Sasuke and Inugami were sitting in the middle rows in front of the classroom’s blackboard, waiting for their classmates and teacher. Sasuke had his fingers steepled in front of his face, trying to look cool. Meanwhile, Inugami, bored out of his mind, was resting his cheek on his right hand, while he impatiently tapped the desk he was seated at, producing a hollow sound that reverberated through the room.

“Hey, Sasuke.” Inugami said, getting an idea.

“Hn?”

“Let’s play a game I came up with. I call it — snag or pass —.” Inugami said, sprouting a self-satisfied smirk.

Sasuke peered at him from the corner of his eye. “Care to explain the rules of your so-called game?” he said, his voice sounding wholly uninterested.

Inugami, unbothered by his lackluster response, moved on to explain it. “Every time a classmate enters, we decide to either snag them for our future team or pass them up. What do you say? Sounds fun, right?”

“Hn!” His eyes shining a bit, Sasuke gave an affirming grunt.

Both suddenly regarded each other with a critical eye and said at the same time.

“Snag.”

“Snag.”

At that, both couldn’t help but laugh with a smug face. But soon they controlled themselves and went back to their poses, silently awaiting their classmates.

After a while the first ones arrived, a gaggle of civilian-born. Safe to say Inugami and Sasuke didn’t even bother to open their mouth, though many of the girls gave them looks that Inugami never wanted to receive from pre-teens.

The next group that trickled in lazily was finally worth talking about. His brother, and a boy, with a remarkable resemblance to a pig, eating chips, and finally a boy that looked he would rather be anywhere else on the planet, with a head shaped like a pineapple.

“Pass on my brother and Choji, and a reluctant snag for Shikamaru.” Said Inugami, his voice interjecting the previous silence between them.

Sasuke looked at him in disbelief. “That’s a triple pass for me. I mean really Inugami… Shikamaru? He will probably sleep during the missions and get you killed. What are you thinking?”

Inugami couldn’t help but grunt in agreement, his eyes trailing the three troublemakers. “Yes, his lazy attitude would probably drive me up the wall sooner than later, and he is also weak. — But — I heard that he and the rest of his clan are super smart, so he will be useful at least.”

Slowly, Sasuke gave him a slow, understanding nod, as the three walked past them and took their seats in the last row, though his face still held skepticism.

Not long after, another classmate arrived. Though after he saw the brown-haired girl with hazel eyes, his face quickly fell back to boredom.

“Pass!” Sasuke quickly said, for obvious reasons.

“Snag, I guess. She has an unproblematic personality, and is not that bad skill-wise. Lame, but not a bad addition.” Inugami spoke in indifference, having a hard time mustering any enthusiasm.

The girl in question was Tamaki, the granddaughter of the Granny Cat, who in this time-line, already lived in Konoha and decided to become a Ninja.

Though while Inugami couldn’t care less about her, his brother was a different matter. He perked up the moment he saw her entering, but deflated instantly as he saw her approaching Sasuke with a gaze filled with adoration.

“Hey Sasuke.” She greeted the stoic Uchiha, her eyelashes fluttering.

“Hn.”

At that, her cheeks glowed red and a brilliant smile grazed her lips. “Oh, you are so sweet Sasuke!” Giggling foolishly, she passed them to sit with one of her civilian-born friends.

“Damn you Uchiha!” Inugami could hear Kiba cursing behind him.

Though the next arrival promptly took his attention from his seething brother. Blond hair, blue eyes that were twinkling with mischief, and a dopey grin on his face. Naruto Uzumaki made his way to the last row energetically, seemingly eager to pass today’s exam.

“Snag.” Sasuke’s answer was brisk.

“Pass.”

“What!?” Now Sasuke couldn’t help but goggle at him. “You have to be joking. While Naruto is the most annoying person I’ve ever met, he is nonetheless very strong.”

Inugami’s mien turned complicated. Yes, Naruto was strong, especially in this time-line where he was far from being the dead-last. While still not the smartest, he was still way smarter than his anime counterpart. He was also damn impressive in taijutsu, being impossible to outlast, getting always up no matter how many times you knock him down. In fact, the only way Inugami and Sasuke were beating him in spars was the sizeable gap in technique and speed between them, making them able to kick him out of the ring. After all, nobody bothered to teach Naruto any taijutsu-style, or anything at all. On top of of that, he was pretty decent at ninjutsu and Inugami was sure that he won’t fail the clone jutsu this time around.

Yes, Naruto Uzumaki was someone you would prefer as a teammate. But Inugami didn’t trust the kid.

Maybe because the difference between him and his anime counterpart was so jarring, maybe it was the fake smiles he often wore, or maybe it was some special Inuzuka senses that were warning him, but whatever the reason was, Naruto just weirded him out.

Inugami inwardly shook his head. He was starting to sound like Tsume!

“Whatever.” Inugami replied.

Sasuke frowned but let it go, his focus jumping to the mousy girl that just entered.

‘Another victim of the butterfly wings,’ Inugami mused. Hinata Hyūga was, frankly, a mess. Seemingly without Naruto helping her against bullies this time around, the timid girl never had a sun shining in her gloomy days. Looking always jumpy and depressed, Inugami never saw the friendless girl smile. Her issues were so bad that she was constantly at the bottom of their class.

Inugami inwardly whistled. ‘Those Hyūga bastards really did a number on her.’

Though while Hinata earned his pity, he never lifted a finger to help her. Why should he? For Inugami this wasn’t an anime anymore, it was a real world, with real people, and real dangers. All his energy went to him trying to survive this treacherous world. And while she will probably die a premature death at this rate, Inugami had no time and motivation to help Hinata out. It was unfortunate, but life was rarely fair.

Of course Inugami could have gone the degenerate route, like many reincarnators from the stories he read in his last life, and played the knight in shining armor for the vulnerable girl and groomed her into his harem. But Inugami was neither a scumbag nor a pedophile, so he let her be.

‘A harem…’. — Ha — what a ridiculous notion. He knew that being an exceptional ninja or having a rare, or new, bloodline limit, gave you the right to have multiple wives and grow (or regrow) your own clan. Though it was non-compulsory, the higher-ups heavily encouraged it. They were always happy to bolster their ranks with powerful soldiers, after all. But Inugami always balked at the thought of handling so many women. I mean, he wasn’t planning to even have one wife, let alone a bunch of them. He had only time for his grind and nothing else. No, despite him being a reincarnator, Inugami was sure that he would never get a harem.

Hinata, after realizing that she was catching the eyes of the most popular boys in the academy, promptly halted in her tracks. Looking panicked, she tried to hide in her cream-colored jacket, that looked too thick for the weather in the land of fire, and trained her eyes on the ground.

Both Sasuke and Inugami snorted at that.

“Pass.”

“Pass.”

Suddenly, Hinata’s squeak was heard throughout the room as someone rudely pushed her away. Someone that made Inugami’s face sour.