A Ray of Hope

Just when Sasuke thought the kunai were completely useless, he suddenly noticed a flash of light from the God Refining Panel before him.

"What's this..."

After noticing the change, Sasuke shifted his gaze from the kunai below to the God Refining Panel.

Sure enough, as soon as he opened it, Sasuke saw that the battered kunai before him could be refined.

"Interesting!"

As soon as he realized this, Sasuke summoned the Divine Refining Eye and immediately began refining the tattered kunai before him.

[Flying Thunder God Kunai: Spirit Tool, two fusions]

A long while later, Sasuke stared at the item in his inventory, dumbfounded. He could actually refine an ordinary kunai into a spirit tool. This God Refining System was something else!

What Sasuke didn't know was that although the God Refining System refined everything into something suited to him, not everything could appear directly in his inventory at once. Take the life force he had inadvertently released while treating Kurama Yakumo earlier, for example. The birth of the Flying Thunder God Kunai owed even more to Black Zetsu, the most devoted son.

The Sage of Six Paths' stone tablet had been altered by Black Zetsu, so refining it should have produced an ability belonging to Black Zetsu as well. But Black Zetsu's power didn't meet the conditions for being stored directly in the inventory, so it had remained there until this latest refinement helped trigger the Flying Thunder God Kunai's evolution.

For spirit tools refined this way, the Divine Refining Eye would also provide its user with instructions on how to use them.

Instructions for an ordinary spirit tool wouldn't have been much use to Sasuke, but this was a Flying Thunder God Kunai!

[Flying Thunder God: Forbidden Technique; 100/5000]

After absorbing the information the Divine Refining Eye had transmitted into his mind, Sasuke saw a new entry appear on his General Panel.

"Ha ha ha! Sarutobi Hiruzen, you never saw this coming, did you?"

Looking at the information on his General Panel, Sasuke stood in the courtyard and gazed toward the Uchiha Clan Compound, where construction was underway. He couldn't help laughing. Just when all hope seemed lost, a new path had opened up!

Sasuke smiled with satisfaction at the Flying Thunder God entry and put the scroll away. As long as he kept it, Sarutobi Hiruzen wouldn't realize he had already learned the Flying Thunder God Technique. When Sasuke used it to appear in front of the old man and take his life, Hiruzen's expression would be priceless.

After putting away the scroll, Sasuke's first order of business was to use his General Proficiency to max out his Flying Thunder God proficiency.

After all, back in the training grounds, Sasuke had gained enough General Proficiency to max out five super ninjutsu techniques—the kind with a proficiency cap of ten thousand!

[Flying Thunder God: 5000/5000]

[General Proficiency: 45100]

After maxing out Flying Thunder God, Sasuke staggered into the bedroom of his new home and went to sleep.

The Flying Thunder God Technique was profound to begin with, and Sasuke had just absorbed an enormous amount of information. Of course he needed some time to digest it all!

At the Ninja Academy, Iruka had already received word from the Anbu that Sasuke probably wouldn't come to school that morning. He wasn't surprised at all when Sasuke failed to show up—but that was just Iruka.

The students below, however, started chattering when they saw Sasuke wasn't there.

"Where's that jerk Sasuke?" That was Naruto. "Sasuke-kun, I hope he's all right!" That was Ino and Sakura. "That guy..." That was Shikamaru, who knew a little about what was going on. Those were the only ones discussing Sasuke. Hinata only cared about Naruto, Choji only cared about eating chips, Kiba was busy walking his dog, and Aburame Shino was busy feeding his insects.

"Sasuke has something to take care of at home. He'll probably be back this afternoon, so don't worry. Let's continue with class!" Iruka said, forcing himself to teach as he looked at the unruly classroom.

As Iruka's lecture droned on, everyone lived up to expectations and fell asleep. With Sasuke gone, the students who studied had lost the person they used to imitate. As for the girls, without anyone to watch, they could only sleep too.

"Ah..." Iruka looked at the classroom, which had fallen quiet in less than five minutes, and felt exhausted. Hadn't Sasuke's influence gotten a little too big?

Faced with the situation, Iruka had lost the urge to keep teaching. They had already covered this material; the final year at the Ninja Academy was for reviewing the previous five years and preparing the students for graduation.

"Ah..." Iruka shook his head, erased the blackboard, and wrote "Self-study" in large letters. With a sigh, he walked out.

Iruka wanted to see what had happened to Sasuke. If Sasuke wasn't coming back, there was no point in teaching anyway.

As he neared the Uchiha Clan Compound, Iruka saw a large number of shinobi working on it. One of them in particular—the Anbu skilled in Wood Release—was moving quickly.

"What's this?"

Looking at the scene before him, Iruka finally understood why Sasuke wasn't coming to class. Moving house by himself would take time, for one thing. And just seeing his old home razed to the ground had to be heartbreaking.

Realizing this, Iruka gave a wry smile and slowly returned to the Ninja Academy. There was no way class could go on today. Hopefully things would be back to normal tomorrow! Hopefully...

Back at the Ninja Academy, Iruka looked at the children, most of whom had happy families, and felt sorry for Sasuke and Naruto. The two of them were the only ones who had to face these things alone.

Just as Iruka had expected, Sasuke didn't come to class at all that day.

At dusk, Sasuke slowly opened his eyes in the new bedroom and rubbed his still-foggy head. He couldn't help feeling helpless. No wonder the Flying Thunder God Technique was so difficult! It looked like he would need more time to fully absorb its arcane knowledge and techniques.

"I'm hungry..."

Sasuke got to his feet, rubbed his stomach, and pursed his lips in resignation. Then he headed for Ichiraku Ramen.

At the ramen shop, Sasuke ran into Naruto again. This time, though, the situation was a little awkward. Naruto had finished a bowl of ramen and sat there with a stiff expression.

"Crap, I forgot I'm broke! What do I do?" Naruto sat in his chair, sweat starting to bead on his forehead.

"You wouldn't happen to be out of money, would you?" Sasuke asked nonchalantly. He had just walked into the ramen shop and sat down beside Naruto, who was about to make a run for it.

"Sasuke!" Seeing Sasuke appear out of nowhere, Naruto felt as if his savior had arrived.

"One bowl of ramen, all the toppings, and make it a double!"