As Fujin left Konoha and headed towards the Land of Rivers, Eagle entered Hiruzen's office and asked, "Did you assign that mission to Fujin?"
Hiruzen nodded. Eagle sighed in relief. That mission fell under Anbu and Eagle had a major headache on how to handle it. The Anbu didn't have any other Elite Jounin. Not to mention, they were stretched extremely thin due to the mess Fujin created some time ago.
However, Fujin going on the mission meant one thing. Eagle asked, "So he declined to become a Jounin Sensei?"
Hiruzen answered, "Yeah, he wants to focus on training for now."
Behind his mask, Eagle smiled and said, "Yeah, he is only 15 now. It's not a bad thing. Besides, you could make him Konohamaru's sensei later."
A shiver passed through Hiruzen's spine. He had thought about it when Fujin rejected the offer. What he analyzed made him raise his guard several times!
Hiruzen thought, 'I didn't notice it until Fujin started guiding Naruto. He tends to double down on the existing characteristics of the ones he is guiding.
Among the 5 kids he guided initially, 2 became very promising as that was their nature while 3 haven't shown much progress beyond their initial improvement. He didn't do anything to make those 3 orphans train harder and left them to their means.
It was the same story with his Anbu subordinates. It's just that they were very dedicated. I didn't notice this as it seemed normal. However, with Naruto…
Naruto's pranks have become a hundred times worse since he came in contact with Fujin. They increased in both intensity and frequency. The only explanation is that Fujin used this aspect and motivated Naruto to prank more so that Naruto would train harder. Though it was an annoyance to the village and I had to deal with several complaints, it was a very good method to train Naruto.
If I give Konohamaru to Fujin to train, then…'
Konohamaru challenged Hiruzen more than a dozen times daily to battle! Fortunately, he was extremely weak and was just a headache to Hiruzen rather than an actual problem. However, if Fujin trained Konohamaru and encouraged him to challenge Hiruzen more, Hiruzen's old age would become a complete nightmare! The very thought of that future made Hiruzen shiver.
"Father?" Eagle called out seeing that Hiruzen was lost in thoughts. Hiruzen replied, "Yeah. I will think about it when the time comes."
Eagle nodded and discussed some official matters before he left. Hiruzen stopped doing his paperwork and looked outside the window, staring at the statues of the Hokages while he smoked.
After some time, he decided, 'If that happens in the future, I'll just make Fujin or Kakashi the Hokage and retire. Let my Grandson challenge either of them instead of me.'
While Hiruzen was worrying about his future, another interesting change happened in the village. Even though Team 7 wasn't created yet, all but one of its members had their first kiss. The only one who still didn't was their soon-to-be 26-year-old Sensei.
Naruto and Sasuke kissed accidentally just like in the original story. However, Fujin's interference in Naruto's life brought one change that he didn't even consider. Fujin ensured that Naruto had access to good food and understood when food got spoiled. So, Naruto no longer drank milk that was a few weeks past its expiry date.
Hence, he wasn't interrupted when he disguised himself as Sasuke to kiss Sakura and managed to do it without any interruption. As a result, Sakura had her first kiss as well. Only, it was with Naruto who was disguised as Sasuke.
Having kissed her dear 'Sasuke', Sakura was on cloud nine! Unfortunately, that only lasted for a minute as she heard, "Naruto, what are you doing?"
Both Sakura and Naruto looked in the direction of the voice and saw the real Sasuke standing there. Sakura grew confused as she wondered aloud, "Two… two… Sasuke?"
Meanwhile, Naruto was shocked and exclaimed loudly, "What are you doing here?"
Sasuke replied, "A simple rope trick. Any good ninja can escape. Why are you disguised as me?"
Sakura, who heard their conversation immediately understood, 'I kissed Naruto?'
Her expression became a sight to see! It was a mixture of sadness, terror, disgust, heartbreak, and a lack of desire to continue living! She muttered, "Naruuuttoooo…"
Naruto turned around and saw Sakura's horrifying expression. A shiver passed through his spine as he immediately disappeared from the spot! Thankfully, Sakura was still in shock at losing her first kiss to Naruto instead of wanting to kill Naruto.
Sasuke looked at Sakura's state and muttered, "What did that jerk do?"
Sakura said, "He…"
She couldn't continue. How could she tell Sasuke that she kissed Naruto… Soon, all her feelings turned into rage as she clenched her fist and shouted, "Shannaro! I am going to kill Naruto!"
She immediately ran away to hunt Naruto down, leaving only a puzzled Sasuke who wondered, 'What the hell did Naruto do?'
Fortunately for Naruto, he managed to stay hidden until the break was over. Naruto sighed in relief and thought, 'I am safe! She won't hit me in front of Iruka sensei.'
Naruto sneakily entered his classroom at the same time as Iruka. Unfortunately for him, his squad was assigned to Kakashi, who showed up 3 hours late, giving plenty of time for Sakura to take out all her anger. When Kakashi finally showed up, he couldn't help but wonder what happened between the three of them.
Their introductions went just as in the original story. The only change was that Naruto spoke a bit about Fujin while Sasuke didn't have the burden of reviving his clan. He just wanted revenge on Itachi.
While having more kids survive gave Sasuke a sense of responsibility as he was the eldest among the survivors and their future clan leader, seeing all of them miss their families and suffer due to it also reminded him consistently of what Itachi had done. As a result, his desire to kill Itachi was even higher than what it would have been had he been the only survivor.
Fujin took a break in one of the patrol camps along the border with the Land of Rivers for the night. As he rested, he wondered, 'Tomorrow, Kakashi will be conducting the Bell test. I wonder how they will perform.'
After a few seconds, he chuckled and thought, 'Well, what does it matter whether you bring a needle or a pocket knife to a gunfight? Though Naruto is slightly stronger, Kakashi will still beat them with ease. I just wonder if he'll still use that legendary jutsu…'
The next morning, Kakashi once again made his Genins wait for several hours before showing up at the training ground. Just like the original story, Naruto tried attacking Kakashi on being taunted but was stopped easily. When Kakashi started the test, both Sasuke and Sakura hid themselves, while Naruto kept standing there.
Naruto grabbed his shurikens as he claimed loudly, "Fight me Kakashi Sensei. I'll take the bells in no time, believe it!"
Kakashi sighed as Naruto threw the shurikens. Naruto immediately weaved hand signs after throwing the shurikens and announced, "Wind Release: Projectile Control Jutsu"
The shurikens curved through the air and moved towards Kakashi from several directions, who still dodged them with ease while wondering, 'Lord Hokage said that Fujin guided Naruto for some time. But why didn't he tell Naruto to stop screaming the attack name? How is it supposed to hit an enemy when the enemy knows what is coming?'
Seeing that Kakashi dodged the shurikens, Naruto changed his hand seals and shouted, "Wind Release: Wind Retrieving jutsu"
The shurikens that were flying away suddenly stopped and began flowing back. At the same time, Naruto threw more shurikens towards Kakashi.
Sasuke and Sakura, who were observing the fight while hiding, had an annoyed expression when Naruto displayed his two jutsus. That said, they couldn't be faulted for it. While Naruto was initially hated for no reason, these two jutsus had given half of the village a reason to hate him!
Of course, since they already hated him, he couldn't see any difference. Fujin noticed it but he felt that it was justice in a weird way. So he didn't particularly care about it as it didn't affect him.
Hiruzen had received several complaints due to this, but he couldn't tell Naruto to stop pranking considering what his daily life was, and since he didn't actually hurt anyone. Not to mention, Fujin was the one who was teaching him the jutsu. That was another trouble he didn't want to poke needlessly.
Regardless of their annoyance, both Sasuke and Sakura were surprised to see Naruto surround Kakashi from all directions with shurikens.
Sasuke wondered, 'Since when did his control over the shurikens become this good?'
Meanwhile, Sakura muttered to herself, 'Since when did Naruto become so strong?'
The shurikens enclosed Kakashi and hit him moments later, covering his entire body with shurikens. A second later, a smoke cloud appeared and his body turned into a log. Naruto's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "When did he use the Substitution jutsu?"
He quickly looked around himself but couldn't see Kakashi. Suddenly, he heard a voice, "A ninja should always be aware of what is happening around him. Especially what is happening behind him."
Kakashi's hands were making the Tiger seal. Both Sakura and Sasuke immediately became tense on seeing that seal!
