The two stood facing each other in battle!
Off to the side, Sakura's little face was flushed red with excitement as she cheered Sasuke on. "Go, Sasuke!"
"Hmph!" Ino beside her refused to be outdone and shouted along with her, "Sasuke, you're the best! You have to beat Naruto up good!"
Naruto's face darkened as he listened, making him even more annoyed. He shouted, "Today, we'll settle this once and for all, Sasuke! I'll show you the results of my training over the past two months!"
"Yeah! I'm looking forward to it."
Sasuke nodded and replied in an indifferent tone.
Unsurprisingly, Naruto was knocked down. It could even be said that he was instantly defeated.
Seeing Naruto lying on the ground with an expression of utter disbelief, Sasuke decided to comfort him a little, lest the kid be left with some kind of psychological trauma later on.
"That's it?"
Sasuke sighed, shook his head, and seemed deeply disappointed as he turned to leave.
Sure enough, those two plain words carried immense destructive power and mockery. Naruto, who had still been doubting his life choices, instantly flew into a rage and pushed himself up with both hands.
"Bastard, don't look down on me! I'll definitely beat you flat!"
Hearing that, Sasuke, who had turned away, curled his lips into a slight smile. It seemed his comfort had worked quite well.
Unfortunately, the two did not continue sparring. Naruto, who kept yelling nonstop, was dragged away by a helpless-looking Iruka.
After walking into the crowd, Sasuke ignored the flock of girls surrounding him. Only after most of them had left did he suddenly speak to Sakura. "Sakura, I have a question I'd like to ask you."
Huh!?
Sakura froze for a moment, a faint blush appearing on her face.
Oh my god, Sasuke actually took the initiative to talk to me!!!
No, no, I need to calm down.
I have to let Sasuke see my ladylike side.
Sakura brushed back the loose strands by her ear and said softly with a shy smile, "Sasuke, please ask."
Sakura's movements were very restrained and ladylike, but the second personality in her heart had already gone—(≧▽≦)/
Sasuke had no idea about the twists and turns in the girl's mind. He asked directly, "When you were using the Transformation Technique and Clone Technique earlier, I noticed your chakra control was very good. Do you have any tricks for it?"
Directly asking about someone else's training secrets was a very abrupt thing to do.
But it was Sasuke, so it was fine.
"It's not as good as you say, Sasuke." Sakura waved her hands, looking a little embarrassed.
"If I really had to name a trick..."
After pondering for a moment, Sakura said, "I have very little chakra, so whenever I use ninjutsu, I always try to control it to an appropriate amount."
"Mm." Sasuke nodded and continued, "Other than at school, have you used chakra at home?"
How could he directly ask a girl about things at home?
But it was Sasuke, so it was fine.
"When my parents aren't home, I use chakra while doing housework to save time."
As she said this, Sakura could not help showing some resentment.
Her irresponsible retired chunin father and chunin mother often went shopping together and lost track of time. They even occasionally left the village to travel for a while. Many times, Sakura had no choice but to fend for herself. (In the movie Road to Ninja, Sakura complained to Naruto that her father was a useless ninja who could not even become a jonin, so Haruno Kizashi should previously have been a ninja, and a chunin at that.)
Hearing this, it was as if a skylight had opened in Sasuke's mind, and inspiration flashed through him. He understood why Sakura's chakra control was so exceptional.
Everything could be a method of training; life itself was training everywhere.
Without realizing it, Sakura had achieved this supreme principle. Combined with her natural talent, she had instantly mastered Kakashi's tree-climbing technique because she had already practiced similar skills in her daily life.
Sasuke nodded and said, "Thank you, Sakura. You helped me out."
"No, no, you're too polite, Sasuke." A faint blush spread across Sakura's face. Then she added quietly, "Besides, aren't we... um... classmates? Helping each other is only natural, haha..."
After saying that, Sakura gave an embarrassed, silly laugh.
Ah, kids these days.
They're always obsessed with my superior looks.
Sasuke sighed inwardly and said, "No matter what, you did help me out."
"Mm..."
As the two talked, Ino, who had just finished her practical combat assessment, saw everything clearly.
The sight made Ino tremble all over. Despite the scorching heat beneath the noon sun, cold sweat covered her body and her hands and feet turned icy.
Why had Sasuke never taken the initiative to speak to me? Why!?
At dusk, Sasuke returned alone to the Uchiha Clan Compound.
A brand-new aluminum kettle sat on the table.
According to the suggestions in Uchiha Style Fire Release Ninjutsu, there were only two ways to increase the power of Fire Release ninjutsu.
1. Increase chakra output.
2. Strengthen the nature transformation of Fire Release.
What Sasuke was doing now was the second.
In the original story, Naruto trained his wind-nature chakra transformation by cutting leaves. Sasuke was now using the method of heating a kettle of water.
He gathered fire-nature chakra in his hand and slowly pressed it against the bottom of the kettle. After it had been against the aluminum kettle for quite some time, only a wisp of steam emerged from its spout.
Seeing that, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Just as he had expected, the results were minimal.
Just as Naruto in the original story had initially been unable to cut leaves with wind-nature chakra, Sasuke was currently unable to evaporate a kettle of water with fire-nature chakra.
Yet if he used a simple C-rank Wind Release ninjutsu—Great Breakthrough—he could easily topple several thick trees.
If Sasuke casually used a Fire Release ninjutsu, not only could he evaporate the water in the kettle, he could even burn the kettle itself to ashes.
Ninjutsu was easy to train in; chakra nature transformation was difficult.
Sasuke had been training this for a long time, at least more than a month, but the results had been minimal.
In the original story, Naruto could create several hundred Shadow Clones at once for days on end to train his Wind Release nature transformation.
Sasuke did not have those conditions right now, nor could he devote himself entirely to training nature transformation like Naruto. He could only spend an hour a day practicing it.
After all, he still needed to train taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, study books, and work on other areas.
This is too slow. I need to think of a way.
Sasuke thought to himself.
Although training chakra nature transformation was difficult, a towering building rose from level ground. As long as he mastered the nature transformation of Fire Release, he would learn any Fire Release ninjutsu much faster in the future, and its power would be utterly incomparable.
However, the book contained no record of how to strengthen Fire Release nature transformation. It only said that strengthening it meant learning more Fire Release ninjutsu and using Fire Release ninjutsu more often until one became proficient.
The kettle method, on the other hand, was something he had been inspired to try because of Naruto.
Before you continue