Konoha: Naruto's abnormal life choices

Although Sakura's option had the highest reward, Naruto couldn't justify beating her up—there was no legitimate reason, and attacking a comrade without cause clearly went against the ideals the Third Hokage wanted him to uphold.

Too risky. Beating up Sakura was off the table.

As for Hinata—she had just spoken up for Naruto. He didn't have the heart to mess with her either, not even as a prank.

In the end, Ino was the only viable target. Naruto reasoned that since she had cheered so loudly for Sasuke earlier and clearly enjoyed watching him challenge Naruto, it was enough of an excuse to give her a hard time—especially if it earned him some money.

"Uzumaki Naruto! What do you think you're doing?!" Ino shouted, eyes wide and furious.

Naruto, wearing a mock-serious expression, responded coolly, "You were yelling for Uchiha Sasuke to beat me up just a minute ago. I'm warning you—do that again, and I'll break your legs."

His tone was sharp, and the expression on his face fierce—just enough to humiliate her in front of the crowd.

Ino's temper flared. She jerked back, shook off Naruto's hand, and glared at him. "You think I'm scared of you? Bring it on if you've got the guts!"

"Even if I can't beat you, I'm not afraid of you!"

Despite her words, Naruto wasn't paying much attention. While Ino stood nose-to-nose with him, eyes burning, he was simply waiting for the notification sound to confirm his reward.

If it didn't come soon, he planned to pinch her cheeks again.

[Ding! Congratulations, host. Objective One complete. Reward: 200,000 Ryo. The funds have been deposited in the storage cabinet at your residence. Please check it at your convenience.]

Looks like Ino got off easy.

Without another word, Naruto turned and walked away from the training field.

The crowd soon began to disperse. Shikamaru and Choji slowly made their way over to Ino.

"You two losers—ugh! What's the point of the whole 'Ino-Shika-Cho' thing if you don't have my back?" Ino scowled and clawed at both of them in frustration. "You just stood there while I was being bullied!"

"Ow, ow! That hurts!" Shikamaru flinched.

Choji looked wounded—emotionally, this time. "But isn't Naruto your boyfriend? What were we supposed to do?"

"WHAT?! For the last time—I have nothing going on with Uzumaki Naruto!" Ino snapped, fuming so hard she looked ready to explode.

"But Naruto's actions didn't seem like they had nothing to do with you..." Choji mumbled, rubbing his cheek. "And weren't there rumors…?"

"There were NO rumors!" Ino screeched. "And are you blind?! We were clearly about to fight! He even threatened to break my legs!"

She clawed at both of them again. The pain made Shikamaru and Choji wonder why they even bothered approaching her.

Shikamaru sighed. "Look, Naruto probably didn't mean it. He was probably just upset that his girlfriend was cheering for Sasuke."

He paused a beat and added, "When he walked off just now, he looked… kinda sad. I've never seen him look like that before."

"He challenged Kiba and Sasuke directly," Shikamaru continued. "But with you? He just touched your face and left. That's it. Doesn't that seem strange?"

Ino blinked.

What Shikamaru said made a weird sort of sense.

Now that she thought about it… Naruto hadn't actually hurt her. Sure, he had said some threatening things—but that was it. Even the last time she tried to confront him, she remembered being knocked out cold—but when she woke up, she was lying safely on a bench by the road. No injuries, nothing.

But wait a second… Naruto has always liked Sakura, right?

Hold on…!

Ino's eyes went wide.

She suddenly recalled how, back when Naruto was supposedly obsessed with Sakura, he acted like a total clown—loud, annoying, failing at everything, always getting on people's nerves.

But recently? He was undeniably handsome. Incredibly strong. A completely different person.

Why would he act so ridiculous if he wanted to impress Sakura?

Unless…

He didn't like Sakura at all.

Maybe he was pretending to like her—just to annoy her.

Come to think of it, Naruto started acting like that right after Ino and Sakura had their falling out. Could it be that he was trying to drive Sakura crazy on Ino's behalf?

Then there was that comment he just made:

"You were shouting for Sasuke to beat me up. Don't do that again."

It sounded like a threat… but the more she thought about it, it actually sounded jealous.

Wait a minute…

Could it be… Naruto likes me?!

Ino stood frozen, completely caught off guard by the idea.

As Naruto's figure faded from view, the image that remained in her mind was of his back—his shoulders slumped slightly, his energy quiet and somber.

Meanwhile, a few steps away, Choji nudged Shikamaru and whispered, "Hey… did Naruto really look sad? I didn't notice."

"I was standing behind him—how would I know?" Shikamaru answered flatly.

"Then why'd you say that to Ino?"

"Because I'm not stupid," Shikamaru said with a yawn. "If I didn't say something emotional, she'd claw our arms off again."

Choji paused, then slowly nodded. "Women… are terrifying."

"Let Naruto deal with it. He started it."

Later, back in the classroom, Naruto sat quietly at his desk.

Eventually, Iruka-sensei arrived to announce the team assignments.

As expected, they were mostly the same:

Team 8: Hinata, Kiba, and Shino.

Team 10: Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino—the traditional Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

The only real change was with Team 7—Sasuke, having been hospitalized by Naruto's earlier punch, would need to be informed of his team once he recovered.

Iruka gave them some final instructions before heading out, telling everyone to wait for their new jonin squad leaders to arrive.

Yuhi Kurenai, jonin leader of Team 8, arrived first and led her group away.

Kiba gave Naruto a glare before leaving, vowing silently that he'd train hard and eventually beat him.

Hinata, the sweet and shy girl at the back, glanced timidly at Naruto. When she saw him looking her way, she froze.

Naruto smiled and waved. "Bye, Hinata. See you next time."

Hinata immediately turned red as a tomato. She lowered her head, waved back with a small hand, and mumbled, "N-Naruto-kun… see you next time…"

Then she bolted from the classroom, face flushed and hands over her cheeks.

From behind, Ino watched the whole exchange—and for some reason, her stomach twisted with irritation.

"So I'm not allowed to cheer for Sasuke, but you can say goodbye to Hinata?" she muttered to herself, scowling.