Chapter 65:
"Naruto, you're finally awake…"
A series of surprised exclamations filled the room.
The hospital room door opened, and the nurse outside indicated that visitors could now enter.
The fastest one through the door was surprisingly Nara Shikamaru.
This guy, who usually looked lazy, had completely changed. The moment he saw Naruto's dazed face, he immediately helped him sit up…
"You… who are you?"
Naruto, fully aware of how a patient should act, let himself be moved around. But he still expressed curiosity at Shikamaru's sudden enthusiasm.
This guy actually showing this kind of energy? That shouldn't be possible, right?
"Naruto, you didn't… lose your memory again, did you?"
Iruka entered last, behind the group of children. Seeing Naruto's blank, stupid-looking face — even failing to recognize Shikamaru — a very bad feeling rose in his heart.
Could memory loss happen a second time after the first?
"N-no… Iruka-sensei, I didn't lose my memory. It's just that Shikamaru being this enthusiastic is weird. He and Kiba aren't using Transformation Technique to prank me, are they?"
Naruto raised a hand and patted Shikamaru twice, telling him to back off a bit.
"It wasn't like that… You two really scared us. After Kiba and I went back to find Iruka-sensei and arranged for everyone to head toward the village, the three of us followed Iruka-sensei to look for you.
When we got there, all we saw was a sea of flames, along with half a broken bow and a burned rope…
At that time, even Shikamaru cried from fear. It wasn't until the firefighters arrived that we learned you two had already been rescued by ninjas who had gone ahead to check the situation…"
Inuzuka Kiba stood on the other side of the bed and explained what had happened after they left.
At that time, besides Kiba and Shikamaru, Aburame Shino and Akimichi Choji had also gone back with Iruka to search for them.
Naruto wasn't surprised by this. Even though Shino usually didn't hang out with them much, he was still relatively familiar with them.
Besides, the Aburame clan's detection abilities were very strong…
"Um… thank you, everyone…"
Naruto scratched his hair awkwardly and thanked them.
"Don't thank us. You and Sasuke are the real heroes this time. Although we couldn't bring the wild boar back, you two blocked the wolf pack's threat for everyone…"
Iruka stood to the side and gently patted Naruto on the head.
Although this matter could only be shared among the students this time, he still felt very gratified.
He just felt more and more that he couldn't understand the Third Hokage's intentions. This was clearly an opportunity to remove the "demon fox" label from Naruto — so why strictly forbid spreading the news?
"Huh? I… I didn't really think that much…"
Naruto smiled brightly while scratching his hair, but after smiling for a short while, he couldn't help turning his head to look at Sasuke on the other bed. Worry appeared in his eyes.
"I heard from the nurse that Sasuke is unconscious because he used up too much chakra. At that time… was Sasuke protecting Naruto, so he…"
Sakura and Ino stood by the door. When they saw Naruto looking at Sasuke, they took two steps forward and wanted to ask about Sasuke's condition.
Although they knew Naruto probably didn't know anything.
But at that time, what exactly had Sasuke done to stop the wolf pack…
Naruto should know at least something, right?
"Yeah… Sasuke was protecting me the whole time…"
Seeing the slightly reproachful looks from the two girls, Naruto lowered his head and didn't want to say anything more.
He had only just woken up. He hadn't said anything yet, but he was already being suspected of causing trouble?
Was his "dead-last" image really shaped too successfully?
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