In the small room, a huge tatami mat lay in the center.
This was the room Tazuna's family had specially prepared for Team 7 to rest in during the mission.
The window was open, and beyond it lay the sea.
Whenever the wind blew, they could smell the salty, damp moisture drifting in from the ocean.
This was the scent of the sea.
Naruto idly found himself craving seaweed.
At that moment, Sakura interrupted Naruto's daydreaming. "Kakashi-sensei, since Zabuza killed our employer, Gato, does that mean our mission is complete?"
"It should."
Kakashi rested a hand against his chin as he considered it. "But to prevent any accidents, we still need to stay alert until the final day."
"None of you three—two of you can stop training!" Kakashi changed his requirement from three to two after glancing at them.
"Yes, sensei!" ×2
"Mm."
Kakashi looked at Naruto again and asked with concern, "Naruto, what have you been training in lately?"
Me?
Naruto snapped back to his senses.
What had he been training in recently?
Come to think of it, ever since discovering the special ability of his SSSSSS Talent, not only had his clones been learning all kinds of skills,
but his main body had also been using this BUG—no, this trait—to learn even more skills.
For example:
Every day, he played six rounds of Fight the Landlord with the Nine-Tails to train his Gambling Skill. In a few more days, he would max it out—the God of Gamblers.
In a ninja world this vast, every casino was basically an ATM.
Besides, he had become obsessed with wood carving yesterday.
His experience was currently rising fast. At this rate, it would be maxed out again in a month at most.
But he could not say any of that.
"Uh, Kakashi-sensei..."
Naruto chose his words carefully. "I've been training in Wood Release lately. Well, more accurately, I've been trying to fuse Earth Release and Water Release to see whether I can awaken Wood Release."
The moment he said that, all three of them turned to look at him.
Wood Release—it was the First Hokage's Kekkei Genkai.
Sakura: Was Naruto going to learn the First Hokage's Wood Release too? Choosing to study Medical Ninjutsu had definitely been the right choice.
Sasuke: Damn it, was Naruto getting stronger again? How did one learn Wood Release? I had to learn it too within three years!
Those two simply believed in Naruto too much.
They did not understand how difficult it was to combine Kekkei Genkai, much less the rarity of Wood Release and the difficulty of creating it.
But Kakashi understood.
Upon hearing it, he merely sighed.
He had a friend named Yamato, a Wood Release ninja.
Only later had he learned how many sacrifices it had taken to produce a Wood Release ninja like Yamato.
The village itself had conducted experiments, sacrificing many people, yet every attempt to create Wood Release had failed.
Orochimaru had also conducted similar experiments in secret, sacrificing nearly a hundred children before one successful survivor finally emerged: Yamato.
Since the village had been founded, how many exceptionally gifted ninja had Konoha produced? Yet not a single other person had managed to combine Wood Release and become a Wood Release ninja.
Could Naruto do it?
Kakashi did not want to deny him outright, but reason told him the chances were close to zero.
"Good luck, Naruto. Your teacher believes you can succeed." Kakashi smiled encouragingly.
Naruto gave him a thumbs-up and flashed his standard brilliant grin, his pearly white teeth gleaming.
"Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei. I'll definitely succeed!"
"But..."
Naruto suddenly lowered his head with a troubled look, as if he had encountered some serious difficulty.
"What is it?"
Naruto raised his head and pleaded earnestly, "There's something extremely important. If it can't be done, I'll definitely fail! So please, you have to help me make it happen!"
"Oh?"
Kakashi was thoroughly confused.
What could possibly be so important that he had to help with it?
"Heh."
Sasuke suddenly sighed speechlessly.
He seemed to understand what Naruto was about to do.
Sakura, meanwhile, gave him a puzzled look.
Then Naruto finally revealed his true aim. "After we return, please make sure to meet Sister Hua. She's a really wonderful big sister, and I hope she can become our teacher's wife."
Kakashi, Sakura: -_-||
Sasuke: Heh, just as I thought.
Seeing their expressions, Naruto was baffled.
I'd been worrying myself sick over Kakashi-sensei's love life.
Did they want Kakashi-sensei to die alone?
"Please, Kakashi-sensei. This is the one request of my lifetime."
Sasuke and Sakura came around and looked at Kakashi expectantly.
Under the expectant gazes of all three of them, Kakashi found it hard to bear as well. He responded helplessly, "Fine. Since you put it that way, I'll agree."
It was only meeting her once. Kakashi was not going to drop dead from seeing the light.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura: Great! This was going to be fun!
Sasuke went off to train ninjutsu with Kakashi, while Sakura stayed alone in the room to practice Medical Ninjutsu.
The Training Space could generate plants like trees, flowers, and grass, but it could not generate animals such as birds and beasts.
So Sakura could only practice Medical Ninjutsu in reality.
That had an advantage too.
Her nighttime training in Super Strength Taijutsu would not be affected. She focused on one major discipline during the day and another at night. Both Medical Ninjutsu and Super Strength Taijutsu were her main focuses, so nothing delayed her path toward becoming a "violent woman."
And Naruto?
He was sitting on the roof, enjoying the sea breeze, while his mind immersed itself in the Duel Arena to search for someone!
"Uchiha, Uchiha... Uchiha. What exactly was his name?" Naruto muttered the name fiercely as he selected opponents in the Training Ground.
A few days ago, when he had found Uchiha Madara to vent his anger on, he had noticed an "Uchiha Madara" with quotation marks around the name, so he had selected him.
Only after entering had Naruto realized that this guy was not merely somewhat similar to the "Uchiha Madara" from Nine-Tails Night as described by the Nine-Tails—he was practically identical.
So Naruto went in and beat the man senseless.
This "Uchiha Madara" had some strange eye technique. It was a space-type ability, and he could also use Wood Release.
After Naruto knocked off Fake 'Uchiha Madara''s mask, it revealed a face Naruto did not recognize and had never seen before.
He knew who the culprit was, yet he did not know this culprit.
That left Naruto deeply frustrated.
And trying to obtain information by chatting with NPCs in the Duel Arena was practically harder than reaching the heavens.
The Duel Arena's NPCs were not real people, but genuine AI.
Take this masked fake Uchiha, for instance. He was always shouting things about "Rin," about "I want to create a world with you!"
It was utterly incomprehensible.
So now, Naruto could only enter the Duel Arena again and begin searching for a needle in the ocean.
On the character selection screen, he clicked the search bar and entered "Uchiha."
The search returned over a thousand results.
There were simply too many. Naruto could not possibly look through them all at once.
But he had plenty of time, so it did not matter if he checked them one by one.
"Next. Next. Next. Hm?"
Naruto's gaze sharpened. "I finally found you. Fucking U! Chi! Ha! O! Bi! To!"
The greatest grudge of his life, written in his little notebook, had finally found its target for revenge.
Excellent!
"Was the Land of Water feature, 'The Fourth Mizukage Controlled by Genjutsu,' about to come out?" Naruto suddenly thought of this and hurriedly asked "Media Tycoon · Naruto" in the channel.
The answer came back: it was in the final layout stage.
He immediately changed it!
He had originally planned to have Uchiha Liutong announce responsibility for the incident,
but now, this blame could be pinned entirely on Uchiha Obito!
"Let the whole world see your true face, Uchiha Obito!"
＿|￣|●: Keep reading!!!
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