At night, Sasuke lay in his room alone, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Naruto’s words made it hard for him to fall asleep.
He also knew that training couldn’t be rushed, but the more he realized this, the more anxious he became, falling into a vicious cycle.
He got out of bed, put on his shoes, and went to his usual training ground.
To his surprise, he found that Naruto was actually there too.
“Yo, you’re finally here?” Naruto turned around and waved at Sasuke.
“What are you doing?” Sasuke looked at Naruto, who was wearing a skin-tight suit, holding his sword, and staring at him.
“I knew what I said today would definitely make you overthink things.
That’s your problem—you’re always overthinking and getting yourself stuck in a dead end.
So, I plan to give you a goal.” Naruto stretched his body and gestured for Sasuke to come over.
“What goal?” Sasuke also drew his sword from his waist, spun it around, and took an offensive stance.
“The Mangekyo Sharingan.” As Naruto’s voice fell, he transformed into a bolt of lightning, instantly appearing in front of Sasuke.
The power bursting from his long sword sent Sasuke flying back.
“How do you know about that?” Sasuke didn’t counterattack immediately after landing.
That single strike had completely numbed his entire arm, with a force several times more terrifying than Sakura’s.
“What do you think?” Naruto said, pointing to his stomach.
Meanwhile, inside the Sealing Space, Naruto’s Shadow Clone was already voluntarily preparing a feast for the fox.
“So?
Do you have a way to help me awaken it?” Sasuke, recovering his breath, rotated his wrist and looked at Naruto with a serious expression.
“Not for now, but I have some ideas.
Want to hear them?” Naruto took a defensive stance, signaling Sasuke to attack.
“Let’s hear it.” Seeing Naruto’s stance, Sasuke didn’t hold back.
With a swing of his long sword, a massive fireball appeared at the tip.
He then pressed it down, sending the fireball hurtling straight toward Naruto.
“The Uchiha’s Sharingan requires intense emotional fluctuations to awaken—anger, hatred, love, and so on.
As long as the emotion is intense enough, it can be awakened.
But you happen to be an outlier.
Your mind is too strong, which is why the death of your entire clan only allowed you to awaken a single tomoe.
If anyone else had faced that situation, they would have gone mad long ago.” Facing the fireball, Naruto calmly slashed his sword upward.
A pillar of mud, a mixture of water and earth, shot into the sky, crashing directly into the fireball and causing a violent explosion.
“So?
Is that a compliment or an insult?” Using the explosion as cover, Sasuke charged straight into the center of the blast, instantly appearing before Naruto and slashing down with his sword.
“Just take it as a compliment.
The reason you couldn’t use the Sharingan afterward was first because your body was too weak, and second because your mind was still that of a normal person, not warped by hatred.
If I hadn’t fed you so much food, you might not have been able to awaken it again even if you were beaten to death that day,” Naruto said as he clashed with Sasuke.
“So physical fitness is also a factor?” Sasuke dodged Naruto’s slash and immediately threw several shuriken.
“You could say that, but the key is still the burst of emotion.” Naruto knocked down all the shuriken and then unleashed three wind blades.
“But when I awakened my second and third tomoe, I didn’t have much of an emotional outburst either.” Lightning flickered beneath Sasuke’s feet, and with a swing of his long sword, he dispersed the wind blades.
“No duh, how much food had I fed you by then?
Your physical fitness far exceeded that of your peers, and your Ocular Power was practically overflowing back then.
Hinata told me that something kept seeping out of your eyes, which is why I chose to stimulate you.
The result was obvious; the awakening went very smoothly.” A fireball identical to the one Sasuke had created earlier erupted from Naruto’s sword, and he hurled it toward Sasuke.
“So you plan to stimulate me now too?” Sasuke lowered his body, lightning coating his sword.
With a sudden thrust forward, he pierced straight through the fireball, the tip of his blade pointing directly at Naruto’s chest.
“No, I plan to die for a bit.” Naruto sheathed his sword, opened his arms, and welcomed Sasuke’s strike.
With a squelch, the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang in Sasuke’s ears.
This strike cleanly ran through Naruto’s chest.
“Are you out of your mind?!
Why didn’t you dodge?!” Sasuke’s pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
He went completely numb, letting go of the sword and shouting at Naruto.
“Pfft, cough, cough…
Didn’t…
didn’t I tell you?
I…
I plan to…
die…
die for a bit…” Naruto spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, swayed twice, and fell straight backward.
As Naruto hit the ground, the long sword in his chest caused secondary damage, and a large amount of blood instantly gushed from his chest.
“Naruto!!!” Only now did Sasuke realize something was terribly wrong.
He let out a loud cry and rushed to Naruto’s side. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
“Naruto!
Naruto!!
Don’t scare me!
Tell me this is a joke, right?
Tell me!
Tell me!
Say something!
Naruto!!!” Looking at the gaping wound on Naruto’s chest that was still gushing blood, Sasuke broke down completely, utterly lost on what to do.
However, Naruto’s eyes had already begun to lose their luster.
Blood and foam kept spilling from his mouth, and he no longer had the strength to speak.
“Naruto, don’t die.
Please, don’t die, Naruto!
Naruto!!”
Meanwhile, inside the Sealing Space.
“Emmm, kid, don’t you think you’re going a bit too far?” Kurama looked at Sasuke sobbing in despair over Naruto’s body outside, his face twisted in exasperation.
“Uh, well, I actually want to say that I didn’t plan to make myself look this pathetic.
Do you believe me?” Naruto scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“…Just keep playing with fire.
Don’t blame me when you get beaten up later.” The Nine-Tails glanced at Naruto, then chugged the cola in his cup, letting out a satisfied burp.
“By the way, Kurama, my body is in this state.
Is it really okay?
I won’t actually end up dead, right?” Naruto felt that something was off, which made him panic a bit.
“Don’t worry, with this old man here, you won’t die.” The Nine-Tails continued eating meat very calmly.
“Um, Kurama, have you noticed that it seems to be getting darker and darker around here?” Naruto looked around, swallowed hard, his voice trembling slightly.
Hearing Naruto’s words, the Nine-Tails froze.
He raised his head to look around, and a bead of sweat the size of a bean suddenly appeared on his round forehead.
“Fox, fox, say something!
Don’t scare me!” Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails, his voice trembling on the verge of tears.
“Sh-Shut up, this old man…
this old man is thinking.” The Nine-Tails was also panicking now.
According to his original plan, a stab wound on Naruto could easily be healed.
But now, he realized his Chakra wasn’t working at all—or rather, the effect was so weak that it was completely insufficient to save Naruto’s life in this situation.
Just as he was frantically trying to think of a solution, he suddenly saw the sword in Naruto’s chest.
“Oh no, the residual Chakra on that sword is still destroying your cells.
If we don’t pull it out quickly, even this old man won’t be able to do anything.” The Nine-Tails scratched his head in frustration, extremely anxious.
“What?
Your Chakra has this kind of limitation?!
How come I’ve never heard of this?” Naruto’s eyes widened as he stared at the Nine-Tails, his eyes filled with suspicion.
“Isn’t this all your fault?” The fox glared at Naruto and said testily.
“What does this have to do with me?
Don’t go shifting the blame onto me!” Naruto pointed at the fox and roared.
“It’s because of that Breathing Style you created!
Its destructive power is more than a grade higher than ordinary Chakra.
The amount of Chakra this old man used to heal your body before was several times what it takes for normal injuries!” The fox’s temper flared up as well, slamming the floor and roaring at Naruto.
“Bullshit!
If it’s really that powerful, how could I not beat that salted fish Kakashi!” Naruto jumped in anger, pointing at the fox’s nose and cursing.
“Can you two stop arguing and think of a way quickly?
I feel like I’m getting weaker and weaker.” The Shadow Clones, who were originally cooking for the fox, were now lying on the ground, unable to move.
In the outside world, Sasuke suddenly felt an intense, piercing pain in his eyes.
A strange power was gathering toward them.
Tears of blood flowed from his eyes.
The tomoe in his eyes began to spin and merge, finally forming a bizarre pattern that somewhat resembled a clock, but without the markings.
“Ame-no-Minakanushi!” An icy voice escaped Sasuke’s mouth.
Immediately, a strange ripple appeared around Naruto’s body.
Immediately after, Naruto’s body seemed to have its rewind button pressed.
The blood flowed back into his body, the wound began to heal, and his entire body stood straight up from the ground, with the sword in his chest slowly pulling itself out.
Inside the Sealing Space, Naruto, the Nine-Tails, and the Shadow Clones all seemed to enter a rewind mode.
Especially the Nine-Tails—the food he had eaten and the drinks he had chugged flew back out of his mouth, landing back onto the plates and into the cups.
However, during this rewind process, their consciousnesses remained clear.
However, just as the sword was halfway out, Sasuke collapsed straight to the ground, his eyes rolling back, foaming at the mouth, completely unconscious.
The moment the rewind stopped, Naruto returned to the outside world to take control of his body and immediately pulled the long sword out.
“Kurama, heal me quickly!” Naruto shouted in his mind.
He immediately ran over to Sasuke, checked his breathing, and finding that he was still alive, immediately carried him on his back and sprinted toward the Konoha Hospital.
“An overexertion of mental energy and Chakra.
He needs to rest for about a week.
I’ll give him some treatment and put him on an IV drip, and he should basically recover,” the attending physician said to Naruto, pushing up his glasses.
“Alright, thank you, Doctor.
Sorry for the trouble.” Naruto bowed politely in gratitude.
“You must progress step-by-step during your usual training.
Don’t let this kind of situation where you train yourself to exhaustion happen again, otherwise it will damage your lifespan.” The doctor’s voice was very serious.
These two were the future of Konoha handpicked by Lord Third; they couldn’t be allowed to die young.
“Yes, I’ll definitely be careful next time.” Naruto bowed again in thanks, then took the bill to pay.
The price made his teeth ache, but there was nothing he could do.
Sasuke ended up like this entirely because of him, so he could only grit his teeth and bear it.
“Kurama, maybe I should just open a restaurant,” Naruto said, lying on the fox’s stomach, his entire being looking completely washed out.
“…If you’re not afraid of that old man, Lord Third, giving you a beating, you can try.” The fox glanced at Naruto speechlessly while continuously cleaning the plates and cups with water.
That rewind earlier had completely grossed him out.
Even though the food had returned to its original state, he still chose to have Naruto’s clones clean it up, and had even asked them for quite a few buckets of water to start washing the plates and cups.
“Sigh, I’m so poor.
Oh, right, how about going to the black market to take on bounty missions?” Naruto’s eyes lit up, and he sat up to look at the Nine-Tails.
“…You just can’t feel comfortable without causing some trouble, can you?
That place is full of rogue ninja.
You, a Jinchuriki, going there to take on missions—what, do you want to become a rogue ninja too?” Although the Nine-Tails was used to Naruto’s antics, this ridiculous idea of going to the black market to take on missions lowered his estimation of Naruto’s bottom line by yet another grade.
“A rogue ninja?
That’s not out of the question.” Naruto rubbed his chin, seriously considering the idea.
“Are you crazy?
Do you know how many people hunt down rogue ninja?
Plus, you’re a Jinchuriki.
Konoha would probably mobilize everyone to hunt you down.
Do you really want to die?” The Nine-Tails sat up in shock, looking at him with utter disbelief.
“Don’t I have you?
Besides, being enemies with the entire Ninja World—just thinking about it is thrilling.” Naruto’s eyes were full of little stars.
Clearly, he was genuinely starting to ponder this plan.
Seeing this, the Nine-Tails knew things were going south.
In truth, he didn’t care whether Naruto became a rogue ninja or not.
But once Naruto became one, it would mean endless pursuit.
Combined with his status as a Jinchuriki, it wouldn’t be a minor scuffle like with ordinary rogue ninja; Ninja from other nations would definitely get involved as well.
Right now, this kid was still too weak, so becoming a rogue ninja wasn’t worth it.
Most importantly, if the kid had to deal with pursuits every day, he’d lose half his life, and his own food supply would be gone.
Thinking of this, the fox immediately spoke up: “If you become a rogue ninja, what about your two little girlfriends?”
“Huh?
Where did I get two little girlfriends?
Isn’t Hinata my only wife?” Naruto scratched his head, looking at the Nine-Tails in confusion.
“Heh.” The fox suddenly wore a look of utter disdain, leaving Naruto completely dumbfounded.
“Wait, make yourself clear.
I, Uzumaki Naruto, walk straight and act upright.
Aside from Hinata, where on earth do I have a second girlfriend?” Naruto was in no mood to think about being a rogue ninja now.
This was a matter of his reputation, and he had to hash it out with the fox.
“Heh.” The fox merely responded with another look of disdain, and went back to cleaning the tableware.
“Kurama, you want to fight, don’t you?!”
“Bring it!
Whoever chickens out is a coward!”
In an instant, an earth-shattering battle broke out inside the Sealing Space.
Except for the sealing gate, almost everything Naruto had decorated was completely trashed.
In the end, the battle concluded with the fox performing a body slam, pinning Naruto beneath his butt.
As for the matter of becoming a rogue ninja, it had been completely forgotten by Naruto.
Today was Kurama’s victory—twice.
…..
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