Him, Him, and Her

Being on the same team as Sasuke-kun was already a great thing.

But to be on the same team as Naruto-kun!?

This is just too fortunate, isn't it? Really! Truly! It's too much!!! At this moment, these girls couldn't help but want to pounce directly on Haruno Sakura to vent their frustration and resentment.

Even if they knew they had no chance, and they were destined to be on a team with Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Neji, Ino Yamanaka still looked at Sakura with an itching jealousy. There's a saying, isn't there? In the face of "love," a girl's "friendship" is extremely fragile.

Sitting not far away, Hinata Hyuga also revealed a noticeable expression of disappointment.

"Can't Naruto-kun and I be on the same team after all?"

The girl's low spirits and her intertwined hands were enough to explain everything.

Of course, Hinata didn't know that their homeroom teacher, Iruka, had tried to see if he could place her and Naruto on the same team before graduation. Whether it was due to Naruto's unusual attention to Hinata over the past six years or something special he had seen in one of her answers during a particular class, Iruka had reasons to believe that putting Hinata and Naruto on the same team would be a good thing.

However, this idea ultimately couldn't be put into practice. Not to mention the reaction of the Hyuga clan, even Naruto's team assignments had been directly ordered by the Third Hokage. This plan of Iruka's remained unrealized.

Leaving aside the reaction of the Hyuga clan, the allocation of teams for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had been determined long ago. Iruka had to follow the established plan and place Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura in the same team.

This was also something that Iruka felt a little regretful about.

On the other side, the three who were placed in the same team had their own reactions at this moment.

As mentioned earlier, Sakura showed a simple and direct expression of excitement. Being in a team with both top-performing students and her beloved Sasuke was making her emotions hard to describe with simple words like "happy" or "joyful." She wanted to burst with happiness but also had to restrain herself, maintaining an appearance of a quiet, well-mannered girl. It was indeed a challenge for Sakura.

Naruto, on the other hand, remained calm and composed. He had known about this for a while, so there was nothing surprising to him. If there had been an unexpected team assignment, that would have piqued his interest.

As for Sasuke, as mentioned before, he didn't care at all about who his teammates were, as long as they didn't hinder him. While Iruka announced the team assignments, Sasuke still had a detached expression. It was only when he heard Naruto's name that his eyebrows twitched slightly. But even that was a minor reaction. It was because Naruto had shown exceptional performance during their six years at the academy, and in some combat exercises, he had posed a threat to Sasuke.

Then there was Sakura, whom Sasuke simply had no emotional attachment to. He was more concerned about who their team's leader would be, whether they were strong enough, and whether they could help him become stronger. That was Sasuke's top priority.

Five years had passed since the night of the Uchiha clan's massacre. Sasuke's only unwavering goals were to find his brother, Uchiha Itachi, and ask him why he did what he did, and then kill him. He wanted to honor his parents and all the members of his clan who had been lost. This was the one thing that would never change in Sasuke's heart, up until his death. Another goal was to rebuild the Uchiha clan; he was once the heir to the Uchiha clan, and it was the most prominent clan in Konoha, something Sasuke took pride in. So, compared to his teammates, Sasuke considered their identities as a trivial matter.

Sasuke's main concern was who their team's leader would be and whether they were strong enough.

After announcing the composition of Team Seven, Iruka left the classroom, and it was time for the various team leaders to meet with their new Genin. One by one, ninjas wearing standard Konoha chuunin attire arrived in the classroom and led their respective teams away. Although their uniforms made it impossible to distinguish whether they were chuunin or jounin, Naruto, with his current perception, could tell that they were most likely chuunin. Their chakra was not particularly strong, and Naruto had fought head-to-head with Mizuki in his transformed state, which had given him some insight into chakra levels. While his judgment might not have been precise, it was a reasonable estimate.

(End of this chapter)