The bell rang, and Mizuki quickly left the classroom.
The room immediately erupted into a buzz of conversation.
Such a sudden outburst from a diligent student like Haruno Sakura was prime gossip material for the dull life at the Academy. Those who knew her immediately gathered closer to joke about it, while even the students who didn't know her well couldn't help but prick up their ears, eager to hear her explanation.
Uzumaki Naruto was the most enthusiastic of all. He practically catapulted from his seat, gave Sakura a big thumbs-up in full approval of her actions, and immediately invited her to participate in the magnificent prank he was planning for later...
But Sakura simply ignored him.
She frowned and, without a word, pushed her way out of the classroom. Her steps grew faster and faster until she was running out of the Academy gates. And then, her vision was suddenly filled with tightly packed houses of varying heights, pedestrians bustling through the streets, and, in the distance, the enormous faces of the Hokage carved into the cliffside.
The hot sun created an incredibly potent sense of reality, and the scene before her eyes instantly merged with a moment from the depths of her memory.
"The Village Hidden in the Leaves..." Sakura muttered. Then, as if remembering something, she took off again, following the increasingly clear memories toward her home.
At that moment, from a sunless corner, Aoki Yuu watched her back. After a moment of thought, he silently followed her.
Whatever was going on, he couldn't ignore her strange behavior. The other students might not have thought much of it, but Yuu was certain he hadn't misheard the words that had slipped from her lips.
By itself, the word "Kaido" meant nothing, nor did "Haki." But when both words appeared in the same sentence—that was a serious problem.
If things were really as he suspected...
Aoki Yuu took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
The streets were crowded, so Sakura wasn't moving too quickly, and Yuu had no trouble keeping his distance. But after she had passed a few blocks, she stopped abruptly, spun around, and her gaze shot straight at him, piercing through the crowd.
Yuu raised an eyebrow.
She noticed me?
Although he hadn't tried too hard to hide, an ordinary Academy student would hardly possess such keen perception, especially in her current, obviously distressed state.
He didn't stop. On the contrary, he boldly quickened his pace and approached her. Before Sakura could speak, Yuu asked with a look of concern:
"Haruno-san, what's wrong with you today?"
"Our next class is about to start, are you going somewhere?"
Sakura gave him an appraising look, hesitated for a moment, and only then spoke.
"I suddenly remembered I have urgent business at home. Don't worry, I'll explain everything to Iruku-sensei later."
"Iruka-sensei," Yuu corrected.
Sakura froze for an instant.
"I know that, of course. It was just a slip of the tongue."
She didn't seem to want to say anything more. Waving a hand, she repeated:
"Don't worry about it, uh... classmate. Just head back to the Academy."
Without waiting for Yuu's reaction, she turned and, quickening her pace, disappeared into the crowd.
Aoki Yuu remained standing there, his eyes narrowed slightly. He had, of course, caught the tiny pause in her words.
Not only did she get Iruka-sensei's name wrong, but... does she not remember my name either?
Although Yuu, in an effort not to influence the plot, had barely interacted with the main characters and was a fairly inconspicuous figure in the class, it was a group of only twenty or thirty people who had spent six years together. Even the most forgetful person would know their classmates' names.
Moreover, Sakura was known for her excellent memory.
Has it been too long since she dealt with anything related to Konoha, or... is she not Haruno Sakura at all?
Yuu remembered perfectly that before class started, she had been acting completely normal. From the moment she arrived, she and Ino had been competing to please Sasuke and had even managed to get into a fight over it.
He really didn't want to entertain the possibility, but one thought had already taken an unshakable hold of his mind.
The current Haruno Sakura is, with a high degree of probability, a transmigrator. And judging by the words she blurted out, she most likely came from the world of "One Piece." That would also explain why she noticed me following her so quickly.
In that world, there's a power known as Observation Haki!
The specific circumstances still need to be figured out, but the main question right now is something else...
Pressing his lips together, Yuu slowly trudged back toward the Academy.
What kind of butterfly effect will a character who has deviated from the canon have on the original plot?
That was what worried him most.
His entire System was based on checking in at scenes from the original story. If a transmigrator turned everything upside down and those scenes simply never happened, his System would become useless.
And with his own abilities, without his cheat, he would at best make it to jonin, never even approaching the Kage level. In this world, where bloodlines reign supreme and power is directly proportional to how fancy your eyes are, he would have no way to control his own destiny.
What's done is done. Worrying is pointless; I need to find a solution, and fast.
Aoki Yuu rubbed the bridge of his nose.
If I'm looking for a silver lining, at least it was Sakura who got replaced, and not Naruto or Sasuke.
Although Sakura is a member of Team 7, she didn't play a central role in many key scenes, especially at the beginning, where she was mostly in a supporting role.
Yuu replayed the original storyline in his head, trying to anticipate how Sakura's strange behavior might affect various key moments. But all these probabilities ultimately depended on the personality and actions of the current Sakura.
"Looks like I'll have to get to know this uninvited guest a little better," Yuu sighed heavily.
And here I thought I'd just be a background character, tagging along behind the main team and using my cheat to easily gain the power to slap down Uchihas with my left hand and Ōtsutsukis with my right.
Clearly, that path is now closed.
He narrowed his eyes, his expression turning grim.
A transmigrator, huh... I don't care what happened to you in other worlds, but in this world, changing the plot is an attack on my very life.
And in order to survive...
I'm prepared to do anything.