The next day.
To Naruto's surprise, Iruka had stopped the school's lessons and brought the students from their class to visit him.
Yugao, who had arrived early to take care of Naruto, saw this and smiled knowingly before leaving on her own.
"Wow, Naruto-kun, how did you suddenly get so badly injured? Are you alright now?" Sakura, her eyes red, threw herself into Naruto's arms, tears flowing.
"Hey, hey, hey, Forehead, get off him!" Ino quickly pulled Sakura away, annoyed. "Can't you see Naruto's still bandaged? What if you make his wounds reopen?"
Sakura, whose good intentions had been thwarted, glared at Ino. Hearing this, she was immediately startled and looked terrified. She nervously said to Naruto, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
Naruto waved his hand, interrupting her. "Don't worry, the wounds have been healed. I'm just a bit weak, but it's nothing serious."
Sakura and Ino finally breathed a sigh of relief, then nestled beside Naruto, one on each side, fussing over him and feeding him fruit.
This scene made many female classmates, who also had feelings for Naruto, envious. Unfortunately, besides Sakura and Ino, the other girls in the class weren't close to Naruto.
After all, they were just background characters. Although Naruto was polite to them, he didn't have any intention of adding them to his harem.
Of course, there was also Hinata, the original series' main love interest. But because she was so introverted, she always kept her distance from Naruto, and he hadn't yet found a chance to talk to her.
"Seriously, Naruto, you're such a loser, aren't you?"
Kiba complained, "This is Konoha, and you got such serious injuries in your own village. Did you lose control during training or something?"
Although he was complaining, seeing Naruto enjoying the attention of so many girls, he was already filled with envy.
But Kiba's words also expressed the doubts of the others.
It was ridiculous how badly he was injured, especially considering he was in Konoha.
Iruka learned from the Third Hokage that Naruto was severely injured and would be taking leave. He canceled the morning lessons and brought the class to visit him.
This decision was Iruka's own idea, but also subtly guided by the Third Hokage.
The Third Hokage had noticed the situation between Naruto and Yugao. He observed that Naruto seemed a bit different, more mature and reliable, after Yugao entered his life.
Therefore, he hoped that Iruka and the students in the class could develop deep friendships with Naruto.
"Heh heh heh, isn't the Graduation Exam coming up soon? So I trained harder, and... well, I wasn't careful..." Naruto chuckled sheepishly.
The matter with Hayate Gekko was not to be publicized. After some discussion, the Third Hokage instructed Naruto to use this explanation when others asked. Naruto didn't object.
After all, Hayate Gekko was already out of the picture. If the guy stayed home for a year, Naruto couldn't be bothered to kick him while he was down.
A year was enough for Yugao to give up on him completely.
"Seriously, you're still as clumsy as ever!"
Even Shikamaru, with his IQ of 250, didn't notice anything amiss and joined in the teasing.
The others couldn't help but burst out laughing at this.
Indeed, even though Naruto had improved a lot recently, his personality hadn't changed at all.
"Fortunately, it's nothing serious!" After checking Naruto, Iruka was relieved and cautioned, "You need to be more careful in the future. After all, you won't always be this lucky."
"Yes, yes!" Naruto replied repeatedly.
Naruto could still feel Iruka's genuine concern.
"Well, you'll be stuck in the hospital for quite a while then. If you end up missing training and fail the graduation exam because of it, that would be counterproductive."
Kiba said with a hint of glee, "Besides, even without this incident, passing the graduation exam wouldn't be easy for you. Who told you to be a dead last, hahaha!"
"Kiba, that was in the past. Naruto isn't a dead last anymore." Chouji was the most gentle of the group.
"Tch, I was just teasing him. Why are you taking it so seriously?" Kiba pouted unhappily.
With these guys joking around, the atmosphere in the ward was quite cheerful.
Only those extras who had been dealt with by Naruto before, because it was a group activity, had no choice but to follow, so they stood behind and didn't come forward.
Additionally, Hinata was timidly hiding in the crowd, secretly sizing up Naruto but didn't dare to approach.
As for Sasuke, that guy didn't give Iruka any face at all.
Heard he skipped class and went off to train on his own.
Hokage's Office.
The Third Hokage looked at his old friend with astonishment as the man stormed in, radiating anger.
"Danzo, what's the meaning of this?" The Third Hokage frowned.
Ever since the Uchiha Clan Downfall, he had removed Danzo from his position and strictly forbidden him from leaving his residence.
Over the years, Danzo had been relatively well-behaved, at least outwardly, and hadn't caused any trouble.
His sudden appearance today truly caught the Third Hokage off guard.
"The Four Purple Flames Formation I left outside Training Ground 10 has been destroyed!"
Danzo, his face grim, wasted no time getting to the point. "Someone broke in there last night and completely destroyed it without a sound, likely using a barrier technique."
"Hmm?" The Third Hokage was somewhat surprised by this.
He knew about the Four Purple Flames Formation; Danzo had requested a large amount of funding from him to build it in the past.
Although the Third Hokage hadn't seen the need for it, Danzo had insisted on it as a precaution, and the Third Hokage had eventually relented.
"Any leads?" the Third Hokage asked.
"That's the problem!" Danzo thumped his cane on the ground, appearing agitated. He said coldly, "A considerable amount of Nine-Tailed Fox Chakra was left at the scene, and the Four Purple Flames Formation appears to have been destroyed by a technique similar to the Rasengan."
"How could that be?" The Third Hokage stood up abruptly, his expression a mixture of shock and doubt. "Are you trying to tell me that Naruto was behind this?"
"That's precisely the case!" Danzo's eyes gleamed coldly. "The Nine-Tailed Fox's Chakra is undeniable proof, but the problem now is that he can use barrier techniques and the Rasengan!"
"Hiruzen, that Nine-Tailed brat is definitely not as simple as he seems. We've all been fooled by him!"
....
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