Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

"I will definitely make the villagers accept me!"

"I'm sure I'll get Mr. Shuimu's approval too!"

As he said this, Naruto extended his hand to Mizuki, expressing his friendly attitude.

Mizuki stared at Naruto's outstretched hand for a while before raising his own.

"Naruto..."

Mizuki grasped Naruto's hand and called out Naruto's name as if he had just realized something.

However, Mizuki's expression instantly turned ferocious and terrifying.

Mizuki held Naruto's hand tightly to prevent him from breaking free, and the kunai hidden in his other hand finally found an opportunity to stab out.

"You really are an idiot!"

Mizuki once again revealed an excited expression of confidence.

But, just as the kunai was about to pierce Naruto's heart...

It was neither Naruto nor Mizuki's third hand that grabbed Mizuki's hand holding the kunai.

The person who broke between Naruto and Mizuki had long silver hair, wore a black mask, and had a Konoha ninja headband worn diagonally over his left eye as an eyepatch.

Over his black combat suit, he also wore a green ninja vest.

Naruto deliberately allowed himself to be caught off guard by Mizuki just now, in order to confirm whether the Third Hokage had anyone following him or Mizuki.

If so, Mizuki's sudden attack would naturally be dealt with by the ninjas who had been tracking him.

And just as Naruto had guessed, the Third Hokage had indeed seen through Mizuki's entire conspiracy.

They used a counter-strategy to test Naruto's opinion of the village.

But what Naruto didn't expect was...

The ninja sent by the Third Hokage to track Naruto and Mizuki to prevent unforeseen circumstances was actually—

—Kakashi Hatake.

Chapter 5 Too Busy Defection to Fall in Love

The theft of the Scroll of Seals by Naruto Uzumaki did not cause much of a stir in the village.

This farce was actually a scheme devised by three generations.

The matter ended as he had planned. After Kakashi brought Mizuki and Naruto back, the Third Hokage issued a gag order to all those who knew about it that very night.

Many people woke up without even knowing that Konoha Village almost experienced another Nine-Tails attack.

Therefore, when the Third Hokage, as an elder, defined Naruto's theft of the Scroll of Seals as a junior's reckless joke.

Naruto knew that during the two years he had been in the world, his secret plans—whether it was hiding his talents and pretending to be stupid or improving his attitude towards the village—finally came to fruition after the Scroll of Seals incident.

Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage was recognized by the Third Hokage.

The punishment for Naruto was merely a verbal warning from the Third Hokage, and the matter of the Scroll of Seals was considered settled.

Three more days have passed in the blink of an eye...

Naruto replaced the goggles he originally wore on his forehead with a Konoha ninja headband.

Two days ago, the day after the Scroll of Seals incident, Naruto passed his graduation exam and obtained his ninja qualification.

After various procedures and scheduling, the Ninja Academy's graduate orientation meeting has finally arrived today.

The briefing will assign graduates who have obtained ninja qualifications to mission squads led by Jonin.

In other words, at the age of eleven or twelve, which was just starting junior high school in his previous life, he would already be "working" in the Naruto world.

However, this is not uncommon in the Naruto world; ninja history is essentially war history.

In the original Shippuden story, the entire ninja world had only enjoyed a superficial peace for a little over a decade before Uchiha "Madara" immediately launched the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The constant warfare has made the people in the Naruto world mature much earlier.

As always, Naruto entered the classroom through the back door.

The graduates in the classroom were all familiar faces.

Apart from Team 3, led by Might Guy who graduated last year, all twelve future Konoha Konoha members are still present.

"Naruto, this is a graduating class information session."

Seeing Naruto enter the classroom, Nara Shikamaru, who had tied his long black hair into a pineapple bun, kindly reminded him.

"Of course I graduated too! Look!"

Naruto grinned and pointed to the headband on his forehead.

"I see. Well then, congratulations on your graduation."

Shikamaru glanced at Naruto's headband, waved his hand, and abruptly ended the conversation.

Shikamaru spoke weakly, his eyes slanted, and his attitude was quite negative.

Someone unfamiliar with him might think Shikamaru is being perfunctory, but that's just Shikamaru's personality.

The fact that Shikamaru could congratulate Naruto already shows that Shikamaru and Naruto have a good relationship.

"whee."

Naruto responded with a silly grin.

After being transported to another world, Naruto did not intentionally contact Shikamaru, but only slightly toned down the original Naruto's prickly and aggressive nature.

As a result, Naruto and Shikamaru's relationship deteriorated to the point where they couldn't even exchange a single word.

It's gotten to the point where we occasionally strike up a conversation, but our relationship is neither good nor bad.

But that's enough; his relationship with Shikamaru will be reflected in Shikamaru's father, Nara Shikaku.

Nara Shikaku plays the role of a strategist and advisor in Konoha.

It's unclear how much effort Nara Shikaku put into helping the Third Hokage protect Naruto from Danzo's covetousness.

However, as long as he tends to agree with Naruto, his attitude and opinions will greatly influence the Hokage's decisions.

Such a character is irreplaceable for the indecisive Third Hokage in the present day, and can effectively prevent Danzo from inciting the Third Hokage to take action against Naruto.

After finishing his conversation with Shikamaru, Naruto began to scan the classroom.

Although the graduates arrived at the classroom at the usual time, the official start time for the Ninja Academy teachers' orientation session was around 10 a.m.

Waiting around was really boring, so Naruto chose a spot where he could sit down and make himself a little more comfortable.

"Naruto-kun..."

As soon as he sat down, a soft whisper reached Naruto's ears.

The sound was rather soft, and it was mixed with the noise of a bunch of excited graduates in the classroom.

If Naruto hadn't been paying special attention to the owner of the voice...

Naruto might not even hear that call.

"It's Hinata."

Naruto chose a spot right next to Hinata Hyuga.

The little girl in front of me, with short black hair and unique pure white eyes without pupils, is shyly rubbing her fingers.

"Naruto... Naruto-kun... Congratulations on... your graduation..."

Hinata, who was already incredibly shy, spoke even softer under Naruto's gaze.

Hinata shrank her neck, her eyes fixed on her hands, not daring to turn her head to look at Naruto.

"Oh! Thank you!"

Naruto, however, moved closer and brought his face into Hinata's line of sight.

"No, you're welcome."

Upon seeing Naruto's face, Hinata's entire face turned bright red, even her ears turned crimson.

Hinata felt like she was going to faint if she kept looking at Naruto's face like that.

Naruto knew when to stop and stopped teasing Hinata.

Naruto's prank on Hinata was just a passing fancy.

Or rather, as long as he remains in Konoha, Naruto will continue to pretend to be harmless.

Naruto wasn't really interested in Hinata as she was now, even though he knew that the female members of the Konoha 12 would all grow up to be beautiful young women.

But now they are all young girls.

Naruto's sexual orientation is perfectly normal; his feelings for Hinata are more like an adult teasing a child.

If he has any other thoughts about Hinata, those thoughts will only arise in the future.

However, whether he will have any further interaction with Hinata in the future remains to be seen.

After all, Naruto's mind is now completely focused on how to successfully carry out his defection plan.

Naruto's defection plan has only just begun to take shape, and he has no time to date young girls right now.

Falling in love is such a carefree thing...

Naruto's gaze shifted to Sasuke Uchiha on the other side of the classroom.

This time, Naruto didn't act like a fool like in the original story, fighting over Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha.

So the situation with Sasuke is quite interesting. Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka are blocking Sasuke between their seats, one on each side, because Sasuke is making a huge fuss.

Love is something that should be left to these two carefree young girls.

However, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura are still just kids who don't understand what love is.

She was always clinging to Sasuke, simply because she thought Sasuke Uchiha had a cool and handsome face that she found attractive.

"I still prefer quiet girls like Hinata."

Naruto looked away and started teasing Hinata again.