Konoha: Naruto's abnormal life choices

After finishing his conversation with Haku, Naruto remembered that Team 7 had a mission scheduled for today. He quickly gathered his things and rushed to the meeting spot.

It was already noon.

Just two hours late. I'm sure Sasuke and Sakura won't mind, Naruto thought.

Well, he was half right. Sasuke didn't mind—because Kakashi had already taken him away for special training.Sakura, on the other hand, had been told by Kakashi to stay behind and wait to inform Naruto. Her resentment was boiling over.

"Ugh, Naruto, you're getting more and more annoying! Last time in the Land of Waves, you were cuddling with some strange woman. Then yesterday, you went and confessed to Kurenai-sensei. And now today, you make me wait two hours!"

"If you keep treating me like this, I'm gonna lose my mind!"

Sakura vented nonstop, but Naruto didn't argue. She had helped him out a lot with his previous missions, so he figured she had a right to be upset.

Once she'd finally run out of steam, Naruto asked, "So Kakashi took Sasuke for special training. Did he at least assign something for you and me?"

Honestly, Naruto hoped he'd be allowed to roam free for a while.

"It's all arranged," Sakura replied, pouting as she stared up at his face. "Kakashi-sensei got me a mentor at the Konoha Hospital. I'm supposed to start training with them tomorrow."

"What about me?" Naruto asked, blinking. He couldn't imagine who Kakashi would've chosen for him. Definitely not Asuma, right?

Suddenly, Sakura's expression turned sly.

"Kakashi-sensei said he couldn't think of anyone in the whole village qualified to train you… so he told you to just train on your own and take care of all our missions too."

"????"

What kind of setup is this?! Kakashi personally trained Sasuke, gave Sakura a hospital mentor… and dumped all the grunt work on Naruto?

"No way. Absolutely not. I'm not doing any of that. Let Kakashi handle it himself."

"Hey!" Sakura exclaimed. "If you don't do the missions, Kakashi-sensei will scold you!"

Naruto scoffed and crossed his arms. "Then let him. I'll just go straight to the Hokage and report him for favoritism."

With that, he turned around, whistled casually, and started walking off.

"Where are you going?!" Sakura grabbed his wrist.

"Home. To sleep."

"Don't go yet! Listen—I only have to study half a day at the hospital. I can do the other half of the missions with you."

Sakura spoke quickly, hoping Naruto would ask her to partner up so she could maybe use that as an excuse to drag him on a little date. But Naruto had thrown off her whole plan by not following the script at all.

He tilted his head at her, his expression blank. "You're an idiot, Sakura."

"Wha—why are you calling me that?!"

"Because you're being dumb."

"Huh?" She blinked in confusion. "What did I do?"

Naruto sighed. "Forget it. If you want to do the missions, go ahead. I'm not doing them. Bye!"

"Wait! Tell me why I'm an idiot!"

Naruto just waved over his shoulder. "Too complicated to explain. That's just how it is."

And the next second, he vanished.

"That guy runs so fast!" Sakura stomped her foot in frustration. "I waited forever for him, and now he just disappears?!"

Then a strange thought popped into her mind. "Wait… did he call me an idiot as a term of endearment? Like a pet name? Aww, he's so bad!"

"..."

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a whole month had passed. It had been a quiet and uneventful one.

Asuma, who was most likely to stir up drama, had been placed under solitary confinement by the Third Hokage. Word was, he wouldn't be released until he'd spent serious time reflecting.

As for Team 10—Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji—the Akimichi Clan Patriarch had personally taken over their training, bringing them outside the village to hunt down a group of bandits.

Team 8, meanwhile, had just returned from an escort mission with Kurenai Yuhi, after Kiba and Shino were finally discharged from the hospital.

Among the nine Rookie Genin, Naruto had the most free time by far. His days were spent training, sleeping, eating, talking to Haku… and occasionally being harassed by Sakura.

Naruto couldn't decide whether Sakura was clueless or just overly determined. Since Naruto refused to do the missions, Sakura had actually taken on all of them herself.

A few times, when Naruto saw her completely exhausted, he felt bad and helped her finish a mission or two. Ever since then, she'd started coming by his apartment regularly, knocking on the door with excuses to get him to join her.

Naruto didn't respond most of the time—but she didn't seem to mind.

These peaceful and uneventful days continued until mid-August.

At last, Kakashi returned from his month-and-a-half-long training trip with Sasuke. He sent a message through a green jumpsuit-wearing ninja to Naruto and Sakura.

"This year's Chunin Exams are about to begin. Make the most of your training time."

At the same time, a shocking piece of news had begun to spread throughout the shinobi world—originating from a small village in the Hot Springs Country, northwest of the Land of Fire.

In a modest guesthouse tucked away in the woods, Shikamaru came sprinting into the living room, breathless.

"Guys! Something huge happened to Asuma-sensei!"

"Wasn't he still locked up in the village?" Ino asked, twisting her hair into a new style in front of the mirror.

"I'm starving again…" Choji grumbled, rubbing his stomach. "We're running low on snacks."

"No, look!" Shikamaru threw a newspaper down on the table. "This is insane!"

"Huh? What could possibly freak you out that bad?"

Ino joined him at the table and skimmed the front page. The moment she finished reading, her mouth dropped open. Shikamaru was equally stunned.

"WHAT?! Asuma-sensei was locked up because of Sasuke?!"

Elsewhere, Team 8 was making their way back to the village after finishing their escort mission.

"Hey, guys, check this out!" Kiba called excitedly, holding a newspaper in one hand and Akamaru in the other. "Haha! I can't believe it! Sasuke—that Sasuke who beat us like it was nothing—got caught up in this? I'm totally roasting him when we get back."

Shino, cool as ever, adjusted his glasses. "I suggest you don't. If you get smacked again, I won't help you."

"Relax, Shino. Next time, we're totally winning," Kiba said confidently.

Shino: "…"

Sitting a little distance away, Hinata and Kurenai Yuhi overheard their conversation. As their Jonin instructor, Kurenai stepped in.

"What are you two talking about?"

"Oh right, sensei! You're close to Asuma-sensei, right?" Kiba ran over with the paper. "Do you know if there's any inside info about this?"

Kurenai took the newspaper, scanned the headline, and calmly replied, "It's probably slander—fake news created by hostile nations. Don't take it at face value."

"Oh, that's all? Man, that's disappointing." Kiba sighed.

Kurenai didn't comment further.

The newspaper's story wasn't entirely true—but it wasn't false either. As someone directly involved, and as Asuma's longtime childhood friend, Kurenai knew the Third Hokage would eventually tell her the full story.

Still… even if she now understood it had been a puppet in the bed, the emotional damage was already done.

She couldn't even think about being with Asuma again.

Just remembering Asuma whispering "I love you" to a boy-shaped doll made her stomach churn.

"I wonder how Naruto's doing now," she murmured. "Why do I suddenly miss that little guy?"

Far away in the Land of Rain, inside a dimly lit room, a strange man with blue skin and a shark-like face entered.

He looked over at the silent man sitting on a mat, lost in thought.

"Hey, Mr. Itachi," Kisame grinned, tossing him a newspaper. "Thought you might want to see what your little brother's been up to lately."