"Man, the Third Hokage really is the weakest of all time!"
"No kidding! The Cloud Village breaks in and tries to kidnap someone, a Leaf ninja defends themselves on their own turf and kills the intruder... so the Third makes our guy commit suicide as an apology?!"
"And not just anyone. He made the head of the Hyuga Clan do it!"
"Is that even real? That's just... utterly spineless!"
"Even if Kumo threatened war, even if the Leaf was weaker at the time… they probably wouldn't have had the guts to actually fight."
"Right! Don't forget, they lost their Third Raikage in the last war."
"That Raikage was a beast. Did you hear? Iwa sent ten thousand ninjas after him, and he still fought them for three days and nights before dying from exhaustion. Now that's what I call hardcore."
"And then you look at our Third…"
"Wasn't he supposed to be the strongest Hokage in history? Stronger than even the First?"
"From what I heard, the First Hokage took on all the other villages by himself and still came out on top. They called him the God of Shinobi."
"As long as he lived, no village dared start a war."
"And yet our Third? He straight up offered one of his own top clansmen to the enemy just to keep the peace."
"Damn…"
As the second video clip played across the world, ninja villages big and small and civilians from every nation who had even a passing interest in shinobi affairs all began to buzz.
Their outrage exploded.
Meanwhile, the Third Hokage, who had just moments ago been secretly thrilled that Hinata Hyuga had fallen for a boy with no status or power, suddenly found himself unable to step outside his door.
Fortunately, he rarely left the village anyway. Ever since the end of the First Great Ninja War, when he nearly lost his life and had to be saved by the Second Hokage, he had used the excuse of "guarding the village" to stay home during both the Second and Third Ninja Wars.
As long as he stayed put, he could pretend none of this was happening.
If he didn't hear the noise, then it wasn't real. Simple as that.
—
Elsewhere.
After quickly consulting with the higher-ups on whether the recent videos featuring Hinata twice, including one where she publicly confessed her love to Aoki Sora, warranted reshuffling the genin teams, Iruka received the directive:
"No need to change anything."
And so, just like in the original timeline, Iruka formally announced the team placements.
"Yes! I'm with Sakura!"
"Ugh… why am I stuck with Naruto?"
"What? Even Mr. Cool Uchiha is on my team?!"
"Hell yeah, I get to team up with Sasuke!"
Just like the original setup:
Team 7: Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. Sensei: Kakashi Hatake.
Team 8: Hinata, Shino, Kiba. Sensei: Kurenai Yuhi.
Team 10: Ino, Shikamaru, Choji. Sensei: Asuma Sarutobi.
Team 11 (new addition): Aoki Sora, Hayama Shiranui, Shijima Minori. Sensei: Yūgao Uzuki, temporarily pulled from ANBU.
"This really is some shoehorned 'Yūgao route' nonsense straight out of the game,"
Sora couldn't help but roast internally.
Don't ask why an ANBU like Yūgao Uzuki was suddenly babysitting a bunch of genin.
Just blame it on the mysterious will beyond the world.
Or chalk it up to the game's plot mechanics. Just like how Sora himself was added as a new character with his own backstory, the world had conveniently added new storyline branches to match.
Originally, Hayate Gekkō was supposed to be the jonin in charge of this new team. But since Hayate was "suddenly feeling under the weather," the game recalculated and slotted in a replacement who used the same Konoha-ryū kenjutsu.
Honestly, it wasn't even that weird anymore.
If time travel and projection powers were already on the table, then dragging along a whole RPG-style game system was just another Tuesday.
Still, there was some internal logic to the choice.
For example, having Kurenai, a genjutsu user, lead Hinata's taijutsu-heavy team was a good way to round out their abilities. Likewise, assigning someone like Yūgao, a kenjutsu expert, to oversee Sora, who had shown early genjutsu talent, helped balance things out.
Otherwise, if your whole team specialized in illusions and your enemy had high genjutsu resistance, well, game over.
But that was all minor stuff.
Right now, Sora was more focused on how to use this opportunity to quickly boost his strength and whether the game system would be just as useful here as it was in the original.
—
"Well then," Iruka announced, "there's nothing else planned for the morning. For now, get to know your new teammates. This afternoon, your jonin instructors will come and take you away. Dismissed."
With that, he left the classroom.
Too much had happened today. He needed time to digest it all, and also, probably, to gossip his heart out.
After all, Hinata Hyuga, the girl who appeared in two separate videos, was his student.
And Aoki Sora, the one she confessed to in front of the entire world?
Also his student.
"Sigh... Why couldn't it have been Sakura confessing to me instead?"
Naruto slumped in his seat, grumbling.
He wanted screen time too.
And if it had been Sakura telling him she loved him, now that would've been the perfect opening scene.
"Confess to you?!"
Sakura snapped, giving Naruto a death glare.
"Keep dreaming! Not in a hundred years!"
"…Right."
Naruto shut up immediately.
Across the room, Sora just chuckled quietly to himself.
Typical. When there's trouble, go to Naruto. When there's drama, throw Sasuke in. Everything was playing out like a script.
Still, what happened with Sakura didn't really matter to him.
What mattered now was...
Hinata sitting nearby, her face red and her whole body fidgeting in embarrassment.
After all, the very first scene that played out this morning...
Was her publicly confessing her love for him in front of half the ninja world.
For someone as shy as her, this was straight-up social death.
Sure, it might end up being good for her. Kind of like exposure therapy.
But as a man, Sora figured...
He should at least help share the burden.
************************
Hey everyone! I'll be dropping an extra 1 chapter once we hit 450,800,1200 power stones! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to spend some power stones. I'd really appreciate the support. Thanks a bunch!