"So those are ninja from other villages? Their outfits are so weird."
Izuno leaned on the railing with both hands, staring at the strange-looking crowd below and letting out an instinctive complaint.
Naruto gave a small nod in agreement. She wasn't wrong.
Konoha's overall fashion sense was pretty normal.
Sunagakure wrapped themselves in cloth because of the wind and sand—fair enough.
But what was up with the Hidden Rain ninja?
Cosplay?
And cosplay as mermaids, of all things?
…Way too flashy.
"Hey! Some Sand Village guys are causing trouble. Wanna go step in?"
Raemon pointed toward a nearby alley, looking oddly entertained.
A successful mission did wonders for a guy's confidence.
From being green during their first C-rank assignment to now watching drama like it was none of his business—he was clearly feeling good about his own strength.
"Huh?! Naruto, your old teammate is getting beat up—are you going to help?"
Izuno narrowed her eyes and blurted it out.
"Hm? Not really?" Naruto blinked.
Sakura was just facing off with two Sand ninja. She didn't look like she'd been hit.
"Based on her presence, I'm not seeing the confidence needed to slam Sand ninja into the ground," Izuno said, judging like a veteran. "If I had to guess? She's about to get smacked."
Naruto nodded. She had a point. He took a step—then stopped and pulled it back.
"What's wrong?" Izuno asked. Naruto wasn't petty enough to hold a grudge against Sakura. Besides, the one who kicked him out of Team 7 had been Team 7's jōnin instructor—Sakura wasn't really to blame.
And honestly… she strongly suspected Naruto hadn't taken the whole "kicked out of Team 7" thing to heart at all.
You could tell from the way he interacted with Team 7 whenever they ran into them.
At first, she and Raemon had been ready to help Naruto "get revenge," but since the person involved didn't care, they couldn't exactly make a big deal out of it.
She even remembered one time when she and Raemon worried Naruto was bottling everything up because of childhood trauma, so they tried to probe gently and ask what he thought about it.
In the end, they could only reach one conclusion:
He genuinely didn't care.
A mindset that abnormal didn't come from nowhere. If they had to explain it, the only answer was Naruto's upbringing.
"Their teammate's here," Naruto said, pointing to Sasuke hiding behind a tree.
"Ah—cold, handsome boy is still as cold as ever." Izuno squinted. "Seriously—one pebble and a couple of threats, and that Sand guy froze."
As expected of an Uchiha.
To Naruto and Raemon, "the Uchiha" might've just sounded like a prestigious name.
But to small clans like hers, it was a mountain you could never climb.
There used to be two such mountains—
but the Senju had long since fully merged into Konoha.
"Be careful of the guy with the gourd," Naruto said suddenly.
"The one with the gourd?" Izuno looked—and in the short moment she'd been distracted, another Sand ninja had already joined the scene.
"Other than being even colder than Uchiha Sasuke…" Raemon scratched his head. Naruto's perspective was always different from theirs.
Some people looked completely ordinary—yet Naruto could always sense danger in them.
And it always proved true.
Once, during a C-rank mission, they'd nearly been ambushed by a rogue ninja hiding among civilians—Naruto spotted him instantly and dragged them back from the edge.
"How dangerous?" Izuno asked. She trusted his judgment—partly as a teammate, but mostly because his track record spoke for itself.
"If you run into him during the Chūnin Exams and I'm not there," Naruto said, voice turning serious, "then find a way to survive."
In the gourd-bearer's eyes, Naruto had seen something—
Asura.
A killer who killed for the sake of killing.
People like that either died young at someone else's hands…
Or—
He'd met one in his previous life. Someone who had been, to him, both teacher and friend…
"What is it?" Raemon asked tensely.
He knew the Chūnin Exams would be hard, but… this sounded like hell-mode.
Naruto was absurdly strong—so strong that even their teacher, Hayate, had admitted he wasn't confident he could win for sure.
If even a monster teammate like Naruto looked that grim, the gourd kid was probably in the same category.
"Oh. Just remembered something from the past," Naruto said, shaking his head slightly.
Noticing how nervous the two of them were, he felt briefly surprised—then amused.
They'd probably gotten scared by the expression on his face when he drifted into memory.
But it wasn't a bad thing.
A little pressure could become a whip that pushed them forward—so they wouldn't start thinking that having him around meant they could sleep easy.
On the long road of their lives, he was only a passerby.
He could help them for a stretch.
The rest… they'd have to walk on their own.
When the groups below finally separated, Naruto spoke. "I'm heading out."
"Where?" Raemon asked, confused.
"Two days off. I should do something interesting." Naruto's gaze flicked between the two of them, teasing. "Besides… if I stay, someone might start thinking I'm in the way."
Both of them blushed instantly.
"Ahem—cough, cough…" Raemon coughed hard, looking everywhere except at them.
"W-What are you talking about? I don't understand…" Izuno twisted the hem of her clothes, suddenly shy.
Naruto didn't press it. He left them plenty of space.
...
…Thunk.
Naruto skillfully flicked his fishing rod, letting the hook—wrapped in bait—drop softly into the narrow stream below.
The fish here liked to hide in the shadows of massive stones. Compared to the crude method of smashing them with a stick, fishing was more reliable.
Tension and relaxation—kept in balance—was the highest principle.
Meditation was "relaxation," sure, but it still couldn't compare to a hobby like this.
And the current here was fast. The fish were strong from swimming against it, which made them tastier. Whenever he had enough time, he'd come here and fish for a while.
"What do you think of that brat today?"
The Nine-Tails' voice suddenly echoed through his inner world, and Naruto felt genuinely surprised.
Over the years, he'd managed to communicate with the Nine-Tails a few times—but this was the first time that stubborn, tsundere fox had ever initiated a conversation.
Keeping part of his attention on the line, Naruto sank his main awareness into the mental space.
"The gourd kid?" Naruto asked.
The Nine-Tails lay lazily on the ground, and answered with a question of his own.
"You noticed it too, didn't you? That aura on him."
"So that violent aura isn't his," Naruto nodded slightly. Besides the budding Asura-like presence, what had bothered him most about the gourd boy was that inhuman, savage feeling.
"He's the same kind of person as you."
"He's also a 'Nine-Tails brat'?"
"That raccoon could never be mentioned in the same breath as me," the Nine-Tails sneered, dripping with disdain for whatever lived inside the gourd kid.
"Raccoon?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What are you even talking about?"
"You're both jinchūriki," the Nine-Tails explained. "In human terms—you're the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. He's the One-Tail's jinchūriki."
"Then who's stronger—One-Tail or Nine-Tails?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"Who's stronger?!" The Nine-Tails' eyes bulged. He pointed behind himself, where nine massive tails roiled and surged.
"Obviously the one with more tails is stronger. And as my jinchūriki, you'd better remember that."