Originally, Naruto should've drawn number 1 and been the first to fight Hyuga Neji.
But it looked like the person drawing this time was different — Naruto ended up picking number 7!
Based on the rules, that meant he'd fight whoever got number 8!
After everyone had drawn their lots, Anko went back to stand beside Sarutobi, and Ibiki Morino said, "Now, starting from the left, tell me the number on your paper!"
The person farthest to the left was Tōsu. He unfolded his paper and said, "8!"
Next was Rock Lee: "1!"
Neji: "2!"
Aburame Shino: "3!"
Hinata Hyuga: "5!"
Naruto: "7!"
Sasuke: "9!"
Gaara: "10!"
Temari: "6!"
Kankuro: "4!"
Ibiki wrote all their names on a board based on their numbers.
The final matchups were:
Rock Lee vs. Hyuga Neji,
Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro,
Hinata Hyuga vs. Temari,
Naruto Uzumaki vs. Tōsu,
Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara!
...
The next day, Warm Izumi Street.
Naruto arrived at a small inn.
"This should be the place, right?"
He 々 Inn! (read : Hehe Inn)
The symbol 々 is a character used to show repetition in Japanese. It can also be called the "repeating symbol."
It stands for the character right before it and takes on a different pronunciation depending on what it's repeating.
For example, 日々 (with the symbol) becomes 日日, which you read as "riri."
So 鶴々 would be 鶴鶴, and you'd read it as "hehe!"
This was something Naruto didn't really understand. Maybe the symbol was made to help tell the difference between kanji and kana?
AI-chan had given him the ability to read Japanese, but not the history behind it. So all he could do was keep a question mark in his head and walk into the (Hehe) Onsen Inn.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
A loud scream came from inside the inn.
Right after that, Naruto calmly walked out of the room and headed into the men's bath on the other side.
He'd been too focused on asking questions and forgot to check the signs for the men's and women's baths.
The men's bath was still completely empty.
It wasn't clear whether guys didn't like this bath or if it just wasn't the time for them to come yet.
Naruto randomly picked a warm pool and jumped in, closing his eyes to wait quietly.
In his new plan,
Hiruzen Sarutobi would die during the Chunin Exams.
Then Tsunade would return to take over as the Fifth Hokage, give him the Chunin rank, and help him with his future missions, all the way until the Pain invasion when he could finally retire with honor!
And to make it more likely that Tsunade would come back and become the Fifth, Naruto came here to find Jiraiya!
Once the Third Hokage dies, with no Hokage in the village, the two advisors would look for Jiraiya and ask him to take the position.
Then Jiraiya would refuse and promise to go find Tsunade himself to take over!
During that trip, Jiraiya would bring Naruto along...
But in the original story, Jiraiya took Naruto with him to train and protect the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.
So Naruto wasn't sure if Jiraiya would still bring him this time.
But whether he was brought along or not, he planned to give it a try anyway!
He wasn't great at talking people into things, but he knew Tsunade. Maybe he could help in some way.
If, in the end, Tsunade still didn't return, then he'd need to find a chance to assassinate Danzo...
The reason he wasn't killing Danzo now was because he couldn't do it openly. Killing him like that would affect the rest of his life and missions.
But if he really wanted to pull off an assassination, he'd have to follow Danzo and look for the right moment… and that wasn't something he was good at.
If he had Observation Haki, it'd be one thing. But without it, Naruto didn't have much confidence in his ability to hide his presence or avoid danger.
If he got caught secretly following the head of Konoha's Root division… Naruto seriously doubted he could brush it off by saying he "liked Danzo" or something.
Sure, he could also just kill off all the higher-ups in Konoha and be done with it.
But if they were all dead… who would run the village?
Naruto had no intention of working hard to manage a village. Otherwise, he wouldn't rely so much on the system's power to get stronger and would've trained on his own by now!
At this point, he could read Japanese, understand jutsu scrolls, and had perfect chakra control.
He might not be able to learn every jutsu in the world, but he could definitely learn some powerful ones.
It's just that he didn't feel the need to work that hard…
He already worked so much completing AI-chan's missions. Now he had to train too?
Wouldn't that make him worse off than a farm animal?
Thinking back to the time since he came to this world, except for two days of lying flat after returning from the Land of Waves, he'd either been doing missions for Konoha or for AI-chan… When had he ever gotten a break?
And even on those two "rest" days, he developed his Glint Glint Fruit powers. That was just more overtime—it didn't count as rest at all!
"Mmm~"
Enjoying the feel of the hot water soaking into his skin, Naruto let out a soft hum.
So this is what working life feels like~
"Hehehe~ Hehehe~"
"Hm?"
Naruto opened his eyes and looked at his reflection in the water with a confused face.
I didn't make that creepy laugh just now, did I?
"Hehehe~ Hehehe~"
"It wasn't me!
Someone else came in!"
Naruto used a projection technique to show what was happening in the bathhouse on his hand.
"Huh? Why are there so many people?"
He looked closely and realized he had made a mistake—this wasn't the men's bathhouse.
In the next moment, a tiny figure of a long-haired old man squatting and giggling appeared in Naruto's hand.
"That's probably Jiraiya, huh?"
Naruto looked at the little figure in his hand, half believing it, and stood up to put on his clothes.
He glanced around casually and quickly spotted a white-haired old man crouching near a wooden divider, grinning like an idiot.
He slowly walked over, squatted next to the man, and quietly asked, "Jiraiya?"
"Oh? You actually know who I am?"
Hearing Naruto call him by name, Jiraiya looked at him with surprise. "You brat... you look like you're just twelve. How do you know me?"
Even though Naruto had changed his hairstyle and clothes, things like height didn't change that quickly.
"Forget it, that's not important. Rather than hearing you call me by name, I'd prefer you call me the Toad Sage from Mount Myoboku!" Jiraiya said, standing up and flipping his hair before striking what he thought was a cool pose.
"..."
"My dad is Namikaze Minato."
"... *cough cough!*"
Jiraiya quickly squatted back down and faked a few coughs. "Sorry, I didn't hear that. What did you say?"
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