My Name Is Namikaze Naruto

However, what Mizuki didn’t know was that Naruto, who had just left, also turned away with a slight smirk on his lips, revealing a faintly mocking smile. In Naruto’s mind, Mizuki was nothing more than an incurable fool.

Stealing the Scroll of Seals?

How stupid must one be to come up with such a plan? It didn’t consider feasibility or success rate at all.

A person solely immersed in their own ambitions is nothing but an idiot.
“Well, let me make good use of you, Mizuki-sensei! I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

Naruto, leaving the exam room, paid no attention to the strange looks from his classmates. He knew very well why they were giving him those looks—because they hadn’t seen the symbol of a qualified Konoha ninja on his forehead protector. Moreover, the soundproofing of the exam room wasn’t perfect, and they might have heard some of Iruka-sensei’s words. Unlike the Naruto from the original story with his failing grades, this Naruto was a top student, consistently among the best in the class, especially in theoretical knowledge, where he was always in the top three, sometimes even first. In practical skills, he was outstanding, only surpassed by Sasuke Uchiha in their class.

Of course, they didn’t know this was because Naruto was holding back. Otherwise, Naruto could easily overpower Sasuke since Sasuke hadn’t yet mastered his Sharingan (activated during the night of the Uchiha massacre but unknown to him).

Even so, from the perspective of his classmates, it should have been easy for Naruto to pass the graduation exam, right? Even if they had seen him struggle with the Clone Technique before, considering his intelligence, it shouldn’t have been a problem by now, right?

This was the general consensus among those present.

Yet, the result surprised everyone. Despite being in the top five throughout six years, Naruto Uzumaki hadn’t graduated. Naturally, everyone looked at Naruto with astonishment as he came out, except for one person who looked at him with concern—Hinata Hyuga.

Unlike the others, Hinata’s white eyes showed a hint of worry, and her hands twisted together unconsciously.
“Naruto-kun…”

Walking away quickly, Naruto didn’t care about his classmates’ opinions. He didn’t leave the school directly but went to the rooftop, found a quiet spot, and lay down leisurely.

“Now I just have to wait for that fool Mizuki to come find me. If I remember correctly, it’ll be around dusk, right? I guess I can take a short nap…”

With his hands behind his head, Naruto gazed at the blue sky and white clouds, squinting comfortably, and thought silently. This was a great opportunity he couldn’t miss.

Naruto planned to learn more than his original counterpart, who only learned the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique from the Scroll of Seals. This scroll contained almost all of Konoha’s A-rank and above jutsu. Aside from the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique, he aimed to learn the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and the Flying Thunder God Technique—both crucial for his growth. The former out of curiosity about the existence of Shinigami and Jashin as described in the original story, and the latter for its significant importance, being a time-space ninjutsu developed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and perfected by his father, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

In addition to these, he planned to learn as many advanced jutsu and forbidden techniques as possible, even if he couldn’t master them immediately. Understanding their core and hand signs would allow him to refine them over time.

“This is the most crucial step…”

Naruto thought silently. But then he suddenly sat up, a realization hitting him.

“Wait, what if Mizuki doesn’t follow the original storyline? What do I do then?”

Simply put, since arriving in this world, the original plot was only a reference. Treating it as a standard answer was a mistake; he knew he wouldn’t survive like that.

Would Mizuki act according to the original plot? Probably. However, the slight deviation in the Uchiha massacre five years ago made Naruto doubt whether the current situation would follow the original storyline.

Though Naruto hadn’t done anything to significantly alter the main storyline, his presence here already diverged from the original destiny. His different childhood, lack of mischief, and being a top student instead of a failure meant changes had occurred.

Thus, Naruto had ample reason to doubt. If the plot deviated from his expectations, what would he do? The answer: he had no way of knowing!

“If Mizuki acts differently from the original, it will be a big problem…”

Naruto thought with a bitter smile. He realized he had no control over this situation. Without Mizuki’s instigation, he lacked a legitimate excuse to “foolishly” steal the Scroll of Seals and learn from it and also lost a direct opportunity to graduate.

The former was less crucial, just a missed chance to grow stronger, which could be compensated for later. But the latter was critical. If he couldn’t graduate this year, the ensuing problems would be immense.

Become a Patron to read chapters ahead of public release and support me 😉

Read up to 40 chapters ahead on p atreon.