Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 376 Falling in Love

Ninja Academy.

Five o'clock in the afternoon.

After a long day of school, the students finally filed out of the school, looking for their parents who were waiting to greet them at the school gate.

Naruto looked at the adults and children holding hands and couldn't help but feel envious.

At that moment, he saw a familiar figure with white hair, standing out prominently in the crowd.

"Ah, it's Aokiji-nii. He wasn't lying; he invited me to his house..."

Naruto was overjoyed and immediately took off running in that direction. Just then, a boy with delicate features wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt got there first and started chatting and laughing with his beloved Aokiji brother.

"S-Sasuke?"

Naruto looked at the boy in surprise and exclaimed in astonishment.

Sasuke turned around and saw Naruto standing there dumbfounded. He looked unhappy and asked, "What's wrong?"

Sasuke is the most popular person in the class, while Naruto is the complete opposite, definitely the most hated person in the class.

This aroused Naruto's intense jealousy, and he would provoke Sasuke whenever he had the chance.

Naturally, Sasuke wouldn't give this guy, who was always provoking him, a friendly look.

Naruto's eyes widened: "N-no, you two know each other?"

Sasuke replied matter-of-factly, "Of course, Aokiji-sensei is a member of our Uchiha clan."

Naruto hadn't even considered that possibility, and was taken aback: "Uchiha?"

Aokiji smiled and said, "Oh dear, I forgot to introduce my surname when I was introducing myself."

Hearing their conversation, Sasuke frowned: "Aokiji-sensei, do you know this loser?"

Who are you calling the worst student?

Naruto got annoyed, clenched his fists, and shouted loudly.

Sasuke scoffed: "In this school, does 'bottom of the class' refer to anyone else?"

"hateful……"

Naruto rolled up his sleeves, looking ready to fight.

Aokiji shook his head. The male lead and the second male lead really didn't get along. If this continued, they would probably start fighting.

He stepped in at the opportune moment: "Hey, hey, let's stop here."

Sasuke tilted his head to the left: "Hmph, for Aokiji's sake, I'll let it go this time."

Naruto, looking defiant, turned his head to the right and said, "I'm the one who's better."

Aokiji spread his hands.

Sasuke scoffed at Naruto's behavior, then turned to Aokiji with a smile: "Aokiji-sensei, would you like to come to my house for dinner tonight?"

"I'm sorry, not today. I have guests today."

Aokiji politely declined.

"Alright then." Sasuke pouted, looking disappointed.

Seeing Sasuke's expression, Naruto, as if deliberately trying to annoy him, rolled his eyes and asked, "What are we having for dinner tonight?"

Sasuke was slightly taken aback upon hearing this: "Wait, Aokiji-sensei, the guest you're talking about isn't this guy, is it?"

Aokiji nodded and replied, "Yes, but there are others too."

Naruto pulled at Sasuke's eyelid with his index finger, making a face, his main point being to provoke him.

Aokiji felt rather helpless and said to Sasuke, "Why don't you come to my house tonight? I have someone I'd like to introduce you to."

Sasuke said arrogantly, "With Naruto around, I'm not going."

◎

In front of the mansion, Naruto mocked Sasuke, who had clearly said he wouldn't come: "Didn't you say you weren't coming? Why did you stubbornly show up?"

Sasuke wrinkled his nose and retorted, "I just came to keep an eye on you because I was worried you'd break things at Aokiji's house."

Aokiji shook his head.

At that moment, the mansion gate opened, and a boy with plain hair and blue eyes walked out, with a face exactly like Aokiji's.

Naruto exclaimed in surprise, "How come there are two Aokiji brothers?"

Sasuke scoffed, "Idiot, that's a shadow clone."

Naruto naturally wouldn't admit that he didn't recognize her: "Of course I know."

As they were talking, the clone Aokiji in front of them turned into an ice statue.

Naruto had never seen such a high-level shadow clone before, and couldn't help but show a surprised expression: "How did it turn into an ice sculpture? Shouldn't the shadow clone turn into white smoke when it's dispelled?"

Sasuke scoffed, "Don't you understand? This is an advanced Shadow Clone Technique, Ice Release: Ice Clone. Learn from this, you loser."

"Of course I know, okay?"

Naruto pretended to know what he was talking about, but he quickly gave himself away, scratching his head: "What is Ice Release?"

In his memory, he only knew the five escape techniques: wind, fire, thunder, water, and earth. He had never heard of ice escape techniques before.

"You even know that Ice Release is a bloodline limit born from the fusion of Water Release and Wind Release techniques."

Sasuke held up one finger and proudly introduced, "And Aokiji-sensei is the one who has mastered this kind of escaping technique."

"That sounds really impressive."

"That's~"

"You've been calling Aokiji 'teacher' since just now. Are you his disciple?"

"Um."

Sasuke seemed to have forgotten about Aokiji's existence. The novel states, "Don't let his appearance fool you, he's actually almost 50, a few years older than my father."

Aokiji: ...

"That's a lie, isn't it?"

Naruto looked at Aokiji's youthful face and remembered that when they first met, Aokiji introduced himself as having a daughter. Could it be... that this wasn't a joke?

Aokiji teased, "You two seem to have a pretty good relationship, you even joke about my age."

Sasuke immediately denied it: "That's not true."

"Go in."

Aokiji shook his head and led the two male leads into the house. When they arrived at the kitchen, Karin, who was helping to cook, saw Aokiji in his true form and hopped over like a grasshopper to greet him. Then she looked at the two little boys who had followed her with a curious expression.

Among them, Sasuke aroused her strong interest because he was good-looking.

Aokiji smiled and said, "Karin is my recently adopted daughter. You two should get along well from now on~"

Upon hearing that Karin was Aokiji's adopted daughter, Sasuke looked at her with some surprise. Out of respect for Aokiji, he introduced himself, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke..."

Karin hummed in agreement, silently memorizing his name.

"Hmph, woman..."

Naruto saw the same infatuated look in this girl's eyes as he did in his class, and said nonchalantly, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the Hokage someday."

Naruto Uzumaki!?

Upon hearing Naruto's self-introduction, Karin looked at him with surprise: "You just said your name is Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Hmph, is there a problem?"

Naruto thought he had scared people away because of his fearsome reputation, and he became a little uneasy.

"Karin's full name is Uzumaki Karin~"

Aokiji's words surprised both Sasuke and Naruto.

Is this guy from the same clan as Naruto?

With this in mind, Sasuke looked at Karin and couldn't help but glance at her a few more times.

Naruto, on the other hand, had a completely different mindset. He had always been alone, but now he had a clan.

"You're from the Uzumaki clan." Kaoru pushed up her glasses and Rin circled Naruto. "But it's strange, your hair is yellow. Shouldn't the Uzumaki clan have red hair?"

At this moment, Karin's mother came over and explained, "That's how it is normally. However, if either the mother or the father is not a member of the Whirlpool Clan, sometimes the child won't have red hair."

After saying that, he looked at Naruto, wondering about Naruto's identity. In his memory, there was only one Uzumaki clan member in Konoha. If that person had a child, the child would be about this age.

Karin suddenly realized, "So that's how it is..."

Karin's mother looked at Aokiji and said respectfully, "Lord Aokiji, the meal is ready..."

Aokiji laughed and said, "That's perfect, I'm starving, let's eat."

At the dinner table, Naruto showed great interest in Karin, a member of his clan, and kept asking her all sorts of questions.

Just as Naruto was interested in Karin, who was from the same clan, Karin was also interested in Naruto, who was from the same clan.

Unbeknownst to them, their relationship was rapidly heating up.

Aokiji frowned at this.

Wait a minute, something's not right about this development.

In the original work, it seems that Naruto's obsession with Sakura stemmed from the fact that Sakura didn't discriminate against him when he was a child.

Now, Karin can give what Sakura can give, and Karin, being a member of the same clan, can give what Sakura cannot give, plus she is not bad-looking herself.

This resulted in a situation where Sakura was completely outclassed.

Therefore, there is a high probability that Naruto will fall in love with Karin instead.

Damn.

I completely forgot about that.

Aokiji suddenly regretted letting the two of them meet so early.

He wants Karin to get together with Sasuke, not Karin to get together with Naruto.

If the Uzumaki clan mixes up with the Uzumaki clan, they're still just the Uzumaki clan. What hope is there?

Sasuke saw Aokiji clutching his head, looking very troubled. Out of concern for his teacher, he asked, "Aokiji-sensei, you look troubled. What's wrong?"

It's nothing...

Aokiji gave a casual remark, then glanced at Sasuke.

Or should he try a different approach?

Or we could use the Hyuga clan as subjects for experiments.

If the Uchiha and Hyuga clans were to unite...

In a sense, this is also a good match.

Brilliant!

However, Aokiji decided to let things take their course and not interfere, leaving such a quirky idea out of the question.

(End of this chapter)