The next day...
As Naruto sat at the same corner as yesterday, he suddenly noticed that the hollow presence had vanished.
"Something is wrong." Naruto realized instantly in his mind. "The mastermind withdrawing his soldiers isn't a good sign."
"Wow, for once, a clever thought from that puny brain of yours." Kurama chuckled.
"Since when do you love teasing me anyway?" Naruto smiled faintly at this. "You usually want to kill me the moment I appear in your sight."
"Shut up." Kurama groaned.
Naruto: (in thought) "By the way, where is Indra? Why is he become silent all of the sudden?"
Kurama: "He said he wanted to check on something, so he won't be present for the time being."
"You know that both of you are locked in my mind, right?" Naruto sighed internally. "He can't just disappear without a trace."
Kurama: "The Otsutsuki are more than meets the eye, kid. Never underestimate one."
Naruto's mind snapped back to reality as the classroom's door opened. Following Iruka were two other kids. The first one was a pale boy with dark hair, and dark clothes. The second one was a brown hair girl with black eyes.
"Class, from this moment on, we will be having two new students." Iruka then turned to the two new students. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"
"That boy's chakra. It feels like those hollow Anbus." Naruto thought as his senses began tingling. "And for the girl..."
"It feels demonic, and has many signatures." Kurama finished. "She must have multiple personalities."
"My name is Sai." The pale boy bowed to the class. "It's nice to meet you all."
"I-I'm Yakumo." The girl said timidly.
"Better keep an eye on both of them, kid." Kurama growled.
"Nah, I have a better idea." Naruto smirked internally. "It's time to step out of the safe zone that Indra set up on me."
Yakumo and Sai then walked pass Naruto, who smiled widely at them. "You two can seat next to me if you want."
"That's very kind of you, Naruto." Sai commented with a fake smile as he sat down, followed by Yakumo.
That day, the classes went pretty normal, which meant tedious to Naruto. The moment the dismiss bell rang, Naruto instantly grabbed his bag, and prepared to make his way out of the classroom.
He then turned to Yakumo and Sai, and asked. "Hey, do you two want some ramen?"
Yakumo: "S-sure."
Sai gave a slight nod. But as they reached the classroom's door, they were instantly intercepted by a woman. She seemed to be a Jonin, judging by her uniform.
"What are you doing here, Yakumo?" She asked. "You know that you can't be a shinobi."
The woman's voice was sharp, cutting through the chatter of the emptying hallway like a kunai. She wore the standard Leaf Jonin uniform, her long, dark red hair framing a face etched with strict concern. Behind her eyes, however, Naruto's heightened senses caught a trace of deep, agonizing guilt.
Yakumo shrank back instantly, clutching her backpack to her chest. Her timid aura spiked with a violent, chaotic jolt of chakra that made Kurama growl in the depths of Naruto's mind.
"That girl's inner demon just twitched," Kurama warned, his fiery eyes narrowing behind the iron bars. "Careful, brat. Her mind is a unstable powder keg."
"Kurenai-sensei..." Yakumo stammered, her voice barely a whisper as she stared down at her sandals. "I... I just wanted to see what the Academy was like."
"Your body cannot handle the physical strain of being a ninja, Yakumo," Kurenai Yuhi said, her tone softening slightly, though her posture remained unyielding. "Your clan's clan head-and the Hokage himself-agreed it is too dangerous for you to be here. We are going home."
Beside them, Sai maintained his flawless, perfectly hollow smile. His pale hands remained tucked neatly into his sleeves, but Naruto felt the subtle shift in the boy's weight. Sai was analyzing everything: Kurenai's posture, Yakumo's tremor, and most importantly, how Naruto would react.
Danzo's puppet was taking notes.
Naruto adjusted the strap of his bag, stepping directly into Kurenai's line of sight. He offered her a bright, slightly foolish grin-the exact mask he had worn for years, yet his eyes remained razor-sharp underneath.
"Hey, lady," Naruto said, tilting his head with loud, exaggerated curiosity. "She was just going to eat some ramen with us. Is eating noodles forbidden for ninja now, too? Because if it is, I'm in huge trouble."
Kurenai blinked, her red eyes landing on the blond boy for the first time. A flicker of recognition and hesitation crossed her face-she knew exactly who Naruto was, even if they had never spoken.
"This doesn't concern you, Naruto," Kurenai said firmly, reaching out to gently grasp Yakumo's shoulder. "Yakumo needs to return to the Kurama clan estate immediately."
The moment Kurenai's hand touched the girl, Yakumo flinched hard. A split-second pulse of distorted, illusionary chakra rippled through the air-so subtle that an ordinary genin wouldn't have felt it, but to Naruto, trained under Indra's oppressive discipline, it was as obvious as a thunderclap.
The air in the hallway grew momentarily cold. The shadows on the wall seemed to stretch.
"I see," Sai chimed in smoothly, his pale face tilting as he observed the subtle shift in the atmosphere. His fake smile never wavered. "A fragile body and a dangerous surge of power. You must be a very troublesome asset to guard, Jonin-san."
Kurenai's eyes flicked to Sai, her guard instantly rising. Something about the pale boy's total lack of genuine emotion set off every alarm bell in her veteran instincts.
Naruto stood between the three of them, feeling the threads of Danzo's hidden plot on one side, a ticking genjutsu time bomb on the other, and Indra still completely absent from his mindscape.
'Indra left me a script to play the fool,' Naruto thought, a dark, amused spark lighting up his blue eyes as he took a step forward. 'Too bad he's not here to enforce it.'
"Her ability, is illusion, right?" Naruto asked. "And you're teaching her how to use Genjutsu?"
Kurenai. "That's none of your concern, but yes."
Naruto: "How about this: a Genjutsu battle, right now. If I win, she goes with us."
"And if you lose..."
"You will name your conditions, miss." Naruto grinned. "But you don't have to worry about that, cause I won't lose."
"Arrogant for an Academy student." Kurenai then did some handsigns, and disappeared into a mystical fog.
The area shifted in Naruto's vision as well as Yakumo and Sai vanished, and multiple tree parts started growing from the ground. But Naruto didn't react. As Kurenai was about to bind Naruto, a vision flickered in her eyes. It was a nearly flawless Genjutsu. The tree branches burnt away, and her body started being covered in black flames.
In reality, Naruto stood tall, while Kurenai was still stuck inside the Genjutsu.
"She will be fine." Naruto grinned. "It's just layered Genjutsu. She will be able to dispel it, but we better disappear when she does."
Without waiting for a response, Naruto grabbed Yakumo by the wrist and yanked her down the hallway, giving Sai a quick, sharp nod. Sai followed without hesitation, his footfalls silent as a shadow, his pale face reflecting a strange, new curiosity as he glanced back at the paralyzed Jonin master.