Menma sputtered on the spot, his wide purplish eyes—an unusual trait he'd inherited from Kushina—locked onto the swirling blue orb dancing calmly in Naruto's palm. Mito sat frozen, mouth slightly open in disbelief, while the rest of the class stared in stunned silence, as if their entire world had just been flipped upside down.
Naruto dismissed the Rasengan with a flick of his wrist, the chakra sphere unraveling into shimmering wisps of blue light before vanishing completely. The soft hum of energy faded, and the classroom finally seemed to snap out of its collective daze.
With the help of every heavenly deity he could think of, Naruto somehow managed not to burst out laughing—even though, in his heart, he really, really wanted to. The look on Menma's face? Absolutely priceless. If he could frame it and hang it in his room, he would've.
"Weren't you supposed to keep your talents hidden?" Vision's voice rang sharply in his mind, his tone more stern than amused now. "You promised the Hokage. And Namori."
Naruto didn't flinch. He didn't feel like he'd broken any promises. "I did keep them hidden," he replied coolly, folding his arms. "The Rasengan isn't that impressive. Now, if I'd used the Wind Style: Rasengan? Then, yeah, that would've been showing off."
Vision wasn't convinced. "Naruto... the Rasengan is an A-rank technique. Most fully trained shinobi never learn how to use it, and you just whipped it out in front of a class of Academy students like it was a party trick—all because you wanted to wipe that smug grin off your brother's face. That was reckless."
Naruto's lips twitched as he fought the urge to grin again. Vision had a point. Kind of. But seeing Menma—golden boy, perfect prodigy, Dad's favorite—standing there with nothing to say for once?
Totally worth it.
"Vision, I can't keep hiding in the shadows forever," Naruto sighed, ignoring Menma's sputtering and Sasuke's venomous glare. Even Conan had suspicion clouding his eyes. Not that Naruto cared much about his cousin. The idiot followed Menma around like a well-trained pooch, barking whenever his master snapped his fingers.
"I'm not going all out," Naruto continued, his voice low but firm. "That goes against the shinobi code. But I also can't keep living in fear of drawing Danzo's eye. Let the fucker come—I'll trap him in the Mirror Dimension and leave him there for eternity."
"Call me reckless or childish if you want," he added, shoulders relaxing slightly, "but I'm done letting them walk all over me. You and the old man taught me enough to defend myself. And I'm confident I can get out of any tricky situation if one comes up. Just... trust me."
Vision was quiet for a moment before replying in a softer, more thoughtful tone. "I do trust you. But I can't help but worry you'll draw too much attention. You're strong, Naruto, but not strong enough to take on someone like Orochimaru."
Their internal conversation was suddenly interrupted by Menma's dramatic meltdown.
"Father will deal with you when he finds out you stole his technique!" he shouted, pointing at Naruto like an outraged toddler.
Naruto rolled his eyes so hard it almost hurt. "And why would he?" he said with exasperation. "I didn't steal anything. You're the one who ran around the clan grounds pelting everyone with water balloons. Then princess next to you—" he nodded at Mito, who shot him a murderous glare, "—scolded you for not using them the way Daddy dearest told you to."
"It wasn't hard to piece things together from there. I've seen Minato demonstrate it before, and I just reverse-engineered the rest."
A sharp scoff cut through the air as Sasuke finally butted in, voice dripping with disdain. "As if you even know what 'reverse-engineer' means, dope. Must've been a genjutsu. There's no way you pulled that off yourself."
"Yeah! Stop pretending to be cool, Naruto! You're not fooling anyone!" Sakura screeched, her voice shrill enough to make Sasuke wince and rub his ears.
Naruto chuckled at the irony. "Really, Sakura? You think I'm pretending?"
Sakura and a few others shouted "Yeah!" in unison, puffed up with righteous indignation.
But Naruto simply grinned beneath his mask. "Then you're definitely not shinobi material. Because I've been fooling this class—all of you—for years. Only Shikamaru and Choji ever caught on."
That earned him a chorus of protests, squawks of denial echoing through the classroom. They clung to their pride like lifelines, unwilling to admit they'd been fooled.
Too late.
"If you couldn't see through the veil I placed in front of your eyes," Naruto said coldly, "then you're doomed to die at the hands of your enemies."
The classroom fell silent.
"The loud-mouthed idiot in the orange jumpsuit never existed. He was a ploy. A distraction. And Sasuke..." Naruto tilted his head, voice cool and cutting, "For someone who calls himself an 'Uchiha elite,' it's fascinating how easily I deceived you. Makes me wonder—has your clan's reputation for piercing through deception been inflated by arrogance? Or are you just a failure?"
Sasuke's chair scraped violently against the floor as he shot to his feet with a furious snarl. Before Iruka or Mizuki could react, he lunged across the classroom, kunai in hand. The metal blade sank into Naruto's chest with a sickening squelch, the force of it pinning him slightly back against his chair.
A vicious smirk twisted Sasuke's lips as he pressed the blade in deeper, his black eyes boring into Naruto's wide, cerulean ones. "Never insult my clan, loser," he hissed.
"Sasuke, what have you done?!" Iruka's shout thundered through the room as he raced forward. "How dare you attack a fellow student?!"
Sasuke scoffed. "Then maybe he shouldn't have run his mouth. If he was as strong as he acted, he would've stopped me. Guess he's still a loser, after all."
"Am I?"
The voice rang out clearly from the corner of the room.
Every head whipped around, eyes drawn to the ceiling where Naruto stood—arms crossed, completely unharmed, his body upside-down and clinging to the ceiling like it was nothing. His eyes glowed faintly under the mask, amusement flickering behind them like flame.
The Naruto Sasuke had stabbed, shimmered and faded, revealing a chakra projection—a decoy. The real Naruto stared down at the stunned class like a hawk watching prey.
"Lesson one," he said coolly, "Never assume your target is where you think they are."
"B-But how?" Sakura stared at Naruto, her voice barely above a whisper. Disbelief shimmered in her wide, glassy eyes.
Naruto didn't bother answering. Instead, he casually dropped from the ceiling and landed on his feet with a smooth thud, like it was the most natural thing in the world. The moment his boots touched the floor, the entire class erupted into hushed whispers and shocked gasps.
Sasuke's glare sharpened, burning a hole through Naruto's mask. The usual smug confidence in his eyes gave way to something darker—confusion, maybe even fear.
Most of the clan heirs stood frozen in place, gawking at him like they'd just seen a ghost sprout wings and recite poetry. Meanwhile, Shikamaru yawned and turned his head, clearly uninterested, before dozing back off. Choji, unbothered as always, shoved another chip into his mouth with a loud crunch.
"All right! That's enough out of all of you!" Iruka's voice cracked through the noise like a whip. The classroom fell into immediate silence. "Back to your chairs before I fail the lot of you! We're already behind schedule as it is!"
Then Iruka's eyes landed on Sasuke, still gripping the kunai like he expected Naruto to be an illusion that could vanish any second.
"And you!" Iruka barked, jabbing a finger toward the Uchiha. "Attack a fellow student again and I will revoke your shinobi license before you even earn it. Don't think for a second that your title or your name will protect you. The Third Lord Hokage will hear about this! Now sit down!"
Sasuke scoffed and finally stepped away from Naruto's desk, his footsteps heavy with frustration. He didn't even spare Naruto a glance as he stomped back to his seat and sank into it like a sulking cat. Sakura followed behind him, nervously babbling about how Naruto must have cheated or used some trick, trying—and failing—to soothe Sasuke's bruised ego.
Naruto, on the other hand, sauntered back to his desk at a relaxed pace, plopped down into his seat, and stretched his arms overhead like nothing dramatic had just happened.
From the front of the class, Mizuki and Iruka exchanged a quick look before returning to the front of the room.
"You're enjoying this too much," Vision's voice echoed in Naruto's mind, dry and amused.
Naruto leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. A slow, smug grin crept across his face. "Maybe?" he said with a mental shrug, not even trying to sound innocent.
As Mizuki began handing out the test papers, Naruto smirked wider. "Fine. I'm loving it."
Vision mentally sighed, but Naruto could feel the gentle sparkle of amusement deep in the recesses of their bond. "You're really irrepressible."
Naruto grinned behind his mask when Mizuki slapped a test down on his desk with unnecessary force. The man wasn't a fan, clearly, but Naruto just shrugged it off. "Rather be a troublemaker than be forgotten," he said under his breath, glancing down at the test page.
Sasuke was ignoring him outright from across the room, his fists tightened to the point where the kunai were leaving tiny marks in his palm. Sakura was right next to him, hovering all concerned like a little moth, and the rest of the class was darting glances back and forth between Naruto and starting to consider that maybe, just maybe, the dead last wasn't what they'd thought.
Naruto scanned the test briefly. Piece of cake. His eyes ran over the questions, already working them out as if they were nothing, due to all the years of studying in hiding, bearing the neglect and ignorance, and dealing with the way his own family acted as though he didn't exist.
Vision spoke again, this time more gently, "You can be confident now... but confidence needs to be backed up with wisdom, Naruto. You cannot allow your pride to lead you into complacency."
Naruto didn't respond immediately. He did the first question, then proceeded to the second. His handwriting was crisp and neat, completely unlike the sloppy mess he used to forge in the past. "I'm not being irresponsible," he told himself. "I'm just finally being honest. If that ruffles feathers, then whatever. It's a million times better than just fading away."
Vision was silent again, but Naruto felt the pride he didn't verbalize. It was warm like sunlight on his shoulders. "Besides," Naruto continued, his gaze flicking over to Menma—who was white-knuckling his pencil in rage—"this is merely the beginning. Let the village see the storm they've grown complacent about."