"N-naruto-san? I think you should see this," said a girl nervously.

Having just arrived at school, Naruto yawned widely and slid a hand through his hair tiredly. He still wasn't used to getting up early to get to school on time.

"Rightio," he muttered, "Lead on."

At his side, Miu waved to the various schoolmates that had come out to greet her. Unlike Naruto, whom most people still treated with a fair amount of fear and apprehension, Miu had become somewhat of a school idol during the short time she had been at the school. Her bubbly, somewhat ditzy personality coupled with her gorgeous looks and curvaceous body, made her an instant hit with the entire first-year cohort, as well as a sizeable portion of the upperclassmen. Needless to say, the rhythmic gymnastics club got very popular when it got around that the young blonde had joined. It wasn't every day that you got to watch someone like that dance around in a skin-tight leotard, after all.

Speaking of clubs, Naruto still hadn't joined one, despite being requested to several times by the school administration. He had gone around and trialled a couple, but hadn't found any that caught his fancy yet.

"Erm… it was like this when we arrived in the morning," said the girl again, drawing Naruto's attention back to the task at hand.

He was in his classroom, but something was different. The atmosphere was on edge, something in the air, in the way that the students were standing around, in the way that they held themselves. Something was wrong.

His eyes spotted the cause almost immediately, and he relaxed.

It was nothing serious.

"Oh my god!" cried Miu at his side, her hands flying up to her mouth.

Naruto's desk was lying on the ground, its contents strewn all over the ground. Pencils and paper littered the ground, many of the writing implements snapped in two. His books were in shreds, with many pages ripped up and scribbled on. The desk itself had large dents in its legs and the wood had deep scratches cut through its surface. As if to add insult to injury, there was also a large white penis spray-painted onto the seat of his chair.

But Naruto only chuckled and righted the table, and then bent down to start gathering all his stuff.

And after a moment or two longer of shocked silence, Miu also bent down to start helping him.

"Oh thanks," said Naruto casually, as if he wasn't affected at all.

"It's horrible," said Miu, "Who would do such an underhanded thing like that?"

"I think I know who it is."

"Who? Go to the teacher! These people need to be punished!"

Naruto grinned.

"Oh, no, I don't think the teachers would be able to do anything."

"It's one of the delinquent bosses, isn't it?" said the girl who had told Naruto about the entire affair, who had also started helping clean up.

Naruto looked at her, tried to remember her name, failed, but replied nonetheless.

"Yeah, Kouji Oshiro. You know him?"

"I know of him. He's a second year, in class 2-C. In terms of gang hierarchy, he's pretty high up, but not one of the 'Red Circle'."

"2-C? Thanks."

"You're not gonna pick a fight with him, are you?" asked the girl, alarmed, "I know you're angry over what he did to you, but he's not an opponent on the same level as the Karate jackass you beat up earlier. He fights dirty, he fights street-wise. He also has a whole group of underlings that won't hesitate to gang up on you and break a few bones if you so much as breathe too loudly near them."

Naruto laughed.

"Fight him? Over this? Oh no. This isn't a challenge to fight. This is a declaration of war."

Miu leaned over and poked Naruto in the side, who was sleeping on his enfolded arms.

"Whap izzit!" yelped Naruto, jerking up in surprise from the unexpected awakening.

The teacher dutifully ignored him, having learned that you really couldn't stop Naruto from sleeping in your class no matter how many times you scolded him. So he took to flat out ignoring the boy and all his antics; not like he participated in class discussions anyway.

Naruto glanced over at Miu reproachfully.

"What have you got against me sleeping?" he whined pitifully, "First you make me wake up early, then you don't let me sleep in class…"

Miu slapped him on the arm lightly for being silly, then got serious.

"You're not upset about all your stuff?" she asked with a concerned look on her face.

Naruto made a dismissive gesture.

"Hey, it's not like I used it anyway," he laughed.

And it was true. Most of his notebooks had very little, if any, actual work done in them. The textbooks were also usually just stacked to form a makeshift pillow rather than actually opened and read.

Naruto grinned conspiratorially.

"And hey, there are benefits, too! Look! Because of the dents in the table legs, it now leans forward to better fit my head when I'm sleeping!"

Naruto demonstrated this by laying his head flat on the table, which was, sure enough, angled conveniently to accommodate it.

Then Miu's eyes widened as she saw that dangerous, mischievous spark enter Naruto's eyes that heralded the arrival of a stupid thought. It was a warning sign that meant that Naruto was going to do something hilariously outrageous, but also usually completely harebrained to the casual observer.

"Also, this penis is a very good artistic rendition! I couldn't do better myself," announced Naruto loudly.

All over the classroom, heads turned to the source of that claim, and Naruto, grinning widely, stood up and lifted his chair up so everyone could see the enormous painted dick.

"Isn't it great? Such bold lines… ah, a masterpiece!"

"Shut up and sit down, Uzumaki!" shouted the teacher.

"Why? Don't you want to admire this mighty piece of art? This marvellous penis painting? This dynamic dick depiction? This phallic work of genius? This wonderful representation of the beauty of COCK?!"

Naruto's voice gradually rose to a mighty roar as he waved the chair around like a madman.

Laughter and voices filled the room at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. The teacher had given a few futile attempts at regaining control but had ultimately given up and was now sitting with his head in his hands, muttering "I'm too old for this shit, I want to retire," under his breath.

Miu continued to watch Naruto as he had now opened the window and was now distracting the classes in the adjacent building, waving his penis covered chair around like some patriotic flag.

"REVEL IN THE GLORY OF THE MIGHTY MEAT STICK!" he bellowed out the window.

Miu giggled and sighed, resting her cheek onto her palm.

I remember when school was for learning, she thought with amusement.

Meanwhile, Naruto, after having an exchange of rude gestures and insults with some boys from the other class, blew a raspberry, turned around, mooned them to the accompanying whoops, gasps and shrieks from the spectators from both classes and then slammed the window down and resumed his seat.

"Faaaaaaa," he sighed in content, "That's what I'm talking about. Reminds me of the good old days."

This is still pretty tame compared to some of the stuff you pulled off in Konoha when you were younger though, remarked Juubi.

Mmm. Yeah, but I had my chakra to do the fancy stuff.

Speaking of which, whataya gonna do to the delinquent kid?

Oh, him? Like I said, I'm gonna start a war…

A war?

A prank war. I'll make his life hell…

Juubi heard the diabolic note of glee in Naruto's voice, and couldn't help but shiver and feel sorry for the poor delinquent.

Kouji Oshiro strolled into the classroom, a lit cigarette still hanging from his mouth. He was late, but he sure as hell didn't give a flying fuck.

A couple of his henchmen whooped when they saw him, standing up to give him high fives and to pat him on the back. They had just 'liberated' a tidy sum of lunch money from some of the younger students and had been waiting for him to arrive so they could cut class and spend it at the arcades.

The teacher, a young, nervous looking thing who had been standing at the front trying to teach, gave a slight protest, but in the end didn't put up any meaningful resistance. She had learned from the start of the year that these students didn't give a fig about the teacher's power, and weren't shy about expressing this opinion. Being a new teacher who didn't have much experience, she was naturally intimidated by these tattooed, pierced boys who were much larger and physically imposing than her, to the point where she couldn't even bear to look them in the eye when they challenged her authority.

"See ya, sensei," sneered Kouji, reaching out to grope her left breast with a lecherous leer.

The teacher trembled in fear and seemed to shrink into herself.

"C-c'mon, Oshiro-san… c-can't you stay in class a little while, at least? You j-just got here," she said quietly, voice quivering.

"Eh? What was that?" said Kouji, leaning in to glare at the teacher, who anxiously averted her gaze as to not make eye contact, "You want me to what?"

"…nothing…"

"Hmph. I thought so," scoffed Kouji derisively.

He turned to leave but then, as a thought struck him, turned back.

"Hey, tell you what…" he grinned maliciously, "I'll stick around if you suck my dick after class, how's that?"

The teacher turned white.

"Um, that's… uh… ah…" she mumbled, mortified.

At his side, his underlings grumbled with discontent.

"Kouji, man, what about us? Dude, we were gonna go splurge at the arcades…" one of them objected.

Kouji just grinned widely.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure sensei here won't mind giving you guys some 'service' too, will she?"

He patted her cheek almost tenderly and she looked as if she was going to cry. He laughed again and strode over to his seat. His underlings gave each other fist bumps and smirked stupidly before following his example.

Kouji reached his seat and threw himself in, leaning back and propping his feet up onto the table. The chair tilted back until it was only balanced on two legs, and Kouji, satisfied with how comfortable he was, pulled out his music player, obviously not intending to pay attention to the lesson.

But before he could plug the earphones in, there was a sudden crack. His chair and table simultaneously disassembled themselves neatly, depriving him of his support and sending him crashing down onto the ground.

He slammed onto the hardwood floor with a surprised yell and then screamed with pain as the impact drove his back onto the wooden legs of the chair.

Then, as if this was some sort of signal, there was a click and a whoosh above his head. He looked up, only to stare in horror as two buckets suspended from the roof by ropes started to swing slowly towards him.

Unfortunately, as he was soon to find out, they contained a very viscous neon pink paint which was not only extremely fast-drying, but also had the special quality of permanently bonding to any inorganic material they came into contact with. They didn't just cover the surface; they changed the colour of the object.

And to add the cherry onto the metaphorical cake, somehow the pink paint managed to cover every square inch of his body and possessions… except for the front of his school shirt, and even then the only remaining vestige of white was in the shape of a very familiar cartoon penis.

After all, it was the same one that had just this morning been waved around in one of the first-year classes.

There was a moment of shocked silence all over the class as the pink human-shaped blob that had been Kouji stilled, as if struggling to comprehend the situation he was in.

But even if the entire scope of the humiliating prank hadn't quite sunk in yet, he knew, for certain, who was responsible.

"Uzumaki…" growled Kouji vengefully.

Naruto watched in glee as Kouji tried futilely to scrub off the pink paint from his shirt using the drink taps.

The delinquent had already used to sports showers in the locker rooms to clean off the paint that had covered his skin, but was having trouble getting it off his clothes. Heck, even the chain that hung off his face was pink!

Naruto only laughed from his hiding place, satisfied with the results of his pranking. A clone was currently taking his place in class, and hopefully wasn't causing too much havoc over there- he still couldn't control them one hundred percent.

Presently, Kouji's flunkies came around from the side.

"Any luck, boss?" one asked.

Kouji clicked his tongue.

"Obviously not, idiot," he snapped irritably, "I even stole some detergent and stuff from the janitor, but nothing works. It hasn't even come off even slightly. Fucking Uzumaki. I think I'll rip off his balls and shove them down his throat for this shit."

The crowd of underlings all guffawed and agreed with him, making redundant comments that all supported their boss's words to some degree.

"Come on, let's get the little shithead," muttered Kouji, slinging the wet, pink shirt over his bare shoulder, having given up on washing off the paint.

He looked around and then clicked his finger at one of the henchmen.

"You- give me your jacket," he ordered.

The henchmen looked a little hesitant.

"Aw… but, Boss, this is my-"

Immediately, Kouji sunk a fist into the other boy's stomach, bringing him to the ground painfully.

"What was that, eh? You talking back, you son of a bitch?"

He drove his foot into the back of the cowering henchman's head, rubbing it into the concrete.

"Now hurry up and give me your jacket," he said over the resulting whimpers and apologies, "And then we'll go hunting for a little rat who thinks it'll be all fine and dandy to make a fool out of this school's gang culture. Class 1-B, right?"

Overhearing all this, Naruto only let his smile widen.

"So they're coming after me now, huh?"

He cracked his neck as if in preparation for a fight.

"Okay, then, Act Two: begin."

He materialised a scroll and a brush thanks to Juubi, and started to sketch a quick map of the school, jotting down plans and ideas on the side as he went along.

A couple of minutes later, he dematerialised the brush and smiled.

"Here we go," he said to himself, "He's got a new jacket- and it's not pink. Now that can't be allowed, can it?"

Juubi grinned.

Aye. One can of your special Uzumaki™ pink paint coming right up. Need anything else, oh Master of All Deviousness?

Oh sure, answered Naruto with a matching smirk, here's a list.

"Oh come on, ya pink pansy, you can run faster than that!" taunted Naruto's clone as it slid down the bannister of the stairs, pulling down an eyelid as it did so.

Kouji and his henchman growled and stomped down the steps as fast as they dared, trying to close the distance on the annoying blond who purposely stayed close enough to jeer at them yet far enough to stay out of grab range.

It really was… exasperating.

Especially because he was doing it on purpose, and they knew that he was leading them into a multi-coloured, humiliating hell.

It had been like that ever since the chase began, so why would it be any different now?

Some of the henchmen just wanted to stop and give up the chase, now that it had been made clear that they were just playing into the first year's hands, but they were too scared of their volatile leader to ever voice this opinion.

So they only grumbled in their mind… and continued to chase, metre by frustrating metre.

Earlier, they had entered Class 1-B seeking blood, but somehow, the Uzumaki brat had been ready for them, and had tossed another bucket of pink paint over the entire group, before laughing and leaping out the open window, giving them the double middle finger as he did so.

They had stormed over to the windowsill, only to see the infuriating whelp somehow relaxing in an orange hammock that had been set up between two trees that grew next to the school building.

It hadn't been there this morning, that's for certain.

And as if to add fuel to the fire, the blond punk had the audacity to be wearing sunglasses and reading a dirty magazine, looking for all the world like someone relaxing in their backyard during a holiday.

Upon seeing the group staring at him from the third floor window, Naruto carelessly slid down his shades and then, looking at them sceptically, broke into a mocking smile and waved cheekily. Then, deliberately, he turned back to his magazine and ignored the fuming boys still dripping with neon pink paint.

Swearing bloody vengeance, they had stormed down the stairs and out into the courtyard… only to find him missing, with only the empty hammock remaining, the magazine and sunglasses resting on top.

However, there was a note.

Ripping off the folded paper from the cover of the magazine (which incidentally, was a very risqué pinup photo of an attractive bikini-clad blonde girl reclining on an enormous open fan and titled Sand Princess), Kouji opened the note to read a single line of text.

Look up.

After the deluge of green paint had ended, the group saw Naruto once more, waving at them from the rooftop, an empty bucket still in his hand.

And the chase was on.

Juubi, watching all of these events from inside Naruto's mindscape, smiled serenely.

He stroked his chin, still in the form of the Sage of Six Paths and sitting on that same breathtaking ledge on the mountain. He lifted up his shakujō and waved it over a pool of crystal clear water that lay on the grassy ground, as perfect as if it had been cast from a mould by some wild-haired nature spirit.

The pool rippled, its shimmering depths turning opaque and flickering with images of another life, of another world.

Juubi looked back at the enormous abyss filled with countless lights and allowed his smile to turn a little melancholic.

He was glad that Naruto was acting like the age of his new body. Better he act a fifteen year old and turn a new leaf than act like the war-stained and weathered Hokage who had spent the prime of his life locked into life-or-death battles.

That man was dead.

No shred of his existence existed anymore.

No… but a new life, a new person called Naruto Uzumaki had been born.

And this new Naruto Uzumaki was now living the childhood that the old one had never been able to experience.

Him, and everyone else in that bygone world.

And… perhaps that's a good thing.

After all, there's something oddly cathartic in watching a wartime hero and revered leader dance around and jerk around a bunch of punks by their noses.

"You've got nowhere to run now, buster!"

The rooftop door burst open and a group of sticky, rainbow-coloured, feather-covered high school delinquents burst out, fanning out to block any avenue of escape.

Opposite them stood Naruto's clone, who had finally been cornered and driven up onto the rooftop.

"Hey," he greeted casually, "So… what brings you guys over here?"

"You're in fer a world of hurt, boy," snarled one of the underlings viciously, honestly feeling quite over the whole affair.

"Really," replied the clone uninterestedly.

He backed away slowly, until his heels hit the metal railing that surrounded the edge.

The ring of thugs closed in, slowly, warily. Their nightmarish day of chasing around the blond only to be led into trap after trap had made them suspicious of any funny business he might pull.

"Well, gentlemen," grinned the clone as his pursuers advanced in on him, "It's been fun, but I think it's time to pull the curtains on this little show. Thanks for playing along, but it's time to say goodnight."

He vaulted up onto the railing, the tree-walking exercise allowing him to stick there steadily without any danger of losing his balance.

Kouji glared hatefully at him, being sick to the stomach of the smug, playful tone that the clone had taken as it taunted them all throughout the day.

"Get him," the delinquent ordered sharply, "He's got nowhere to go!"

At this, the clone stuck out his tongue and flipped the lot of them the bird.

"That's what you think!" he yelled, throwing himself backwards into the wide open space, "Sayonara suckers!"

Exclamations and gasps rippled through the gang before they rushed over to the edge of the rooftop, Kouji leading the pack. A suicide at the school? Preposterous! Disbelief was the emotion at the forefront of their minds, but a few of the more calculating ones were already trying to think up ways of avoiding the inevitable police presence at the school following such a flashy death.

However, when they looked over, they didn't see, as they expected, a dead body splattered over the concrete, or even the cocky Naruto taunting them once again with a smile or a wave as he had done so often over the course of the day. No… all they saw was a dispersing cloud of smoke that wafted over them and drifted off into the sky.

"Fucking kid's a magician," growled an underling, although the undercurrent of relief in his voice was undeniable.

Not even mean-spirited and heartless thugs such as these would wish for death on a fellow schoolmate. They had a desire to dominate, to be at the top of the molehill, and to this end they would bully and beat and extort and lie. But most of them were simple boys, who got too easily drunk on power and authority.

They didn't really mean to cause any serious harm.

Most of them, anyway.

At the edge, looking down, and tasting real and undeniable defeat for the first time in a long, long time, Kouji Oshiro gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.

He reached into his belt and pulled out a butterfly knife with an ornamental clasp. Digging it into the concrete ledge and carving a deep gouge, he glared balefully at the school below him, eyes burning with hatred and vengeful wrath.

"I will tear you down, Uzumaki," he said softly, to himself, "I will find everything you hold dear, and rip it apart in front of you. And you will rue the day you crossed Kouji Oshiro."

He snapped the knife closed and clicked his fingers at this second-in-command.

"What was that girl's name again? The one he was close to?" he asked menacingly.

"Uh… Miu, Boss. Miu Fuurinji."

"C'mon, Naruto! Let's go! We're gonna be late!"

"I dun' care… lemme sleep."

Miu stamped her foot in frustration and snuck a glance at her watch, eyes widening in alarm as she realised she would definitely be late if she didn't leave now. She would already be cutting it close regardless, even if she took her shortcuts over the canal and the rooftops.

"Alright, do what you want," she said hurriedly, "Breakfast's on the table, and don't be too late, alright?"

"Mmm… thaanks…"

"Ah, hello sensei, good morning," greeted Naruto casually, waving his hand as he strolled into the room.

"Uzumaki! You're THREE hours late! What have you got to say for yourself?" yelled the teacher, irate.

"Hmm… there was a black cat on the road…?"

"That's the same excuse you used last week!"

"Is it? Oh dear, my memory must be going. Well… I guess there was this little old lady then," said Naruto, bored.

"You used that one last week as well!"

"Fancy that," muttered Naruto to himself as he arrived at his seat.

He sat down and turned to greet Miu, but to his surprise, he didn't see anyone there.

"Hey, Glasses, where's Miu? Wasn't she at school?"

The bespectacled girl who sat in front of him shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, she was in class before recess, but when the bell rang, she went to her locker and then left class."

"She doesn't cut class often, does she?"

"I don't think she's ever missed a class… apart from today."

"Hey sensei, d'you know where Miu is?" asked Naruto loudly, a sense of panic starting to seep through.

The middle aged man scratched his head and glared.

"No, I don't," he said brusquely, "And stop making a disturbance in my class. It's bad enough that you're late, don't make it worse by yammering on to Izumi-san like that. She's a good student, unlike you."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion.

"Who?" he asked.

"Ah. That'd be me," said the girl he had just been talking to, "You call me Glasses, but my real name is Yuuka Izumi."

"Oh," said Naruto, the light of realisation dawning in his eyes, "Eh heh, sorry about that, I'm bad with names."

He held out a hand for her to shake, which she did with a slightly amused look on her face.

"Hang on a minute," said Naruto, remembering, "Aren't you that girl who told me 'bout my stuff and the Oshiro bastard yesterday? Thanks, I owe ya one."

Yuuka gave a small smile.

"It's okay. You're a bit scary, but you've never actually done anything bad…"

Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Then looking outside, remembered what it was he had been worried about.

"Hey, how long ago did you see Miu?" he asked Yuuka.

She looked at her watch, squinting a little.

"Um… recess was ten minutes ago," she said.

"Hmm… I wonder where she could be," mused Naruto.

Yuuka watched him a little longer, before deciding that their conversation had drawn to a close and turning her attention back to the board.

"Actually," she said to Naruto suddenly, "I remember she was reading a piece of paper or something at her lockers. She read it, and then closed her locker really fast and then ran off. She seemed kind of flustered or something."

"Might be a love letter of some sort?" asked Naruto with a half-joking tone.

"No, I don't think so," replied Yuuka, serious, "Her face didn't have that kind of look. She looked, I dunno… harassed or something."

"Eh, perhaps it'd be a really embarrassing love letter then?" said Naruto, surprising himself with the somewhat desperate tone that had snuck itself into his voice.

He had a really bad feeling about this. Again, Yuuka shook her head.

"No… it wasn't that kind of vibe. She seemed really serious…"

Naruto nodded his thanks, leaning back and trying to think the whole thing over.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" he murmured to himself.

He closed his eyes and activated his Byakugan, stretching out his all-seeing eye to cover the entire school grounds, scanning the area anxiously.

It wasn't as easy as 'seeing' everything in such an enormous radius like he had always thought when watching Hinata or Neji do it- there was a huge influx of information that needed to be manually sorted through quickly and efficiently or else the enormous power of the Byakugan would become a hindrance rather than a help. His available field of vision was massive- the amount of attention he could pay to it was limited.

It also didn't help that the x-ray vision component of it all made everything much more difficult, with the overlapping outlines and black and white overtones making for a surreal, confusing world that seemed to reject any and all outsiders that dared to peek inside its monochromatic walls.

"Ah, found her," said Naruto in relief after a brief once-over of the school grounds, "I wonder why she's behind the school building like that…"

His voice trailed off and his reassured smiled faded as he realised that there was a group of other students around her. Students he recognised.

Kouji.

Naruto's blood froze and his breath stopped in his lungs.

"Oh, he is dead," he snarled, standing up.

"Uzumaki! Sit down!" shouted the teacher, who had been reading from the textbook.

Naruto didn't even spare him a second glance as he Kireroho'd (Snap Stepped) towards the window.

His new technique wasn't polished yet, but he didn't care.

As expected, his deceleration was non-existent, and he crashed through the window, glass shattering and causing a multitude of cuts and lacerations over his arms, splattering blood over his white school shirt.

But as soon as he cleared the window, Naruto spread his arms, allowing the glass fragments to fly away in what looked like a miniature cloud of glitter. His chakra burst from his body, a rush of power and adrenaline flooding his veins.

He dropped down towards the ground, but his chakra surrounded him with wings of fury, granting him a shroud of unanswerable power.

He hit the ground and took off running.

"I still don't understand what you want from me, senpai," said Miu in a confused manner.

Kouji lit up a cigarette.

"I thought I told you to shut the fuck up, baby doll," he grunted, "I don't really want to hurt you, so just be quiet and wait there."

Miu glared at him, rolling a shoulder. She didn't want to cause trouble and draw undue attention to herself as she wanted to make more friends in this new school, but the way this delinquent was acting was unforgivable!

"Hey Boss," grinned one of the henchman lecherously, "D'you reckon we could… uh… 'have some fun' with her? We didn't get to play with sensei after all, we left to chase that Naruto bra-"

At the sound of that hated name, Kouji took in a huge suck of his cigarette and then spat it onto the ground, grinding it with his boot viciously.

"Shut up," he said shortly, "Don't you know who this is? I did some research. She's some kind of popular girl with the First Year brats. They'll all gang up on you and lynch you if you do something stupid to her. Don't do anything without thinking."

"But… isn't that what you're doing?" came a sudden cold voice, "After all, you're picking a fight with me."

Kouji looked up with a satisfied expression.

"Well look who it is," he drawled, "Mister Prankmaster. You really led us on a merry chase yesterday… I bet you think you're some hotshot big man now, don't you?"

Naruto, standing at the threshold of the small alleyway, shrugged and started to walk in.

Kouji clicked his tongue.

"Not so cocky now, are you? I don't know why you walked in here all alone, but you're gonna get it now that you've got nowhere to run off to," he smirked.

Naruto ignored him and continued to walk towards the group.

"Hey, Miu, what're you doing here? C'mon, you should be in class… let's go," he said, smiling warmly.

"Naruto…!" she said, but that was all, as if she didn't know what else to say.

"Shut yer mouth, girl!" snapped one of the nearby henchmen, who tried to sling an arm around her mouth.

However, as soon as he approached her, Miu automatically wrapped her own slim arms around his much beefier one and then turned and slung the heavy-set schoolboy over her shoulder in a textbook perfect jujutsu throw.

"Ah!" she exclaimed in surprise, a hand flying to her mouth after the act had been completed.

"Oi, what the hell?!" growled Kouji, rising up and taking an aggressive step towards Miu.

But it was like he had just stood up into a void.

There was suddenly not enough air to breathe in the small alley, and something… something was radiating such icy-cold killing intent that he could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck rise up.

He turned around, and saw Naruto staring at him with such terrible, terrible eyes that the delinquent unconsciously fell to a knee in fear. Those penetrating eyes, with bulging veins and lifeless white irises, were trying to burn a hole in his head with hate alone.

"I warned you not to try anything with my friends," Naruto said softly, "And you didn't listen."