Chapter 27
In front of those excessively clear eyes, the resentment in Iruka's heart found no place to vent.
Instead, he felt a sudden, inexplicable pang of shame.
As an adult, he had actually directed ill will toward a child.
Iruka instinctively averted his gaze from Naruto and walked to the lectern, pretending to search for something.
He steadied his emotions a little. "…Uzumaki Naruto, right? You're quite early."
"I got bored waiting outside, Sensei."
Naruto answered casually—his tone sounding somewhat dismissive. Then he added, almost as an afterthought: "Besides, there's no family waiting for me out there anyway."
Iruka's hand trembled slightly at those words. The attendance roster nearly slipped from his fingers. His mind churned with unnameable thoughts.
Xuanming pursed his lips and made a soft tsk.
His projection appeared right beside Naruto. "Naruto, this teacher isn't a bad person. You can get along well with him in the future."
"I know." Naruto rested his chin in his hand.
He could sense it—the look Iruka gave him when their eyes first met was exactly the same as the villagers': full of rejection. But after that initial flinch, it had changed.
Those villagers never reflected on themselves. Their averted gazes came from fear of being noticed by him—or fear of any association.
"Don't blame people whose eyes are clouded by pain. Just keep being yourself."
Xuanming knew the cause and effect. If one really wanted to assign blame, Iruka didn't hate Naruto—he hated him.
And technically… this whole thing could be traced back to him.
If he dug into the malice within his memories now, he could quickly find recollections from six years ago.
Back then, he had first been controlled by genjutsu and wreaked havoc across Konoha. Even after the control broke, the destruction continued.
In those memories, he hadn't paid careful attention to the ordinary ninja trying to contain him.
He had simply rampaged—smashing and killing indiscriminately. Among the countless deaths were Iruka's parents.
He was the Nine-Tails with a Daoist's memories—and a Daoist with the Nine-Tails' memories.
True fusion. Xuanming would never deny the things the Nine-Tails part of himself had done.
Even now, a vast mass of unpurified malice still simmered within his spirit—and that malice belonged to him too.
Naruto had been carrying this black pot on his back the whole time.
Thinking about it that way… it almost felt like he owed Naruto something.
Xuanming scratched behind one ear.
Then a thought struck him, and everything clicked.
The one who really made Naruto carry this burden was Namikaze Minato.
Minato had sealed the evil Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside his own son—to save the future order of the shinobi world.
So Naruto became the jinchūriki—and ended up shouldering the black pot for him.
When he thought of it that way, the knot in his mind loosened considerably.
Once he finished purifying all the malice and could safely release the Eight Trigrams Seal, he would take Naruto with him to beat up Minato.
After all, he still had a little chakra lingering inside the seal, waiting for the right moment to pull a fast one.
"Yo! Look who it is—running pretty fast, huh!"
Just as the classroom atmosphere grew awkward again, a burst of noisy voices broke the tension.
Inuzuka Kiba charged in with a small white puppy, immediately spotting Naruto already seated.
Trailing behind him at a leisurely pace came Akimichi Chōji—munching on chips—and Nara Shikamaru, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.
After the parents finished their goodbyes outside, the students had begun filing into their assigned classrooms.
"Tch."
A cold snort came from the doorway.
Uchiha Sasuke walked in with hands in his pockets, face full of cool indifference.
His gaze swept the room. Despite many empty seats, he headed straight for the window row.
Under the disappointed stares of several girls, Sasuke plopped down right beside Naruto.
"Hey, idiot Naruto." Sasuke leaned sideways and lowered his voice. "Don't think just because we're in the academy now you can surpass me. The top spot in every exam from now on is mine."
"Yeah yeah sure." Naruto propped his chin on his hand and nodded absently—he was still thinking about the previous teacher.
"You—!" Sasuke bristled at the obvious dismissal and nearly exploded again.
"Um… umm…"
A tiny, mosquito-like voice sounded from behind Naruto.
He turned. Hyūga Hinata stood there blushing furiously, fingers poking together nervously, right at the seat behind him.
"N-Naruto-kun… may I sit here?" she asked in a small voice.
"Hinata! Sure!" Naruto's reaction was completely different from Sasuke's. "No one's sitting there anyway! The window seat has the best view of the clouds!"
Hinata let out a relieved breath and carefully took the seat behind Naruto.
Looking at the blond figure in front of her—even after three years of occasional meetings—she still wanted to be a little closer to him.
Iruka took a deep breath, walked behind the lectern, and forced a kind smile onto his face.
"Everyone, I am your homeroom teacher, Umino Iruka. Starting today, we will spend the next six years together."
His eyes swept across the students.
"To help everyone get to know each other, our first lesson will be self-introductions."
On the blackboard he wrote several key points: [Name / Likes / Dislikes / Dream]
"We'll go in the order of the attendance sheet. When I call your name, please stand up and introduce yourself."
"…Inuzuka Kiba… Nara Shikamaru… Uchiha Sasuke…"
"My name is Inuzuka Kiba! I like dogs! I hate cats! My dream is to become the Hokage of the village!"
"I'm Nara Shikamaru… I like watching clouds, I hate troublesome things… My dream… eh, just being an ordinary ninja is fine."
When it was Sasuke's turn, he maintained his cool demeanor.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training with my brother. I dislike natto and sweets. As for my dream…"
Sasuke cast a quick sideways glance at Uzumaki Naruto beside him and clenched his fist. "I want to keep surpassing a certain someone, prove the strength of the Uchiha… and become the first Uchiha Hokage of the village."
The classroom erupted in applause and squeals.
"Wow! So cool!" The girls in the back were especially loud.
"Next—Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka's voice tightened unconsciously when he read the name.
Naruto stood up. Unlike the other children's high energy, he carried an oddly mature calm.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Things I like: Ichiraku ramen, and training."
"Things I dislike: washing dishes after meals, and… people who hide prejudice in their hearts."
He paused for a moment in thought.
"As for my dream…"
Naruto looked up toward the ceiling, as though gazing through the roof at the stars beyond.
"I want to become Hokage too—just like everyone else. But not just Hokage. I'll be the strongest Hokage in history."
"I'll master even more amazing abilities. Becoming an immortal like Fox Sage would be best. In the future, I want to protect the entire village of Konoha."
"…"
The classroom short-circuited for a few seconds.
Then one of the boys couldn't hold back and shouted: "Hey! Become an immortal? You mean like the Sage of Six Paths from the fairy tales?"
Most of the class burst into laughter.
"Quiet. No laughing at someone else's dream." Iruka cut through the noise.
"No matter what, I'll keep chasing my dream. That's my ninja way."
Uzumaki Naruto shook his head with an expression like "you mortals wouldn't understand," then sat back down.
Behind him, Hinata stared at the confident blond boy in front of her. In her heart she thought silently:
Naruto-kun… really is different from everyone else. So amazing…
Iruka took another deep breath. "Alright… very… creative dream."
"Next—Hyūga Hinata."
...
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