Back at that starting point—the Third Training Ground.
The trio of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood, sat, or leaned against tree trunks as they listened to Kakashi's instructions.
Kakashi stood straight with his arms crossed.
After glancing over the three of them, each in a different pose with a different expression, Kakashi reminded them, "Gather here again tomorrow at eight. Bring your ninja tool pouches, and don't forget."
After saying that, he stroked his chin as though recalling something.
"Hmm, that's all."
Naruto climbed up from the ground and asked curiously, "What exactly is tomorrow's mission, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Practice sparring."
"Oh."
Naruto muttered to himself. That was probably today's real test, but he had somehow made it disappear.
Practice sparring?
They really did need that.
Otherwise, teachers would not understand their students' combat ability, and students would not understand their teachers' strength.
Forget trust—even coordination would become a problem.
Was that good? It was not.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Dismissed!"
With that, he turned to leave.
But Naruto did not intend to let him get away that easily. Offend the abbot and still think you can run?
"Wait, Kakashi-sensei."
Naruto called out to Kakashi. With a pained expression, he staggered unsteadily toward him, one hand clutching his stomach while the other reached for Kakashi.
"Sensei, I'm so hungry. I want Ichiraku Ramen."
Kakashi dodged Naruto's grasping hand and watched his performance expressionlessly. "Then go eat."
"But I don't have any money."
Naruto gestured toward the other two behind him and said miserably, "Besides, Kakashi-sensei said yesterday that I'd throw up today, so I didn't eat dinner yesterday. This morning, I even ran five hundred laps."
As he spoke, he swayed a few times, making it impossible to doubt that he could collapse any second.
"Kakashi-sensei, I feel like I'm about to faint from hunger."
Sakura came over to support him and spoke up as well. "Kakashi-sensei, I want ramen too."
This was her second chance to eat with Sasuke. She had to seize it tightly.
Hearing that, Kakashi looked at the third person.
"Sasuke, what about you?"
"I'm fine with ramen too." Under Naruto's hinting and Sakura's pleading gaze, Sasuke changed his answer.
"Alright, then I'll treat you all to ramen."
"Great!" Sakura nearly jumped up.
"I want ten bowls!" Naruto shouted.
That night, at home.
Naruto returned home burping contentedly.
Lying on his bed, he first opened the title he had obtained today.
[Title: Genin All Attributes +5% Chakra ×120% Chakra Recovery ×120%]
Five percent, twenty percent, twenty percent.
Damn, was this the power of titles?
It was Naruto's first time seeing such an enormous boost.
All the other badges had been worth 0.1% or 0.2%.
This title directly gave five percent and twenty percent.
The numbers might not seem large, but with his attributes hovering around three to four hundred, five percent meant fifteen to twenty attribute points.
And then there was the most outrageous part—Chakra. A twenty percent increase directly added more than two million Chakra to him.
Two million Chakra was roughly Shukaku's level.
That was a little ridiculous.
No wonder it was a main quest that took six years to complete.
And if a "Genin" title was already this strong, how powerful would "Chunin" and "Jonin" titles be?
What about an even stronger "Hokage" title?
At that moment, Naruto suddenly felt a little covetous of the Third Hokage's seat.
You know, becoming Hokage had always been my dream, Uzumaki Naruto's dream.
After closing the interface,
Naruto first went to the Training Space to greet the Nine-Tails.
At a glance, the Nine-Tails seemed to have gotten rounder again.
Maybe it was because its color had the word orange in it, or maybe it had drunk too much cola, but the Nine-Tails had put on a little more weight recently and was starting to develop into a big orange tabby.
How could a collection of Chakra like it get fat?
Could drinking cola and eating fried chicken increase Chakra?
With that question in mind, Naruto prepared to explore the game's final feature.
The Duel Arena!
[You have entered the Duel Arena] [You may challenge opponents here and participate in ranked ladders. Players near the top of the rankings can receive fixed rewards.]
The moment he entered, two huge buttons appeared before Naruto.
[Match]/[Ranked]
He tried clicking [Match].
[Searching for match.]
It kept displaying that it was searching.
Just as expected. Everything was within his expectations.
Thankfully, no opponent could be found. Otherwise, Naruto would have to investigate whether there were other players in the entire ninja world.
He clicked [Ranked], with the same result.
This seemed to be a useless feature.
After looking around for a while, Naruto discovered a leaderboard.
Four rankings: [Heaven, Earth, Human, Yellow].
Those four corresponded exactly to: Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and Kage.
Naruto was a little curious about the rewards, but with no one to fight in ranked matches, he had no record and could not enter the rankings, let alone anything else.
Seriously?
This was all the [Duel Arena] he had waited nine years for?
Naruto was speechless.
Could this be another useless thing?
After fiddling around unwillingly for a while longer, Naruto discovered that a new mode seemed accessible.
[Training Mode]
He clicked to enter.
The display suddenly switched to another interface. At the top was a five-minute countdown, while below were character thumbnails.
[Please select a training target]
Though the thumbnails were tiny, Naruto still spotted several familiar faces among them.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi
Hatake Kakashi
Were these all opponents he could challenge?
They had to be NPCs from this world, and relatively famous characters from the original work.
If that was the case,
where was I, Uzumaki Naruto?
As a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki like me, surely I deserved to have my name listed?
Naruto began searching for himself, and several results appeared one after another.
Uzumaki Naruto (Genin · Age 12): That was exactly his current age. He must have just graduated from the Ninja Academy.
Uzumaki Naruto (Genin · Age 16): Wait, I was still a Genin at sixteen? Oh, this was Naruto from the original work. Then it was fine.
Uzumaki Naruto (Genin · Sage of Six Paths · Age 17): What did Sage of Six Paths mean? The Sage of Six Paths?
Uzumaki Naruto (Seventh Hokage · Age 32): Wait? I was the Seventh Hokage?
The more Naruto looked, the more confused he became. How had he become Hokage? Wasn't he the big villain?
No, wait.
This work was called Naruto. The Hokage had to be the protagonist.
Could I be the protagonist?
Then what about Sasuke?
Uchiha Sasuke (Genin · Age 12): Mm, no problem there.
Uchiha Sasuke (Rogue Ninja · Hawk Team · Age 16): Hm? A rogue ninja?
Uchiha Sasuke (Akatsuki · Age 16): What was Akatsuki? Those clothes looked familiar. Several people he had seen earlier had been dressed like that.
Uchiha Sasuke (Sage of Six Paths · Age 17): Sage of Six Paths again?
Uchiha Sasuke (Traveling the World · Age 32): Huh? Retired?
Naruto had thought he already understood quite a lot about this world, yet it turned out that his knowledge was still far too shallow.
He did not even know who the protagonist of this world was.
Naruto had always guessed that Sasuke was most likely the protagonist of this Naruto world, while he himself was a major villainous boss.
The basis for that guess was that Uzumaki Naruto was hated by the entire village, with the Nine-Tails inside him ready to sweet-talk him into destruction at any time.
And Sasuke?
He had been born the young master of the Uchiha clan, and he had suffered the script of his family being slaughtered—no, his entire clan being slaughtered.
That was absolutely protagonist treatment.
Yet now, you were telling him that Sasuke would betray the village and become a rogue ninja, while he himself would become the future Seventh Hokage?
What?
So I, Uzumaki Naruto, was the true protagonist?
Thanks to Akabane Natsuha for the 100-coin donation.
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