Chapter 23: Sharing Honor and Disgrace

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“It seems all we know about him is his name,” Sakura Haruno muttered under her breath.

Naruto nodded in agreement.

As expected of a jonin instructor.

After introducing himself, Kakashi had revealed not a single piece of information beyond his name.

Back in his previous life, even if he registered for every app in existence, he probably would not have leaked any personal information.

His confidentiality skills were maxed out.

The Eastern Depot... my Flowerland needs an anti-fraud expert like you!

If we could somehow recruit him, we could probably lower the nation’s fraud rate by at least five percentage points.

“Now it’s your turn. Who wants to go first?” Kakashi tossed the subject toward the three of them.

“I’ll go first.” Naruto raised his hand. After all, he was standing on the far right.

“My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I’m a man who will become Hokage. I like the things I like, and I dislike the things I dislike.”

Naruto thoroughly embodied the principles of empty rhetoric. “As for my hobbies, I especially enjoy painting on the Hokage Monument. That’s all.”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes slightly.

Why did this brat seem so irritating?

This really isn’t like you at all, Teacher Minato.

Still, he could only nod helplessly. After all, he himself had set a poor example.

“Good. Next.”

“My name is Sakura Haruno.”

Sakura’s face flushed as she fidgeted and said, “As for the things I like, it would be more accurate to say there’s someone I like... My hobby is... My dream is... Ah!”

Apparently, her little mind had wandered into some rather inappropriate territory. She suddenly let out a bashful cry, then buried her face deep in the crook of her arms, too embarrassed to look at anyone.

Throughout her introduction, she glanced at Sasuke ten times for every sentence she spoke. Her meaning could not have been clearer.

Naruto and Kakashi both turned their eyes toward the person concerned.

Sasuke: Irrelevant.

Naruto looked away. Sakura’s mannerisms had made his teeth ache.

Oh.

At that moment, Naruto suddenly realized—

He had apparently grown past the age of blushing with embarrassment.

A girl hopelessly lost in love, was she? Kakashi turned his gaze toward Sasuke. “Last one.”

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha.”

Sasuke, saved for last, introduced himself. “There is nothing I like. There are many things I dislike. My dream—or rather, my ambition—is to restore the Uchiha clan. And there is a certain man I must kill with my own hands.”

That man? It must be Itachi, right?

Naruto suddenly remembered the culprit behind the Uchiha massacre.

I wonder which is stronger: this Uchiha one-versus-seven, or my Uzumaki one-versus-seven?

“Very good. All three of you have distinct personalities. How interesting.”

One eccentric, one lovestruck, and one bent on revenge. From the composition of this team, Kakashi already had a sense of what lay ahead. His head was beginning to ache.

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He had originally intended to scare them a little with some dark humor, but now he no longer had the mood for even that.

So Kakashi simply said, “Starting tomorrow, you will begin your missions. Your first mission will be a survival exercise.”

“Thirty students will graduate from the Academy this year, but there are only nine slots for those who can officially become genin. Everyone else will be sent back to the Academy.

“That is the difficulty of tomorrow’s test. Be prepared. Tomorrow morning, meet at Training Ground Three at five o’clock.”

“Dismissed!”

With that, Kakashi stretched his body and prepared to leave.

“Oh, right. Remember not to eat breakfast. I’d hate for you to throw up,” Kakashi added suddenly before departing.

With that, he vanished in a whoosh.

As expected of a jonin—their movements were much faster than those of the ordinary chunin instructors.

And that sharp, effortless handsomeness... Was this the confidence that came with strength?

He was so cool!

Someone that cool must have a girlfriend, right?

Returning to Kakashi’s parting “last words,” Naruto repeated them to himself.

“Only nine slots?”

Naruto was not worried about graduating in the slightest.

If he could not graduate, then no one in this school could.

But that number... nine people?

Was it a coincidence?

After mulling it over, Naruto looked toward his future teammates. Sasuke was as he always was, his brows knitted as he wondered about something.

As for Sakura Haruno—well, for now he would just call her Sakura.

Sakura’s hands were trembling. She seemed to feel that her chances were rather uncertain. If she failed to graduate, her beloved Sasuke would probably leave her behind.

Seeing this, Naruto started a conversation. “Did you notice?”

“Hmm?” Sasuke raised an eyebrow and looked over, while Sakura also lifted her head in a daze.

Both of them stared at Naruto.

Naruto retrieved the intelligence he had barely used during the past twelve years and began explaining his analysis and discovery. “Only nine people can pass. That makes exactly three teams. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

“You mean tomorrow’s test will be a team exercise?”

“Not necessarily.” Naruto shook his head, rejecting Sakura’s guess. “I mean that if there’s an elimination, the entire team might be eliminated together.”

“What kind of rule is that?”

Sakura could not believe Naruto’s theory. How could there be a rule like that?

“Perhaps it’s because unity is strength! This strength is iron, this strength is—”

Seeing the increasingly puzzled looks on their faces, Naruto stopped singing, finding it rather boring.

If only there were another time traveler here to play along.

They could even compare secret passwords.

Like, “Odd changes, even stays the same.” “eBay bar eBay.”

Seeing that the two of them still did not understand what he meant, Naruto added, “Haven’t you heard of the Three Legendary Ninja?”

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“What are you trying to say?”

Sasuke seemed slightly impatient and reminded Naruto to get to the point.

“The Three Legendary Ninja were led by the current Hokage. The three of them have been on the same team ever since they were children.”

Sasuke understood immediately. Sakura, however, still could not work out the connection.

“What does that mean, Naruto? What does it have to do with us?”

How could she not figure that out?

If she had only taken back a fraction of the attention she lavished on Sasuke, she would not have had such trouble seeing it.

Before the teams had been assigned that day, Naruto had not considered this possibility. But the moment the three-man team was formed, he understood.

Three-man team plus a supervising ninja—that was probably Konoha’s, and perhaps even the entire shinobi world’s, system for training and succession.

Until a team failed an evaluation, or until one of its members was lost, that personnel structure would continue.

In other words, barring unforeseen circumstances, the three of them were now bound together.

“It means that our fortunes are joined—at least until we fail the evaluation,” Sasuke explained at last.

“Sasuke really is clever.” Naruto praised him without reservation.

Our fortunes are joined? Sasuke and me?

I’m willing!

Sakura’s face flushed again. In that instant, she had even chosen the names of their future children.

“Hey, hey, come back to earth!”

Naruto interrupted Sakura’s rosy fantasies. “We don’t know what tomorrow’s evaluation will be, but there’s no harm in sticking together. Trust me—the first test any team faces is always unity.”

Sakura stared at Naruto as he spoke with confidence, unable to believe it. Was this really the dead-last student she knew?

Sasuke thought she was simply ignorant. Naruto might have been the worst in class academically, but in his experience, Naruto was dependable in every other respect.

“So, to pass tomorrow, we need to make some preparations.”

“Such as?” Sasuke wanted to hear Naruto’s analysis.

“Information.”

Intelligence work had always been a vital part of being a ninja.

With that, Naruto fixed his gaze on Sakura and instructed her, “When you go home, find out as much as you can about Kakashi-sensei.”

“What about you two?”

“We’ll conserve our strength and perform well tomorrow.”

“You?”

There was more than a little disbelief in Sakura’s voice.

Did she doubt my abilities?

Naruto could not even be bothered to look at her. “Then let’s split up for now. We’ll adapt to whatever happens tomorrow.”

Who knew what the mission would actually be?

“Dismissed.”

Naruto imitated Kakashi’s cool pose and vanished in a flash.

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