Chapter 78
"Time to go back, little guy."
Naruto gently placed the Ōmba's cub into its parent's hand.
The cub immediately let out a happy cry and scampered up the arm, quickly climbing onto the Ōmba's broad back.
It found the most comfortable spot and settled in right away.
The Ōmba straightened up. The red light in its eyes had already faded, replaced by calm emotion.
It gave Naruto a deep, lingering look—as though committing this human's face to memory.
"Phew…"
Seeing this scene, everyone around unconsciously let out a collective sigh of relief.
Iruka stepped forward a couple of paces. Though the situation now appeared peaceful, vigilance was still necessary.
As their teacher and a ninja of Konoha Village, his duty was to ensure the village's safety.
"Since you've found your child, leave quickly."
Iruka spoke to the Ōmba in a serious tone: "This isn't a place you should stay. Return to where you belong. If you show up near here again, things might not end so easily next time."
The words felt somewhat out of place in the moment, but this kind of warning had to be given.
The monster before them seemed capable of understanding human speech.
Without a proper warning, who knew when this thing might wander near the village again.
The Ōmba, which had just calmed down, heard the words carrying both dismissal and threat.
It instinctively bristled at the tone. A low growl rumbled in its throat once more.
Seeing the atmosphere tense again, the teachers immediately prepared for combat.
Xuanming floated beside Naruto, hands behind his back, watching this creature that still wanted to throw a tantrum.
Suddenly, something occurred to him. A playful curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He first tilted his head and gave Naruto a word of praise—after all, Naruto had successfully achieved a not-bad outcome.
Now that he was wrapping things up for him, it should be fine, right?
A wisp of Nine-Tails chakra quietly leaked from Naruto's seal.
To humans, this chakra might feel faint and unnoticeable.
But to a creature with such acute senses as the Ōmba, it was absolute suppression from the depths of the soul.
It was the aura of the undisputed overlord that once ruled a hundred-li radius.
The terrifying existence that had once treated its ancestors like toys to kick around.
The Ōmba's bristling fur instantly flattened.
The fury in its huge eyes was replaced by sheer terror.
It stared fixedly at Naruto—or more precisely, at the "aura" emanating from him.
A phantom image of a fox existed only in the Ōmba's perception and imagination.
That primal fear rooted in life hierarchy and bloodline memory made it hold its breath.
"Ombu…"
It suddenly lowered its head and gave two frantic nods toward Naruto.
Then without the slightest hesitation, it turned and ran toward the opposite side of the training ground.
The direction it had come from.
It fled as though something terrifying was chasing it.
Its speed was astonishingly fast for its massive size.
In the blink of an eye, it vanished into the dense forest, leaving only the sound of snapping branches in its wake.
The cub on its back looked back in confusion as they left.
It waved its tiny paw toward Naruto and the others, letting out a series of "Ombu ombu" farewell cries.
The sound gradually faded into the distance.
Watching the Ōmba flee in panic, Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted again:
"Hey—! Take good care of your kid from now on—don't lose it again!!!"
The boy's voice echoed through the surroundings.
Iruka and the other two teachers stared dumbfounded at what had just happened.
They had no idea why the Ōmba—after suddenly becoming aggressive again and nearly breaking free—had fled like it had seen a ghost.
And it ran… almost pathetically?
"This… it's over just like that?" The other companions were still processing.
"Yeah, it's over."
Naruto clapped his hands and turned back toward Iruka with a bright smile: "Iruka-sensei—mission complete!"
Iruka snapped back to reality. Looking at this bright-eyed student, a warm current surged in his chest.
This kid—he knew Naruto wouldn't betray the trust placed in him: "You little rascal… but don't be so reckless next time!"
"Though the crisis has been resolved, the exercise was forcibly interrupted."
Iruka sighed, but his tone was visibly relaxed.
"This situation counts as force majeure, but… your performance has already far exceeded our expectations for this exercise."
Especially Naruto and his team.
Iruka silently added in his heart.
After all, the other students probably couldn't have stalled this monster for so long.
Nor would they have noticed the advantageous clue hidden on its back while facing such a dangerous creature.
"Alright—everyone, head to the entrance immediately for assembly!"
Iruka regained his teacherly authority and told Naruto's group to wait outside the training ground first.
The teachers would now go count heads.
Anyone missing would require them to split up again and search for those slow students still inside.
"Yes, sir!"
The group responded in unison to Iruka's order. Soon they reached the outside.
About a dozen students had already gathered there. Sakura and Ino had withdrawn as well.
The rest were either on their way back
or were so focused on finding scrolls that they hadn't noticed the cancellation signal and would need to be manually retrieved by Iruka and the others.
Half an hour later, all the students had assembled.
Now they were all discussing the huge white monster that had appeared in the training ground earlier.
After all, it had caused the exercise to be aborted, but fortunately no students were injured.
Most hadn't actually seen the white monster themselves—the reason it was spreading through everyone's mouths now
was clearly because Hōka's trio had been exaggerating and embellishing the story.
These unlucky guys somehow always managed to escape danger.
Whether that made them unlucky or lucky was hard to say.
Everyone chatted while packing up, preparing to follow Iruka back to the academy.
At the edge of the crowd, a hooded boy wearing dark sunglasses stood all alone.
Aburame Shino held two mission scrolls in his hand—the objectives of this exercise.
Using his own abilities, he had found two hidden scrolls entirely by himself.
Feeling the lively discussion behind him, he looked down at the two scrolls he had worked so hard to obtain—now rendered meaningless.
Behind his sunglasses, his eyes carried a faint trace of melancholy.
"If I had to say why…"
He muttered softly to the empty space in front of him: "I clearly completed the task exceptionally… so why did the exercise just get canceled like that?"
"And… did no one even notice that I had already finished?"
"Shino! What are you doing over there? We're heading back to the academy!"
Inuzuka Kiba's voice suddenly called from not far behind.
The reason—he had finally remembered the name of this low-presence classmate.
Now that everyone was gathered, they were starting to move back to the school.
Only this guy was standing there muttering to himself about who-knows-what.
Aburame Shino's body stiffened slightly.
He silently tucked the two scrolls back into his pocket, pushed up his sunglasses to make himself look less affected.
"Coming!"
Though his presence was low… at least in the end, someone still noticed him.
That could be considered a small comfort.
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