Sasuke's Shock

"Stop staring." Qiushui lowered his head to glance at the almost blank test paper in front of Naruto. "Do the questions you know how to do first."

Half an hour later.

Qiushui put down his pen and looked at the papers on the table, the corner of his mouth twitching involuntarily.

There were seven papers in total. He had specifically chosen questions that weren't difficult—one could even say they were the basics of the basics. He had thought he'd underestimated Naruto, but it seemed he had actually overestimated him.

The best paper had only scored fifteen points.

The remaining six combined barely scraped together eighty points.

Out of a total of seven hundred points across seven papers, Naruto had scored less than one hundred.

Qiushui looked at Naruto, who was staring at him nervously, and said, "Perform your shurikenjutsu and the Three Basic Techniques for me."

Qiushui handed him his own kunai and shuriken, led him to a thick tree, and used a kunai to draw a circle the size of a basketball on the trunk. He then had Naruto step back ten meters and said, "Just throw them into this circle."

Naruto focused his entire attention, a serious expression appearing on his face.

The shuriken was thrown.

The kunai was thrown.

But it was to no avail.

Out of ten throws, three hit the target, and even those three kunai only barely grazed the edge of the circle, embedding themselves into the tree trunk so shallowly that they looked like they would fall off at the slightest touch.

"Next is the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique," Qiushui continued.

Naruto was silent for two seconds before biting the bullet and beginning to weave the hand signs.

The clone he produced was a limp, shapeless mass, lying on the ground like a deflated inflatable doll. It was even spitting out stones and rolling its eyes, looking utterly mentally disabled.

The Transformation Technique couldn't even be said to resemble anyone; it was completely unrelated. Even if Minato were reborn and stood in front of Naruto, he would never admit that this was a Transformation Technique.

"I'm sorry, Teacher Qiushui, my performance is too poor," Naruto said, hanging his head.

Qiushui took a deep breath to calm his mood and said gently, "It's precisely because your grades are poor that you need me to help you improve. If you already knew everything, you wouldn't need my tutoring. Besides, you can look at it from another angle: your room for improvement is greater than anyone else's."

An expression of disbelief appeared on Naruto's face. He hadn't expected Qiushui not only to refrain from criticizing him but to actually encourage him. Having always been criticized no matter what he did, he felt deeply moved; he even felt as though a dazzling light was radiating from Qiushui's body.

Naruto felt as if he had been reignited, and he said, "Teacher Qiushui, you're right. My room for improvement is huge."

Watching him instantly come back to life, Qiushui silently gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Naruto was the type of student who responded well to encouragement-based education; the more you encouraged him, the harder he would work.

Qiushui took a blank scroll from his ninja tool pouch, spread it out in front of Naruto, and said, "Next, I will teach you a ninjutsu."

Naruto felt like he was dreaming. Not only was he not being criticized, but he was actually getting a reward?

Qiushui picked up a brush and wrote the four large characters for Shadow Clone Technique on the scroll.

He had chosen this ninjutsu after careful consideration.

The reason Naruto's Clone Technique was so terrible was that the Clone Technique was essentially a type of genjutsu—creating intangible phantoms to confuse opponents. This required extremely precise chakra control, and the very thing Naruto was worst at was this kind of delicate work.

But the Shadow Clone Technique was different.

The Shadow Clone Technique created physical entities. It split a portion of one's own chakra to create another version of oneself that could fight, take hits, and do work. It didn't require precise control; all it required was a massive amount of chakra.

As a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, his chakra reserves were naturally larger than others, not to mention he had the Nine-Tails—an inexhaustible, bottomless power bank—inside him. When others used the Shadow Clone Technique, they would be panting after creating two or three; when Naruto used it, he could create hundreds and still be full of energy.

Qiushui remembered that when Naruto graduated at twelve, his Clone Technique was still a complete disaster, and he couldn't even pass the graduation exam. Yet, after stealing the Scroll of Seals and being pursued, he had easily learned the A-rank forbidden jutsu that was a level higher than the Shadow Clone Technique: the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique.

Since Naruto could learn the higher-level Multi-Shadow Clone Technique, the lower-level Shadow Clone Technique would be even less of a problem for him.

"Teacher Qiushui, are you really going to teach me this ninjutsu?" Naruto asked, feeling a bit uncertain.

In truth, when Qiushui had performed this technique at his home last night, he had been incredibly envious. If he could learn it, he would have someone to play with at home. But after his poor performance today, he didn't have the face to bring it up again, and at this moment, he felt he didn't deserve it.

Qiushui patted his shoulder and said, "Teacher believes that you will definitely be able to learn this technique."

Naruto felt the light radiating from Qiushui grow even more dazzling; he was almost blinded by it.

He nodded vigorously, clenched his fists, and vowed, "Teacher Qiushui, don't worry, I will definitely not let down your expectations of me."

Next, Qiushui first explained the principles of the Shadow Clone Technique to Naruto, then performed the hand signs to demonstrate.

Naruto began to learn according to Qiushui's instructions. He raised his hands in front of his chest and performed the hand signs with a serious look. As the final sign was completed, he shouted, "Shadow Clone Technique!"

"Poof—poof—poof—poof—poof."

Uchiha Sasuke had finished his shuriken throwing practice and was preparing to begin training in the Fire Style: Fireball Technique.

He wove the hand signs, slowly gathering the chakra in his body toward his throat, and was just about to exhale it in one breath.

Suddenly, a strange and dense sound reached his ears, as if something were continuously tearing through the air.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye.

In that instant, his pupils contracted sharply.

Not far away, more than a dozen Narutos had appeared out of thin air, all wearing identical clothes, sporting identical blonde hair, and wearing identical expressions.

This distraction caused his chakra to instantly spiral into chaos, and the fire that was about to erupt from his throat surged violently backward.

Sasuke coughed violently, a puff of black smoke escaping his lips.

But he could not concern himself with that.

He whipped his head around, staring fixedly in that direction without so much as a blink.

For the first time, his cold face was etched with undisguised shock.

As a member of the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke naturally recognized this as the B-rank Shadow Clone Technique, which theoretically belonged to the realm of techniques only accessible to Chunin and Jonin.

If Qiushui were the one using it, he would have found it normal; after all, Qiushui's imposing stature made him look quite formidable.

But it just so happened that this person was Naruto.

That dead last loser who had sat firmly at the bottom of the grade since enrollment.

That idiot who, after four years of study, couldn't even master the most basic Three Basic Techniques.

That clown in class who sought attention by acting out.

That weakling who, every time he challenged him, was defeated in a single move.

That guy he couldn't even be bothered to glance at anymore.

How was this possible?