"Uzumaki Naruto, fail!"
Iruka Umino was so angry he nearly slammed the scorebook in his hand.
Naruto had been doing decently in exams before—so how had he managed to miss the target this time?
And not just miss—he'd actually thrown a kunai that flew straight toward him!
What was that supposed to mean? Was Naruto expressing dissatisfaction with his teacher? Or had he been getting too bold because Iruka hadn't scolded him recently?
"Iruka-sensei! I'm injured! Please, just give me one more chance—just one!"
Naruto clutched his waist, face scrunched in discomfort, clearly unwilling to accept the result.
But exams had rules. Exceptions couldn't be made just because of an injury.
So...
"No! You failed this time—try harder on the next one!"
Iruka frowned, giving Naruto a glance. He believed Naruto had underperformed because of the injury.
Still, in the end, he officially recorded Naruto's score as fail and moved on to the next group.
Rules were rules. No one could break them.
---
"Damn you, Sasuke! It's all your fault..."
Naruto ran off, unable to change the outcome, tugging on Sasuke's arm as he started whining and complaining.
And as he did, everyone gradually came to understand: the reason Naruto had messed up during the test was because his waist had been injured—by Sasuke—which made it impossible for him to perform properly.
Compare that to Sasuke, whose scores had never once lost to anyone else, and now Naruto, looking utterly pitiful with a failing grade...
Among the notorious class-skipping group, Shikamaru only needed one glance before closing his eyes and starting to calculate Sasuke's intentions in his mind.
There was no way Sasuke actually wanted Naruto to fail graduation—so what was the point of this so-called bullying?
Genius. Top of the class.
Dead last. Might not graduate.
"!"
A sudden flash of insight struck Shikamaru, and when he looked at Sasuke again, his eyes were now filled with deep understanding and quiet satisfaction.
So that was it—Sasuke had always protected Naruto; there was no way he would just let Naruto fail to graduate.
Turns out... Sasuke was trying to exploit a loophole in the team assignment system.
But unfortunately, Naruto's identity…
It likely wasn't something that could be manipulated so easily by standard class placement rules. Who Naruto would be assigned to after graduation ultimately depended on the decisions of the higher-ups.
The same applied to Sasuke—they both belonged to "special cases." Whether they ended up together or not wasn't something their current grades could truly influence.
---
"Shikamaru, Naruto's getting bullied way too badly. Can't you think of a way to get Uchiha Sasuke to stop messing with him?"
Kiba Inuzuka came over holding Akamaru in his arms and stood beside Shikamaru, hoping the clever boy could do something.
Failing the exam… if it had been him who failed, his parents—and his older sister—would have definitely ganged up on him for a combo beatdown.
---
"There's nothing I can do about it," Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. "Didn't you notice Naruto looks really happy? He likes getting picked on by Sasuke. What are we supposed to do about that?"
If the two of them were having fun, then interfering would only end up costing him their friendship.
So really—why bother playing the bad guy?
---
"But still…"
Kiba watched Shikamaru walk away, scowled, and threw a few annoyed glances back at Sasuke before quickly chasing after him.
He knew Naruto liked being around Sasuke—but that didn't mean it was okay to be happy while being bullied.
If the basis of a friendship was sacrificing your own well-being, Kiba didn't believe that kind of relationship could last.
If Naruto kept getting pushed around like this, it was bound to become a problem sooner or later.