Naruto curiously looked at Karin beside Sasuke.
Sasuke was very popular among girls, and all the girls wanted to sit next to him.
In the end, after all the fighting, the seat next to Sasuke was left empty instead.
Seeing this unfamiliar face, Naruto was a little curious.
'Uzumaki, kind of rare, huh, same wine-red hair as Mom, what a coincidence.'
Kushina was also a little surprised to see Karin, ["Coincidence? That's a trait of the Uzumaki clan. She's from the same clan as your mom."]
Naruto's eyes lit up instantly, turns out she was an Uzumaki clansman.
"Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Are you a new classmate?"
"Hey, Naruto, what are you doing? She's my junior disciple!", Sasuke said unhappily.
Naruto was totally different from before, not afraid of strangers anymore, and staring straight at Karin, what was that supposed to mean?
"Junior disciple? Since when did you have a junior disciple?", Naruto asked in surprise.
Sasuke snorted, "None of your business. Karin, don't mind him."
Karin smiled, she could feel Naruto's friendliness, "Hey, I'm Karin, I just arrived two days ago."
Naruto said enthusiastically, "If you just came to school then…"
"Alright Naruto, talk after class, we're in class now," Iruka saw Naruto chatting away and quickly cut him off.
Naruto laughed awkwardly and sat back down first.
Sasuke, having made Rengoku his older brother, really cared for Karin.
Seeing Naruto like that, he thought Naruto was going back to his old ways of trying to make friends instantly.
But after sitting down, Naruto didn't say anything more, which made Sasuke a little confused.
'Uzumaki, why doesn't Karin go by Uzumaki Karin?', Naruto asked curiously.
Kushina replied, ["Our Uzumaki clan went through a catastrophe before, and there are very few clansmen left alive."]
["A lot of people are watching us, so everyone stopped using the Uzumaki surname."]
["That girl has strong vitality, that's why her hair is that color."]
'Then why is my hair yellow?', Naruto asked curiously.
["That's because your dad's hair was yellow."]
'Oh! So my dad had yellow hair.'
Having learned more info, Naruto felt a bit proud inside.
As long as he kept chatting with Uzumaki, he could find useful information from her slip-ups.
"This lesson, we're going to learn about the geography of the ninja world…"
Once class started, Naruto didn't slack off like before.
Instead, he listened attentively to Iruka's lesson.
And while Iruka was lecturing up front, Kushina was also explaining and supplementing the content in Naruto's mind.
For children, learning knowledge is actually pretty hard, because it's difficult to focus for long periods of time.
Iruka wasn't speaking fast, much of the time was spent dealing with distracted students.
His attitude toward Naruto had changed; he was still determined to teach Naruto well, and if Naruto got distracted, he would have intervened.
But to his surprise, Naruto was sitting properly and listening seriously.
Completely different from how he used to just muddle through.
'Is it because of the change after his identity was revealed?'
Naruto's identity had been the talk of the village these past few days, many people were paying close attention to him.
There were quite a few people sneaking glances at Naruto in class.
But they were still too young, only knew that Naruto wasn't a monster, but the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.
Young kids don't process such concepts well; they didn't understand much.
They only knew they shouldn't bully Naruto anymore.
Among the class, the ones who really cared about Naruto, besides Sasuke, was only Hinata.
As the Hyuga clan's heiress, she was obviously more mature.
Only now did she learn why Naruto had suffered so much.
Even though Naruto himself didn't say anything, when she was bullied, he had stood up to help her.
Hinata had always remembered Naruto's kindness.
What made her happiest about school was being in the same class as Naruto.
But Hinata was naturally shy and didn't dare talk to Naruto, she only kept sneaking glances at him.
Iruka's lecture was not fast-paced. With someone personally explaining things to him, Naruto had a lot of free time.
Under Uzumaki's questioning, Naruto introduced his classmates.
But only a few had ever spoken to Naruto, so he only introduced them.
On Kushina's end, she naturally classified everyone by their surnames.
It seemed the people Naruto had known before were all children of ninja clans.
["Are there any girls in class who play with you?"]
As a mom, Kushina was curious about that.
Naruto scratched his head, 'All the girls in class like Sasuke and don't talk to me.'
Kushina only had to think for a moment to figure out what was going on.
["Is there a girl you like?"]
'Nope. They don't play with me, so why should I like them?'
Naruto was still in the stage of just wanting to make friends and escape loneliness.
He didn't have feelings for any certain pink-haired girl.
["What about Hinata?"]
Naruto's head involuntarily turned, and met eyes with Hinata, who was secretly watching him.
Hinata instantly blushed bright red.
She quickly lowered her head.
'Oh yeah, she seems… yeah, seems like she doesn't like Sasuke.'
Hinata's presence was really low, most of the time she hid in various corners.
Back then, Naruto was only more familiar with Sasuke.
Hinata always secretly watched Naruto from the corners, so she never showed up in front of Sasuke.
Only now did Naruto realize that there was actually a girl in class who didn't like Sasuke.
["Are you familiar with Hinata?"]
Naruto answered a little awkwardly, 'Back when it snowed…'
Then he told the story of how Hinata was bullied and he stepped in to help, and got beaten up.
Kushina smiled gently after hearing that.
Hinata's concern and affection were obvious, anyone slightly mature could see it.
But Naruto was still a kid, he didn't know.
Kushina guided him patiently, ["Now that your Nine-Tails jinchūriki identity is exposed."]
["In the future, you'll definitely make many new friends."]
["You also need to learn to take initiative to make friends."]
["But you still need to choose your friends wisely."]
Lately, Uzumaki had been teaching Naruto all kinds of things, and Naruto now followed the voice in his head obediently.
'So how do I choose friends?', Naruto asked curiously.
Kushina slowly explained, ["The first condition is that they should be kind to you."]
["If they're mean to you, there's no need to be friends with them."]
Naruto thought for a moment and felt he really didn't want to be friends with people who'd treated him badly before.
'I understand, Uzumaki.'
["You can talk to friends about things they're interested in."]
'Things they're interested in?'
Kushina continued, ["What does Choji like?"]
'He seems to like eating chips,' Naruto had seen Choji eating chips many times, so he answered without hesitation.
["Then talk to him about food."]
["What about Kiba?"]
'He likes dogs…'
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