Naive Sakura

Mika and Haruno Mebuki left, leaving only Sakura and Ito Makoto in the room.

Ito Makoto was the first to break the silence.

"Sakura, let me teach you how to refine chakra."

"Okay!" Sakura replied timidly. This was the first time the two had truly interacted.

However, as for teaching, where should he even begin? Ito Makoto felt a bit troubled. He decided to simply follow the method his mother had used to teach him and go through it all over again.

First was the environment; they had to watch the house and couldn't go out to the mountain forests like before. Still, improving the environment should help.

Ito Makoto opened the window, letting the outside air flow in.

He looked around the room and decided the bed was the most comfortable spot.

"Sakura, come sit on the bed."

Sakura obediently followed his instructions.

"I am going to explain the theory and production method of chakra to you now. You must remember it carefully. What is known as chakra is..."

Ito Makoto repeated everything Mika had told him earlier.

After finishing, he asked, "How is it? Do you understand how to produce chakra now?"

Sakura remained silent.

She probably didn't remember much, Ito Makoto thought to himself.

"So, how much did you remember?"

"A little bit."

"How much is a little bit?"

Sakura pressed her thumb and index finger tightly together to show Ito Makoto.

"Just this little bit."

As if to ensure it looked authentic, Sakura squeezed her fingers together with great effort.

Looking at her pressed thumb and index finger, Ito Makoto fell silent. That wasn't a little bit; that was clearly nothing at all.

"Sakura, what exactly did you remember?"

Ito Makoto asked, preparing to fill in the gaps for her.

"I remembered 'what is known as chakra is'."

"And after that?"

"There's nothing after that."

She hadn't remembered anything at all; she had only memorized the opening line.

Oh, Sakura, Sakura, Ito Makoto felt a headache coming on. Sakura, you're supposed to be a top student, how could you not even remember this bit of theory?

However, he had overlooked one thing: no matter how brilliant a top student is, at three years old, they are still just a little brat who can't even count to four. Even if children in this world matured early, the future top student was currently just an ordinary child.

Ito Makoto decided to change his approach. He chose to abandon the theoretical knowledge for now and teach Sakura step-by-step, hand-in-hand. Once she refined chakra, she would naturally understand those concepts.

He acted immediately, giving guidance and having Sakura follow his instructions.

"First, calm your mind and focus until your spirit is completely tranquil."

"Distribute your spirit to every part of your body, merging it with the hundreds of trillions of cells."

"Merge your spiritual energy and physical energy in a counter-clockwise spiral."

The mixing direction of chakra had to follow the spiral of the hair on the crown of the head. In the original story, Naruto Uzumaki had made a mistake with the spiral direction, causing his chakra production to be intermittent, and he only corrected it after being taught by Jiraiya.

He wouldn't let Sakura make the same mistake; he had specifically checked the spiral direction of the hair on Sakura's head earlier.

"After that, you will feel a tiny current of air generated within your body."

Ito Makoto broke the method down as much as possible, teaching Sakura step by step. Sakura followed his instructions one step at a time.

"Finally, the chakra will be refined," Ito Makoto said, stating the final step. He secretly activated his Sharingan to see if there was any chakra flowing inside Sakura.

However, nothing happened.

Ito Makoto was puzzled. How could there be no chakra at all? This was such a simple ability that Sakura should have refined it before he even finished speaking.

"How is it? Do you feel anything?" he asked.

Sakura opened her eyes and shook her head.

"Is there anything you don't understand?"

"What is spiritual energy? And what is counter-clockwise?" Sakura asked innocently.

Great, he had wasted his breath again. She hadn't understood a single thing from the very beginning.

He suddenly had the illusion that he wasn't teaching Sakura, but rather trying to teach an old man how to recite a tongue twister.

It wasn't until evening that Mika and Haruno Mebuki returned from their shopping.

However, at this moment, Uchiha Cheng had already collapsed into his chair, his eyes vacant as if he had been completely drained.

"Sakura, what did you do to Brother Xiao Cheng!" Haruno Mebuki asked in disbelief.

"No, no," Sakura stood up and hurriedly explained, "Brother Xiao Cheng has been teaching me chakra refinement, but I just couldn't understand it, and in the end, Brother Xiao Cheng ended up like this."

Mika chuckled behind her back, "That's more like it! Chakra refinement isn't that easy to learn; a normal child wouldn't be able to master it without at least a year or a year and a half."

"I'm such a fool, truly," Ito Makoto muttered to himself. He shouldn't have taken on this task in the first place.

Mika had no sense of guilt for having set up her own son; she walked straight up and pulled Ito Makoto to his feet.

"Although you didn't teach her, you still put in the effort."

Mika praised him, "Let's continue tomorrow!"

Ito Makoto felt the world go black before his eyes and was about to refuse.

However, Mika seemed to have read his thoughts, "What? Don't tell me you want to just abandon Sakura after she's only just started learning? That would be too pitiful for Sakura."

Ito Makoto was left speechless. Seeing Sakura's innocent, yearning gaze, he simply couldn't bring himself to say no.

"Fine, we'll continue tomorrow," he replied listlessly.

Mika and Aunt Mebuki exchanged a knowing smile; these two little ones were truly amusing.

Mika brought Ito Makoto back to their home on the second floor, and Ito Makoto was surprised to find that the previously messy room was now very tidy, with all sorts of daily necessities fully stocked.

"It's all thanks to your Aunt Mebuki; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to manage it all on my own," Mika sighed with emotion.

Ito Makoto went into his room to check if his daily necessities were all there.

However, at this moment, a knock sounded at the door again. Mika opened the door to see a man with the Uchiha Clan crest on his clothes standing at the entrance.

"You must be Ito Mika. I am here under orders to deliver the assets from the branch family division," the man said coldly.

He tossed a scroll to Mika, "Inside is the property allocated to you. The house belongs to the Uchiha Clan and is not part of the divided assets. Your shared property consists only of some furniture and daily necessities; there are no remaining funds. This scroll contains the sealed monetary equivalent of your daily necessities and furniture. You may count them."

Mika opened the scroll and released the seal. As a puff of smoke cleared, daily necessities like bedding appeared out of thin air.

Mika and Ito Makoto counted them and found that nothing was missing. Even the ninjutsu scroll for Earth Spear was still there.

After confirming everything was correct, Mika signed the confirmation documents.

The man put the documents away and said coldly, "According to the rules, you should have also assumed half of Uchiha Kenji's debts, but thanks to the mercy of the Clan Head, this portion has been waived for you. Be grateful for the Uchiha's benevolence!"

Having said that, he used the Body Flicker Technique and departed.

Ito Makoto couldn't quite grasp the Uchiha's train of thought. It wasn't their debt to begin with, so why should they have to bear it? And even if it was waived, they still expected them to be kowtowing in gratitude.

Pah! What a piece of trash, the Uchiha.