Fireworks, the Famous Director

"Alright!" Naruto was the first to dash out.

"Idiot dead last, if you run like that now, you'll run out of stamina in no time!" Sasuke hurried after him.

The two of them wore Weighted Training Gear and had to make their way through the mountain forest. This was no simple task.

"Alright." Watching their backs, Sparkle nodded.

"Oh dear, oh dear." Kakashi scratched his head.

The two of them were brimming with confidence now, but once they entered the forest, they would probably discover what surprises awaited them...

Publicly available information:

Some rewards were actually distributed by the author through an Anko-style format.

Based on the ODM Gear from Attack on Titan.

The ODM Gear and turtle-shell rope... unexpectedly went well together.

Famous Director Sparkle

"I-I can't walk anymore..."

"Idiot, you've been running and jumping around nonstop. Of course you can't keep it up for long."

By noon, Naruto had nearly exhausted all his stamina. Sasuke beside him was speechless.

After entering the forest, Naruto had been leaping all over the place, looking left and right. His activity level had been at least three times Sasuke's.

"Let's rest here for a while."

By chance, they came upon a forest ranger's cabin. Sasuke took out the logbook from his backpack, found a stamp inside the cabin, stamped the book, and checked off the patrol point.

Patrols were not an excuse for slacking off. At every patrol point, they had to "check in."

Nor could they slack off however they pleased. If any safety hazard appeared in a location that had already been inspected and checked off, they would be held accountable.

Although Naruto had been jumping around everywhere, he had at least been very thorough with the inspections.

"I'm exhausted." Naruto flopped onto the ground, limbs splayed in every direction.

Sasuke, meanwhile, stretched his limbs.

"The hardest part of Weighted Training Gear is persistence. At first, it doesn't feel that heavy, but after walking for half a day, it becomes incredibly uncomfortable."

Sasuke sank into thought.

Back at the Ninja Academy, he and Sparkle had never fought each other. Or rather, girls and boys generally fought separately.

As one of the few girls who did not bother him, Sasuke had a fairly good impression of Sparkle, but that impression had never involved her strength.

Yet yesterday, Sparkle had been able to command Naruto and him into taking the bells from Kakashi, a Jonin.

"Is my strength still not enough...?"

After eating some dry rations and resting for a while, Naruto became lively again. "Sasuke, Sasuke, we should get going!"

"Take it easy, idiot."

Sasuke was somewhat speechless. Naruto had expended several times more energy than he had, yet he had somehow recovered and was full of life again. It was absurd.

"Hehe, I'll tell you a little secret."

Naruto waggled his eyebrows at Sasuke, looking as though he would not tell just anyone.

"I've actually been here several times. I've fished here before, and I've run into Grandpa Third Hokage several times too. I know this place really well!"

Sasuke finally understood why Naruto was so excited.

It was like the Monkey King returning to Flower Fruit Mountain.

"There's nothing dangerous around here, just listen to me and—"

Naruto suddenly choked off halfway through his sentence.

At that moment, rustling sounds suddenly came from the grass before him.

"Naruto, get back." Sasuke drew a kunai. He was nervous as well. "Who's there? Come out!"

"Pfft—"

A wild boar piglet jumped out of the grass.

"Haha, what was that?"

Naruto let out a sigh of relief. But then he felt the ground beneath his feet begin to tremble.

"An earthquake?" Naruto scratched his head.

Sasuke's pupils contracted as he immediately sensed something.

"Get back, idiot!"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto, who had been walking toward the piglet.

Almost at the next instant, a boar as enormous as a hill charged out from within the forest.

The boar was clearly furious. Its eyes were crimson, and it shrieked strangely. With every step it took, the entire mountain forest seemed to quake.

"Waaah!" Even Naruto let out a strange cry at the sight of the giant boar.

"Run!"

Sasuke dragged Naruto into a desperate sprint.

"Damn it, this Weighted Training Gear—"

Sasuke immediately tried to remove the gear, only to discover that while it was easy to put on, taking it off was far from convenient!

Since he could not remove it, all they could do was run for their lives.

It was unbelievable. The two of them had clearly expended much of their stamina earlier and had not fully recovered, yet they were moving incredibly fast now.

"Isn't this going a little too far?" From the treetops, Kakashi and Sparkle watched the two being chased by the "boar car," wondering whether Sparkle had overdone it.

"Just right."

Sparkle smiled, but combined with the fox mask covering half her face, she looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Both Naruto and Sasuke have outstanding physical strength and aptitude. But they have completely wasted their potential," Sparkle said. "They're already twelve and will soon enter puberty. Intensifying their training is only proper."

"So-called Chakra originates from the hundreds of trillions of cells in the human body."

Well, the people of the Naruto World had more than twice as many cells as people in the "real" world.

"But children have not yet developed strong bodies, and many people at this age cannot even use ninjutsu."

Sasuke could use the Great Fireball Technique. In Kakashi's eyes, that already made him quite the genius.

It was like a twenty-kilogram dumbbell. An adult could lift it, but it would not be so easy for a child. Children had smaller bodies and fewer cells than adults, so extracting enough Chakra to use ninjutsu was not easy.

But Naruto and Sasuke were exceptions.

"The Ninja Academy provides general education, but elites need separate elite education," Sparkle said.

"I didn't expect you to think so highly of the two of them." Kakashi was somewhat surprised.

"Teacher Kakashi, I think highly of you too. If you could pull yourself together, I think you could go fifty-fifty even against the Three Sannin, couldn't you?" Sparkle smiled.

"Don't joke around. I'd be doing well just to barely hold my own against the Three Sannin." After speaking, Kakashi looked at Sparkle. "I'm also curious about what your training is really like."

"It's the sword," Sparkle said. "The sword is what I'm best at."

It was an unexpected answer.

Sparkle then extended her right hand while forming a hand seal with her left.

"Ephemeral Bloom and Decay—"

An ice sword appeared in Sparkle's hand.

"Secret Sword: Ephemeral Bloom."

"Ice Release?!" Kakashi was startled, but then he realized that was not it. "Wait, could it be... Summoning Jutsu?"

Sparkle recalled the feeling of synchronizing with Jingliu in her memory. Her body moved with the sword, elegant and beautiful, yet beneath that beauty seemed to lurk a certain danger.

"Is it alright to show me something like this?" Kakashi asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

This was one of her trump cards, but it was not an absolute trump card.

So at times like this, having someone vouch for her was naturally the best choice. Although Kakashi was unreliable, Sparkle still chose him because Kakashi would not dig too deeply into this matter.

With Kakashi vouching for her, it would not be such a problem when she used this kind of technique in Konoha later.

"If possible, I'd like to experience Teacher Kakashi's swordsmanship. Teacher Kakashi, since you have nothing to do, why don't we spar?"

"Ahem, ahem. Your teacher is lost upon the road of life, so let's forget about swordsmanship."

Though he could not say he had completely neglected it, Kakashi truly had no idea where he had tossed aside his family's swordsmanship.

More importantly, Kakashi could not be forceful about it. If he got forceful, Sparkle might put on another live demonstration right in front of him.

While the two talked, Naruto and Sasuke had already crossed a river and arrived before a waterfall.

"Jump, Sasuke, jump!" Naruto was about to leap when he realized Sasuke had stopped where he stood.

"Moron, we're wearing Weighted Training Gear. If we jump in, we'll sink straight to the bottom!" Sasuke tried cutting the gear with his kunai, only to find that it was useless.

"No choice, then we'll take this thing down here—!"

Naruto gritted his teeth. They had reached a dead end. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Countless clones charged at the enraged boar, but all of them turned into puffs of smoke. The mountain-sized boar was like an unstoppable freight truck, determined to make Naruto and Sasuke taste the greatness of this "transmigration power"!

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" Animals feared fire, so Sasuke immediately used the Great Fireball Jutsu, hoping to force the boar to stop.

Unexpectedly, after being struck by the Great Fireball Jutsu, the boar not only failed to retreat, but became even more enraged.

"Sasuke, use ropes! As many as possible!" Naruto suddenly had an idea in the heat of the moment.

What could ropes possibly do?

Sasuke did not think Naruto and he possessed enough strength to stop the boar with ropes.

But after hearing Naruto's words, Sasuke's hands moved faster than his mind. Facing the charging boar, he looped rope after rope around its body. Yet just as Sasuke had expected, those ropes could not restrain the boar at all.

"Give it to me!" Naruto took the rope, then jumped down beneath the waterfall.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"...I see. He's using Shadow Clones to increase the weight!"

Several hundred Narutos pressed down on one side of the rope, while several hundred more appeared beside the boar.

"One, two! Charge!"

Countless Narutos slammed into it. A section of the already fragile cliff face collapsed, nearly sending the boar tumbling down. Yet the boar was surprisingly agile and somehow maintained its balance at the last moment.

"Ha!"

At the crucial moment, Sasuke rushed forward and kicked the boar, becoming the final straw that broke the camel's back.

"Whee whee—!"

The previously Red Eye boar seemed to regain its senses in midair, but it was already powerless to do anything. With a thunderous crash, it fell beneath the waterfall.

"Naruto!"

Sasuke went to the cliff's edge and looked down, only to find Naruto hanging upside down below. A red rope had caught Naruto by the ankle, and the rope's owner was Sparkle, standing off to the side.

Kakashi stood not far away, holding Icha Icha Paradise.

"I see."

Sasuke lay down on the ground as well.

Now he understood everything.

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