To help calm Little Uchiha Fan down—and since the exam was already nearing its end anyway—Naruto finally told him the truth: that he'd been acting as the chief proctor of this year's entrance exam. Once Sasuke's simmering resentment began to fade under Naruto's patient explanation, Naruto cautiously rose to his feet. When he saw that Sasuke didn't react with hostility or protest, he relaxed and began speaking more freely.
"So what I'm saying is, I wasn't avoiding you on purpose! I've just been—eh? Huh? Where'd he go?"
Naruto had gotten so animated in his explanation—waving his arms about as he spoke—that he hadn't noticed Sasuke slip away. He stopped mid-sentence, blinking in confusion, and glanced around until he spotted him… crammed into a corner of the room alongside Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino, and Hinata, trying to disappear into the wall.
"...Sasuke? What... what are you all doing over there?"
No one answered. Instead, the entire group began to tremble as if they'd just heard a blood-curdling howl from a wild beast, hugging themselves and shivering uncontrollably.
"So… so scary…"
"...Huh? Scary? Who's scary?"
Naruto frowned, suddenly on edge. Was Sasuke referring to the Hidden Cloud operatives? Had he spotted something during Naruto's explanation? His voice tightened.
"Wait, Sasuke—don't tell me… did you see someone suspicious nearby?"
"Wha—? Suspicious people? I was talking about you, idiot!"
"Wh—what?! I'm the scary one?!"
Naruto froze, struck dumb by Sasuke's serious expression. His jaw dropped as he pointed at himself, and Sasuke nodded solemnly in response.
"You've gotta be kidding me. How do I look scary?!"
Naruto glanced inward, worried. Maybe Kurama had done something while he was talking—like flaring his chakra or pulling a prank? But the moment Naruto peeked into the seal, he saw Kurama fast asleep, sprawled lazily like always. Even if the fox had been awake, there's no way he'd stoop to scaring a bunch of kids—especially not without making sure Naruto knew it.
In other words, Kurama wasn't taking the blame for this one.
"It's because you don't look scary that it's terrifying!" Sasuke replied, eyes narrowing. "You vanished for just a short while, and suddenly you're not a test taker anymore—you're the proctor! And all those twisted test mechanics? You came up with them?! No wonder my brother always says you're a wolf in sheep's clothing. You're full of evil little schemes... Right, Hinata? Doesn't Naruto seem kinda scary when you think about it?"
Naruto immediately caught on. Sasuke wasn't scared—he was still mad. And now, instead of arguing directly (where he knew Naruto would win), he was using Hinata as a shield to get back at him from the side.
"Come on, cut it out!" Naruto grumbled. "That's slander! You're ruining my image!"
He waved his arms frantically, face twitching as he caught Hinata's increasingly bewildered expression. Desperate to save his reputation, he gave her a nervous smile and asked gently:
"R-right, Hinata? I don't look scary… do I?"
"...Naruto-kun doesn't look scary. Probably..."
Naruto's soul left his body.
The first half warmed his heart—'That's my girl!' he thought. But the second half, those last two cursed words, slammed into him like a Rasengan to the chest. He turned to stone, eyes wide, as a K.O. symbol seemed to flash above his head.
"HAHAHAHA! Oh, man! Gotcha, Naruto!" Sasuke doubled over, clutching his stomach and laughing like a maniac. "Finally caught you slipping! You totally froze up!"
It worked. Sasuke's frustration evaporated, replaced by the sheer joy of seeing Naruto utterly flustered.
Of course, with Hinata's usual nature, she normally wouldn't have dared tease Naruto like that—especially not in public. But under Sasuke's mischievous influence (and the promise that he'd later share all of Naruto's favorite things to help her "raise her affection score"), she'd agreed to play along.
What Hinata didn't know was that from the moment Naruto learned who she was, her affection score with him had already maxed out and broken the meter.
"Tch... laugh it up, will you?!" Naruto huffed. "Keep it up and I'll make you my next sparring partner!"
"Ooooh, I'm so scared~" Sasuke mocked, sticking out his tongue and making faces at Naruto. "What're you gonna do? Spank me in front of everyone?"
"Touch me once, and I'm telling my brother! I'll have him beat you up for me!"
That hit Naruto right in the pressure point.
Itachi. The one person Naruto wasn't sure he could afford to provoke—especially over Sasuke.
Sure, maybe Naruto was stronger now, but if he really pissed off Itachi—the legendary older brother whose brother complex was approaching terminal stages—he just might awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan out of sheer emotional distress.
"...You... I..."
Naruto sputtered, completely speechless. And with Hinata still nearby, he couldn't even scream or curse. His face flushed and paled in turns like a disco ball, an emotional mess with nowhere to vent.
"If you're a real man," he finally gritted out, "then come fight me one-on-one! Don't go tattling to Itachi!"
"Hmph! Why would I do that?" Sasuke sniffed proudly. "If I don't tell on you, I'll look like an idiot! I'm not stupid."
Eyes glinting, he puffed up his chest and continued in an exaggerated imitation of Naruto's lecture tone:
"Didn't you say that receiving help is a form of strength? Well, brothers exist to be relied on, don't they?"
"You—! I—!"
Naruto's mind was imploding. He couldn't argue—it was literally his own words being used against him. And now he was cursing himself for ever raising Sasuke into such a clever little gremlin.
'Damn it… I miss the old Sasuke... The pure, angelic Sasuke I could mess with for fun... Now I can't even tease him without being outplayed!'
While Naruto was silently weeping in his mind, three very battered boys—courtesy of Sasuke's earlier rampage—finally began to stir on the ground.
"Ugh... oww ow ow... Who am I? Where am I? This... this doesn't look like my house..."
One of them, face swollen like a punching bag, blinked around in a daze. But the moment he spotted Hinata nearby, he recoiled in horror.
"Agh! It's you! That freak with the White Eyes!"
Oh.
Oh.
The moment Naruto heard that familiar, grating insult, everything clicked. The earlier sense of déjà vu he'd felt seeing these three punks? Now he knew exactly why.
And since he still had frustration to burn—and now someone had insulted his future wife—Naruto decided this was the perfect opportunity to balance the books.
"Well, well… just the punching bags I needed. How thoughtful of you to wake up."
The grin he wore was bright and friendly—but behind it, even Sasuke and Shikamaru felt a chill. It was the kind of smile that promised pain.
"Sasuke, Shikamaru… mind covering Hinata's eyes and ears? This might get a little... messy."
"Eh? I guess, but—wait, what are you doing?"
"Nothing serious. Just some unfinished business."
"...Naruto, they're already—"
"I'll be gentle. I promise I'll leave him with just enough breath to remember why this was a terrible idea."
Meanwhile, far from the chaos, the team from the Hidden Cloud had finally slipped past the forest perimeter surrounding the village.
By sheer coincidence—or perhaps fate—they'd stumbled upon the one small gap in the Hyuga and Uchiha defensive net that hadn't yet been secured. Thanks to a bit of dumb luck and a terrifying stroke of destiny, they were unknowingly approaching Naruto's location.
Their intended target—Hinata Hyuga—was getting closer by the second.
But what they didn't know… was that standing between them and their goal was Minato Namikaze himself (Naruto in disguise).
Furthermore, he's a fiercely protective husband who completely loses his temper and goes berserk when his wife is being targeted by someone...