For most students, the start of a new term was never a purely happy thing. If you looked closely, the feelings tangled inside it were always complicated, a messy blend of dread and anticipation.
The dread came from one simple truth: the carefree holiday was over, and regular school life was about to begin again. The anticipation came from something just as simple. They would get to see their friends again, mess around together, and trade stories about everything that had happened during the break.
Naruto felt almost nothing about it.
There was no close friend he was dying to reunite with, and the academy lessons themselves held little appeal for him. Compared to everything else on his plate, sitting through class felt more like a task than anything worth looking forward to.
He had far more important uses for his time.
To squeeze every bit of value out of the day, Naruto had left four shadow clones at home before coming to school. He had given them clear instructions: study the sealing scroll, break down the knowledge inside it, and keep practicing until they could push his understanding forward.
His real body came to the academy on schedule, mostly to avoid drawing suspicion. The school still had practical lessons, after all, and completely skipping them would only invite trouble.
Without the more advanced Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, even Naruto's enormous chakra reserves had limits. He had already tested those limits for himself.
Once he made more than five shadow clones, the chakra distribution became unstable. The clones came out flawed—short-lived, dull in thought, weak in execution, and barely worth the chakra used to create them.
So for now, four clones studying at home while the original body handled school was the best arrangement he had.
Besides, after the covert surveillance around him had finally been removed, home had become the safest and quietest place possible for research.
As for the three basic techniques the academy focused on—Substitution, Transformation, and the Clone Technique—they were far too elementary for Naruto now. He had long since moved past that stage.
It was worth making one thing clear: the Clone Technique and the Shadow Clone Technique were not the same thing at all.
The academy's Clone Technique produced only illusions, empty images with no physical substance. They could confuse an enemy for a moment, nothing more. Shadow clones were different. They were real bodies, able to attack, think, gather information, and send memories back to the original once they dispersed.
Naruto's ability to use the B-rank Shadow Clone Technique had nothing to do with anything the academy had taught him.
He had learned it from Kiba Inuzuka after winning a bet.
The Inuzuka clan often fought alongside ninken, and their methods relied heavily on coordinated movement, misdirection, and pressure. Because of that, many Inuzuka shinobi learned shadow clones early, using them either to create chaos in battle or to support combination attacks.
That was also why Kiba, even at his age, already knew the technique.
In an odd twist, even though Kiba had been the one to teach him, Naruto's actual mastery of shadow clones had already surpassed Kiba's. Still, almost no one at the academy knew that.
After all, Naruto had never had the habit of yelling the name of every jutsu he used.
With his backpack slung over one shoulder, Naruto walked into the slightly noisy classroom and headed, as always, for the seat by the window in the last row.
Sunlight poured through the glass and spilled across the desks. From there, he had a wide view of both the classroom and the training field outside.
More importantly, that seat was practically his by default.
Very few of his classmates were willing to sit near someone privately called the "fox demon," and that reluctance had produced the one benefit Naruto could appreciate: a quiet little pocket of space nobody bothered him in.
He had just sat down, pulled two bags of chips out of his backpack, and tucked them into the drawer when a familiar voice sounded beside him—bright, casual, and completely unburdened.
"Yo! You're here early, Naruto!"
Naruto turned at once and saw the unmistakable black spikes of hair and the grin that always seemed full of energy.
Kiba Inuzuka.
He was one of the very few classmates who didn't intentionally avoid Naruto because of rumors. Sometimes, he even came over first and started talking as if there had never been any reason not to.
At this point in time, Kiba had not yet received Akamaru, the partner who would one day become inseparable from him.
Because of that, and because he didn't want to fall behind in the training of the Inuzuka clan's techniques, he had started learning shadow clones early. Using a clone to stand in for a ninken during drills had become one of his main ways of practicing coordination and tactics.
That was what had led, unexpectedly, to him becoming Naruto's guide in shadow clone training during their earlier interactions.
"You're early too, Kiba," Naruto replied with a grin.
He casually slapped the seat beside him, inviting him to sit.
Today, Naruto had not used makeup to hide the six whisker-like marks on his face.
Kiba was used to those by now. What actually caught his attention was Naruto's hair. His gaze lingered there for a beat, surprise flickering across his face.
In Kiba's memory, Naruto had always worn his blond hair short.
"Why're you growing it out now?" he asked bluntly.
Naruto lifted a hand and touched his hair without thinking.
Honestly, it was only a little longer than before—barely medium-short, nowhere near shoulder length. It just looked long compared to the usual cuts boys their age wore.
"Because the First Hokage and the Fourth Hokage didn't have short hair on the Hokage Rock," Naruto said without even blinking.
He delivered the lie so smoothly it barely counted as one. Then, to make it sound even more convincing, he piled on more examples.
"And if you look closely, the Second and Third Hokage aren't really short-haired either. They just style it up so it looks that way. I'm studying the hairstyles of previous Hokage."
That, naturally, was nonsense.
The real reason was far simpler: lately he had been so busy training taijutsu, developing Wood Release, and researching sealing techniques that getting a haircut had never even crossed his mind.
Kiba stared at him for a second, processing the answer.
Then his brows drew together. His tone turned annoyed.
"What, did the barbershop refuse to cut it?"
He clicked his tongue, looking like he'd reached a very irritating conclusion.
"Tch. That owner is asking for trouble again. If he won't even take business served right to him, maybe I should have the village stray dogs keep watch outside his shop."
There was the usual roughness in Kiba's words, that straightforward, almost domineering way he had of talking. But buried inside it was something warm.
Protection.
Naruto looked at him, caught between amusement and disbelief.
"So the rumor about the barber getting chased down the street by dogs that bit at his heels..." He raised a brow. "That was you?"
He had only heard vague bits of that story before. He had never imagined the culprit had been sitting right in front of him the whole time.
Kiba didn't even try to deny it.
Instead, he bumped Naruto lightly with an elbow, flashed a smug, roguish grin, and all but asked to be praised.
"Well? I'm a good friend, aren't I?" he said under his breath. "Who told him to mess with you? I was just teaching him a lesson."
He was clearly proud of what he'd done. More than that, he looked pleased enough to share the method behind it.
"I know the rules. I can't use the clan's trained ninken to bite people inside the village. That'd be too obvious, and it'd bring trouble to my mom."
He drew the next words out, looking sly.
"But stray dogs are different. Those ownerless mutts running around the village? If they happen to dislike somebody and chase him down the street for a few bites, who can prove anything? Nobody's tracing that back to me."
Naruto stared at him for a moment, then huffed a laugh despite himself.
There really was no mistaking Kiba's style.
It was reckless. It was crude. It was half bullying, half loyalty.
And somehow, that rough-edged concern slipped past Naruto's usual guard more easily than polite sympathy ever could.
Before he could answer, more students started trickling into the classroom.
At that moment, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno were still inseparable.
The crack in their friendship caused by their shared feelings for Uchiha Sasuke had not appeared yet. For now, they came in together like they always did, moving side by side through the classroom door while the room hummed with early-morning noise.
The instant she stepped inside, Ino's gaze drifted almost automatically toward the back row, toward the seat by the window.
Ever since that brief but unexpectedly memorable meeting at the flower shop over the New Year, she had found herself paying attention to Naruto without meaning to.
What used to be little more than a ridiculous sight—Naruto running around the village every morning with his absurd teacher-and-student duo—had somehow become something she quietly looked forward to seeing.
The moment she noticed him, a small, immediate disappointment rose in her chest.
His hair had grown longer, yes.
But the whisker marks were still there.
She couldn't help thinking it again: when those marks were covered, Naruto actually looked really handsome.
Today, though, Naruto wasn't sitting alone, dozing or staring out the window as usual. He was talking and laughing with Kiba Inuzuka—and another boy wearing dark glasses and a high collar that covered most of his face.
The atmosphere around them was oddly easy.
Ino tilted her head slightly and looked more carefully at the low-key boy in sunglasses.
That one... Aburame Shino, right?
It took her a second to remember his name. He was so quiet, so withdrawn, and so easy to overlook in class that most people barely noticed him unless he was right in front of them.
The surprising part wasn't just that Shino was there.
It was that he and Naruto seemed to get along just fine.
Seeing those three boys together—each with a completely different air—sparked a little curiosity in her.
When Sakura noticed that Ino was looking toward the back row, she naturally assumed her friend wanted to sit there. But the empty seats near that area were close to Naruto, and Sakura instinctively recoiled from the idea.
She still preferred the middle rows, closer to Sasuke.
Before either of them could say much, another voice rang out.
"Hey, Naruto, Kiba, Shino."
The greeting came in a lazy, familiar drawl.
Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara wandered in through the back door of the classroom and headed straight for the area near Naruto's seat with practiced ease. Clearly, this wasn't the first time.
The moment Naruto saw them, he smiled like he'd been expecting exactly this.
He bent down, rummaged through his desk drawer, and pulled out a bag of barbecue-flavored chips—the kind Choji loved—as naturally as if this had been planned in advance.
"Here."
Choji's face lit up at once.
"Naruto! Thanks!"
His usually narrow eyes widened with delight as he snatched the bag, tore it open immediately, and looked just short of ecstatic.
The sight made Kiba protest at once.
"Hey, hey, what about me? I want snacks too!"
He leaned over noisily, draping an arm over Naruto's shoulder with all the shameless confidence of someone certain he deserved equal treatment.
Naruto laughed, ducked away, and handed him a different bag.
"Here. Plain flavor."
Kiba accepted it with zero complaint.
"Heh, that's more like it. I'll treat you to ramen later."
He ripped the bag open, then slung an arm around Shino's shoulders as though the movement were completely natural and pushed the chips toward him.
"Shino, don't just stand there. Eat."
Shino's expression was hidden behind his collar and glasses, but he did not refuse. He reached in and silently took a few chips.
At the side, Shikamaru yawned as he watched the scene.
"Thanks, Naruto," he muttered, voice full of his usual laziness, though there was something faintly soft in his eyes.
He pulled Choji along and dropped into the empty seats in the second-to-last row, directly in front of Naruto, like this was their assigned place by some unspoken agreement.
He had barely leaned back when his gaze snagged on two girls lingering at the classroom door.
Ino and Sakura.
Shikamaru raised a hand in their direction without much energy.
"Hey, Ino. Quit standing there like an idiot and come over already. Class is about to start."
The classroom seating arrangement was neat and simple: pairs of desks in rows, four students to a section.
Shikamaru and Choji had taken the second-to-last row. Behind them sat Naruto, Kiba, Shino, and one final empty seat.
At Shikamaru's call, Ino immediately tugged Sakura along and headed over. She took the empty seat beside Shikamaru, directly in front of Naruto, while Sakura sat next to Choji.
As soon as she sat down, Ino turned toward Shikamaru and greeted him brightly.
"Long time no see, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru gave her a deadpan look.
"It hasn't been that long, has it?" he said. "We just saw each other a few days ago at your place for Uncle Inoichi's birthday."
The Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans had been close for generations. As head of the Yamanaka clan, Yamanaka Inoichi's birthday naturally drew the attention of the Nara and Akimichi elders, who had brought Shikamaru and Choji along to pay their respects.
"Oh?" Naruto's ears perked up at once. "Uncle Inoichi had his birthday a few days ago?"
It was obvious from the way Ino and Shikamaru glanced away that neither of them intended to continue that line of conversation.
Naruto didn't press.
Instead, he rummaged in his pocket and drew out a small paper packet, carefully folded and obviously protected from damage.
Inside were flower seeds.
"Not long ago, I bought some unusual flower seeds from a merchant passing through Konoha," Naruto said.
"I was planning to stop by the flower shop and give them to Uncle Inoichi as thanks. But the last few times I went, he wasn't the one minding the store."
He held the packet out toward Ino and smiled, open and easy.
"Ino, could you give these to Uncle Inoichi for me? Just take it as my thank-you gift."
Ino instinctively started to refuse out of politeness.
"No, that's really—"
Then she changed her mind halfway through the sentence and accepted them instead.
"Since it's Naruto's good intentions," she said, recovering smoothly, "I'll accept them for my father. Thank you, Naruto."
On the surface, she looked composed.
The moment she turned back toward the blackboard, though, she had to force herself not to show how pleased she was.
No.
A firm resolution rose inside her.
Later, no matter what, she had to find a way to make Naruto cover those whisker marks again.
If the world lost a bright, cheerful handsome guy because of a few lines on his face, that would be an unforgivable waste.
That oddly passionate sense of duty, born straight from her hopeless love of good looks, temporarily shoved every other complicated feeling aside.
Beside her, both Shikamaru and Sakura looked startled.
The two of them exchanged a glance, each seeing the same question in the other's eyes.
Naruto... actually knew Uncle Inoichi? And not just knew him—the way he talked made it sound like they had a decent relationship.
That was completely outside anything they had ever imagined about Naruto's social circle.
In their minds, Naruto had always been isolated, the kid the villagers avoided. The idea that he had any real contact with the head of the Yamanaka clan, let alone enough to send a thank-you gift, simply did not fit the picture they knew.