After Kakashi, the three of them fell into a brief silence.
Sakura bit her lip, her brow furrowing slightly as she murmured, “That exercise tomorrow…
can we pass it?”
“That Kakashi-sensei looks eccentric, and he said the passing rate is only one-third…”
“So we need to seize that one-third possibility of passing.” Naruto put away the scroll, preparing to head home.
“As long as we don’t hold each other back.”
Sakura opened her mouth, momentarily not knowing how to respond.
What she originally wanted to say was ‘How did you become so steady’, but the words stopped at the tip of her tongue and she swallowed them back.
The sound of a chair being pushed back came from behind.
“Naruto.” Sasuke stood up, walked over to Naruto’s desk, and asked, “Tomorrow…
do you have any plans?”
Naruto looked into Sasuke’s eyes and could sense that the other person was struggling to maintain that arrogant posture.
But there was no longer that condescending tone from before in his voice.
Instead, it felt more like…
Probing.
“Plans?” Naruto tilted his head.
“Haven’t thought of any yet.”
“But I guess that’survival exercise’ Kakashi-sensei mentioned shouldn’t just be a simple taijutsu battle.”
The corner of Sasuke’s eye twitched slightly: “What do you mean?”
“As long as Kakashi-sensei is willing, he can retrieve our survival exercise scores from the academy at any time…”
Naruto walked slowly along the steps toward the classroom door: “So I guess the hidden purpose of this exercise is definitely something we would subconsciously ignore.”
Sakura stood not far away, watching Naruto’s back as he was about to leave.
It overlapped with the memory of that tail-end ninja who shouted all day about wanting to become the Hokage, then quickly separated.
She suddenly realized something.
Over these past three days, she had constantly been paying attention to Sasuke’s state.
Sasuke’s depression after being defeated, Sasuke proactively talking to Naruto in the morning, and Sasuke sitting silently in the classroom.
But she had never seriously looked at Naruto.
Since when did this blonde-haired boy stop shouting at the top of his lungs when he spoke?
Since when did his gaze become so calm?
By this time, Naruto had already walked to the classroom door.
“If tomorrow’s exercise requires cooperation, I will do what needs to be done.” Naruto said it very softly, but his tone was very serious.
“I won’t hold any of you back.”
Sasuke let out a soft huff, turned around, and walked back to his seat: “I know that even without you telling me.”
Sakura stood in place, looking at Naruto and then at Sasuke’s back, momentarily not knowing what to say.
…
At night, Naruto sat cross-legged on the bed with the Flying Thunder God scroll spread across his knees.
He stared at the dense characters and symbols for a good while, but didn’t really read them in, his eyes somewhat drifting away.
He had actually memorized most of the contents on the scroll, but tonight his mind just couldn’t settle down.
“Hey, Naruto.” The Nine-Tailed’s voice echoed from within his body, “You’ve been tossing and turning thinking about it all night; are you really that afraid of failing tomorrow’s test?”
Naruto was stunned for a moment, then shook his head gently, closed the scroll and put it aside, leaning his body backward with the back of his head resting against the wall.
He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, sank his consciousness down, and entered that dim mental space.
The shallow water beneath his feet trembled slightly, and the Nine-Tailed’s pair of crimson vertical pupils shone in the darkness, watching him.
“It’s not that I’m afraid of failing.” Naruto stood in the center of the water surface, raising his head to meet those eyes, “I’m wondering what Kakashi-sensei is actually trying to do.”
“Hmm?”
Naruto frowned, his voice tinged with confusion: “Not letting us eat breakfast…
gives people the feeling that they are going to experience a very bloody scene.”
“If it were Master…
she should be able to figure out what Kakashi-sensei is plotting right away.”
“You’re starting to think about things over there again.” The Nine-Tailed snorted, its voice deep.
Naruto didn’t deny it, pressing his lips together.
The Nine-Tailed leaned forward a bit: “Anyway, you’d better put your mind back on the Flying Thunder God Technique right now.”
“That way, you’ll have a way to find that person from twelve years ago, as well as…
find the path back to the Magic World.”
Naruto lowered his eyes to look at the water surface beneath his feet, which reflected a small, blurry shadow of himself, and nodded: “I know.”
He raised his head, suddenly thinking of something, and changed the subject: “Speaking of which, I remember the First-Class Mage exam is currently underway, right?
I really want to witness those Mages.”
The Nine-Tailed narrowed its eyes, just about to say something, when it suddenly raised its head abruptly, its vertical pupils sharply contracting.
“Naruto…” The Nine-Tailed’s voice suddenly dropped, carrying a sense of tension, “Wake up quickly.”
“Eh?”
“Don’t dawdle, return to reality immediately!”
Naruto left the mental space, a sense of weightlessness washing over his body, and then he suddenly opened his eyes.
Blue skies, white clouds, and beautiful scenery.
This was the magical city of Äußerst.
“I’m back?” Naruto said in a low voice, his tone tinged with uncertainty.
The Nine-Tailed’s tone was also somewhat dazed: “Looks like it…
How could this be?
Just now we were clearly still in Konoha, and in the blink of an eye…”
“Anyway…
never mind the reason for now.” Naruto turned around, stood on the edge of the roof for a moment, and looked down below, “I want to go see Master first.”
The Nine-Tailed let out a cold snort and didn’t speak again after that.
Without any further delay, Naruto turned and ran toward the stairwell, quickly arriving at the first-floor lobby.
The scene here was completely different from when he left.
A layer of translucent, faintly white-glowing light barrier blocked the entrance of the main door.
Outside the entrance, it was jammed with people, and rows of Mages wearing various colored robes and cloaks were lining up in order.
Everyone walked up to the light barrier, extended their hands to press against it, and as the white light flashed slightly, some were pushed back, while others were able to step forward and cross into the door.
The queue was very long, extending all the way out from the entrance and lining the steps down to the street.
Naruto stood at the hallway entrance, peeked for a moment, then lifted his foot and walked forward, passing through the lobby to reach the hallway.
The hallway was also densely packed with people standing around; a few people stood against the wall conversing in low voices, and some were even holding staves in their hands with nervous expressions.
The surrounding gazes suddenly fell upon him.
First, a few people standing nearby turned to look at Naruto, their eyes showing clear astonishment.
Probably because they didn’t expect a boy who looked only twelve years old to be able to walk in through the outer barrier, and do so nonchalantly with a calm pace.
Naruto ignored those gazes and walked straight to the front door.
A bearded man nearby reached out to block him, his tone somewhat displeased: “Hey, hey, newcomer, you need to line up!”
Naruto paused his steps, not yet opening his mouth to reply.
A staff member standing at the door spoke up first: “This is Lady Serie’s direct disciple, Uzumaki Naruto.”
That man was stunned, his mouth opening, the unfinished sentence stuck in his throat, and he silently pulled his hand back.
The surrounding Mages who were also originally watching the spectacle changed their expressions upon hearing these words.
“Oh…
So he’s Lady Serie’s disciple.”
“No wonder…”
Just at that moment, the door was pushed open.
A young woman wearing a light blue robe walked out from inside the door, crestfallen, and walked straight through the hallway toward the outside.
Naruto turned his head to glance at her, withdrew his gaze, and then stepped across the threshold, entering the inner lobby.
The lobby was much more spacious than outside, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling, casting a soft light downward.
Right in the center, Serie sat on a high-backed chair with one leg crossed over the other, her elbows propped on the armrests and her chin resting on the back of her hand.
Today she was still wearing a loose white outer garment, with her golden hair draped over the sides of her shoulders, her expression calm.
Seeing Naruto suddenly barge in.
Serie narrowed her eyes slightly, the expression of someone who was originally about to say something pausing for a moment, and then she raised an eyebrow lightly.
“Did you learn that magic of ‘guarding the treasury gate to the death’?”
Naruto didn’t pick up on that sentence, instead walking forward quickly and standing still in front of Serie’s chair: “Master, I just went back to Konoha.”
Serie leaned back against the chair back, her fingers tapping gently on the armrest: “Oh?”
“I stayed in Konoha for about three days.” Naruto raised his chin slightly, his speech faster than usual, “Three days later, after I said a few words to that fox inside my body, in the blink of an eye I was back in this world.”
“As for what exactly happened…
I’m not sure.”
Serie put down her crossed legs, leaned her body slightly forward with her elbows propped on her knees, her gaze lingering on Naruto’s face for two seconds, and then said in a steady tone: “Tell me about how these two traversals happened.”
Naruto nodded: “It seems every time it happens when I am talking to that Big Fox in the mental space, after finishing and returning to reality, I suddenly cross over to another world.”
“How exactly it’s triggered…
I can’t quite say, but I always feel it has an inseparable connection to the mental space where that fox resides.”
Serie crossed her hands and placed them on her knees, nodding thoughtfully.
Her gaze lowered to look at the ground for a moment, and then she raised it: “Three months ago you told me about that fox, but I don’t understand the kind of connection between it and you.”
“The Chakra and sealing jutsus of your world…
I am temporarily unable to deduce and analyze them either.”
Naruto nodded gently without pressing further.
Serie leaned back against the chair again, lifting her fingers to wave them: “Anyway, once this batch of First-Class Mage selections is finished, I will specifically carve out time to study this matter concerning you.”
Naruto’s eyes lit up, and he moved two steps to the side, revealing an expectant look: “Then can I watch from the side?”
The corners of Serie’s mouth curved up slightly.
“Suit yourself.”
Naruto grinned, briskly retreating to the side of a pillar on the side of the lobby, finding a spot against the wall to stand, his gaze falling toward the doorway.