“Iruka-sensei, what’s going on?
Why is everyone outside saying that the Uchiha Clan is gone?
Is…
is Sasuke really okay?” Sakura asked anxiously during class.
“For the past few weeks, we’ve been studying the Ninja Code.
If you truly aspire to become ninja, then you should understand that some matters are not for you to discuss.
What happened to the Uchiha Clan is one of those matters.”
“Of course, Sasuke is your classmate.
I know you’re worried about him—I am too.
But as I’ve already said, he’s fine.
He’ll be back soon,” Iruka replied with a quiet sigh.
“You’re not lying to us, are you, Iruka-sensei?” Sakura asked uncertainly.
“Have I ever lied to any of you?” Iruka asked.
Sakura shook her head.
“Then trust me now as well.
Sasuke is really fine.
Don’t worry.”
Seeing his reassuring smile, Sakura finally calmed down a little, though she still couldn’t completely relax.
Naruto remained slumped over his desk, asleep.
Since there was nothing he could do about the situation, there was no point dwelling on it.
Better to get some rest and continue grinding away at Wind Release: Rasenshuriken training tonight.
Becoming stronger was what truly mattered.
Time flowed on like a quiet stream.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed.
On that day, Naruto finally completed the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
Meanwhile, after enduring two months of helplessness, rage, confusion, grief, pain, and loneliness…
Sasuke finally pulled himself together and returned to the Academy.
“Sasuke-kun!”
The moment Sakura, Ino, and the other girls saw him, they cried out happily.
“Sasuke-kun, are you alright?” Sakura hurried over, seizing the opportunity to express her concern.
But the Sasuke who had experienced unbearable tragedy and vowed to become an avenger answered only with an icy stare.
Cold Sasuke had officially arrived.
Under that frigid gaze, Sakura’s smile instantly froze.
Ino and the other girls, who had been ready to compete with Sakura for his attention, were equally silenced.
Without saying a word, Sasuke looked away and quietly took his seat.
He sat there alone, cold and detached, as though isolated from the entire world.
Naruto, still lying on his desk, looked at Sasuke and understood him completely.
If the same thing had happened to him, he would probably have become even colder.
“Alright, class is starting.
And…
Sasuke, welcome back,” Iruka greeted him warmly once the bell rang.
He then resumed teaching without making an excessive fuss over Sasuke’s return.
At that point, only one week remained before the second-year final examinations.
“Sasuke-kun…
these are my class notes from the last two months.
Here…
you can have them,” Sakura said, finally summoning the courage to offer them.
“I don’t need them.”
With that cold reply, Sasuke walked away, leaving Sakura standing there in disappointment.
A week passed in the blink of an eye.
The final exams began.
Although Sasuke had missed two months of school, his grades hadn’t declined.
Sakura, however, had improved dramatically.
Her written exam scores finally surpassed Sasuke’s, marking the beginning of her path as the class’s academic ace.
Overall, though, Sasuke still ranked first.
Naruto, who deliberately kept a low profile, remained the class’s last-place student.
Another winter vacation arrived.
A cold wind carried a fallen leaf into Naruto’s hand as he stood by the window.
Having completed the Rasenshuriken, he was wondering what to train next when inspiration suddenly struck.
He remembered the legendary martial arts ideal from wuxia novels—reaching a level where even flowers and falling leaves could become deadly weapons.
The image had always fascinated him.
After thinking it over, he immediately decided that this would become his next area of training.
Although this was the ninja world rather than a wuxia world, and he might never perfectly recreate that legendary state…
He had already mastered Wind Release nature transformation.
By coating leaves with wind chakra, he could theoretically achieve the same effect.
The moment he made up his mind, Naruto glanced toward the locations where the ANBU were watching him.
Finding a blind spot in their surveillance, he began experimenting.
Rip!
Rip!
Rip!
The leaf instantly split into several pieces.
“So the challenge is maintaining the leaf’s shape while also making it razor-sharp…
It’s not going to be easy.”
“But that’s exactly what makes it worth doing.”
Thinking of his seemingly endless chakra reserves, Naruto smiled confidently.
“Still…
there’s one problem.
How do I bring leaves into the seal space?
Or…
can I simply manifest them with my spiritual power?”
He frowned thoughtfully.
Besides meditation and entering deep concentration, Naruto had never abandoned visualization training.
The object of his visualization was a carp, and recently it had begun producing surprising results.
As he continued visualizing the fish, he found himself becoming increasingly agile underwater.
His speed kept increasing until he could cut through the water like an actual fish.
“So…
if visualization can do that, maybe I can recreate leaves inside the seal space too.”
With that thought, Naruto carefully examined every detail of the leaf.
He memorized every vein and every tiny pattern.
Then he once again entered the sealed space.
“You brat…
what are you here for this time?” Kurama’s annoyed voice echoed immediately.
“Kurama, why else would I come here?
To train, of course,” Naruto replied with a relaxed smile.
“Hmph.
Training those useless ninjutsu is pointless.
You’d be better off figuring out how to win me over.
Give me a reason, and I’ll lend you enough power to surpass all those techniques.”
“Come on, Kurama.
Don’t exaggerate.
If you were really that unstoppable, you wouldn’t be sealed inside me.”
“Damn brat…
Damn Fourth Hokage…
Damn Hashirama Senju!”
Kurama cursed furiously.
Despite his complaints, however, he remained genuinely curious about Naruto’s training.
The Rasengan was one thing—a technique the Fourth Hokage had developed based on the Tailed Beast Bomb.
But the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken…
That technique had genuinely frightened him.
Its destructive power reminded Kurama of Hashirama’s Thousand-Armed Buddha.
He absolutely did not want to be hit by it.
For an eight-year-old to create such a technique was astonishing.
Because of that, Kurama gradually came to believe everything Naruto had told him before.
After all, a child who already possessed such overwhelming talent and strength still believed he needed Kurama’s power.
That could only mean he expected enemies who stood beyond the level of ordinary ninja.
And there weren’t many powers in the world that surpassed the ninja world itself.
Only the powers connected to the Sage of Six Paths truly fit that description.
By now, Kurama had already accepted Naruto as an ally.
He simply refused to admit it first.
His pride demanded that Naruto ask again.
Unfortunately, this Naruto wasn’t the original Naruto.
He knew Kurama was tsundere, but he never imagined the fox’s pride ran this deep.
Completely devoted to training, he genuinely believed Kurama still didn’t trust him.
Little did he know…
He had already won Kurama over.
Kurama was practically waiting for Naruto to “propose the partnership.”
To show his goodwill, Kurama had even quietly restored Naruto’s ability to sense malicious intent.
Sadly, just as in his previous life, Naruto remained hopelessly oblivious.
Kurama believed he had already made his feelings obvious enough.
When Naruto still failed to respond, the proud Nine-Tails refused to take another step.
And so, without either of them realizing it, what should have been a relationship moving toward each other…
instead became two people quietly existing in peaceful parallel, each unaware of the other’s feelings.
ADD TO COLLECTION.