The next morning, the sun was already high when Naruto woke up. It was the day of the Ninja Academy Graduation Exam, and he felt energized.
After washing up, he realized his old clothes no longer fit. He had grown. A lot.
So, he headed into town to buy new ones.
To his surprise, the shopping trip went smoother than expected. In fact, the store owner—a middle-aged woman—seemed unusually friendly.
"Little brother," she said sweetly, "black shorts go great with a white T-shirt."
She smiled brightly, eyes fixed on Naruto's face.
"If you buy both, I'll give you a 50% discount."
Half off?
Naruto looked at himself in the mirror, gently touching his face. She doesn't even recognize me, he realized.
Being handsome… had its perks.
"Alright," he said politely. "I'll take them. Thank you."
After changing into his new outfit and getting ready to leave, the shopkeeper leaned closer with a flirtatious tone:
"Little brother, come by and visit often, okay?"
[Passive Selection Triggered!]
The friendly shopkeeper didn't recognize you as the troublesome kid from before. She likes the bright, handsome boy standing in front of her. She's inviting you.
What will you do?
[Choice 1 – Stay friendly]: Impatiently tell her she's just an ordinary woman and reject her outright.
Reward: Purity effect (lasts 300 days).
[Choice 2 – Be rational]: Accept her invitation and "discuss life" together in the quiet of night.
Reward: Three Body Technique.
[Choice 3 – Act recklessly]: Accept her invitation, and carry out a seven-day plan to completely conquer her body and soul.
Reward: Perfect Advanced Three Body Technique.
[Choice 4 – Be ruthless]: Say nothing—kill her on the spot.
Reward: Corpse Servant.
Naruto twitched.
This system is crazy.
Option 4? Sociopathic.
Option 3? Even worse—creepy and immoral.
Even Option 1 came with a weird reward. "Purity effect"? What am I, a magical girl?
Sigh... Strange women are dangerous.
Naruto shook his head, pushing the idea aside.
"Well… maybe I'll just go with the friendly route."
With no better option, Naruto Uzumaki picked up his pace and ran ahead, quickly putting distance between himself and the shop.
It was around 8:00 a.m., and most of Konoha's residents were just starting to wake up. That made Naruto the first customer of the day at that clothing shop. Naturally, the shopkeeper—still full of curiosity—peeked out from the doorway to watch him leave.
"Aww, even the way he runs is adorable... such a cute little Shōta."
"…."
After sprinting for a bit, Naruto finally stopped, panting slightly, in front of the Konoha Ninja Academy.
[Ding! You have voluntarily left the target. This is considered forfeiting the selection.][Life is not to be avoided. Please face your future.]
Tch. What a load of crap, Naruto thought. I'll decide what my future looks like, thank you very much.
He grinned. The experiment had been a success. If he didn't want to pick an option from the system, he could just walk away. That, in itself, was a choice too.
Yawning lazily, Naruto pushed open the school gates and strolled inside. He quickly noticed how drastically his improved appearance had changed things.
Especially the girls.
The moment he stepped onto the campus, a small army of curious girls stared openly at his face—unashamed and captivated. Even as they passed by, they couldn't take their eyes off him.
Inside the academy building, small groups of girls were chatting and giggling among themselves. Many stole glances at Naruto, and some even whispered about introducing themselves. The sudden buzz of attention was overwhelming.
Naruto, however, walked on like nothing was happening—humming a little tune to himself as he made his way to his classroom.
"Ugh, this is getting annoying..."
Inside the classroom, Nara Shikamaru was dozing off at his desk when the loud chatter at the door jolted him awake. He blinked and looked toward the commotion, his eyes slowly widening in disbelief.
Standing in the doorway was a group of girls surrounding a boy with bright yellow hair—a boy who looked strangely familiar, yet… completely different.
Is that… Naruto?!
Shikamaru's mouth dropped open. He rubbed his eyes, once, twice, even three times, just to be sure.
Yup. Still there.
"Hey, Choji," he whispered, nudging the chubby boy beside him. "Look over there, quick."
Akimichi Choji, who had just stuffed a chip into his mouth, paused and looked up in the direction of Shikamaru's finger.
"Huh? Isn't that Naruto? What's so special about—wait. What the heck?"
Choji dropped his chip bag as his eyes went wide like saucers.
"This has gotta be genjutsu. I've been cursed. Someone help me—MOM, DAD!"
Unlike Shikamaru and Choji—who were frozen in disbelief—Naruto was already growing annoyed.
The girls surrounding him were talking non-stop, their voices blending into a headache-inducing buzz.
"Naruto, is that really you?!"
"You've changed so much! Did you mutate or something?!"
Nearly every student had turned to stare at Naruto, shocked by his transformation. Among the crowd were Hinata, looking flustered and peeking through her bangs; Sakura, wide-eyed and slack-jawed in the front row; and Ino, who was literally pestering someone nearby about skin-whitening techniques.
Even Kiba Inuzuka stood there, clutching Akamaru, staring as if Naruto had grown a second head.
"No way! Did you secretly learn some powerful transformation jutsu or something? But that can't be—how would a loser like you pull that off?!"
But Naruto wasn't paying attention to any of them.
He had something more important on his mind.
A new set of options had just appeared in front of his eyes.
[Active Selection Triggered!]As graduation nears, you should greet your classmates enthusiastically and confidently. Please make a choice:
[Target 1 – Hinata Hyuga]"Good morning, Hinata-chan! Are you interested in marrying me?"Completion reward: Shadow Clone Jutsu
[Target 2 – Sakura Haruno]"Good morning, Sakura, and your very wide forehead. I'll give you a chance today. If you beg properly, I might accept you as my servant."Completion reward: Substitution Jutsu
[Target 3 – Ino Yamanaka]"Ino-chan, if you give me a private striptease tonight, I'll teach you how to be truly beautiful."Completion reward: Perfect Version of Seduction Technique
[Target 4 – Kiba Inuzuka]"Kiba, I heard your sister is hot. You better introduce her to me... or I'll kill Akamaru and cook him for dinner."Completion reward: Telekinesis
Naruto stood there, scanning the options, completely unfazed by the classroom's shocked murmurs.
God… this system is insane.
The rewards were tempting—some more than others—but the dialogue choices? Absolutely wild.
He rubbed his temples. Choosing a skill came at the cost of saying something completely insane in front of the entire class. Was the trade-off worth it?
He sighed.
Ugh. And I thought popularity would make life easier.