Naruto: Freeloading is Great! 2 [19]

According to the known intel, Hoshino had a hunch—

If Bear-sensei saw another team, he’d probably switch targets, leaving them safe.

Even if it was just a guess, how would they know without testing it out?

So this time, Hoshino didn't bother forcing Gorilla Sakura and Naruto to run away separately.

As luck—or bad luck—would have it, while fleeing toward the path where he'd last seen other people, Hoshino caught sight of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio.

“Run!”

The moment he saw Hoshino’s delighted expression from afar, Shikamaru—already dressed in the humiliating white [Trash] shirt—immediately shouted.

Although Chōji obediently listened, unfortunately their team had an Ino.

“Oh my god! Sasuke, why are you taking off your clothes? They're just a little dirty, don't—don’t take off your pants too! Wah!! It's huge!!”

Seeing Hoshino turn back and shout something behind him, Ino’s eyes instantly lit up, and she rushed over eagerly.

“Where is he? Where's Sasuke stripping!?”

“Ino-pig, come back! It’s a trap!”

Though Shikamaru tried to stop her, it was too late—Ino had already reached Hoshino and stepped right into Bear-sensei’s line of sight.

Grateful for Ino’s cooperation, Hoshino patted her shoulder appreciatively.

“Ino, hang in there and survive~”

“Huh? Why—Aaah! The bear’s here!”

As Hoshino stood there casually talking, no longer bothering to run, Bear-sensei quickly changed targets and chased after Ino instead.

Hoshino didn’t feel the slightest guilt dumping the danger onto Ino—just repaying a favor.

The first time Bear-sensei chased after them, Hoshino had wondered why Bear-sensei wouldn’t stop pestering their dead-last team. After gathering some intel from the previously "dead" teams, he strongly suspected the teachers had rules to follow as well.

Though he didn’t know the exact details, they probably had to abandon their current prey once they spotted a new team.

Why did he think this way? Heh…

This garbage school really spared no effort in tormenting its students, even deliberately creating rules to make classmates sabotage each other. The level of depravity was horrifying.

As luck would have it, Hoshino ran into the Ino–Shika–Chō team—the ones who'd cost him ten fake “explosive tags”—saving him the trouble of chasing down another team.

Seeing Bear-sensei suddenly shift his target to the screaming Shikamaru trio ("Ino, you pig teammate!"), Naruto instantly relaxed.

“Why’d the teacher suddenly stop attacking us?”

“You're such an idiot that explaining it would be exhausting. Figure it out yourself.”

After replying to Naruto’s question, Hoshino overheard a certain gorilla muttering something horrible to himself.

“That teacher has no manly spirit at all, leaving me waiting in vain to get splattered with shit… Next time, if another chance comes up, I'll pretend I sprained my leg and face the shit-throwing teachers alone…Yes!”

Holy shit, this gaylord gorilla enthusiastically nodding to himself was so disgusting! Hoshino wanted to kick him right off the mountain!

But if someone wanted to willingly sacrifice himself so Hoshino could escape…

Hoshino put on his most dazzling smile and gave Sakura a thumbs-up.

“I wholeheartedly support your idea! Permission granted!”

As soon as Hoshino finished speaking, Naruto immediately mimicked his gesture and gave Sakura a thumbs-up as well.

“…I support you too! I approve with both hands!”

“Brat, how can you be so clueless about everything else yet learn to betray teammates so quickly…?”

“Hehe… Really? Don’t suddenly praise me like that, it’s embarrassing… Actually, I just learned it from watching you, Hoshino. It’s nothing special, not as impressive as you think.”

Hoshino stared silently at Naruto’s shy, happy expression.

What the hell…? Did I accidentally corrupt this child?

If this brat becomes like this, who’ll save the world in the future…?

Time passed little by little, and the dead-last team saw many teams forced to restart after getting "killed."

The second stage wasn’t noteworthy—it was just filled with various traps designed to cover anyone unlucky enough in pig shit.

Although the traps were hidden cleverly, don’t forget—the dead-last team included two wild barbarians.

These two barbarians, in order to improve their daily meals, frequently visited the library to research edible wild plants and regularly set crude traps to catch small animals.

“Brat, this trap is made of metal again. Do you think I should…?”

“Take it! You must take it! But…maybe you should carry this one, Hoshino. My ninja pouch is full.”

“How can it be full?! Just give me all the kunai in your ninja pouch, then you’ll have room for more traps. Or… just find some rope and tie it on your back.”

“I refuse to carry it openly! If it’s not in a ninja pouch with ninjutsu storage space, it’ll be really heavy and slow me down when I need to escape danger.”

Both of their ninja pouches were already stuffed full. They really couldn’t cram in any more of these ill-gotten gains.

Thus, they began arguing over who should take this hunting trap.

Unfortunately, before their argument could end, the teacher responsible for resetting and relocating traps—deliberately trying to sabotage the students—finally snapped and jumped out from the bushes, breaking the rules.

“You three! Are you here for the test or to steal school property!? If you dare to sneak any more of the school’s traps into your pouches, I’ll beat you to death! Hurry up and move on to stage three!!”

“Uh… Sensei, don’t be so stingy. We’re just poor, unfortunate students. During the first stage, you teachers made us lose ten kunai and ten explosive tags, so we’re just trying to make up for our losses… This is the last one, really. We’ll leave immediately after taking this!”

After finishing, Hoshino gently kicked Naruto’s leg, signaling her to quickly grab the trap.

But before Naruto resigned herself to move, Trap-sensei roared furiously and rushed toward them.

“You silver-haired brat! We already know about you tricking people with those ten fake explosive tags! You’ve already stolen seven metal traps along the way—isn’t that enough!? You still want compensation? Fine! Here, have ten kunai on me right now!!”

Swish, swish—!

Two kunai immediately flew toward Hoshino and Naruto’s feet.

“W-we’re sorry! We won’t take it! Goodbye, sensei!” ×2

Both of them awkwardly dodged the flying kunai, frantically apologized, then fled a few steps—only to realize…

“I-is it coming? Is the chūnin’s attack really coming…? Come on, sensei! Hit me with all your strength! Don’t worry about hurting me—injuries are even better! Ah… Aaahhh… Sensei, hurry up and fight me! Beat me black and blue, make me feel incredible… incredible… Sensei!! Show your manly backbone!!”

“I…I can’t do something like that… Student, hurry up and run. You can still escape if you run now…”

“I won’t run! I’m a real man—I’ll fight until death!!”

Although Gorilla Sakura’s shouting was brimming with heroic masculinity, seeing his flushed face, labored breathing, and eyes filled with twisted anticipation…

He looked nothing but like a total pervert!

Trap-sensei initially thought those two trap-stealing brats would be the biggest headache, but now…

Fortunately, Captain Hoshino quickly returned and punched Sakura hard in the head.

“You perverted gaylord, stop acting out at times like this! Hurry up and go! Can’t you see this garbage teacher is seriously troubled!?”

“My dear, stop pulling me away! Sensei—! Sensei, please come and beat me senseless! Sensei—!!!”

Trap-sensei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Although he’d been cursed out by Hoshino’s foul mouth, he still sincerely wanted to say:

“Thank you, silver-haired brat…”

---

T/N: Sakura is forever cooked

This is a fan translation of 火影之软饭真好吃 by 肾亏能力者 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!