuttered in just three short words, before shaking his head to rid himself of such thoughts.

Forget it. I shouldn't talk to her that much; just show myself to be curious. Better to get to know my teammates during lunch or something.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed, staring at Iruka as he continued to announce the names of the other teams, not really paying much attention.

I should start dispelling my clones at the training grounds. Let's start with the ones that are practicing Water Walking.

A sudden influx of memories assaulted Naruto upon that thought as ten clones instantly dispersed, providing him with the memories of their full night of training.

Despite this, Naruto didn't show any signs of being uncomfortable or in pain as he easily rummaged through the useful bits of information and weeded out the useless ones.

«Congratulations! [Water Walking] has increased in proficiency!»

«+5% CC»

He didn't stop there, as numerous other notifications rang out in his mind that he promptly ignored, quickly sifting through his memories.

«Congratulations! [Kawarimi no Jutsu] has increased to [Intermediate] proficiency!»

«+1% exp»

«Congratulations! [Fūinjutsu] has increased in proficiency.»

«You have learned [Bukijutsu] and [Shurikenjutsu]»

«+11% exp»

When Naruto opened his eyes, he was immediately greeted by numerous system panels in front of him. Despite the information they contained, he didn't show any clear signs of shock or surprise.

He only glanced at them briefly before making them disappear, focusing instead on something else.

So, I can get skills other than those related to chakra? I thought I would only be able to get skills like that since those were the only ones available to me.

Naruto leaned forward, resting his cheek on his hand while his elbow propped on the desk. Iruka had already finished giving out the assigned teams for the fresh academy graduates and had left a few seconds ago.

Now, some Jōnin sensei walked into the room or used body flicker, calling out for their team to follow them as they headed somewhere else.

Right, I'll have to wait until the lazy ass gets here.

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Sorry for late update, been a little busy with life ToT