COTE x Naruto: New Beginnings

Chapter 15: Summer Holidays! (Or not?)

Kakashi was surprised by the sheer luxury of the cruise ship the school had reserved for them.

The school clearly didn't cut corners when it came to molding the future generation of workers for Japan. However, this luxury would no doubt also come with a huge 'but'.

Something was definitely going to happen this summer - he doubted the school would spend so much on them otherwise. Most likely, the school would find some way to test its students again as well as teach them some valuable lessons.

He didn't care about the class points that would involve however. Class A was more than safe and this was precisely the time they should spend sorting their class out. Namely, it would be time for the Sakayanagi faction to rise and change Class A's dynamics completely, and once Arisu was the class representative, any future class skirmishes would be more fun.

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After the Sudo case was over, the class fell into a sense of calm once more. They received 7,800 private points, which wasn't much but was enough for the completely pointless students to buy something.

Sakura currently had a little over 12,000 private points, which was good enough to eat food other than the vegetable meals, although Sakura decided not to spend them on that anyway. She was saving up in case of an emergency, and she wouldn't let herself thoughtlessly spend them again.

Almost 4 months have passed since the beginning of the school year. Almost a month since the Sudo case and about two weeks since her fake date with Hatake.

Tomorrow, the first year classes would be leaving for the holidays - the school had been generous and prepared a cruise ship for them - and they would be headed to a tropical island for the holidays, or so the rumors claimed.

It really sounded like the school was spending a lot for the Summer holidays. It felt a little strange - would there be a catch? She didn't know what to expect. After the 100,000 private points trickery, she felt on guard.

Soon enough though, the four first-year classes were boarding the luxurious cruise the school prepared for them. Not a single person expected how luxurious and spacious the ship would be - there were restaurants, a theater, spa - Sakura had never seen so much luxury in her life.

"This is awesome! I'm totally going to enjoy it here," gushed one of her classmates.

"Agreed! Best holidays ever!" Maya exclaimed.

Sakura hated to be the one to spoil the fun, but this looked too convenient.

"You don't look that happy, is the cruise not luxurious enough for you?" A sarcastic drawl came from her left side, prompting her to turn around.

"Oh? Hatake, hey," she greeted him awkwardly. They haven't spoken since date incident, although maybe that was for best. Realizing he'd asked a question, she decided to share her worries with him at least since all of her classmates seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"No, the ship is great... It just feels like a bit of a waste on the school's side. I feel like there's more going on for the school to spend so much..." she shared.

"You're beginning to catch up to the workings of this school finally, it's about time," Hatake replied, shocking her with his honesty.

"Ah? So you also think the school will do something?" She wondered.

He nodded. "Yes, definitely. The question is how it'll affect the class rankings," at that, he appeared thoughtful. "Who knows, maybe Class A won't come on top after all," he mused, before eye-smiling and raising his hand in a wave.