Sasuke's Change

At five the next morning, Wu Liang, Naruto, and Little Lee met up at the village entrance on time. But when they arrived, they saw Sasuke standing there alone, shivering. It was autumn, and mornings and evenings were fairly cold. Wu Liang suddenly remembered what he had told Sasuke yesterday—he had told him to wait at the village entrance at four. Surely this dummy hadn't really been waiting there since four?

Sasuke, who had been standing at the village entrance in the cold wind, saw Wu Liang and the others appear on the street. He immediately ran over, shivering as he angrily said to Wu Liang, "You bastard, you tricked me again! You made me wait here like an idiot for an hour! It's freezing, okay?"

"Hey, hey, hey, isn't this the stuck-up Uchiha Sasuke? What are you doing here? Shouldn't someone as superior as you be sleeping under the covers? Why are you here? This is so unlike Sasuke." Before Wu Liang could speak, Naruto had already jumped out and stared at Sasuke as though he had discovered some sort of monster.

Little Lee paid no attention to any of this. In his eyes, there was only training and surpassing Wu Liang; nothing else mattered. At that moment, he was quietly warming up nearby.

Facing Sasuke's accusation, Wu Liang felt rather awkward and could only play dumb. "Did I say that? You must have heard wrong. We've always met at five. If you don't believe me, ask Little Lee. Right?"

Hearing Wu Liang's words, Little Lee gave a thumbs-up. "That's right. A man must be punctual and keep his word."

Although Naruto had no idea what had happened, he still guessed that Sasuke had been tricked by Wu Liang. He had experienced this kind of thing plenty of times before, so he said, "So you were waiting for us?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto, feeling utterly stifled and unwilling to speak. He merely nodded and said nothing more.

At that moment, Wu Liang said, "All right, Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke will be joining our training group starting today. You won't let him surpass you, will you?"

Naruto was instantly fired up by Wu Liang's provocation. He clenched his fists and said disdainfully to Sasuke, "We started training years before you did. You've got no chance of surpassing us! And my Chakra reserves are almost at Chunin level already, while you're only at the measly Genin level, aren't you?"

Being spoken to like that by the dead last whom he had always looked down on, Sasuke immediately flared up. "I'll definitely surpass you! Just you wait!"

Wu Liang finished his warm-up exercises and saw the two of them arguing endlessly. He said, "You've both got plenty of fighting spirit. Then give it your all. Start running."

The moment Wu Liang finished speaking, he and Little Lee vanished in an instant, leaving only Naruto and Sasuke behind. Naruto immediately roared, "Shameless A Liang! Shameless Little Lee! You cheated and took off early again! Shameless! Shameless!"

Naruto shouted as he chased after Wu Liang and Little Lee's taillights. Sasuke watched them messing around, and for the first time in a long while, his frozen heart felt a trace of warmth. But it was immediately replaced by coldness again. He muttered, "Itachi... one day, I'll kill you. I'll definitely take revenge."

Then Sasuke circulated his Chakra and chased after the others. When Wu Liang saw him using Chakra to catch up, he said coldly, "I advise you not to use Chakra yet. Otherwise, you won't be able to finish this morning's training."

Sasuke froze. Then he saw that none of them were using Chakra enhancement. They were running entirely on physical strength. With such speed and such intense training, could they really keep it up?

Sasuke had doubts, but he still said nothing. He withdrew his Chakra, and his speed instantly dropped. He was soon left far behind.

Their gap was obvious from this alone. Wu Liang was in first place, with Little Lee close behind him. Naruto was slower than the two of them, trailing by several positions. As for Sasuke, he could no longer even see Wu Liang's taillights.

At the very back, Sasuke watched the others disappear from sight and encouraged himself inwardly. No wonder they're so strong. So my physical condition is really this poor. I'll catch up. I definitely will.

By the time Sasuke finished running, Wu Liang and the other two were already lying on a rooftop beside the village entrance, resting. It looked as though they had long since recovered. Sasuke looked at them and could not help feeling frustrated.

The bored Wu Liang saw that Sasuke had finished running and got up, saying, "Oh? Our last-place Sasuke is back. Time for breakfast. Oh, right, I forgot to tell you—the last-place finisher pays the bill. Hahaha, let's go to Ichiraku Ramen!"

"Awesome, ramen!" x2

Sasuke was already exhausted and depressed, but hearing that made him feel even worse. Helplessly, he could only grit his teeth and pay the bill. There was no helping it—who told him he wanted to become stronger? Besides, he had been the one who had foolishly said he wanted to join them. Luckily, he still had some money saved up.

Naruto was wolfing down ramen when he saw Sasuke's gloomy expression. "What, you don't like ramen? Or do you want to treat us to barbecue?"

The moment Sasuke heard Naruto's words, he immediately lifted his bowl and began shoveling ramen into his mouth. He did not dare say another word, genuinely afraid Naruto would drag them to a barbecue restaurant.

Naruto failed to get a reaction and turned back to focus on his ramen. On the table beside him, no fewer than five large empty bowls had already been set down. Seeing that, Sasuke's heart ached even more. These people could really eat.

"I'll definitely make you regret this. I have to work harder. I'll definitely surpass all of you—especially Ryo Senju. I'll definitely become stronger than you." Sasuke set down his large bowl and muttered as he watched Wu Liang and the others feast.

At that moment, Little Lee set down his bowl, glanced at Sasuke, and said, "Is that so? You're pretty brave. I'm older than you, but even I wouldn't dare say I can beat him."

"What are you looking at? I'm super brave, okay?" Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"All right then. Boss, another bowl," Little Lee said, ignoring him as he directly asked Ichiraku for another serving.

"Ugh."

Sasuke felt like he had been ignored. He felt so stifled. And this was only the first day.

When Wu Liang and the other two entered the classroom together, the girls in the class looked extremely displeased. Why? Because they noticed that Sasuke looked listless today. The moment he entered the classroom, he flopped onto his desk.

Instinctively, the girls blamed Sasuke's bad mood and listless appearance on Wu Liang and Naruto. It could not be helped. The whole class knew that Uchiha Sasuke and Naruto did not get along, and they had arrived at the classroom together that morning. So they could not help thinking that way. Sakura Haruno reacted the most fiercely, immediately snapping at Naruto, "Naruto, did you and that Ryo Senju use some underhanded method to torment Sasuke on the way to school? Otherwise, why would he be like this?"

Naruto blankly looked at Sakura Haruno, who was taking out her anger on him. For the first time in his life, he realized that A Liang had been right. Liking someone really was painful; only being loved was happiness.

But with Sakura Haruno blaming him for no reason, he could only say helplessly, "Sakura, Sasuke didn't end up like this because of me. If you don't believe me, ask Sasuke."

Sasuke had already been exhausted and wanted to rest. Usually, he did not think much of it; he was used to the pestering of these fangirls anyway. But today, for the first time, he felt that these girls were truly annoying.

"Can you stop making noise? What does it have to do with you how I am? You're really annoying. Stay away from me," Sasuke said to the group.

"Sasuke... I..."

Sakura Haruno had been about to explain herself, but Sasuke's murderous glare forced her back. She could only return to her seat with a wronged expression.

Naruto felt a little sorry for her, but he said nothing more. He lay on his desk and followed Sasuke's example, going to sleep.

Hinata watched the entire scene from her seat. She sighed, turned back to Wu Liang, and asked, "A Liang, what do you think happened to them? You should know something, right?"

Hearing that, Wu Liang stopped cultivating and opened his eyes. "That idiot Uchiha Sasuke came looking for a fight with me yesterday. But he didn't even know his own limits, so I knocked him down in a few moves. He probably realized how huge the gap between us was, so this morning he wanted to join the training group with Naruto, Little Lee, and me. But his physical condition couldn't keep up with ours, and he still insisted on matching our training intensity. Of course he collapsed from exhaustion."

Hinata's little mouth fell open in surprise. "A Liang, you go out to train in the mornings too? No wonder your Chakra has improved so much. So you train in the mornings as well. I want to train with you too. Is that okay?"

"I'm too embarrassed to point out what you're really thinking. Are you going there to train? You're obviously going there for someone," Wu Liang teased.

After hearing Wu Liang's words, Hinata's face immediately turned bright red. She said weakly, "I really do want to train. My physical condition needs to improve too, and my foundation isn't very good. I want to take this chance to build it up."

Seeing Hinata's somewhat low spirits, Wu Liang said, "You can come, but you have to keep it from your family. You're not like Sasuke. Think about it—if people found out you were getting too close to us, they'd gossip. If you want to train, wait at Konoha's main gate at five tomorrow morning. We'll train together for around two hours. It might be hard to see results at first, but if you keep accumulating progress over time, the results will be considerable."

Hearing Wu Liang's words, the dejected Hinata immediately promised, "I'll definitely stick with it. I want to become stronger too."

Before they knew it, graduation was approaching. Wu Liang had unknowingly reached graduation season amid his training.

And from that day onward, the atmosphere in the classroom began to change. Although nothing seemed different on the surface, Sasuke, Hinata, and Naruto were all quietly competing against one another.

The changes in Sasuke and Hinata were enormous. From that day on, Sasuke no longer indulged those little brats. Whenever they gathered around him, he would immediately turn around and leave. Sasuke also stopped being so gloomy and cold. It counted as some change, at least.

Hinata had changed even more. After that day, her long-term commitment to high-intensity training gradually erased her lack of confidence. Her conviction began to strengthen, and she was no longer so shy. At the very least, she now dared to look Naruto in the eye and laugh and chat with him.

As for everyone else in the class, aside from those connected to Wu Liang, there were not many changes. This also showed just how much of a homebody Wu Liang was—he was either training or on his way to train.