Time turned back to one minute ago.
Naruto saw Sakura come in and happily wanted to go over and strike up a conversation.
But Sasuke rudely grabbed Naruto's shoulder and said impatiently, "Don't bother her."
"Huh? What does it have to do with you if I go chat with Sakura? You're not Sakura's friend either!"
"Sakura's business really has nothing to do with me, but it has something to do with him. Do you want to make him unhappy?"
Naruto's face stiffened; he naturally understood who Sasuke was talking about.
If it were a few days ago, he definitely wouldn't have cared about Nojuro Ryun's name either.
But after experiencing the Mizuki incident, he understood that Ryun surpassed him not only in strength, but also in bearing.
However, Naruto couldn't possibly admit defeat to Sasuke just like that. He grabbed Sasuke's collar on some flimsy pretext, wanting to fight him.
Just then, some people horsing around came charging over and bumped into Naruto's shoulder, and thus the iconic scene was born.
Sakura and Ino looked utterly disgusted, then glanced at each other, surprised by the other's reaction, and then smiled helplessly.
Ryun had completely changed them, making them look down on their classmates completely.
As for Hinata, she had her head down, still savoring the feeling of being held by Ryun, and hadn't noticed any of this at all.
It wasn't until the whole class started laughing that Hinata belatedly looked up, gazing around in confusion.
Ryun had also sensed what was happening.
He had indeed left the school gate, but he hadn't gone far. Instead, he used his sensory ability to wait for the girls' team assignments to finish.
He wanted to confirm that the girls wouldn't have their life paths altered by the butterfly effect Ryun had set off.
But the facts proved that the waves Ryun had stirred up weren't big enough yet; they hadn't even shaken the iconic scene between Sasuke and Naruto that Ryun himself dared not look directly at.
After confirming everything was as usual, Ryun returned to his home.
What followed were things like team members introducing themselves, so Ryun didn't need to follow and watch closely.
However, he didn't know that he thereby missed a few small iconic scenes created by the waves he had set off.
Team 7.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like... rather, the person I like..."
Sakura hesitated, unsure whether to say it, but she saw Naruto's expectant look, and then said without hesitation, "It's Ryun-kun. Kakashi-sensei probably knows him too."
"Ah, there's no way I wouldn't know him— come to think of it, you actually dared to say that. It makes me think a bit more of you."
Sakura raised her chin proudly. Anyway, Ryun had confessed to her, so what did it matter if she said it?
Naruto was dejected, while Sasuke gave Sakura an extra glance.
It seemed that from now on, if there was danger, he would have to protect Sakura properly, and then use that as a reason to learn more ninjutsu from Ryun.
Team 8.
"My name is Hyūga Hinata. I'm good at Gentle Fist and Byakugan observation. Please take care of me."
"I don't have anything I particularly like usually; most of my time is spent training. As for what I want to do in the future— I want to be a good wife."
Yūhi Kurenai looked at Hinata's shy expression and felt a bit envious, saying, "You're thinking about being a wife already? So who's the husband?"
"Huh? Do I have to say that too? ...It's Ryun-kun."
Kiba said discontentedly, "Hey hey, he's not even here, can you stop showing off your love? I don't want to eat Akamaru's dog food."
Aburame Shino also nodded slightly, indicating agreement.
Hinata quickly apologized, saying, "I'm sorry, I won't talk about how I like Ryun-kun in front of everyone anymore!"
Kurenai and the other two were speechless. A girl in love is truly hopeless!
Team 10.
"Do we really need to introduce ourselves? I know exactly how old they were when they last wet the bed."
Ino propped her chin on her hand, looking bored. After all, the composition of their team hardly needed guessing.
Sarutobi Asuma said helplessly, "Just consider it as introducing yourselves to me, alright? I'm already very familiar with you all, but let's just go through the motions."
"For Asuma-sensei's sake... I'm Yamanaka Ino. My future dreams are to inherit the flower shop and become a great ninja."
"As for what I like—"
Before she finished, Choji interrupted, saying, "It's Ryun-kun, right?"
"Must be," Shikamaru agreed.
Then both of them got their ears grabbed by Ino, who scolded, "I want to say the person I like myself! Who asked you to speak for me?!"
The three of them bickered noisily, completely ignoring the vein on Asuma's forehead.
It was one thing for Kurenai to fall out with him because of Ryun, but was Ino also this infatuated with Ryun?
"Ino, I have a question."
Ino was startled, saying, "Asuma-sensei, what do you want to ask?"
"Cough, I heard he caused quite a stir yesterday. Even though he did that, do you still have no complaints?"
Ino helplessly covered her face. So even their team leader knew about it.
But on this issue, Ino wouldn't back down.
The girls making a fuss amongst themselves was their own business; Ino wouldn't allow outsiders to meddle in her feelings.
So she smiled politely and said, "Asuma-sensei, don't pry too much into a girl's private affairs, okay? You'll be hated."
Asuma's expression darkened further.
Turning back to Ryun, after returning home, he began making final preparations for today's simulation.
He also guarded against the possibility of several parents storming his house that afternoon.
But what puzzled him was that Yamanaka Inoichi never showed up, nor did Tenten's or Sakura's parents.
Did they not know about this, or were they temporarily not planning to cause trouble for Ryun?
After thinking it over, Ryun felt it was the latter.
Although Ryun had caused quite a stir, it was ultimately just verbal talk about romance, with no real actions.
In essence, it wasn't much different from Sakura and Ino playing house at school— at least, that was probably how their parents saw it for now.
Of course, Hinata's situation was an exception.
Unless Ryun didn't grow strong, his relationship with her was basically already set in stone.
The sun slowly set, and Ryun ate dinner quietly by himself.
For the first time in a while, there was no one at home, which really was a good opportunity for a simulation.
As for Uzuki Yūgao standing on the distant rooftop, Ryun simply pretended not to see her.
She was here on a mission, and Ryun wouldn't interfere with her completing it.
However, it was impossible for her to casually use her sensory ability to scout Ryun's place like before, because Ryun had already set up a jutsu formula in his room to block sensory perception.
If Sarutobi Hiruzen asked, Ryun would just say it was a little self-defense measure he got from Anko, who got it from Kurenai.
Given Ryun's current influence, Hiruzen definitely wouldn't say much.
Next up was Sakura's simulation. Ryun still planned to use 5 simulation attempts.
The goal of this simulation was to boost Sakura's strength, ensure she could easily get past the hurdle of the Chūnin Exams, and at the same time, try not to waste simulation attempts.
Ryun pulled up his and Sakura's status panels. First, his own.
Ninja Eight Parameters: Ninjutsu 8, Taijutsu 8, Genjutsu 10, Intelligence 8, Strength 7, Speed 8, Stamina 8, Hand Seals 9. Total 66 points.
Chakra Affinities: Intermediate Earth and Water Release chakra talent; Advanced Fire, Yang Release, Yin Release chakra talent.
Special Talents: Advanced Chakra Sensory Talent, Advanced Space-Time Talent, Intermediate Natural Energy Adaptation Talent, Low-Level Mind Mirror Talent, Low-Level Mental Amplitude, Low-Level Wood Release, Low-Level Cell Activation.
Next was Sakura's panel. There was no need to worry about the detailed stats anymore, because Ryun completely outclassed her in both stats and talents.
Then came the question of which attributes to lock in using the simulation attempts.
Genjutsu attribute was a no-brainer; he definitely couldn't miss that.
After the simulation ended, Sakura would directly possess the Genjutsu 10 attribute, and then she could resonate with Ryun to further increase Ryun's Genjutsu attribute cap.
Although Ryun still didn't know how to use that right now, he would definitely be able to use it in the future.
Next was the Advanced Yin Release Chakra Talent. If Sakura had the Genjutsu 10 attribute, wouldn't it be a waste not to learn some genjutsu?
As for Yang Release, there was no need to consider it for now, because Sakura didn't need to learn jutsu like the Yin Seal before the Chūnin Exams. At most, learning a bit of medical ninjutsu for emergencies would be enough.
There were two more fixed opportunities left. Ryun ultimately chose Hand Seals 9 and the Advanced Chakra Sensory Talent.
With the Hand Seals 9 attribute, Sakura would be proficient in performing both genjutsu and learning medical ninjutsu from now on.
As for the Chakra Sensory Talent, it was because their team didn't have a sensory-type ninja, so this would make up for Sakura's shortcoming.
With this setup, Sakura would definitely have more than enough ability to pass the Chūnin Exams.
As for her remaining attributes, it wouldn't be too late to help her improve them after Ryun's own panel was maxed out.
Following his usual routine, Ryun split off a shadow clone and began this simulation.
[Simulation Start]
[Remaining simulation attempts: 40]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📖 Like the story? Read 120 chapters ahead!
🔗 patreon.com/atomelectron
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━