"Eh? Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee, you guys are back too!" Naruto greeted with a cheerful smile upon seeing Neji and the others.
"Yeah," Neji said, "Thanks to Tenten's tools."
Rock Lee gave a thumbs up, agreeing, "That's right, we hid inside Tenten's giant turtle shell and managed to survive."
Tenten knocked Rock Lee on the head, correcting him, "What turtle shell? It's a shield, a shield!"
"Is that so?"
"Of course! Apologize to the shield that saved your life!"
"I'm sorry!"
Naruto, Sa, and Sakura laughed along; their class was so lively.
...
"Oh? You're not dead yet? Wide Forehead!" Ino said with a cheerful tone, but with malicious intent.
Hearing Ino's voice, Sakura was first delighted, then immediately changed her expression: "What did you say? You're the one who's going to die in a place like this! You Ino Pig!"
After confirming each other's safety, the two girls immediately started bickering. Unaware people might really think they had some irreconcilable feud.
But this time, Shikamaru wasn't heard complaining about how troublesome women are. Naruto took a closer look and realized that it was Temari who had brought them back...
Looks like a classic damsel in distress situation.
After returning to the waiting room, Fu also followed in: "Let's play together! How about poker? Or Sugoroku? Musical chairs?"
The three looked at each other, and Naruto said, "We have nothing to do anyway, so let's play poker."
"Yay!" Fu happily sat on the stool, swaying back and forth, waiting for the cards to be dealt.
Naruto, Sa, and Sakura played with her until very late, when Kagen and Yoro dragged Fu, who was covered in paper slips, back.
"Let go of me! I finally got a good hand..."
After Fu left, Naruto closed the door and thought for a moment. Taking advantage of Sasuke and Sakura's inattention, he whispered, "Woof."
He remembered that he had sworn in the Death Forest that if he ever played cards with someone from the Uchiha family again, he would be a dog. Although Sasuke didn't cheat today, Naruto felt that he had to keep his oath.
Nothing happened overnight, except that Sasuke heard Naruto barking like a dog but didn't expose him.
...
The next morning, all the examinees gathered in the plaza.
Gaara stood on the high platform and said loudly, "Examinees, thank you for your hard work. Due to certain reasons, the Chunin Exams will be terminated here."
"What?"
"Why is that?"
There was a lot of discussion below. Haku had suffered for several days and got nothing. No one would be happy. If they were eliminated, it would be their own fault for not being strong enough, but a sudden termination was difficult to accept.
Gaara continued, "Your performance in the exams will be made into a detailed report and sent to the leaders of each village, and they will decide whether you can be promoted to Chunin."
The examinees rekindled their hopes, which meant there was still a chance? Kazekage-sama handled this matter openly!
It seemed the examinees were quite satisfied with Sunagakure Village's handling of the situation, and they packed their bags to return home.
Fu was no exception, reluctantly saying goodbye to Naruto and the others, explaining that she couldn't leave her village casually and would definitely visit them in Hidden Waterfall Village if she had the chance.
Before leaving, Naruto gave her a Kunai. Naruto didn't remember how the Seven Tails was captured, but no matter who it was, Naruto would give them a good lesson about what surprise meant when the time came.
But clearly, Fu didn't think so much. She cheerfully flew over and pounced on Naruto, giving him a solid hug: "Thank you! This is the first time I've ever received a gift!"
"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Get down first!" Did she have to hang her whole body on him for a hug? His wife was watching from behind, Naruto felt a little guilty.
Fu obediently jumped down, circling in the air with a troubled expression, much like a bee doing its figure-eight dance: "But I didn't prepare a gift to give you in return, what should I do?"
Naruto didn't really care about a return gift, and he tried to dissuade her: "It's okay, I've already received your sentiment, you don't need to prepare anything special."
"Just having the sentiment is enough?" Fu landed in front of Naruto, bringing her face very close, asking as if to confirm.
"Yes... ah." Naruto felt as if Hinata's eyes behind him were wide like copper bells, a chill running down his spine, and he quickly leaned back in a tactical maneuver.
"I see!" Fu slapped her palm, took off the long red backpack behind her, and stuffed it into Naruto's arms. "Everything I brought with me when I left the village is all in here, I'll give it to you, this is my sentiment, I didn't prepare a special gift~"
Kagen and Yoro urged from not far away: "Fu! Hurry up, we're leaving!"
"Coming!" Fu responded, doing a backflip and flying backwards towards her teammates, waving her hand. "Goodbye! I'm really glad to have met you!"
"That's not what I meant..." Naruto's voice drifted away in the wind.
Sakura put an arm around Naruto's shoulder. Maybe it was because Naruto called her Sakura Bro too much, she now subconsciously treated Naruto as a buddy, jokingly saying: "The bag is filled with all~ the things a girl~ brings when she goes out~"
"Gulp." Naruto swallowed, this bag seemed a little hot to handle, but it wouldn't be good to just throw away a gift from someone else.
"Naruto-kun has made a very good friend." Hinata's soft voice rang in Naruto's ear, making Naruto feel as if he saw two machetes, a good ship, and a happy ending.
At this moment, Naruto's desire to survive was unprecedentedly strong, and he turned around and cautiously said: "Hinata-chan, can you do me a favor?"
Hinata tilted her head and asked, "What kind of favor?"
Naruto handed the bag in his hand to Hinata, saying: "Actually, I have too much luggage to carry, I can't hold this bag, how about Hinata-chan keep it for me?"
"Is that so, then there's no helping it."
Seeing Hinata reach out to take the backpack, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, he had survived.
But at this moment, a Melon Heads jumped out from the crowd, his eyes seemingly burning with flames, and loudly said: "Naruto-kun is too terrible! It's just one more bag, how can you give it to someone else just because it's heavy? Our Youth shouldn't lose to a mere..."
Bang! Tenten punched Rock Lee down: "Hahaha, that... he accidentally bumped his head when he went out today, you guys continue, don't mind him..."
Rock Lee stubbornly raised his head: "No, Tenten, don't stop me! I..."
Bang! Tenten picked up one of Rock Lee's legs and dragged him away: "It's okay, it's okay, I'll take him to take his medicine..."
"Puchi~" Hinata laughed, in fact, she could see that Fu was just scatterbrained, and didn't really care what gift she gave Naruto.
She was just pretending to be a little upset, so that when she felt that Naruto-kun cared about her feelings, she would be very happy, but now, with Rock Lee making such a fuss, all the atmosphere was gone.
Naruto guessed what was going on when he saw Hinata like this, stuffed the bag into Hinata's arms, and freed his hands to pinch Hinata's little cheeks: "Oh, you've actually learned to lie, who taught you?"
"No!" Hinata broke free from Naruto's clutches and ran towards the direction of returning to Konoha.
Naruto chased after her relentlessly: "Confess quickly!"
[The Nine Tails in the Sealing Space yawned, thinking, Is this kid stupid? When you used to tell me stories, didn't you say that the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to deceive?]
Asuma stood next to Kurenai, lit a cigarette, and sighed, "It's good to be young..."
"Yeah," Kurenai responded. If you don't have anything to say, say less. Aren't we young anymore? Looking at Asuma's face full of beard, what exactly did I see in him?
"As expected of your student, Kakashi!" A Melon Heads jumped out from the crowd again. Guy looked excited. "He actually thought of running back to Konoha in a chase!"
"Huh?" Kakashi knew with his toes that Naruto definitely didn't mean that.
Guy darted in front of Kakashi: "Kakashi, let's have a long-distance running competition! Whoever gets back to Konoha first wins!"
"I refuse." Kakashi turned back a page in his book, having missed a few lines because of Guy's noise.
"Why! This is a challenge full of my youthful passion!"
"If you have to ask why..." Kakashi said unhurriedly, "Because I'm very interested in what happens later in the plot."
...
If Naruto were here, he would definitely say, As expected of Copy Ninja Kakashi, he can even copy Shino's lines.
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