Chapter 88: Neji, and Guessing the Team Assignments

With Naruto’s assurance, Hinata, who had almost blind faith in him, felt all the gloom in her heart disappear.

Holding hands, the two walked to the entrance of the Ninja Academy.

Hyuga Neji walked over and respectfully bowed slightly.

"Hinata-sama."

A blush immediately spread across Hinata’s cheeks.

Neji kept his eyes straight ahead, as though he hadn’t noticed that the two were holding hands.

He turned toward Naruto and nodded.

"The clan has prepared a dinner to celebrate Hinata-sama’s graduation. Naruto, Hiashi-sama ordered me to pick up Hinata-sama after school."

Unlike the original story, Hyuga Neji did not hate the main family.

Although his father, Hyuga Hizashi, had still died for the sake of Hyuga Hiashi, when war broke out, the entire Hyuga clan had raised the banner of avenging Neji’s father.

Hyuga Hiashi had personally led eighty percent of the clan’s shinobi to the battlefield against the Cloud.

Because of this, Neji no longer harbored resentment toward the main family.

What filled his heart instead was gratitude.

Later, three-year-old Hyuga Hinata, the heir to the main family, had even been thrown onto the battlefield and could have been sacrificed as a bargaining chip at any moment.

Neji had been raised by his father from childhood to serve as Hinata’s protector.

He deeply regretted that he hadn’t been able to protect Hinata, and from that point onward, he began training even harder.

Toward Hinata, he maintained an outwardly respectful attitude while inwardly feeling protective and sympathetic toward her.

As for Naruto, who had been the key to victory in the war, slaughtered countless Cloud shinobi to avenge Neji’s father, and prevented Hinata from being sent away as a bargaining chip, Neji had always maintained deep respect for him.

Naruto released Hinata’s hand and smiled.

"All right, Hinata. See you tomorrow."

"Mm. See you tomorrow, Naruto."

After saying goodbye, Hinata walked ahead, occasionally talking to Neji about something.

Neji deliberately stayed one step behind, looking every bit like a loyal guard listening attentively to his young mistress.

Naruto stopped paying attention to Hinata and walked over to Sasuke.

"Let’s go, Sasuke."

The two walked side by side.

Sasuke couldn’t help asking, "Naruto, do you think we’ll be assigned to the same team?"

Sasuke already knew that after graduating from the Ninja Academy, the students would be divided into three-person teams.

Naruto nodded slightly.

"We probably will."

Sasuke frowned.

"Probably?"

He wasn’t particularly satisfied with Naruto’s answer.

Naruto often seemed capable of predicting the future, so Sasuke believed Naruto must have some special way of knowing how the teams would be arranged.

He seemed to know everything.

Sasuke had developed a certain blind trust in Naruto as well.

Naruto smiled.

"The Sharingan can suppress a Tailed Beast, so there’s a high chance we’ll be assigned together."

Iruka had only just submitted the graduation list.

The Third Hokage hadn’t officially begun arranging the teams yet.

Considering that Naruto was first in the class and Sasuke was second, Naruto wasn’t sure whether there might be some unexpected changes.

Hearing this, Sasuke’s face darkened.

The Sharingan could indeed suppress Tailed Beasts.

Sasuke had personally asked Uchiha Izumi about it before, and she could suppress Naruto’s Nine-Tails.

But Sasuke didn’t believe he could do the same.

He still had some self-awareness.

So Naruto’s statement that "the Sharingan can suppress Tailed Beasts" sounded suspiciously like he was mocking him.

Sasuke already knew that Naruto could be rather sharp-tongued.

By now, he had practically developed immunity to it.

He didn’t dwell on it and instead asked, "What about the third person?"

Sasuke had already begun treating Naruto’s "high chance" as practically certain.

After all, whenever words like "probably," "maybe," or "high chance" came out of Naruto’s mouth, they basically ended up becoming reality.

Naruto shook his head.

"That, I really don’t know. Going by the usual team arrangements, it’s mostly two boys and one girl. So the last member should probably be a girl."

Too many things had changed now.

Sakura had no particular relationship with Naruto, nor did she have any bond with Sasuke.

Naruto felt that Sakura was already out of the running.

There were plenty of fangirls in the class who had graduated.

Sakura couldn’t possibly be lucky enough to be selected by the Third Hokage as some sort of balancing factor.

"A girl?"

Sasuke, the quintessential straight man, frowned.

There weren’t many strong girls in their class.

Thinking about the rankings of the girls in their class, Sasuke’s face darkened.

"Could it be Hinata or Ino?"

The strongest girls in the class were Hinata and Ino.

Sasuke’s thinking was simple.

Anyone assigned to a team with him and Naruto had to be strong.

Apart from Hinata and Ino, what qualifications did the other girls have to join them?

Wouldn’t they just hold them back?

But then Sasuke imagined Hinata or Ino being assigned to the same team as Naruto...

His body shuddered.

He suddenly felt a strange sense of discomfort.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke.

"Ino is from the Yamanaka clan. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio is traditionally assigned together."

Sasuke froze.

"Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino?"

Sasuke knew about the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, but he hadn’t known they would be assigned together.

Apart from Ino, the other two were basically slackers, weren’t they?

Sasuke had fought almost everyone in the class.

Especially Shikamaru.

He barely participated in practical combat classes even once a year.

In six years, Sasuke had practically never fought Shikamaru.

After a brief moment of thought, Sasuke asked, "What about Hinata?"

Naruto shook his head.

"I don’t know. There’s a certain possibility..."

Sasuke nodded and stopped dwelling on the team assignments.

If Naruto said he didn’t know, then he genuinely didn’t know.

As long as he could be on the same team as Naruto, that was enough.

He didn’t have much interest in anything else.

As for the team leader, Sasuke wasn’t curious either.

His standards were already extremely high.

He simply couldn’t look up to an ordinary team leader.

If they were weak, even better.

He could just fool them whenever he wanted.

The two walked in silence.

When they reached the building, they went their separate ways.

Naruto returned to his home.

He opened the door and habitually called out,

"I’m home."

"Naruto, come look!"

Hearing Uchiha Izumi’s voice, Naruto turned his head while taking off his shoes.

At seventeen, Uchiha Izumi was already over 160 centimeters tall.

She was graceful and elegant, with the appearance of a girl next door—pure, sweet, gentle, and endearing.

She had one hand covering her forehead as she ran over to Naruto, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

Her expression seemed to say:

"Guess what’s different about me today?"

Her forehead.

Naruto had a vague idea of what was going on, but deliberately acted confused.

"What happened? Did you bump your forehead?"

Uchiha Izumi shook her head slightly and smiled without saying anything.

Her expression clearly said, Keep guessing.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

The anticipation in Izumi’s eyes grew stronger.

Then Naruto suddenly realized.

"I know! You didn’t wear your forehead protector today."

Uchiha Izumi’s face immediately darkened.

A dangerous glint appeared faintly in her eyes.

Naruto laughed and pinched Izumi’s cheek.

"All right, all right, Izumi-chan. You’ve learned how to cultivate the Yin Seal?"

Only then did Uchiha Izumi smile.

She removed her hand from her forehead.

"Naruto, look."

A pale-purple diamond-shaped mark had appeared on Uchiha Izumi’s forehead.

Naruto couldn’t help reaching out and gently touching it.

The Uzumaki clan inheritance that Tsunade had given Naruto contained the cultivation method for the Yin Seal.

Naruto had passed it on to Uchiha Izumi and let her try cultivating it.

Several years had passed in the blink of an eye.

He hadn’t expected that Izumi would actually succeed without anyone guiding her.

Youth faded, and beauty eventually withered.

Thinking that Uchiha Izumi’s appearance wouldn’t change much in the future, a surge of heat stirred in Naruto’s heart.

Noticing Naruto’s heated gaze, Uchiha Izumi’s face turned rosy as she rolled her eyes at him.

Everything was understood without words.

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