The next day.
Naruto's life was still spent on a pile of D-rank missions.Following Naruto's advice, Sakura had spoken with Kakashi about starting her path as a medical ninja.
Kakashi, in turn, arranged for her to train under a medical corps instructor named Yuu.
Yuu was part of the same generation as Kakashi—Konoha's "Golden Age." In that era, medical ninjas generally had high survival rates, and Yuu surviving into the present made him one of the standouts of his craft.
Though nowhere near as famous as Tsunade, under the current circumstances there was no way Kakashi could even know where Tsunade was. As a jōnin, Yuu was more than capable of guiding Sakura.
"Is this your student, Kakashi?" Yuu asked, dressed in the white uniform of a medic-nin.
Sakura looked nervously at him. He was a young man in his early twenties, about Kakashi's age, wearing a crisp white medic uniform and a tall cap. The large red cross on his chest stood out, and several other medic-nin glanced over as well.
"Nice to meet you, please take care of me!" Sakura bowed deeply. "I'm Haruno Sakura."
"Yo, Kakashi, your student is way more polite than you," joked another medic-nin, Hanpō.
"Annoying," Kakashi replied with his classic dead-fish eyes.
Soon more from the medical unit gathered: Suo, Utōn, even Baicao, who grinned as he carried a stretcher past.
"That's great, we've been short on hands recently."
Sakura turned beet red, overwhelmed by so many people addressing her, and glanced helplessly at Kakashi.
"They're always like this," Kakashi reassured her. "I've gotten injured too many times, so I'm on familiar terms with the medical corps."
Sakura nodded and thus began her journey with the medical team.
But Kakashi didn't have the time to train all three of his students. With Sakura left in the medical corps and Naruto buried in endless D-rank missions, that left only Sasuke. Perhaps because they were both Sharingan users, Kakashi clearly favored Sasuke, who had become his "true" student.
…
While everyone else was focused on training, one dropout of the "Will of Fire education system" had set up a hammock deep in Konoha's forest and was snoring away.
After the Land of Waves mission, Naruto had paid the price for his recklessness: twenty D-rank missions solo before he could rejoin Team 7.
So far, including last night's cat-retrieval mission in the bamboo grove, he had completed only five.
And then he gave up.
"Twenty? That'll take forever. Easier to just pay someone else."
Naruto lay in his hammock, staring through the canopy. He'd even hired a ninja academy student to complete a trash-collection D-rank for 50,000 ryō.
"Helping poor academy students find part-time work—truly, I'm a saint of Konoha."
He stretched lazily, completely unbothered by whether the higher-ups knew about his Lava Release. Kakashi had surely reported it already.
He no longer cared about hiding his wealth either. Even if the ANBU were watching, there was nothing the village could do. All of Gato's treasure was tucked safely away in the system warehouse.
And besides, Konoha shinobi often returned from missions with "sudden windfalls." Nobody would bat an eye.
Life on easy mode was, admittedly, very comfortable.
…
Naruto cracked his eyes open after who-knew-how-long and was startled to find someone standing in front of him.
"H-Hinata? When did you get here?" he coughed violently.
The girl in the light lavender hooded coat flinched at his reaction, fidgeting and glancing away nervously.
[Nine-Tails' Approval: 2.3%]
The synthetic voice echoed in Naruto's head. He froze. He hadn't even done anything this time. Why had the progress increased?
"I… came back yesterday," Hinata stammered, cheeks red, eyes shut tight. "Kurenai-sensei said we won't be taking missions for now… so we're supposed to train for the Chūnin Exams."
"Oh, so you're free then?" Naruto smiled.
Hinata nodded.
"By the way, how'd you find me here? This spot's pretty hidden."
"Byakugan," Hinata murmured, lowering her head.
"Ohh, the Byakugan, huh?" Naruto leaned closer, inspecting her eyes with curiosity.
"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata recoiled slightly, eyes squeezed shut. "It's not… nice to look at."
"I think it looks good."
"Eh?" Hinata's eyes flew open in shock. "Naruto-kun, w-what did you just say?"
"Up close, the Byakugan is actually really nice." He grinned.
Warmth spread in Hinata's chest. To most villagers, the Byakugan was an ominous symbol, and even within the Hyūga clan, it had caused endless strife. The cursed caged bird seal… that blue-green tattoo…
"Wait here for a bit," Naruto suddenly said, darting off.
Hinata froze, staring blankly after him, uncertain what to do.
About half an hour later, he returned carrying a bulging little bundle.
"Come on! I'm taking you somewhere."
Without hesitation, Naruto grabbed her hand and took off running.
M-My hand… Naruto-kun is holding my hand?
Hinata's head spun, her face burning red. She didn't even ask where they were going—she just let herself be led along.