Chương 20

"That's depressing!"

"What kind of question is that?!"

"I'd eat barbecue!"

"I'd train harder!"

"I'd spend it with Sasuke-kun!"

"…Troublesome." Shikamaru Nara sighed from nearby. Iruka meanwhile simply handed out papers afterward.

"Write your answers honestly." Rei quietly stared at the blank paper for a few moments. And honestly… his brain immediately overcomplicated the question. Because unlike most children inside the classroom, Rei had already technically experienced one world ending personally. Or at least his world ending for him. Okay fine, maybe it was because there weren't geniuses like Itachi Uchiha who understood the world better from such a young age.

And Rei had already watched enough fiction and enough human behavior across two lives now to understand one important thing. Humanity was terrible at unity. Especially powerful people. Eventually Rei sighed quietly and started writing. Meanwhile beside him, Naruto Uzumaki was somehow writing with the concentration of a man solving world hunger itself. His tongue even stuck out slightly from the side of his mouth while thinking. A few minutes later, Iruka Umino started collecting answers one by one.

And because apparently humiliation built character, he decided to read some aloud.

"Kiba says he would spend the final day eating barbecue with Akamaru."

"HELL YEAH!" Kiba Inuzuka shouted proudly.

"Choji says he would spend the final day eating chips."

"…Valid." Choji Akimichi nodded seriously.

"Ino says she would spend it with—""DON'T READ THAT OUT LOUD!" Ino Yamanaka immediately screamed. The classroom descended into chaos again briefly afterward before Iruka continued. Then eventually—"Naruto…" Iruka paused slightly seeing the answer.

"…you wrote Rei?" Immediately the classroom went quiet for a moment. Naruto blinked once before grinning shamelessly afterward.

"Well yeah!" he replied loudly like the answer was obvious.

"He's my best friend, so obviously I'd spend the last day with him!" Rei was embarrassed a bit but also thankful. This young child really found solace with him. Thankfully he didn't write something like "spend time with Sakura." This was one of the huge improvements that Rei was determined to hammer down on Naruto. He had noticed recently that Naruto was looking at Sakura Haruno too much. Though he knew how it would go down in the end, Naruto's small obsession wasn't something he liked.

It was probably due to his upbringing, which was almost nonexistent. So being the big brother that Rei was, he needed to prevent any future messed up situation.

"Naruto, do you like Sakura?" Rei had asked him straight one day.

"Uh! Yes... Do you like her too? Don't worry, if she likes you back, I will not interfere.." Naruto said with pride as if he had made a great sacrifice. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"You are thinking too much.. I don't like any of the girls here." Rei rolled his eyes as he said that. Liking these girls? Naah.. These were just children and he could never look at them with the same eyes as his mental age was probably more than twice that of these kids. He had his own ethics.

"Oh..." Naruto felt a bit relieved as Rei was considered one of the handsome boys of the Academy and felt like if he tried with some girls, he might find himself a girlfriend. If Rei ever came to know the thoughts of Naruto, he would scoff. Who was teaching those absurd grown-up things to these kids? There wasn't even a television to point blame at.

"So why are you asking?" Naruto asked.

"I am asking because you seem to like her and she doesn't even seem to notice you or rather doesn't even like you," Rei said.

"Hey.. You don't know that.. Someday beautiful Sakura will look at me with loving eyes and I will win her love. Believe it." Naruto replied with quite the animation.

"Naruto.. You have an obsession with being Hokage and that is fine. Being Hokage is a job and it doesn't affect anyone. But being obsessed with a person is totally different. How would you feel if someone you don't even like showed up and looked at you the way you look at Sakura? Would you like it?" Rei asked.

"Hey.. I would like someone like that," Naruto said, but in a much quieter tone. Rei understood why Naruto replied like that. Rei had provided him with friendship but he couldn't erase how the whole village treated him.

"Naruto, always remember. Genuine love or care or friendship doesn't need to be forced. It doesn't need to be transactional. If it is, then it's not genuine. I know you like Sakura, you can approach her, speak to her, but if she refuses, you should just stay away and allow your love/obsession to fade away. Because love and care always go both ways. Else it becomes either an obsession or a heartbreak. It closes your eyes to the people who genuinely love you.

Pay attention to the people around you, maybe there are people who like you," Rei said.

"Beauty isn't eternal Naruto. Do you think the Third Grandpa is good-looking now? No. But I am sure he once was, but see how people still adore him. Beauty isn't important in the long run. The heart is. If it is ugly, eventually people will notice it and won't like you."

"Hey.. I told you.. Nobody likes me. Maybe except for Third Grandpa and you... Okay fine.. Maybe Shikamaru and others don't have that much hatred toward me.." Naruto replied.

"Really?" Rei asked with scrutiny. He had seen how Hinata Hyuga looked at Naruto and knew that the case of that red scarf had happened. Mikasa, please this is not about Eren, you can calm down.

"Hey.. What does that supposed to mean.. I told you.. Nobody likes me.." Naruto said.

"As I said, pay attention to the people around you. You will be surprised to see how some people look at you," Rei said and didn't explain further. He didn't want to expose Hinata. The time would come later. But the previous words of Rei really did make Naruto think in the end. He had approached Sakura before and all he got in return was a scowl, and that made Naruto sad. But this was good for him because from the next day, Naruto had stopped fawning over Sakura, though he was heartbroken a bit.

He would still look at Sakura from time to time, but he had stopped going after her. This was a huge relief for Rei, and this also proved that the future could be changed. Meanwhile, in class, several students were surprised by Naruto's answer. Rei was just one of the boys for most of the students here. He had a good relationship with most of them and was close to Choji, Shikamaru and Kiba. Iruka smiled faintly at that interaction before glancing toward another paper afterward.

He tried hard to like Naruto, but something in him would stop him from doing so completely. But the content of the paper made him stagger a bit.

"…Rei." Now the class looked curious immediately. Mostly because everyone knew Rei's answers usually became weird whenever philosophy or theory entered the conversation. Iruka quietly reread the answer once more before speaking slowly.

"If the world was ending tomorrow… then humanity would have failed itself. I would like to just stay alone with my time in nature." Iruka continued reading.

"But with so much power, knowledge and resources across nations, if humanity still couldn't stop a disaster or refused to come together to prevent one…" Iruka paused slightly there.

"…then we would deserve to lose." Actual silence this time. Most of the children inside the classroom clearly didn't fully understand what Rei even meant. Some looked confused. Others looked disturbed simply because the answer sounded unusually heavy coming from another child. Even Iruka himself stared toward Rei for a few extra moments afterward. Because honestly… that answer didn't sound like something a child should casually write. Meanwhile Naruto looked toward Rei afterward with visible confusion.

"…That sounds really depressing."

"…Wake up to reality...." Rei replied automatically, making his voice as deep as possible.

"…See?!" Naruto immediately pointed dramatically toward him.

"Old man! I told you he talks weird sometimes!" Rei's response sounded like someone who genuinely believed humanity itself would be responsible for its own downfall. For just a brief moment, Iruka wondered exactly what kind of thoughts existed behind those unusually calm eyes of his student. He needed to talk with the Hokage about this. Rei didn't know that his response would trigger that kind of action from Iruka and even if he knew, Rei wouldn't care.

He didn't have the stats to back up his words, so the village wouldn't care even if he said such deep words. At best they would see him as a very small anomaly, which he already was by befriending Naruto. But little did he know that his response to the question would make the Third Hokage fall into deep thought.