TSoL Chapter 18 - Changing environment

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Walking through the morning Konoha, Naruto recalled his yesterday's conversation with his parents, in which he told them about his meeting with the Fox. Their reaction was quite strange in the opinion of the blond, which led him to some thoughts:

"It's kind of weird, they seem to be happy that I was able to connect with the Fox, but at the same time they are afraid that something might happen to me if I continue to keep in touch with him, that's just..." Naruto looked up to the sky , and looking at the clouds, he continued to think, "this connection was established by itself, and although the fox immediately understood how to control it, I still have no idea how to do it. It looks like I still have to ask him for advice. I hope he will not refuse me this."

Approaching the Academy, Naruto noticed Hinata, who was also walking there, and smiling happily, he called out to the girl:

"Hey Hinata-chan, good morning!"

"Ah..." The surprised girl shuddered slightly when she heard Naruto's voice calling her.

Turning around, she saw the whiskered blond happily waving his hand at her. Stopping in place, she smiled warmly at him, and shyly replied:

"N-Naruto-kun… good morning!" She again did her best to look him straight in the eyes without losing consciousness. Fortunately for the girl, after their last walk, it became much easier for her to do this.

Having caught up with the white-eyed Hyuuga, Naruto already went inside the academy with her, along the way having a small conversation with the girl. A minute later, they reached the classroom, where around the gloomy Uchiha, as usual, a female admirer group gathered, traditionally led by Sakura and Ino. The class itself was almost completely striped, and of all those present, only Kiba noticed Naruto's arrival, and he immediately let it know:

"Oi, Naruto! You've finally come, I hope today Iruka-sensei will let us spar again so that I can finally get back at you for the last defeat!" Kiba's cocky grin supported his intentions.

Putting on a slight fox smirk, Naruto replied:

"You'd better be more careful with such statements Kiba, because if we really spar, then it may happen that the past situation with your defeat will repeat itself again, and after all your bravado, you will look even more stupid than then."

Snorting at his words, Kiba crossed his arms over his chest and stated:

"Pfft, I've been through a lot of training since that time, and I've already fully mastered the skill you used that time, so I now understand how you managed to dodge punches so quickly back then. It won't happen again, rest assured."

"As you say," Naruto just shrugged, not wanting to start a stupid argument from scratch.

It was at that moment that they were spotted by Ino, who promptly left the Uchiha fan circle under Sakura's frown. Approaching the blond, she noticed how he was standing next to a slightly blushing Hinata. Smiling, Ino said:

"Naruto, I see you came along with Hinata this time. Sounds like you've become quite good friends, don't you?"

Saying this, Ino looked with some amusement at the embarrassed Hyuuga, who was looking at her with a slight frown and displeasure, which surprisingly amused the young Yamanaka.

Hearing Ino's words, Naruto nodded and calmly replied:

"Yeah, Hinata and I got along well and became good friends."

"Umh…" Hinata nodded embarrassedly at the boy's words.

At this point, Kiba looked at Ino and smirked as he asked:

"By the way, Ino, what do you say after I beat Naruto in sparring, go training together to strengthen our 'friendship bond' so to speak," saying so, he began to flirt with his eyebrows as he looked at the girl.

Looking at the boy with a blank face, Ino thought:

"I've decided to stop judging a book by its cover, of course, but…" looking at the guy's goofy attempts to flirt with her, her eye began to twitch slightly, "something tells me that in this 'book', everything is pretty obvious."

With a tight smile, Ino replied:

"Sorry Kiba, but I have things to do. Plus, considering your past defeat, your declaration of victory seems rather premature.

"Just wait and you'll see for yourself!" Kiba's confidence was unshakable.

Listening to their conversation, Naruto suddenly remembered something and turned to Hinata and said:

"Speaking of training, Hinata-chan! I'm going to meet Tenten again today after the academy for a joint training. I've already talked to her, so as promised, you can join us, well, if you don't have any other business of course ."

Slightly widening her eyes in surprise, Ino watched as Hinata smiled sweetly at the blond, and nodding her head, she replied:

"Of course Naruto-kun, I'll gladly join you!"

What was even more surprising to Ino was the slightly superior look that the previously unassuming Hinata threw in her direction, causing Yamanaka to slightly raise an eyebrow in surprise, and slightly chuckle at such an unusual action for this girl.

However, even if it amuses her, she still had to admit that her pride was hurt, even if she doesn't pretend to fight for Naruto. That's why, she decided to try to force herself on them for training after the academy. Then she looked at Kiba, who had lost interest, and thought:

"The main thing is that this 'alpha fool' doesn't find out that my 'things to do' were just an excuse, otherwise it won't turn out very nice."

Looking at their conversation from the side, Sakura could not understand why Ino began to devote so much time to Naruto, and why a kind of company formed around him. And most importantly, why do they all look so joyful next to each other.

A strange feeling began to grow inside the girl, which is not yet so obvious, and Sakura herself is unlikely to understand what it is, but over time, it will definitely become much more.

Finally, after a few minutes, Iruka entered the classroom and began his standard homeroom teacher routine. After checking, he started a class session, after which he took all the children to the training and sparring area.

Unfortunately for Kiba, this time he had to fight Sasuke. And although everyone thought that Sasuke would easily finish him off, but to the surprise of everyone, including Kiba himself, he was able to show a more than worthy fight using chakra in his legs, thanks to which he was able to almost draw with a genius like Sasuke, losing with minimal losses.

It was a hard blow to Sasuke's pride, and now he just couldn't help but think:

"What the hell, until recently, this idiot could hardly keep up with me, and now, the speed of his transition from one movement to another has increased dramatically, thanks to which he could keep up with almost all of my movements. Was that really the technique that Naruto demonstrated?" then Sasuke suddenly thought of something, and turned his gaze to the calm Naruto, "wait, if Naruto learned this move before, and continued to train him, does this mean that he is now either at the same level as Kiba, or even stronger…" Sasuke didn't like that kind of thought at all, he was sick of the fact that someone like mediocrity Naruto could be on the same level as him.

After this sparring session, Sasuke decided by all means to find out what this movement enhancement technique is and how to use it. Naruto himself was surprised at Sasuke's strange look on him, but decided not to think too much about it, since it was his turn next.

Looking at Naruto, Iruka glanced at his notepad and said:

"So next up are Naruto Uzumaki vs Shikamaru Nara."

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Naruto turned to his lazy friend, and saw how he scratched his head in displeasure, and said:

"A fight against Naruto? How troublesome…"

After stepping onto the platform and facing each other, Iruka looked at them for a while, then nodded, and gave the signal to start.

Immediately, the atmosphere around Naruto changed and he took a fighting stance that was different from academic, which could not fail to attract the attention of both Iruka and the students. It was also of particular interest to Ino, Sasuke, and Shikamaru standing in front of Naruto.

The Nara watched Naruto closely, and lowered his body slightly for a more comfortable position, but that movement alone caused Naruto to step back slightly, surprising the onlookers.

This was especially disliked by Shikamaru, who narrowed his eyes and thought:

"What a troublesome guy, this is definitely not the Naruto that thoughtlessly rushes into battle." taking a closer look at Naruto's stance, and noticing his intent gaze following his every move, Shikamaru thought, "well, if that's the case, then there's only one thing left for me to do."

Shikamaru began to move his arm, causing Naruto to tense up as he had already read stories about the Nara clan's technique, and after his father told him about their strategic mind, he raised his caution to a higher level. That's just what was his surprise when Shikamaru raised his hand above his head, and said:

"I give up."

"Huh?..." Naruto looked at the boy strangely.

"What?"

"He gave up?"

The audience also did not quite understand what was happening, the only one who did not show any surprise was Chōji. Iruka looked at Shikamaru strangely and asked:

"What's the matter, Shikamaru, why did you give up without even exchanging a few blows?"

Stretching, Shikamaru yawned, and starting to slowly walk towards Chōji replied:

"I'm sorry Iruka-sensei, but I won't be able to rest easy and watch the clouds if my body hurts after being beaten."

That was all Iruka got in return, causing him to look at the lazy kid in confusion. Naruto was also a bit surprised, but just shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Hinata with a smile.

After that, several more sparring sessions were held, and the training time at the academy came to an end. Walking up to Hinata, Naruto smiled at her and asked:

"Well, Hinata-chan, are you ready to go to training?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun." The girl nodded happily.

"Yosh! Then let's go."

With these words, they left the classroom and headed towards the exit from the academy. When they got to that, Ino suddenly called out to her:

"Hey Naruto, Hinata, wait a second!"

Hearing her voice, Hinata involuntarily frowned again.

Naruto turned around in surprise, and watching as the blonde Yamanaka approached them, he asked:

"Mmm? What is it, Ino-chan?"

The sight of him tilting his head to the side and looking at her with innocent curiosity with his blue eyes slightly discouraged the girl, causing her to stare at him in a frozen position. At this moment, she was finally able to notice something that she had not paid attention to before:

"Has Naruto… always been this cute?"

Seeing Yaamanaka's frozen gaze, Hinata quickly approached Naruto, almost touching him with her shoulder, looking at the girl with displeasure. Noticing this, Ino quickly shook her head, pushing the strange thoughts out of her mind, and said:

"Um… yes, that's right. I heard that you and Hinata are going to train together with your friend Ten Ten, so I wondered if I could join you?"

Surprised, Naruto blinked his eyes at first, and then asked:

"Didn't you say you had things to do today?"

After a little hesitation, Ino laughed nervously, and replied:

"Ah, you see, I kind of… mixed up the day, and it turned out that I would be busy not today but tomorrow, hehe…" Ino internally scolded herself for forgetting that when she sent Kiba away, Naruto was standing nearby and he heard everything.

As the whiskered Uzumaki thought, Hinata continued to glare at the blonde girl until she finally remembered that she was able to get to know Naruto a lot more than Ino, and that she and Naruto already share something in common, so she felt in some superior position, which, frankly, was a surprisingly pleasant feeling for her.

That's why she calmed down a bit and began to look at Ino already with some superior condescension, which was not missed by the blonde Yamanaka, who did not quite understand where it came from, and why it irritated her so much.

By this point, Naruto had finally finished thinking and spoke:

"I'm honestly not sure, Ino-chan. I warned Ten Ten about Hinata, and even then, even though she said she didn't mind, it seemed to me that she was still not very happy about it."

Listening to his words, Ino rolled her eyes, and looking at the blond strangely, she thought:

"Well, of course she didn't like it, baka, I wouldn't like it either if my personal time with the boy I like was interrupted."

Then Ino looked at Hinata's face, and realized that she was thinking about the same thing. Hinata also looked at Ino and there was a strange understanding between them, after which they smiled, looking back at Naruto who continued:

"I don't see anything wrong with you joining, as long as Ten Ten doesn't mind."

Then suddenly Naruto smiled brightly, embarrassing Ino a little, and said:

"You know, I'm really glad you want to join. You and I usually don't talk much, so it would be great to get to know each other better and maybe become friends."

Looking at his bright smile, and hearing his words about getting to know each other better, she smiled softly and slightly derogatoryly, and thought:

"Talk and get to know each other, huh?… It seems like I really was too superficial before…" remembering her friend, Ino thought, "I wonder if the same thing is happening to Sakura now? And maybe even with myself, in regards to Sasuke?"

While she was thinking about it, Naruto seemed to think of something and added:

"Oh, Kiba also wanted to invite you to train, you could also invite him later, as well as Shikamaru and Chouji. They are great guys."

Shaking her head, Ino said:

"Let's think about it later and leave quickly. I don't have much time since my mom can't watch our shop alone for long."

"Alright, follow me!" Satisfied, Naruto led the girls to their training ground with Ten Ten.

At the same time, the unsuspecting Ten Ten had a strange feeling that something not very pleasant was going to happen. And accustomed to trust her feelings, she mentally prepared herself for what would happen when Naruto brought this friend of his from the academy.

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Author's Note:

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