Chapter 597: The Young Shinobi

"Where the leaves dance, the flames shall never die. The light of the fire will continue to illuminate the village and allow new leaves to sprout..."

At the opening ceremony, Sarutobi Hiruzen, honorary president of Konohagakure Ninja University, was kindly explaining the Will of Fire and the history of Konohagakure to the freshmen.

"Grandpa says the same thing every time. I can recite it by heart already," Naruto whispered from below.

He had truly been hearing these words from the Third since elementary school, and they had never changed.

He used to feel his blood boil when he heard them, but now they felt a little outdated. What era was this? They were still talking about the traditional Will of Fire. The entire shinobi world had already been unified, so why not come up with something new?

"Boring." Yuriha felt nothing about any of this.

"Thank you for Third Hokage’s speech. Next, please welcome our Vice President Hatake to give a speech to the freshmen."

As soon as the host finished speaking, a flash of silver light appeared. Kakashi, dressed in a Konohagakure ninja uniform, appeared on stage and greeted the Third Hokage and the host.

"You young people really are full of energy. Unlike an old man like me, who already has one foot in the grave." The Third sighed when he realized that he could not sense Kakashi’s movement at all.

Once upon a time, he had also been the pillar that stabilized Konohagakure, but now he could no longer keep up with the times.

He did not know any of that domineering aura, spiritual pressure, or Breathing Style, and had only learned a little Senjutsu.

Kakashi smiled modestly, then faced the freshmen below and began his speech.

"So that’s Yuriha’s father? He looks like a really powerful shinobi." Ino said from below.

Although she had a very good relationship with Yuriha and had visited Yuriha’s home several times, Kakashi had happened to be absent every time.

Her impression of Kakashi all came from Naruto or Yuriha’s descriptions.

When they were younger, because of Kakashi’s identity as an Anbu member, Ino had once been too afraid to go to Yuriha’s house.

"What a drag... Even university can’t avoid these formalities?" Shikamaru only wanted to return to his dormitory and sleep as soon as possible.

He had come because his family had nagged him so much, and he had heard that university was very relaxed.

Judging from things now, staying at home was still more comfortable.

"You ungrateful pineapple head. This is sincere guidance from an elder, so listen properly." Yuriha crossed her arms and said expressionlessly.

Shikamaru was speechless. You weren’t like this when the Third Hokage was speaking just now. Wasn’t the Third Hokage an elder too? If you really wanted to count it, the Third was Kakashi’s grandmaster, his teacher’s teacher’s teacher.

"I’m not saying Senior Hatake is boring. I’m talking about the procedure." Shikamaru still explained himself somewhat.

"That’s more like it." Yuriha nodded. If it weren’t for her father’s speech, she probably would not have listened either.

After the opening ceremony ended, everyone split into small groups and began wandering around the school to familiarize themselves with the campus, except for Shikamaru.

"I’m going back to the dormitory." Shikamaru stretched lazily.

"You’re not going to look around the school?" Naruto asked.

"We’re going to be staying here for several years anyway. Might as well leave some freshness for later." Shikamaru looked around and planned the shortest route back to the dormitory.

"That actually makes some sense." Naruto surprisingly felt somewhat convinced by Shikamaru.

"What sense does it make? Basically, you’re just too lazy to walk." Sasuke complained. "Only an idiot like Naruto would believe that kind of excuse."

Seeing Sasuke looking for trouble, Naruto did not back down and immediately retorted.

Seeing the two of them, Shikamaru figured they would be arguing for a while, so he put his hands in his pockets and headed toward the dormitory.

"I heard Kumogakure is holding a Taijutsu challenge tonight, and apparently the Raikage himself will participate."

"Then we absolutely have to watch. I’ve wanted to see Kumogakure’s Lightning Release Ninjutsu Taijutsu for a long time."

"I heard they’ll also be drawing lucky viewers from the livestream audience and giving away concert tickets..."

On the asphalt road, shinobi from different countries and different villages were discussing all kinds of new and interesting things.

Looking at the harmonious scene, Shikamaru could not help but feel admiration for Principal Nagasawa, who had brought all of this about.

Shikamaru had studied history and knew that just over ten years ago, the shinobi world had experienced a great war. The countries of the shinobi world had fought each other viciously.

Let alone everyone getting along harmoniously and becoming friends, even seeing each other on the road meant thinking about how to scheme against and kill the other side.

He had changed the shinobi world.

"Hey, pineapple head, stop right there!"

Just as Shikamaru was leisurely walking back to the dormitory, a female voice called out to him.

Shikamaru became somewhat irritated. What had his hair done to offend everyone? This was already the second time today.

Shikamaru stopped and looked toward the voice. After seeing who it was, he instinctively wanted to run.

But Temari had finally managed to run into Shikamaru, so how could she let him escape? With a flash, she appeared in front of Shikamaru and reached out to block him from slipping away.

"What a drag..." Shikamaru sighed, feeling that he had made a mistake. If he had known he would run into Temari, he would have been better off wandering around with Naruto and the others.

"What do you mean, ’what a drag’? You should call me Senior Temari. I’m already a fourth-year student." Temari put one hand on her waist and held her fan in the other as she said proudly.

"Weren’t you the one who said that when you fought me, you had thought of more than two hundred ways to defeat me? Come with me to the school training ground and practice. I want to see exactly what those two hundred ways are."

Shikamaru scratched his head, feeling that this was troublesome.

His entanglement with Temari could be traced back to a certain shinobi competition.

Both Shikamaru and Temari had participated in that competition, and both had made it to the finals. But during the final match, even though Shikamaru had gained the advantage, he surrendered.

Later, due to various reasons, their entanglement only grew deeper.

Shikamaru was somewhat exasperated. You’re the daughter of the Kazekage, so why not attend your own village’s university? Why did you have to come all the way to the Land of Fire?

The only thing that comforted Shikamaru was that Temari was already a fourth-year student. Under normal circumstances, she would graduate next year.

...

Dormitory.

At this moment, there were only Naruto and Sasuke in the four-person dormitory, with beds above and desks below.

But the two who usually argued even over which foot to step out with first were now maintaining an eerie silence, with only the rapid tapping of keyboards.

Bang!

Sasuke could not help but slam his hand hard against the wooden desk. "Damn it, how does this guy type so fast?"

Various replies were rapidly refreshing across Sasuke’s screen. Although Sasuke had been typing as hard as he could, he was quickly overwhelmed by the other person’s messages.

Looking more closely, the guy was posting things like, "The Konoha Twelve are all just for fun. If you want to see who’s really strong, look at Sunagakure’s Gaara," and "Just a passerby, xxx."

Basically, they were all belittling the new generation of Konohagakure shinobi while hyping up the new generation of Sunagakure.

Although Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara had been close since childhood, they would not feel anything just because someone praised Gaara. But this guy was being way too annoying by belittling the entire new generation of Konohagakure.

"If we find out who this guy is, we definitely have to teach him a good lesson." Even good-natured Naruto was thoroughly angered.

What they did not know was that in a dormitory not far from them, there was an extremely intense series of rapid tapping sounds, as if the keyboard were being struck endlessly.

Kankuro stopped the puppet with its six arms after seeing that the two people arguing with him had stopped sending messages, then let out a disdainful laugh.

Trying to compete with him in typing speed when he had a puppet?

There was only one possible outcome: defeat!

"If only Shikamaru were here. He’s pretty good with these technological devices. Maybe he could find this person’s location." Naruto thought of Shikamaru.

"Yeah, but where did Shikamaru go? Didn’t he come back early?" Sasuke noticed the problem.