4 TSoL Chapter 4 - Look in a new way

Upon waking up, Naruto felt a strange and extraordinary lightness. He was very surprised, because this lightness was not something connected with his body, and did not concern anything physical at all. It was a feeling as if he had removed a light veil from his eyes, and now everything looked a little different.

No, his vision hasn't changed in any way. His view of things around him has changed.

— How... strange...

For Naruto, everything seemed to make more sense.

Wherever he looked, in his head every now and then flashed different memories of the moments when and where he interacted with this or that object. It was a strange and unusual feeling for him.

Usually, he did not remember the details of his life so well, let alone remember what exactly and when he did at one point or another.

— What's the matter, dattebayo?… Is reading really as good for the brain as they say it is?

Young Uzumaki scratched his head, recalling yesterday, and to his surprise, these memories seemed so accessible and clear that he was momentarily lost in them, until he completely walked through yesterday and remembered the most important thing.

— Oh, right! My clan! System-Chan, are you still here? I learned everything about my last name!

As soon as he called the system, strange images of floating scrolls with different colors and with different signatures appeared before his eyes. All the scrolls were located in certain places, while one of them was slightly larger and opened. The open scroll contained an inscription of the system informing about the completion of the mission, as well as a field to confirm the receipt of the award.

— What the hell happened to my head while I was sleeping? Why did these images become even more complex and varied?

Naruto finally began to think about this strange system that had appeared in his head, and he was worried if he was losing his mind due to constant loneliness, or if he had fallen under some strange genjutsu. But remembering how much he learned, and how this system guided him to this knowledge, he could not call it ordinary hallucinations, or an illusion.

— Damn, this is all very difficult. There is also this oddity with my memory. Is this all due to the system?

[Affirmative.]

A message from the system surfaced, and not in a scroll, but in a small, separate and transparent window that reminded him of an ordinary white sheet of paper. The text was as if it had been written in ink.

This difference from yesterday's manifestation of the System made Naruto a little alarmed, but when he remembered yesterday's mention of mission rewards, he realized that all this had something to do with the reward for updating the interface of the system. He saw no other explanation.

Turning his attention to accepting the award, he quickly agreed, and immediately a new scroll appeared, with a new mission.

— So, as stated in the award, I received the next mission in... what was it called there? A сhain?

[Affirmative.]

After examining the new scroll, he noticed a striking difference from the previous missions, this time, on the scroll was the designation of the mission rank. Looking at this, Naruto smiled contentedly as it looked more and more like real ninja missions.

— Wow, this is my first ranked mission, and I'm still a student at the academy! And who's laughing now, huh? The great Naruto Uzumaki became a real shinobi before anyone else! Besides, I started right away from rank "C".

As he thought about it, Naruto remembered something.

«But if I remember correctly, genin are given D-rank missions in the beginning, and only then they receive C-rank missions. Isn't it too early for me to do this? Or is it just that I'm so awesome that I can start right away at "C" rank?»

Naruto chuckled softly, fantasizing about his greatness, but putting the jokes aside, he mentally unrolled the scroll to finally find out the purpose of this mission.

Looking around the scroll, he also noticed the classification of this mission.

«Search and Reconnaissance? So now the missions will have not only a rank, but also a classification. Nice to know. So what do I need to do?»

[Mission Classification - Search / Reconnaissance. Grade "C"]

[Mission - Find the place of residence of the fourth Hokage, and find out the secret of his family hidden from everyone. Mission time - Three days.]

[Completion Reward - Introduction to Fuinjutsu. Talking to (Temporarily unavailable).]

[Accept? Yes / No.]

Realizing what this task was, Naruto's eyes widened in shock, because he clearly didn't expect something like this. The Fourth Hokage was the hero of the village, and finding and then getting into his house would definitely be a challenge.

Among other things, he needs to find out a secret, which, according to the system, was for some reason hidden from everyone. Naruto still wasn't smart enough to figure it all out based on this information alone, but he was determined to find out. After all, no matter how much he desecrated the monuments of the Hokage, he always admired the Fourth. He was exactly what Naruto was aiming for. Yondaime is a shinobi capable of instilling fear in his enemies with just his name and presence.

But this was not the only reason for his actions, he also wanted to receive the reward that was promised to him for his accomplishment.

«Damn, the introduction to "Fuin" is really a surprise. As I understand it, my clan was very good at everything related to Fuin's techniques. Although I'm not very good at school, at least learning a couple of useful seals would be really cool. I can already imagine Sasuke's face when I take out a bowl of ramen from the storage seal, which I personally created, right in front of him. Ha ha ha!»

Young Uzumaki still didn't know that storage and explosion seals are not all that fuin seals are capable of, but when he delves into the study, unexpected surprises and big changes await him.

Looking at the time, Naruto realized that there was very little time left before the lessons at the Academy, and therefore, he put another bowl of ramen to brew, and in the meantime took a refreshing shower.

After a shower and breakfast, Naruto pulled himself together and dashed towards the Academy, contemplating a plan to locate the fourth Hokage's home along the way.

«How can I find his home... Wasn't it supposed to be some kind of famous place? Although, wait, he was a ninja, which means he had a lot of enemies. Then it makes sense that his place of residence is not as well known and widespread as the usual ones. By the way, if you think about it, did he have a family, or did he live alone? I think I'll start my search by finding out.»

Thinking about this, Naruto had already reached the Academy, and passing by his classmates, he suddenly stopped at Hinata's desk, and looked at her intently, thinking.

«By the way, such large clans as Hyuga or the like should know about how the fourth Hokage used to live, and whether he had a family, right? Perhaps Hinata knows something about this.»

While the brooding blonde looked at Hinata, she became all nervous and flushed, not knowing why Naruto was staring at her so intently, and what to do.

— N… Naruto-kun… W - why are… you…

Hearing her words, Naruto decided to ask, and so he smiled at her, and bringing his face closer, thereby further embarrassing the tomato-red girl, he said.

— Hey, Hinata, I want to ask you something very important.

Hinata blushed even more after hearing such a phrase. Seeing her strange reaction, Naruto remembered that this was not the first time, but decided to put this question aside for now, since the matter was important, and therefore, he continued.

— It's about something personal, so I'd like to talk to you, just me and you, if you don't mind?"

«Just me and you?»

This part echoed in the young Hyuga's head, which was the last straw for the shy girl. As a result, steam literally poured out of her ears, and the girl herself lost consciousness, lying on her table, with a funny and dreamy smile.

Naruto stood and looked at all this with a strange expression on his face, not knowing what to do. So he just sighed and headed for his seat. Fortunately, no one attached much importance to this, since no one looked in the direction of Naruto, which helped to pass this event unnoticed.

Sitting at his desk, Naruto waited for the start of the class, and finally Mizuki-Sensei entered the classroom, and after a quick introduction, he handed out all the sheets with questions for a little simple test.

Upon receiving his sheet, Naruto's face frowned, as he did not remember even half of what was asked in the questions of this test. Looking around, he saw that almost all the students calmly answered questions, almost without straining at the moment. After going over the questions again, Naruto could barely answer a third of them.

Seeing no alternatives, he quickly wrote the solution where he knew the answer, and because it took less time, he put his pencil aside and thought.

«Damn, this is all very suspicious. Why are these "easy" verification tests always so hard? Even today, when my memory is working better for some reason, I still can hardly understand these tasks. We definitely did not go through these topics. Now that I've thought about it... My tests have always been very difficult, haven't they?...»

Looking at Mizuki-Sensei, who also looked at him with a strange grin, but as soon as their gazes met, the teacher immediately averted his gaze, completely ignoring the young Uzumaki.

This seemed a little suspicious to Naruto, so he thought.

«How strange... I think it will not be superfluous to make sure. There are just over five minutes left until the end of the test, so I think I should have enough time.»

Taking out a blank piece of paper, Naruto began to quickly transfer the contents of the test onto a blank sheet. Do not forget to redraw all the fields, figures and numbers, exactly as it was in the test. And so, when Mizuki-sensei announced that the time for the test was up, Naruto had just finished copying the test onto a piece of paper. Hiding it in his pocket, Naruto waited for his test to be taken, which, as usual, would happen last. Because of which, most of the students have already left. And there were only Sasuke, whose work was usually taken by the penultimate, several of his fans waiting for him, and Naruto himself.

Taking Sasuke's job, Mizuki-Sensei smiled and praised him out loud.

— Excellent, Sasuke-kun. Which is to be expected from our most promising student.

— Yes, our Sasuke-kun is always the best!

This praise only raised the gloomy and cold Uchiha in the eyes of his fans. At that time, Mizuki looked behind Sasuke.

— And now…

After looking at Naruto, Mizuki walked over to his desk, and taking his test, he looked at it with a smile, but then suddenly frowned a little as he saw something strange.

Seeing this, Naruto immediately asked.

— Is there something wrong, Mizuki-sensei?

Seeing the young Uzumaki's gaze, Mizuki put on a smile and replied.

— Oh yes. I'm just a little surprised, because usually, you could not answer more than one question, but this time you were able to answer at least a third of them. So I was a little surprised. Looks like someone has been studying hard lately. Well, keep it up.

Although he said so, Naruto could see his grim expression as he left, which Naruto had seen so many times before to confuse it with anything else. This caused a very unpleasant impression of this man in young Uzumaki.

He had never noticed anything like this before, but now, thinking about it, he could easily recall all these small moments, which together could very well indicate that Mizuki-Sensei has the same incomprehensible dislike for him as most of the villagers, except because he is a shinobi, he could hide it pretty well.

— Hey, Sakura-chan, Ino, can I talk to you for a second?

Ino, on the other hand, was a little surprised that he turned to her as well, since it was usually only Sakura. Therefore, as the heiress of the Yamanaka clan, she began to analyze his behavior.

«If this is not another attempt by Naruto to invite Sakura for a walk, then perhaps he wanted to do one of his pranks?" Although Sakura is with me, and even a fool like him would not prank a girl who, obviously to everyone except herself, he likes, right?»

Thinking in a similar vein, the blonde also turned to the blonde.

When both girls met his gaze, Sakura spoke first.

— What do you want, Naruto-Baka?

Seeing her irritation, hundreds of memories related to Sakura and her attitude towards him immediately began to run through Naruto's head. From this, Naruto even developed a very unpleasant feeling inside, causing him to feel double. On the one hand, it was a girl that he liked, on the other hand, when his new memory threw similar pictures to him, he felt some disappointment both in her and in himself.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto decided to finally stop thinking about the bad and rethink his approach to this girl, temporarily stopping his attempts to get closer to her. That is why, with a slightly complex smile, he answered.

— Actually… It's nothing, Sakura-chan. I wanted to talk to Ino. So... If you are in a hurry somewhere, then you can move on.

Such a statement has already surprised not only Ino, but also Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi looked strangely at the blonde and shrugged her shoulders and turned to her friend with a sly smile.

— Well then, good luck to stay, Ino-Pig, while you're here I'll go and keep Sasuke company!

With these words, the pink-haired girl ran away, under the irritated gaze of her friend. Sighing bitterly, the girl looked at Naruto and asked, drooping.

— Well, Naruto, what was it you wanted to talk about?

Taking a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, he handed it to Ino. Seeing this, the girl at first didn't understand what it was, but then a very strange thought occurred to her.

— Don't tell me this is a love letter of confession?" Listen, Naruto, I certainly understand that I am a beauty, but ...

— What? Of course not! If I was going to confess to someone, I would not use such snotty methods, but would say it right in her face.

This confident tone and solemn face of Naruto made Ino even a little taken aback, but quickly pulled herself together and answered.

— Then what is it?

— This is the test that I answered today. I would like you to take a look at this.

Rolling her eyes, Ino frowned and unfolded the paper to answer.

— So, why should I look at your test, if I had the same... Wait... What is it?

As soon as Ino saw the contents of this test, her eyes immediately widened, since this test was completely different.

Seeing her confusion, Naruto asked.

— Well? Did you have the same, or not?

— The same? This is a completely different test. Damn, I think I can hardly answer half of these questions at best.

— Sigh... As I thought. Thank you for your answer.

Not understanding what was happening, Ino said.

— Wait, what does that mean? You said it was your test today, doesn't that mean there was a mistake?

— I'm not sure about that. But it doesn't matter now, I have one more question for you.

— Huh?

Ino was completely confused seeing his attitude towards this issue, but she still wondered what he would ask this time.

— You are also from a renowned and influential clan, right?

— Well, obviously. It's not for nothing that my last name is Yamanaka. What is it?

— I need a little more detailed information about previous hokages, which is very difficult to find in ordinary libraries, and therefore, I wanted to ask if there are books with similar information in your clan?

«Is Naruto visiting the library?" Wow...»

Surprised by his question, Ino thought for a couple of seconds and answered.

— Well, I can't answer for sure, but I can definitely say that our clan has its own small library. Well, rather, it's just three bookcases with different books that any member of our clan can use. So I might as well watch this book for you. But the main question remains, why do you need this information?

Hearing her question, Naruto became nervous as he realized how strange and suspicious his mission was. So, looking away, he answered nervously.

— Well... you know... I was here studying information about my clan, and found out that the first Hokage was married to a woman from my clan. And... well... I wanted to know more about all this. And I could not find information about the fourth Hokage, so I turned to you.

Looking at him with round eyes, Ino blinked slightly, then laughed and answered.

— Ha-ha-ha! Your clan? God, Naruto, if you were going to lie, you would have come up with something more believable.

Angered by her reaction, Naruto responded.

— Hey! I'm serious, Dattebayo!

— Yeah-yeah, sure. Okay, I'll look for a similar book for you. The main thing is that your research is not related to one of your high-profile pranks. Since if they find out that I indirectly helped you with this, using the property of my clan, then they can punish me too. You understood me?

Ino spoke the last question in a slightly menacing tone, leaning forward and placing her fists on her hips. Which, frankly, looked a little tempting to Naruto, so brushing aside his past indignation, he nodded his head.

— Great! If that's all, then I'll go. Sasuke was probably tired of that pink forehead lamp. See you tomorrow!

With these words, the blonde Yamanaka ran to catch up with her friend and Sasuke. Watching her go, Naruto shook his head, trying to shake off new thoughts about Yamanaka, since Sakura was still in his mind and it was a little strange for him to think of another girl.

Leaving the walls of the classroom, Naruto once again went to the library of the academy to start a new search for information, and this time about all the Hokage of Konoha. This time, he was not shy to use clones again to cover as many sections as possible, but unfortunately, all information regarding the kage village of the hidden Leaf was limited.

After spending more than three hours searching, Naruto was pretty tired, and his head was splitting from the constant streams of information. Leaving the walls of the academy, Naruto massaged his temples, thinking about how other people could read so much and for so long if it gave him such a headache. It never occurred to him that this was due to the use of the shadow clone technique.

Back at the abandoned training ground, Naruto summoned the system, and decided to finally embark on the clone training program that the system had provided him as a reward for uncovering the secret of this technique.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto drove away all the thoughts accumulated in him about Mizuki, tests, Sakura, Ino and even the unconscious Hinata. It was time for training, and thanks to the new program and clones, he planned to become much stronger.

* * * * * * * * * *

Autor's Note:

A little advancement of the plot forward, and a lead to big changes. The next chapter will confront the protagonist with this directly.

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