When Xiangfeng stopped causing trouble and focused on his cultivation, time seemed to pass much faster.

At least in the hearts of Hiruzen Sarutobi and his comrades, the past two years have been much more comfortable, with border battles ceasing and peace restored.

Prices in the Land of Fire gradually decreased, and despite the heavy losses from the war, the Land of Fire was slowly recovering thanks to its strong economic foundation.

Of course, Konoha Village also suffered great losses, especially the Sarutobi clan. Even though many of them were in command or logistics positions, they still suffered considerable losses.

However, these losses were quickly made up for in the development dividends of the past two years, and the atmosphere in the clan became much calmer.

More importantly, the atmosphere in Konoha Village improved. Despite the various changes that had occurred before, his persistent speeches and propaganda gradually dispelled the misunderstandings about him in the village.

Looking at the scene in the crystal ball, Hiruzen Sarutobi stretched his stiff shoulders and sighed inwardly at how fast time flies. It was graduation season again, and compared to these fresh-faced young ninjas, he really felt old.

After rubbing his aching lower back, Hiruzen Sarutobi wondered to himself if he should start thinking about a successor.

But who in Konoha can take over now?

Of the three apprentices, two wandered off and never returned, while one defected.

The eldest son, on whom they had placed high hopes, got into trouble during a mission that shouldn't have gone wrong; the unruly youngest son went off to be a Daimyo's guardian ninja for a few years, but when he returned, he was still no good and couldn't even handle a female ninja.

Kakashi has never been able to overcome his inner shadows, wasting his immense talent...

Thinking about it this way, it's truly tragic that Konoha, a place known for its abundance of talented individuals, can't even find a qualified successor.

While Hiruzen Sarutobi was lamenting to himself while looking at the crystal ball in his office, the atmosphere at the Ninja Academy was bustling with excitement. The young ninjas were making a ruckus in the classrooms, waiting to be assigned to classes, as today was the Ninja Academy's graduation orientation meeting.

The young ninjas, who had never actually experienced the bloodshed of the ninja world, were all extremely interested in forming ninja teams and going out of the village to carry out missions, after all, they had been exposed to this kind of thing for so many years.

Inside the classroom, Naruto, still embroiled in a series of events including failing his exams, stealing the Book of Seals, and beating up Mizuki, is arrogantly showing off his headband to his classmates, trying to attract Sakura Haruno's attention.

However, this had no effect whatsoever; Sakura Haruno and the other female classmates were all focused on Sasuke, who had a cold expression on his face.

Sasuke's strength has improved a lot in the past two years. Although he is still ranked first, the quality of his achievement is worlds apart.

With scrolls of secret ninjutsu from the Uchiha clan, notes on training experiences, and guidance from Jonin, Sasuke Uchiha's strength improved by leaps and bounds in just two and a half years.

He has learned a lot of the Uchiha clan's Fire Release ninjutsu, and his physical fitness and taijutsu are no less than those of an average taijutsu Chunin. He also has a basic understanding of genjutsu, his Sharingan has been developed to the two-tomoe stage, and he has learned chakra control techniques such as climbing trees and walking on water ahead of time. At this point, Uchiha Sasuke can be considered an elite Chunin.

With such strength, Sasuke didn't deliberately show off, but his teachers and classmates could see it during various competitions. This resulted in him having even more female fans now than in the original story. They didn't care whether the teacher was there or not; they all stared at him with watery eyes.

This is so annoying!

Sasuke had absolutely no liking for these infatuated women. What was the point of a ninja not focusing on improving their strength and spending all their time staring at him?

However, Sasuke's indifferent demeanor did not calm the female students down; instead, it made them think he was cool, and they all started pulling and scrambling for the seats next to him.

This situation made Naruto, who was infatuated with Sakura, extremely jealous. Why did Sakura and everyone else only have eyes for Sasuke, even though he was also very strong?

Little did people know that without Hinata's silent support, there really weren't any girls in the ninja academy who cared about him.

Enraged, Naruto jumped onto Sasuke's desk, glaring at the despicable guy.

Sasuke slightly raised his cold eyes and looked at the bottom of the class, who was less than a foot away from him. What was this guy up to?

He had some doubts in his heart. Even if a female classmate jumped onto his desk and stared at him like that, he wouldn't give her a good beating.

Why did he only use his eyes to force Naruto to leave after Naruto jumped up?

Is it because this guy, like me, lost all his loved ones?

Just as he was wondering what was going on, Sasuke suddenly realized that Naruto was actually getting even closer. Upon closer inspection, he realized that Naruto wasn't getting closer, but rather falling down. More importantly, given Naruto's current posture and position, his lips would likely be pressed directly against Sasuke's once he fell down.

Sasuke was startled by his own speculation, and his Sharingan with two tomoe appeared. In a split second, he found a suitable angle and darted away, avoiding the terrible attack.

After Sasuke dodged, Naruto lost his momentum and slammed his head into Sasuke's chair, rolling to the ground with it.

"You bastard!"

Naruto, clutching the bump on his head, turned around angrily and roared at Sasuke, "Why didn't you catch me?!"

Faced with Naruto's roar, Sasuke smirked coldly, too lazy to reply, knowing he was about to be in trouble anyway.

"Damn it, you didn't even notice I was falling..."

At this point, Naruto finally felt the killing intent coming from behind him. He stiffened and turned around to see his female classmates rubbing their fists together, rushing towards him like fierce demons.

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