Disguise

The next morning, Naruto hurried over to Sasuke's house and called for him so they could practice shuriken together. It was Itachi who opened the door. Seeing Naruto, he smiled and said, "Naruto, you're here early to train with Sasuke?" Naruto politely replied, "Yes, Big Brother Itachi. I promised Sasuke yesterday that I'd come by and train with him."

Itachi smiled and nodded, then called into the house, "Sasuke, Naruto's here for you." "Okay, I'm coming," Sasuke called back. Before long, he came hurrying over to Naruto and Itachi.

He looked nervous, but once he reached Naruto, he put on a calm front and said, "You're here. Let's go." Then he strode out of the house with an air of nonchalance, without even saying goodbye to Itachi.

Naruto gave him a helpless look, then turned to Itachi and said, "We're off. Goodbye, Big Brother Itachi." Itachi smiled. "I'm counting on you to look after Sasuke, Naruto." Naruto replied over his shoulder as he walked, "I will, Big Brother Itachi. Sasuke, wait up!" Itachi smiled as he watched them leave.

Itachi knew that, aside from him, his younger brother Sasuke had barely interacted with anyone. It was only natural that Sasuke would be both nervous and excited to suddenly have a friend, so Itachi didn't blame him for acting out of character. To Itachi, nothing mattered more than Sasuke's happiness.

Once Naruto and Sasuke reached the woods, they began practicing with shuriken.

Naruto watched as Sasuke leaped onto a branch and threw three shuriken from three different directions at once. He then jumped down from the tree, continually changing his posture in midair as he threw six more shuriken, before landing. A series of sharp cracks rang out, and every shuriken hit the bull's-eye.

Sasuke looked at Naruto proudly, his expression practically saying, "See how good I am?"

Naruto played along. "You're amazing, Sasuke. I didn't know you were so good with shuriken." Hearing Naruto's praise, Sasuke proudly lifted his chin.

Naruto took out his own shuriken and said, "I can't lose, either." Then he leaped high into the air, turning over and over as he threw shuriken. When he landed, sharp cracks rang out through the air, and several shuriken had hit the bull's-eye as well. Sasuke looked surprised. "I didn't think you could do it, too. I underestimated you. Let's keep going." Sasuke wasn't one to back down, and seeing that Naruto could do it, too, made him want to compete even more.

Naruto wasn't one to back down, either. (Mostly because he'd lived through two lifetimes and couldn't believe he'd be outdone by a five-year-old Sasuke, even if Sasuke was a true genius. Losing to a little kid would be embarrassing.)

The two practiced in the woods for a long time before finally lying down on the grass to rest. Sasuke said, "I didn't expect you to be this good." Naruto replied, "You're one to talk. You're a real genius." Sasuke laughed happily. "You're not bad yourself." He soon fell asleep.

Looking at the sleeping Sasuke, Naruto thought, What a terrifying kid. He's only five and already this good. No wonder he's the reincarnation of Indra. I'm only five, too, but I have the life experience and mentality of two lifetimes more than him. Yet, if you set Kekkei Genkai aside, Sasuke and I are about evenly matched right now.

After closing his eyes to rest for a while, Naruto saw that Sasuke had rested enough, too, and said, "Sasuke, let's have a sparring match." Sasuke happily replied, "Sure, if you don't mind getting hurt." Naruto said cockily, "We'll see who gets hurt, brat."

Without waiting for Sasuke to respond, he pulled out a shuriken and threw it at him. Sasuke hurriedly leaped into a tree, threw a few shuriken back at Naruto, then flung a kunai at him as he charged. "You're a brat, too! And you attacked me by surprise—what a coward!"

Seeing Sasuke charge, Naruto drew a kunai and began clashing with him. They traded blows, evenly matched.

When Sasuke realized he couldn't gain an advantage in Taijutsu, he leaped backward after clashing kunai with Naruto once more, putting some distance between them. Naruto tried to pursue him, but Sasuke threw the kunai in his hand.

Naruto knocked Sasuke's kunai aside with his own and looked toward him. Sasuke quickly formed several hand signs, then raised his hands to his mouth as if to blow and said, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

A huge fireball flew toward Naruto. He was startled that Sasuke could use the Great Fireball Technique, but his hands quickly formed several signs. He swept his right hand forward. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough." Naruto's Great Breakthrough met Sasuke's Great Fireball in midair, and the two techniques canceled each other out.

Sasuke hadn't expected his Great Fireball to be countered, and he froze for a moment. But Naruto gave him no time to recover: he spit out the kunai he'd been holding in his mouth and hurled it at Sasuke. The kunai accidentally grazed Sasuke's arm.

Seeing what had happened, Naruto ran over anxiously. "Sasuke, are you okay?" He took Sasuke's arm and examined it, then quickly pulled cotton, medicine, and bandages from his ninja pouch.

Using tweezers to hold the cotton, he wiped the blood from Sasuke's arm and tossed the bloody cotton into a sealable bag. Then he applied medicine and wrapped the wound with a bandage. Looking at Sasuke, he asked, "Are you okay? Does it still hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Sasuke had already come to his senses when Naruto ran over, and he'd been about to speak. But then he saw Naruto stopping the bleeding, applying medicine, and wrapping the wound. He just stared at Naruto in a daze.

He felt a little happy seeing how worried Naruto was. It wasn't until Naruto asked him again that Sasuke came back to himself. He awkwardly turned his head away and replied coldly, "I'm fine. It's just a little scratch. Don't make such a fuss." He pulled his arm out of Naruto's grasp and walked off with a haughty air.

Naruto scratched his head and followed Sasuke with a grin. "Sasuke, I'll walk you home." Sasuke coldly replied, "Do whatever you want," then walked even faster. Naruto jogged after him.

When they reached Sasuke's house, they were greeted by Itachi, who was always smiling. Seeing the bandage on Sasuke's arm, Itachi asked with concern, "Sasuke, how did you get hurt? Is it serious?" Sasuke replied, "I'm fine, Big Brother. I just got a little scratch while training. Naruto's an idiot for worrying so much and insisting on bandaging it."

Itachi turned to Naruto. "Thank you, Naruto. My little brother doesn't know how to take care of himself. It's a good thing you were there." Naruto replied sheepishly, "It's nothing. You don't need to thank me. It was my responsibility. Sasuke wouldn't have gotten hurt if I hadn't made a mistake."

Seeing them go on and on, Sasuke impatiently said, "All right, I said I'm fine. Naruto, come again tomorrow." With that, he went inside.

Itachi apologized to Naruto. "Sorry about that, Naruto. He's just like that. See you tomorrow." Naruto politely replied, "All right. See you tomorrow, Big Brother Itachi." Then he headed home. Itachi waited until Naruto had disappeared from sight before turning and going inside to check on Sasuke.

On his way home, Naruto stopped to eat a bowl of ramen. When he got home, he lay down in bed and took an afternoon nap.

Meanwhile, far away at the Hokage Office, the Third Hokage watched Naruto eat and then fall asleep inside the crystal ball. He shook his head helplessly and said, "Eating and then going right to sleep isn't good for his health. I'll have to find time to talk to him about it. That boy really doesn't know how to take care of himself."

Looking at the sleeping Naruto and thinking about his sparring match with Sasuke, he murmured, "These two are both promising young talents for Konoha and deserve a good education. One day, they'll be two great pillars supporting Konoha. In a few days, I'll send them both to the Ninja Academy to study properly." After watching for a little longer, the Third Hokage ended his surveillance of Naruto.

Just as the Third Hokage stopped watching him, Naruto suddenly opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He murmured, "Looks like it's over. I hope this won't disappoint me."

It turned out that ever since Naruto and Sasuke had gone to the woods to train, Naruto's immense mental strength had made him sense that someone was watching him. He knew it had to be the old Third Hokage spying on him with the crystal ball.

So, to avoid drawing the Third Hokage's attention and reassure him, Naruto had acted friendly, shown concern for his friend, and looked after his companion. He ate and slept as he pleased, putting on the innocent air of a five-year-old child.

Sparring with Sasuke had also shown the Third Hokage how talented he was, earning him more approval. That way, the Third Hokage would stand firm against Danzo over his affairs and wouldn't back down. Otherwise, it would be a problem if the old man got it into his head to compromise with Danzo one day, even if that was highly unlikely. Naruto had only woken up after the Third Hokage stopped watching him.

Naruto closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings again. When he found that nobody was watching him anymore, he said, "White Eye, activate." His White Eye opened in the middle of his forehead, and the veins around his eyes bulged.

A spatial rift slowly formed in the space in front of his White Eye. Naruto waved his hand in front of it, and a bag appeared in his hand. It was the bag Naruto had used to collect the cotton with Sasuke's blood on it when he stopped the bleeding.

After taking out the bag, Naruto deactivated his White Eye. He quickly retrieved a number of medical instruments from beneath his bed, then placed the cotton stained with Sasuke's blood into a glass vial with many tiny holes. Taking a glass rod, he pressed down hard, squeezing out Sasuke's blood until he had extracted all the blood from the cotton.

Then Naruto took a needle and pricked his finger, placing a drop of his own blood on a glass slide. He used a dropper to draw up some of Sasuke's blood and mixed it with his own. Under the microscope he had stolen, Naruto saw that his blood and Sasuke's had blended perfectly, with no signs of rejection. What's more, the cells seemed to have become even more active.

Naruto knew he'd already succeeded halfway. His blood and Sasuke's weren't rejecting each other. Next came careful observation. If the cells remained stable, he'd be able to boldly inject Sasuke's blood into his own body, allowing himself to possess both Asura's and Indra's chakra and awaken the Rinnegan to resurrect his parents.

Looking at Sasuke's blood, Naruto clenched his fists and said, "Mom, Dad, I'll definitely bring you back to life. No matter what I have to face, I won't take even one step back."