After witnessing Rasa being taken down by Pakura with his own eyes, Takeshi returned to Konoha.
Rasa was dead. Pakura would no doubt be retrieved by Sunagakure, and the rest of the matter would require some careful thought.
The moment he returned to the Hokage's office, Takeshi immediately drove out Itachi, Hikari, Shisui, and the other Uchiha, then sat hugging a map, pondering alone in the room.
"What are you studying?"
He didn't know how long he had been staring, when Takeshi suddenly heard a familiar voice.
Looking up, he saw that Obito and Kakashi had appeared in the room at some point, both gazes fixed on him.
"I'm thinking about what methods I can use to continue weakening Sunagakure."
Takeshi didn't bother to hide his thoughts, especially since he was the one who had summoned the two here.
Obito wasn't all that important—just a blade wielder. But Kakashi was different. Although the current situation was entirely orchestrated by Takeshi himself, the path forward gave him genuine headaches.
He could have gone to consult Shikaku, but in terms of closeness, Takeshi trusted Kakashi more.
"Come, sit down."
Just as he was about to gesture something on the map, Takeshi noticed the two still standing in front of him. He patted the sofa, signaling that there was still plenty of space.
"No—"
Kakashi was about to refuse on the grounds of their different positions, but before he could, Obito had already swaggered over and plopped down right next to Takeshi.
This idiot… Takeshi was the actual Hokage now!
Kakashi ranted in his heart, his gaze unconsciously drifting to the window.
Beside Sakumo's Hokage Rock face, Takeshi's own likeness was already under construction.
"Sit down, Kakashi."
Seeing Kakashi still unmoving, Takeshi assumed he thought the space was too cramped, so he squeezed Obito a bit more to the side: "Move over, Obito."
"Alright, alright, I got it."
Rubbing his head helplessly, Kakashi sighed and sat down on Takeshi's left.
"You see, Sunagakure has already slaughtered nearly all the nobles in these regions..."
After Takeshi explained the current situation to him, Kakashi—as his external brain—did indeed start to provide useful input.
...
"Many of you think that since you've become shinobi, there's no need to study cultural lessons anymore. I'm here to tell you, that's a mistaken belief..."
On the podium, Iruka waved the report card in his hands.
It recorded the cultural class scores of his students.
Other than a few S's and A's, the majority were pitiful C's and D's.
"Hey, Shikamaru, that's the village wall, right? Aren't we supposed to rely on that to protect the village? Why are they tearing it down?"
Sitting beside Shikamaru, Naruto wasn't paying the slightest attention to Iruka's lecture. He poked Shikamaru with a finger, gesturing for him to look outside the window.
"Ah, that? I heard the Fifth Hokage-sama is planning to expand the village, so they tore it down."
Lying on his desk, so bored he was yawning, Shikamaru thought back to one of his father's absentminded mutterings and answered Naruto's question.
"Eh, expanding it?"
Naruto blinked. Konoha was already this huge, and yet Takeshi still wanted to make it bigger?
"Yeah, apparently it'll stimulate something-or-other, and also attract refugees or something."
To Shikamaru, such things had no meaning for shinobi.
No—that profession of shinobi itself was meaningless.
"Hmph, idiot Naruto. If you could understand Takeshi-san's thinking, you'd already be Hokage."
Sasuke, who had slipped over without anyone noticing, gave a cold, smug snort upon hearing their conversation.
"So cool~"
From the corner, Sakura, who had been quietly watching Sasuke, immediately went starry-eyed, making Ino scowl in annoyance.
"Stupid wide-forehead, Sasuke is mine!"
Ino whispered a territorial claim under her breath, but Sakura ignored her completely.
"If it's so boring, why don't we skip class?"
Hearing Sasuke and Naruto bicker, Kiba—sitting in front—turned around and joined the conversation.
The low murmur of whispers gradually drowned out Iruka's lecture, and no one noticed that the teacher's face on the podium was steadily reddening.
"Shikamaru! Naruto! Sasuke! Sakura! Ino! Kiba!"
As Iruka called their names one by one, the group that had just been laughing all froze, expressions changing instantly.
"You six, all of you, get out!"
Chasing the troublemakers out to stand in punishment, Iruka looked down at the report card again, ready to praise some of the students who had done well in this exam.
"First, the S-ranks: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, Hyūga Hinata..."
The more he read, the stranger Iruka felt.
Good grief—of the four best students, three had just been kicked out by him!
Just what kind of students was he even teaching?!
Time passed quickly, and before long it was dismissal.
"You should've seen Iruka-sensei's face when he got to your name..."
On the way home, Karin eagerly mimicked Iruka's expression, making Naruto burst into laughter again.
"Arrogant Sasuke, you only scored a B. If Fugaku-san finds out, he'll kill you."
"That was just a fluke! Questions like that are nothing but child's play for me!"
Watching Sasuke bicker with Naruto yet again, Sakura wanted to interject, but found she couldn't get a word in at all.
Truthfully, she wasn't familiar with Naruto's little group.
Her family wasn't notable, her parents weren't even jōnin. The only connection she had was Ino, whom she'd known since childhood.
Naruto's group, on the other hand—their parents were either ANBU leaders in the Fourth Hokage's era, or captains of the Police Force.
Even Kiba, whose family background was the most modest, still had a mother who was a special jōnin.
Compared to that, Sakura truly had little reason to speak up.
All she had was slightly better grades.
"What are you thinking about?"
Just as Sakura was sinking into self-consciousness about her family, Naruto suddenly noticed her mood.
Looking up, Sakura found Naruto's bright blue eyes staring right at her, his lips curled into a friendly smile.
"Uh, me?"
Sakura pointed at herself uncertainly.
"Yeah, you. Haruno Sakura, right? We all got punished standing together, so like Takeshi-san says, that makes us friends."
Naruto, quoting some nonsense he must've heard somewhere, extended a hand and began introducing the members of his little group.
Besides the ones punished alongside him, there were also Hyūga Hinata, Aburame Shino...
Looking at Naruto's radiant smile, Sakura suddenly felt like Sasuke didn't seem quite as handsome anymore.
"Ah, let go of me! I'm ANBU! I have top-secret missions!"
As the kids joked along their way past the bathhouse, they saw a white-haired man being pinned down by members of the Police Force, dragged toward headquarters.