Naruto's First Target

"Thousand Jin Embrace."

Naruto roared, and the muscles in his arms instantly knotted and bulged, tendons standing out like the roots of an ancient tree. With a leaping step that whipped up a gust of wind, he wrapped his arms around the tree before him and squeezed with all his might.

"Crack... Riiip..."

First, a layer of dry bark was crushed apart beneath his embrace, powder sprinkling down. Then the fibers of the trunk were compressed by the immense force, producing tearing sounds as they snapped.

"Ah!"

Naruto let out a low roar. Power surged from his feet, and with a bang, his calves swelled by a full size, followed by his thighs, waist, chest, back, and finally his arms. Wherever the force reached, the muscles swelled by another degree.

"Crack..."

"Boom..."

"Crash..."

Naruto leaped backward and let out a long breath. The tree had been snapped in half by his embrace and crashed to the ground, its leaves striking the earth in a string of rustling sounds.

After practicing Thousand Jin Embrace for over ten days, he had finally managed to snap a cedar tree in one go.

However, trees were ultimately dead targets. They would not move, nor would they run away.

But the opponents he would face in the future would be people. People could run away. Without swift reaction speed, Thousand Jin Embrace would be useless against an enemy.

So, his practice with dead targets was complete. Next came live targets.

"Baa..."

A Goat passed in front of Naruto, gave him a proud glance, then scampered away.

That was right. The live targets for practicing Thousand Jin Embrace would be these Goats. They lived in the mountains year-round and could hop around even on rocky, uneven ground, making them extremely nimble. They were simply perfect as live practice targets.

"Grrr..."

His stomach rumbled again.

Naruto hurriedly released his body. Keeping all his muscles tensed and swollen consumed far too much energy.

Now that he had reached the fifth form of Indestructible Body, Naruto's daily expenditure of vital energy and blood was enormous. Every day, he needed to eat a third of a cow just to fully replenish what he had consumed.

One could imagine that once he trained Indestructible Body to the beginner level, he would truly be eating an entire cow a day.

Right, those bulls had not seemed very interested in making calves these past few days. Later, he would try the method he had read about in a book last night and get the herd breeding and expanding quickly.

Only then would it be able to keep up with his future training needs.

When he arrived at the temporary wooden cabin, Naruto found that since he was raising livestock on the Back Mountain, he had simply built a basic cabin here. Kurama had even specially set up a kitchen, moving all the kitchen utensils over.

When Naruto arrived, Kurama was stir-frying beef with wild chili peppers. Since Kurama had become so tiny, he naturally could not reach the stove, so he had moved over a stool and was standing on tiptoe atop it while cooking.

Dressed in chef's whites, a chef's hat, and an apron, he tossed the wok with his left hand and held a ladle in his right. At first glance, he really did have the air of a Five-Star Chef from a luxury hotel.

Hearing Naruto's footsteps, Kurama tossed the wok. The beef landed in the ladle, and he plated it before turning around. "It's Naruto. Perfect, the food is all ready."

"Thanks for your hard work, Kurama," Naruto said sincerely.

He truly had not expected the Nine-Tails to be so intelligent and such a quick learner. In barely over ten days, Kurama had been able to perfectly recreate the dishes from a cookbook titled "Become a Five-Star Chef in One Month."

What was more, some dishes had been improved by Kurama and had become even more delicious.

At the dining table, Naruto saw it was covered with dishes.

There was stir-fried beef tripe, boiled beef, braised beef, radish beef brisket stew, beef meatballs, beef Miso Soup, roasted beef leg, and steak with sauce. The portions were huge and filling, the nutrition abundant—more than enough to replenish Naruto's expenditure.

Still wearing his apron, Kurama brought a large bowl of wild chili beef to the table. He sat down as well, picked up his knife and fork, and said, "Let's eat, Naruto."

Hearing that, Naruto picked up his own knife and fork and said reverently, "Then I'll dig in, Kurama. Thank you for working so hard to cook for me."

After saying that, Naruto speared a beef meatball. Unexpectedly, he failed to secure it properly. With a thunk, it fell onto the table, bounced more than a meter into the air, then landed on the floor and bounced a few more times.

Having lived alone since childhood, Naruto deeply understood the importance of food and had always considered wasting it shameful. Besides, if food was picked up within three minutes of falling on the ground and blown clean, it was still edible.

Thus, Naruto picked up the beef meatball, blew the dirt off its surface, and put it into his mouth. As he chewed, he revealed a satisfied expression. "Mm, it's really springy, and it tastes amazing too."

After trying the other dishes, Naruto generously raised his thumb at Kurama. "Kurama, I apologize for saying before that you could not cook. I'm sorry, Kurama. Your cooking is really incredible..."

Seeing Naruto apologize so sincerely, Kurama turned his head away and stammered, "Hmph, this old man doesn't care about your apology..."

He said that, but why did his heart feel so warm?

"Well, whether Kurama accepts my apology or not, I still have to apologize. That's my principle in life. Now that I've apologized, I'm officially going to start eating." Naruto said with a brilliant smile.

The dishes on the table vanished into Naruto at a speed visible to the naked eye. Practicing Indestructible Body consumed tremendous energy, but it had also given him an astonishing stomach. Food did not even need to be chewed thoroughly; once it reached his stomach, it could rapidly be converted into the energy his body required.

After the meal, Kurama went to clean up the dishes, while Naruto took advantage of the break to head over to the cattle herd.

The cattle had already eaten their fill and were lying beneath the trees to cool off. Mosquitoes occasionally landed on their bodies, and their tails swished back and forth, driving the insects away.

Naruto walked straight up to the bulls. They too were resting beneath the trees, their eyes bright and clear, obviously in excellent health. With bodies that healthy, why were they not hurrying up and producing offspring?

Naruto felt that perhaps the carefree life they had led since arriving at the Back Mountain was the cause.

Thinking this, Naruto pulled out a book titled "Konoha is Hot: Mother Cow Edition." This was the magical tool for promoting the herd's reproduction, written by a veteran Konoha ninja.

It was said that he had also written a book called "Paradise of Intimacy," but it had been stolen on the day it was completed, becoming the regret of his life.

Naruto opened the book and saw page after page of colored illustrations depicting sturdy cows posing in alluring ways.

Naruto opened the book in front of a bull's eyes.

Very soon, the bull began breathing heavily, stood up, and walked behind a cow...

One after another, they all followed suit.

Satisfied, Naruto left the herd and headed for his training ground to continue cultivating.

Along the way, the system asked:

"Naruto, once Indestructible Body reaches the beginner level, you can go make friends. Start with your classmates. Have you decided who you want as your first friend?"

Naruto had long considered that question. Now that it had been brought up, a figure instantly appeared in his mind...

The one with the best grades in the class, the coldest demeanor, and the most popularity...

Uchiha...

Sasuke...

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