Chapter 48: Leaving the Village – Team 7's First C-Rank Mission
After saying that, Hiashi said nothing more.
He tucked both hands into his loose sleeves
and slowly walked back into the inner courtyard.
Today had been one of the rare days he spoke a lot.
Mm… probably the most he had ever spoken in his life!
As the Hyuga clan head, he had far too many things to consider.
Sometimes he couldn't cover every angle perfectly.
For him to speak so much with Naruto today
felt somewhat unbelievable even to himself!
He believed that as long as Naruto was intelligent,
he would surely understand the meaning behind his words.
Naruto's gaze was deep as he looked toward the sky dyed red by the setting sun.
"So my future father-in-law has already laid out the conditions for marrying off his daughter?"
"He wants me to become Hokage, then use the authority of Hokage to help reform the Hyuga clan's internal system!"
"I wonder exactly what caused this change in his mindset."
"Shouldn't something like this only happen later—after many Hyuga clan members die, forcing him to lower his pride and think deeply?"
He remembered the original plot.
At this point in time, Hiashi was still in his prime as clan head!
His body and stamina hadn't aged yet.
Right now he should be fully focused on how to best develop the Hyuga clan.
To develop the clan well,
the branch family members below
would inevitably have to be sacrificed as cannon fodder.
Hiashi was not an indecisive person.
Why would he suddenly start caring about the lives of those beneath him?
Perhaps the death of his brother made him realize something?
Naruto shook his head slightly. Since he couldn't figure it out, he stopped thinking about it.
In the end, he gave himself a reasonable explanation.
"Maybe because I transmigrated here, this world has undergone some subtle changes?"
"But overall, it's still roughly the same."
In the next moment, Naruto laughed, hands behind his head.
He left leisurely and relaxed.
A slender figure flashed nearby, instinctively trying to run away.
"Sakura—I see you. Running away now is pointless, right?"
Sakura's heart skipped a beat. She awkwardly turned around with a forced smile.
"Ah… Naruto-kun, what a coincidence! What are you doing here?"
What a clumsy excuse.
Naruto and Hiashi had noticed Sakura hiding in the distance long ago.
But at her distance,
she definitely couldn't hear their conversation.
So Naruto and his future father-in-law had tacitly agreed
not to pay her any attention.
Naruto shrugged and said bluntly:
"I was walking Hinata home—worried she might not be safe alone."
Sakura's heart felt like it had been stabbed.
It hurt. It hurt so much!
These things used to belong to her.
"If there's nothing else, I'll get going."
"Um… okay…"
"See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun."
Sakura forced a smile onto her pretty face.
To be fair—Sakura was indeed beautiful.
But her earlier behavior
had made Naruto feel no goodwill toward her.
He was even considering removing Sakura from his harem list.
Mm… that could be arranged.
Making her a maid who washes clothes and sweeps floors would be fine—as long as she stayed obedient.
But that was all for later.
Perhaps Naruto would lose interest in her entirely.
After Naruto disappeared from Sakura's view,
she finally snapped back to reality and murmured to herself:
"Naruto actually maintained eye contact with the Hyuga clan head without any fear."
"He really has become so strong."
Her tone carried happiness—mixed with thick disappointment.
Happy because Naruto had become so powerful.
Disappointed because of Naruto's cold and indifferent attitude toward her.
She pushed aside the complicated thoughts in her heart
and walked home alone, feeling empty inside.
Differential treatment! Massive differential treatment!
Why could Naruto walk Hinata home?
But not her?
She wanted Naruto to walk her home too.
Several days passed after that.
During those days, Kakashi reluctantly approved Team 7's official formation!
They took on some small missions like finding lost cats.
The team performed well.
Among them, Naruto stood out the most.
Later, Kakashi also felt that continuing with such small tasks was meaningless.
Team 7's strength was ready for higher-difficulty missions!
So today he accepted a C-rank escort mission.
With him—an elite jonin—plus Naruto's extraordinary displayed strength,
a C-rank mission was trivial. Zero risk.
It was also the perfect chance to let them see the outside world.
"Kakashi-sensei—you're finally here! The mission today won't be another cat- or dog-finding one, right?"
Sakura asked worriedly.
She had suffered through those missions—though they were somewhat fun midway, they lacked excitement!
And those tasks barely improved a ninja's training.
Kakashi looked lazy as ever, lazily lifting one eyelid.
He spoke:
"No. Today we're taking a C-rank mission—basically acting as bodyguards."
"We're escorting an uncle safely back to the Land of Waves."
Sasuke's interest was immediately piqued when he heard.
He knew that to get stronger, he needed hard training!
Of course, taking missions was also essential.
It greatly increased battle experience.
That helped him enormously!
Not something he could achieve just by reading Naruto's little yellow book!
Mm… these past few days he had finally figured it out—Naruto had been messing with him from the very beginning.
Because he saw other classmates with bruised and swollen faces.
Without exception,
they had all been beaten by their parents after being caught reading Jiraiya's autobiography under supervision!
Ptooey…
They had been beaten miserably.
Lately at night in Konoha, children's painful cries and pleas had been echoing.
Heartbreaking to hear.
Except for Shikamaru—who escaped unscathed.
Everyone else had suffered.
As for why Shikamaru avoided it—
Naruto wasn't surprised.
If he couldn't even see through such a small trick,
how could he serve as Naruto's future strategist?
How could he become the brains?
These past few days, Choji and the others hadn't come looking for him.
Partially because their parents were restricting them,
partially because they still had to attend classes with other jonin instructors.
Eventually they couldn't hold out anymore.
They pushed Naruto forward as the scapegoat.
But the parents didn't believe it at all.
Their exact words were:
"How could the son of the Fourth Hokage do such a thing?!"
"Kid—your dad, look at him still trying to lie! Beat him harder!"
The more they said,
the more ninja belts got broken.
In fact, Naruto was indirectly tempering his peers' mental resilience.
Forcing them to understand early:
the ninja world is full of schemes. When they take on real missions later,
they'll be more cautious and won't trust others so easily.
cough cough… back to the main topic.
"Oh… so we're finally going to meet Zabuza Momochi—one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist?"
Naruto thought inwardly, but quickly lost interest.
Zabuza was strong,
but right now he was no match for Naruto.
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