Sasuke Disconnects

"You're already very strong, Naruto," Kakashi praised him frankly.

He had never seen a genius like Naruto in his life, whether in Chakra control, Chakra Attributes training, or sensory abilities.

He had a feeling that if they tested a few more things, Naruto would give him even more surprises.

"So-so. Third best in the world." Naruto scratched his head and modestly humbled himself for once.

"Team 7, gather!"

Kakashi agreed with the suggestion. There was no point in staying here any longer.

Night fell.

Looking at the lodging's single room, then at Sasuke and Sakura beside him, both eyeing him like tigers watching prey, Naruto was quite dissatisfied.

"Kakashi-sensei, aren't there any other rooms?"

He had agreed to let these two teammates enter the Training Space to train, but he wanted to take the initiative, not be passive.

It felt completely different.

Before Kakashi could speak, Sasuke shot the idea down.

"It's good enough that we have somewhere to sleep, Naruto. You can't ask for too much." Sasuke firmly opposed Naruto's desire to sleep alone.

He had not realized it when they first set out on the mission, but when he entered the room that night and saw the huge tatami mat, Sasuke instantly understood: it seemed they could train all night!

There was no way he would let Naruto slip away from this opportunity.

"That's how missions are. Having somewhere to stay is already good enough, Naruto." Kakashi's eyes held an apologetic look.

After saying that, he stood and headed outside. When he reached the door, he turned back and said,

"You rest. I'll keep watch tonight."

"Okay, Kakashi-sensei." ×3

Sakura and Sasuke were both excited. Only Naruto answered reluctantly.

Kakashi made a round of patrols, then spent several more hours on the roof, but found no danger at all.

He jumped down and returned to the room, where he saw the three sleeping messily in the moonlight.

Naruto slept in the middle, with Sasuke and Sakura on either side.

Naruto held Sakura's and Sasuke's hands in his own.

The sight made Kakashi's eye twitch.

"Do kids change their affections this quickly?" he muttered in confusion.

If he remembered correctly, hadn't Sakura said Sasuke was the one she liked during introductions two days ago? Why was she holding Naruto's hand now?

Could it be that Sakura had been looking at Naruto back then?

And Sasuke—setting aside the boy-and-girl thing, why were you holding Naruto's hand too?

Unable to make sense of it, Kakashi briefly began questioning life itself. Was this what kids' relationship circles were like nowadays?

He did not understand, but he was deeply shaken.

After thinking it over, Kakashi still stepped forward to separate Sasuke's and Naruto's hands, then cover all three with a thin blanket.

But the moment he separated Sasuke's hand—

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" Kakashi turned around and saw Sasuke staring at him with resentful little eyes.

After discussing his future career plans with Teacher Leopard and training with his teacher for two hours, Sasuke had finally found Naruto and was about to challenge him one-on-one when he was gone.

Disconnected.

That resentful look made Kakashi feel as though he were looking at a newlywed wife whose husband had just announced a year-long business trip.

At that moment, Kakashi felt as though he had committed some unforgivable crime.

"Um, I seem to have forgotten somewhere that needs patrolling."

Whoosh~

Kakashi vanished.

Helplessly, Sasuke glanced at the vanished Kakashi-sensei, then at Naruto.

He grabbed Naruto's hand, poured Chakra into it, and tried to reconnect.

Naruto: Refused.

He tried to reconnect again.

Naruto: Refused again.

He kept trying to reconnect.

Naruto: Kept refusing.

The next day.

Early in the morning, Kakashi announced tremendous news for Sasuke.

"We didn't find the thieves yesterday. We might be staying here for a few more days."

Sasuke nearly jumped up at those words. He struggled to suppress the upward curl of his lips, his face practically twitching.

Sakura asked, "How long will we be staying?"

"At most, five days. If we find them early, we can head back early," Kakashi explained.

"That's great!"

Sasuke had fallen in love with missions. From now on, no one had better stop him whenever there was a long business-trip mission like this.

Sigh!

Naruto silently sighed. They would have to stay together for five days. He would not be able to do anything during those five days.

"Of course, you'll need to train during that time as well."

"That's right, Naruto. We need to train." Sasuke gave Naruto a meaningful look, clearly still bitter over being refused yesterday.

Sigh!

Naruto silently sighed again. His freedom—his freedom to use Flying Thunder God to travel the ninja world at night—was gone!

Next, Kakashi-sensei used the daytime to train the three of them, mainly Sasuke and Sakura.

It was mostly Chakra control training.

However, when Kakashi taught the two of them tree climbing, this Chakra control technique—

By the time he turned around, they had already climbed to the top of the tree.

Kakashi was stunned.

"Am I really that good at teaching?"

Kakashi had never expected that he possessed such talent for teaching students.

"Very good. Next, practice water walking."

Clapping his hands, Kakashi assigned the two of them a new task.

As for Naruto, Kakashi began teaching him all the various ninjutsu he had mastered over the years.

What surprised him again was that Naruto had brought half a backpack of Carefree Pills, something he had never expected.

What he had not expected even more was that all those Carefree Pills in Naruto's half-full backpack had been prepared for him.

Their main purpose was to squeeze every last drop out of Kakashi, their Jonin teacher.

After all, he lacked mana.

Time passed in a cycle: Naruto squeezed Kakashi dry during the day, while Sasuke and Sakura squeezed Naruto dry at night.

However, that cycle did not last long.

After only two days, Kakashi, the Naruto-brand juicer, had been completely squeezed dry and kicked out of the cycle.

Fortunately, after Sasuke and Sakura mastered water walking, they took Naruto's place in the ranks of those squeezing Kakashi dry, forming a new cycle.

Until five days later.

"We're finally back."

Seeing Konoha's gates, Naruto nearly cried.

Now that he was back in Konoha, his freedom had returned!

"I love you, Konoha!"

If Kakashi had not stopped him, Naruto would have been so moved that he nearly kissed the wooden gates at the village entrance.

Passersby all stared at him, while the other two quickly moved away from Naruto to indicate that they did not know this person.

"Is that really so exaggerated?"

Rarely making a snide remark, Sasuke then asked Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, when will our next mission be?"

He truly liked these business-trip missions.

Over the past five days, he had learned tree climbing and water walking, and his Chakra control had earned Teacher Leopard's approval.

Furthermore, he had learned and proficiently mastered three brand-new Fire Style ninjutsu. He had even evolved his Sharingan directly to Two Tomoe after enduring Naruto's repeated blows.

Because of that, he had also learned Lightning Style: Chidori from Kakashi-sensei.

His progress over these five days surpassed all his progress over the past six years.

Sasuke felt that his future was bright, and revenge was within reach.

The prerequisite was that they had to keep taking missions, preferably long-term business-trip missions.

"What about you two?" Kakashi looked at the remaining two.

"I agree!"

Sakura could not have been happier to go on missions with Sasuke.

"I refuse!" Naruto refused outright.

He had been looking forward to missions before, but now Naruto did not like them at all.

Missions = no freedom!

But—

Two to one. Naruto suffered a crushing defeat.

Kakashi-sensei announced the plan going forward: "Rest today. Tomorrow, we'll continue taking missions."

Naruto fell silent at those words.

He felt as though his life had become completely bleak.

Third Hokage, when exactly are you going to step down and make way for someone worthy?

When would he finally become Hokage?

For that Hokage seat, he had truly endured hardship and bided his time!

Meanwhile, while Naruto was carrying out missions, the other protagonist, Uchiha Liutong, was also shining brightly.

Thanks to the confused-bug painter for the monthly ticket support.