"Damn it..." Naruto, who had noticed the stark contrast between himself and Sasuke, stared in disbelief at Iruka-sensei, who was recording the scores nearby. Naruto was sure Iruka-sensei had done it on purpose!
"He's so cool!"
Faced with Sasuke's nearly perfect performance, the girls who fawned over his looks, led by Ino and Sakura, all gazed at him with hearts in their eyes!
"That guy's pretty popular, huh?" Shikamaru had just picked up a kunai. Hearing the lovestruck chatter around him, he felt a little troubled. Why were girls so obsessed with looks?
"Thwip... Thwip..."
After casually tossing his kunai into the bull's-eye, Shikamaru turned to look at Sasuke, who was already resting beneath a big tree. He clicked his tongue helplessly. The gap was pretty obvious. At the very least, he couldn't make his kunai do fancy tricks!
"Shikamaru, 100 points!"
After seeing what Sasuke could do, Iruka felt a little awkward when he saw Shikamaru get a perfect score. But since 100 was the maximum, there was nothing he could do to give Sasuke extra points for making his kunai do fancy tricks!
The test continued in full swing. Meanwhile, Sasuke stared at the screen in front of him, unsure what to make of it!
The reason was simple: Kunai Throwing had disappeared from the General Panel. After searching through the whole panel, Sasuke found the skill in the Fusion Panel. The problem was that it apparently couldn't be fused with any other skills!
"Fire Release, Lightning Release, Wind Release, Water Release... None of them can turn into a kunai. Maybe if I get Ice Release or Crystal Release, I can fuse it!"
Sasuke gazed at the Kunai Throwing skill in the Fusion Panel, thinking to himself.
Just then, a breeze blew by, and a leaf drifted down onto Sasuke's head. He reached up and took it in his hand.
As he examined the leaf closely, Sasuke suddenly remembered how Naruto, who was currently begging Iruka for another chance to take the test, had practiced Nature Transformation with leaves when he first learned Wind Release!
"The essence of Wind Release should be to make Chakra rub together until it becomes sharp!" Recalling the tip Sarutobi Asuma had given Naruto in his memories, Sasuke held the leaf in his palm and slowly began to channel his Chakra.
Under the flow of Sasuke's Chakra, a crack slowly appeared in the leaf. As he continued applying pressure, the leaf gradually split in two!
Sasuke opened his hands and looked at the leaf, which had been sliced as if by a blade. He smiled with satisfaction, then picked up another leaf and continued training. Wind Release might not be his natural affinity, but if it could make him stronger, Sasuke didn't care!
As Sasuke grew more skilled at cutting leaves, he soon used up every leaf on the ground!
When he reached out and found no more leaves to pick up, Sasuke casually took out a shuriken and threw it into a tree!
Before long, a great many leaves began to fall!
"Now I've got more material!"
Watching the leaves rain down, Sasuke resumed his training.
"Idiot!"
While Sasuke was still absorbed in his training, Naruto, who Iruka had assigned to gather the kunai and clean the training grounds, couldn't help cursing when he saw what Sasuke was doing!
Wasn't Sasuke deliberately making the game harder for him? That was unforgivable!
"Hm?"
Hearing Naruto's voice again, Sasuke looked up curiously and caught sight of Naruto's utterly aggrieved expression!
"What's wrong?" Sasuke found it strange that the king of persuasive speeches was glaring at him so indignantly. Could this be that weird attraction between Indra and Asura Chakra?
"Look at what you've done!" Naruto was outraged that Sasuke didn't understand how much trouble he'd caused him. He pointed at the leaves on the ground and glared at Sasuke.
Seeing Naruto point at the ground, Sasuke looked at the leaves, then at the tools in Naruto's hands.
"Keep it up. I believe in you!"
Sasuke stood up, walked over to Naruto, and patted him on the shoulder, offering encouragement!
"Idiot!"
Naruto was annoyed by Sasuke's encouragement. But remembering Iruka's warning that if he didn't finish cleaning up now, he'd have to stay after school, he gritted his teeth and started sweeping up the leaves!
Just then, Shikamaru walked over to where Sasuke had been and picked up a leaf that had been cut in two. He looked at it in bewilderment. What was this supposed to be?
"What are you doing, Shikamaru?"
Naruto was getting ready to use his "Fire Dance Whirlwind" technique to sweep up the leaves. Seeing Shikamaru pick one up, he asked curiously.
"Nothing. Go ahead." Though he didn't know what Sasuke was doing, Shikamaru didn't think Sasuke would do something pointless. He tucked the leaf away, planning to think over what Sasuke's actions might mean.
When the school bell rang, the students all left the Ninja Academy. Sasuke was no exception. When he got home, he found a book called Will of Fire had suddenly appeared in his house!
"Sarutobi Hiruzen? What a fine Hokage! If this were my previous life, he would've been dragged out and executed ages ago!"
Sasuke looked at the Will of Fire in his hands, his gaze icy. Then he tossed the book aside. After all, given his family's situation, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't see inside his house with that lousy crystal ball!
First, Sasuke took out a basket and gathered a large pile of leaves. Then he brought out more than ten kettles and filled them with water. When he was done, he used Shadow Secret Technique: Clone to summon eleven clones!
Then Sasuke and ten of his Shadow Clones went down to the basement. As for the remaining one, who was special, he had to go to class at the Ninja Academy. After all, he could swap places with Sasuke whenever they wanted!
After bringing the supplies he'd prepared into the basement, Sasuke picked up the Genjutsu Training Scroll, which he still hadn't fully figured out. The clones split into two groups of five!
One group would work on Fire Nature Transformation—that is, boiling water. The ten kettles would boil five at a time, and by the time the second batch was boiling, the first batch would have cooled down again.
The second group would work on Wind Nature Transformation—in other words, cutting leaves. Since he already had Wind Release Chakra, he might as well put it to good use!
Sasuke planned to max out his proficiency in the Nature Transformations for Fire and Wind within a year, then fuse them into Scorch Release!
After that, he would try to max out his Scorch Release Nature Transformation before graduating from the Ninja Academy. That was the plan, anyway. Whether he could pull it off would depend on how things went!
Fire to boil water, wind to slice leaves—my goal is Scorch Release!
All you big shots, please vote! (づ●─●)づ
Before you continue