Hokage Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered for a moment after hearing Satoru's request, then agreed.
"I understand. I will arrange your teammates.
I will inform you once I have made my decision."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Satoru grinned, then disappeared with a 'bang'.
Bang!
As soon as he left, a small figure opened the door.
"Grandpa, who were you talking to?"
Konohamaru tiptoed, looking left and right. After not finding anyone, he asked his grandpa.
He had heard someone speaking just now.
"Little master, you shouldn't always run around," said a person in Ninja attire behind him, helplessly.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him, feeling a bit speechless. "Why did you run over here again? Didn't I tell you to stay home?"
"I wanted to see Grandpa," Konohamaru said with a smile.
He seemed very happy to see his grandpa.
Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled, but sighed inwardly.
Ever since Shin'nosuke and his wife died on a mission a year ago, Konohamaru was mostly looked after by a nanny outside of his working hours. Loneliness was unavoidable.
However, there was no one capable of taking over his heavy responsibility as Hokage yet,
which left him uneasy.
Alas!
...
Ninja School.
A large group of elementary students followed Iruka, doing physical endurance training by running.
"Hmph hmph, although I haven't found out who developed the Fire of Eight Fragrances Ninjutsu yet,
I've heard some good news. Do you want to hear it?"
These days, besides the troublemaker Naruto, other students had also been subjected to Iruka's torment.
As Kiba, who considered himself the future Hokage, he felt a great deal of pressure. He had to make others recognise his abilities and demonstrate his Ninja qualities through information gathering.
The other students,
Upon hearing this, all pricked up their ears.
Naruto, however, retorted, "Haha, you said you'd be Hokage, but you couldn't even find out the information.
It seems the Hokage position is still mine.
Just wait, tomorrow I'll gather his information.
I am the future Hokage.
I will make everyone acknowledge me."
He was extremely happy. Even Kiba, who was tied for first with Sasuke, hadn't gathered information on the developer. As long as he gathered the information, he would gain the recognition of others.
As for the good news in Kiba's latter half of the sentence, he automatically filtered it out.
As the clever one of the Nara Clan, Nara Shikamaru spoke, "Your good news wouldn't happen to be a way to break Sensei's Ninjutsu, would it?"
The entire incident revolved around Iruka Sensei and his punishment Ninjutsu for students. Besides that, he couldn't think of any other good news Kiba might have.
He also wanted to know,
Two days ago, due to laziness and negativity, he tested Iruka Sensei's Ninjutsu.
He swore,
That was the worst-tasting thing he had ever eaten.
He couldn't understand who was so bored as to develop such an annoying Ninjutsu.
Even when he went back to ask his dad, Nara Shikaku, he was laughed at and ignored.
His dad even told him,
that this was a Ninja information analysis game left for him, for him to analyse and gather himself.
But from his dad's tone, he knew who developed the damn Ninjutsu, but he just didn't want to tell him.
Annoying dad.
Just thinking about how he would be tormented by Iruka Sensei every time he wanted to be lazy in the future made him uncomfortable.
Now, hearing Kiba's news,
He suddenly felt hope.
Inuzuka Kiba gave him a thumbs-up. "As expected of Shikamaru, my biggest rival for Hokage in the future. You immediately analysed the key point."
According to Sensei Satoru's words,
He had gathered information on all the guys who seemed lazy.
Besides Uchiha Sasuke, Shikamaru was his biggest rival for Hokage.
Because it was he, who was very smart, but his test scores were always fifty-fifty, clearly to lower his guard, making him think he had no rivals, and then he would work hard in the background.
Now hearing Shikamaru's analysis, he was even more convinced of this point.
As for Naruto, he was just a big simpleton.
"Eh? Shikamaru, are you also competing with me for the Hokage position?
I won't lose to you." Naruto's eyes showed an unyielding look when he heard Kiba's words.
Indeed, so many people wanted to become Hokage. As long as he became Hokage, he would gain the recognition of others.
Choji, panting, followed behind. Hearing Kiba's words, he pulled out a bag of potato chips from somewhere, carefully took out one chip, and with a reluctant look, handed it to Kiba:
"If there's a way to break Sensei's Ninjutsu, I'll treat you to potato chips."
He had also tasted it.
He never wanted to taste that flavour again.
Crunch!
Kiba took the potato chip and ate it.
Woof~
Akamaru was not happy. He had a significant contribution too, so why was Kiba eating it alone?
Then, under Kiba's gaze, Choji reluctantly took out another chip and handed it to Akamaru.
"Hehe, I told you guys,
People from second grade and above basically know how to break this technique.
I heard that Hyuga Tokuma from sixth grade broke it and spread the breaking Ninjutsu throughout the school."
Kiba chuckled.
Although his sister had already graduated and become a Genin this year, two of her friends she often played with were still in sixth grade.
He just inquired a little and found out the news.
The only bad thing was that they all seemed to know who created the Ninjutsu, but they just wouldn't tell him.
It seemed they had some unspoken difficulty.
Luckily, he was a good student and had never been punished by Iruka's Ninjutsu, so everything was easy for him.
It didn't matter if he couldn't find out.
If it weren't for his future Hokage prestige, he wouldn't bother gathering information for them.
"What? Ninjutsu?"
The students who had been punished turned pale upon hearing this.
They knew they would have to be more well-behaved from now on.
First-grade curriculum involved Chakra extraction, various knowledge, and Taijutsu and Shuriken courses, but no Ninjutsu courses.
Many didn't know the difficulty of practising Ninjutsu.
They only knew it was very difficult.
"Yes, a Ninjutsu called Throat Guarding Technique. It's as difficult as basic Ninjutsu like the Rope Escape Technique.
It's not very difficult."
Kiba had practised it, and it wasn't that difficult.
"That's great, teach us, Kiba."
Despite the difficulty, they had to practice.
Uchiha Sasuke was also in the team, listening to their conversation, not missing a single word.
He knew the Bad Uncle developed it, but he felt he couldn't say.
His brother said that the Bad Uncle had a wicked sense of humour and loved people who tattled and badmouthed behind others' backs the most.
If caught,
They would be pranked.
Just like when he was little and the Bad Uncle picked him up to watch him flail about.
That scene was still etched in his mind.
So he didn't dare to speak.
But the Throat Guarding Technique could be practised.
"No, you have to call me Big Brother Kiba, then I can teach you?"
"Tch, I already know that besides first-graders, the second-grade brothers all know it. We can just go ask them then." Just as Kiba was about to succeed and others were about to call him Big Brother, Naruto suddenly muttered.
At this moment, the others suddenly realised,
Should they call him Big Brother for a Ninjutsu everyone knew?
Kiba glared at Naruto, who had ruined his good fortune again.