After Team 7 finished visiting the exam venue, Sakura was the first to leave the group and head home to review.
As for Naruto and Sasuke, as poor students in theory, they didn't even bat an eye at the upcoming written test. Instead, they headed straight back to the grove to complete their daily training.
In the evening, Naruto had demonstrated his 'Door Style Taijutsu' to Konohamaru, which left the kid absolutely ecstatic, cheering and shouting in excitement.
As Konohamaru walked home, he kept imitating his Aniki's 'Door Style Taijutsu' the whole way, looking a bit like Sasuke who was obsessed with Kubikiribocho.
This new style of Taijutsu training completely opened the doors of a new world for the eight-year-old boy...
…
At night, Hiruzen, exhausted from a long day, hunched over slightly and massaged his back with his fists as he slowly made his way home.
When he thought about how Naruto had been behaving himself lately, he felt all the tiredness in his body disappear.
'Sigh…'
'It's really not easy!'
'It seems that kid had grown up after going out of the village on a mission and fighting against the Missing-nin from Kirigakure!'
'Maybe I shouldn't keep judging Naruto based on the past.'
'Look at Jiraiya. He also gave me a lot of headaches when he was a child, but once he grew up, he became incredibly reliable!'
As images of Jiraiya flashed through his mind, Hiruzen couldn't help but think of his other two students.
It was just a shame that the disciple he had held in the highest regard had ended up defecting from the village.
Hiruzen looked up at the moon in the sky. The moonlight shone on his wrinkled face, leaving many shadows.
He couldn't help but sigh.
"I've really gotten old…"
After standing there for a while, lost in melancholy, Hiruzen clasped his hands behind his back and stepped through his front door.
The moment he crossed the threshold, he froze, then suddenly stepped back in shock.
Seeing that his front door was empty with only the door frame left, Hiruzen rubbed his eyes hard, unable to believe what he saw.
"What's going on???"
"Where's my door?!"
Hiruzen stood rooted to the spot, his face full of shock.
'Who on earth is brave enough to steal from the Hokage himself?!'
'Could it be…'
'Shinobi from another village?'
'With the Chunin Exams underway, plenty of outsiders had entered Konoha. Maybe some reckless fool had gotten bold enough to pull this off.'
'And come to think of it…'
'Naruto had mentioned something about Sunagakure's spies the other day...'
'Could that actually be true!?'
Hiruzen was shocked and pulled out a kunai just in case.
After cautiously stepping through the empty doorframe, Hiruzen discovered that not only had the front door been removed, but every single door in his house had been stripped down to the frames. He hurriedly ran into the house to check for a while, and he found that except for the doors...
Nothing else had been stolen!!
"What on earth happened here?"
Just as he muttered this, he heard loud, enthusiastic shouts coming from the training ground in his backyard.
Following the sound, Hiruzen saw a scene that nearly made him faint on the spot...
His grandson, Konohamaru, was swinging a wooden door around like a weapon.
There were also neatly stacked door panels at his feet.
In that instant, Hiruzen finally understood where all his missing doors had gone...
It was this kid all along.
'It's indeed hard to guard against thieves within the family!'
Konohamaru, holding the wooden door, turned his head and glanced at Hiruzen, and the smile on the corner of his mouth gradually became more and more unbridled.
He grabbed the left and right ends of the wooden door with both hands and rushed straight towards Hiruzen, shouting excitedly, "Grandpa!"
"Let's duel! I will definitely defeat you today!"
"I'm going to be the Godaime Hokage!"
Bang…
Since the door blocked his view, Konohamaru couldn't see where he was going. He tripped over his own feet and face-planted, with the wooden door crashing down with him.
"Damn it!"
"Grandpa, you are so despicable. You actually set up a trap in advance!"
Hiruzen: "…"
Hiruzen was rendered utterly speechless by his grandson's antics.
'Normally, the kid would just come at me with kunai or shuriken...'
'But why does his style today become a bit like... like that kid Naruto???'
Hiruzen glanced at Konohamaru on the ground, then looked at the neatly stacked door panels beside him, and a growing sense of dread crept into his heart.
'No... no way…'
'Could this kid be hanging out with Naruto?'
Hiruzen looked at it for a long time, swallowed with difficulty, and asked Konohamaru in a strained voice, "You…"
"Who taught you to use a door as a weapon?"
'Please, don't say that name!!'
'Absolutely not that name!'
After hearing this, Konohamaru, who had been rubbing his sore knee, immediately forgot his pain and jumped up and shouted excitedly, "It's my Aniki, Naruto-sama!"
"I will definitely become someone like Aniki in the future."
"Haah—"
Hiruzen's vision went dark and he nearly collapsed on the spot. Clutching his chest with one hand, he frantically fumbled for medicine with the other.
'This is it… I'm done for!!'
'Damn it all!'
'No matter how hard I tried to stop it… it still happened!'
The elderly Hiruzen leaned against the wall and slowly slid down, his breathing becoming more and more rapid.
When Konohamaru saw him like this, his face turned pale with fright, and he quickly ran to his side and asked with concern, "Grandpa, are you okay?"
Hearing his grandson's concern, Hiruzen felt much better.
'At least now this child still knows how to care about me...'
"I'm… fine. Grandpa just needs a moment…"
Konohamaru grinned, then continued proudly, "By the way, Grandpa, what do you think of my Konoha Door Style Taijutsu just now?"
"It's pretty awesome, right?!"
Hiruzen almost fainted after hearing what Konohamaru said.
'There are so many Ninjutsu at home, why don't you learn them and chose to train with a damned door panel?!'
'And what the hell is Konoha Door Style Taijutsu supposed to be?'
At this point,Hiruzen feels that the medicine he is taking now are not enough, and he will probably have to go to the hospital to get some emergency heart pills tomorrow.
"Where's your tutor, Ebisu?"
"Glasses-sensei? Uh… hahaha, no idea!"
Konohamaru's eyes darted around as he suddenly became very interested in whistling innocently.
"Damn it!"
"Naruto, you are corrupting Sandaime-sama's grandson!"
In the exclusive training ground of Team 7, Ebisu, whose hands and feet were tightly bound on a tree, looked at Naruto with a look of helplessness and fury.
To make matters worse...
He had been tied up in an extremely humiliating position.
Even Kakashi would've whistled if he saw this.
Naruto slurped his ramen loudly, completely ignoring him.
This bastard had been yapping nonstop the moment he saw Naruto…
The first thing he says is he is the evil Uzumaki brat, and the last thing he says is that he is destroying Konoha Village.
How the hell was Naruto supposed to tolerate that?
It's absolutely impossible!
'No matter how you look at it, I, Uzumaki Naruto, have shed blood for Konoha Village!'
'Glasses old geezer, how can you have the nerve to talk to me like that?'
So when Ebisu started running his mouth, Naruto promptly beat him down and strung him up in the most embarrassing way possible.
If he could find a ball gag, he would have wanted to shove it in this guy's mouth too.
As for whether Hiruzen would come after him for this...
Naruto wasn't worried at all.
What kind of tutor was this glasses guy anyway? Naruto felt he could teach Konohamaru way better.
When the time comes, he will let everyone in Konoha see that even a child can become very strong under his guidance!
'Hmph…'
'After the exam tomorrow, I will talk to old man Sandaime about this.'