Sakura Got Stronger!

A year passed in the blink of an eye.

During this year, Anko Mitarashi became the regular instructor for Sasuke's off-campus training.

Though she was meant to be guiding Sasuke, there were always a few extra people at the training ground.

Naruto was always the first to arrive, while Sakura had cut her long hair into a sharp, practical ponytail.

Ino had initially only been dragged along by Sakura, but eventually, she became competitive herself.

Anko primarily taught them the fundamental techniques of taijutsu.

Sakura's talent for chakra control greatly satisfied Anko, and while Naruto's physical stamina continued to improve, his ninjutsu remained somewhat lackluster.

Ino learned to coordinate the timing of her Mind Transfer Jutsu with the use of her shuriken during close-quarters combat.

Compared to the chakra and taijutsu drills he performed with them, Sasuke spent more time researching the acquisition of Cursed Energy.

Throughout the year, armed with a special permit from the Third Hokage, he scoured the Konoha library for documents regarding chakra flow, the meridian system, and ninjutsu shape transformation.

Chakra is refined by mixing physical energy with spiritual energy.

Cursed Energy is energy extracted from negative emotions, which could be conveniently harvested from the red energy radiating from Naruto.

However, it should also be possible to obtain Cursed Energy from the spiritual energy gained during daily cultivation.

Sasuke spent three months identifying the bottleneck in this conversion: the extraction efficiency of spiritual energy was far too low.

He would stimulate his spiritual energy, but the portion containing negative emotions was mostly wasted.

Later, he found inspiration in a paper regarding the precise control of chakra in medical ninjutsu.

Medical ninjas must separate large amounts of chakra into pure physical energy for healing; the higher the precision of the separation, the higher the healing efficiency.

If the same precise control were applied to spiritual energy, he could divert it the moment he refined his chakra.

One part would mix with physical energy to form chakra, while the other would be used directly to condense Cursed Energy.

Sasuke tested this at the training ground for another two months before finally achieving a stable increase.

Now that the recovery of his Cursed Energy had finally stabilized, he could begin practicing cursed techniques.

Things like the incomplete manifestation of Shikigami or the creation of Chimera Beast.

Of course, it was still far inferior to drawing it directly from Naruto.

Under the continuous healing of Round Deer, the Cursed Seal on Black Charcoal's neck had shrunk into a faint, grayish-white mark.

The chakra fed back from it had become increasingly gentle.

White Dog teased that Black Charcoal was no longer a slave to the Cursed Seal, but its caretaker.

White Dog was then pinned to the ground and bitten by Black Charcoal.

Uchiha Training Ground, afternoon.

Naruto stepped on the white line of the dirt field, pointing his right finger at Sasuke, who stood beside a stone pedestal.

"Sasuke! You absolutely cannot use your dogs today!"

White Dog was napping beside the stone pedestal; hearing the word "dog," his ears perked up before drooping back down.

Sasuke tossed his backpack onto the ground and tilted his head to look at Naruto.

"What do you mean, no dogs?"

"I mean no summoning animals!" Naruto placed his hands on his hips, his chest puffed out high.

"Your summoning animals are too cheap! Those two black and white dogs have insane taijutsu, that big guy Round Deer can fight and heal, and as soon as Escaping Rabbit comes out, there's just a sea of white!"

Naruto counted them off on his fingers.

"There are three of us fighting you, and if you call out all your Shikigami, it becomes five against three! That's not fair!"

White Dog yawned and squinted his eyes.

"Oh, Sasuke, even the short blond brat knows what fairness is."

"Shut your trap, you stinking dog! I've made huge progress!" Naruto roared in White Dog's direction before turning his gaze back to Sasuke.

Sakura stood at the edge of the training ground, twirling a kunai in her hand, her ponytail swaying gently in the breeze.

Ino leaned against a wooden post next to Sakura, arms crossed, her long golden hair draped over her shoulders.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto.

"First of all, three-on-one isn't exactly fair to begin with."

Naruto's mouth hung open, his finger frozen in mid-air: "Uh..."

"Secondly, you're the ones who came here to fight; I didn't ask you to."

Naruto muttered something under his breath, seemingly unable to find a rebuttal, and could only scratch the corner of his mouth with his finger.

Ino straightened up from the wooden post and spread her hands.

"I'd like to go one-on-one with you too, but the Mind Transfer Jutsu can't be used without someone to assist me."

"When I'm using the technique, I'm just a sitting duck; Sasuke-kun would be able to dodge it easily."

Ino wore an expression that said it was only natural.

"So, I'm out."

Sakura straightened her back and took a step forward, blocking Naruto.

"I'll fight you alone."

Naruto turned his head, eyes widening as he looked at her.

"Sakura, don't steal my—"

"Let me do this!" Sakura cut him off.

Naruto froze.

Sakura's voice was much higher than usual, as if she were unleashing something she had been holding back for a long time.

Her ponytail swayed behind her head. She gripped her kunai tightly, her profile looking exceptionally serious under the midday sun.

Naruto slowly lowered the hand he still had pointed in the air, then turned his face away, muttering something under his breath.

"Fine, get ready then." Sasuke jumped down from the stone pedestal and pulled his hands out of his pockets.

Sakura took a deep breath.

She distributed chakra evenly across the soles of her feet, adjusted her breathing, and lowered her center of gravity, assuming the standard combat stance Teacher Mitarashi had taught her.

Sasuke just stood there with his hands hanging at his sides, watching Sakura.

The sunlight cast a line of light and shadow across the training ground, and Sakura stood on the brightest side of that line.

Sakura launched the first attack, pushing off with both feet to lunge at Sasuke, her right-hand kunai slashing diagonally from bottom to top.

Sasuke dodged to the side, the metal blade of the kunai grazing his collar.

Sakura didn't stop; her left fist followed up, smashing toward Sasuke's chest.

Sasuke raised his right arm to block, and the fist struck his forearm with a dull thud.

His hand felt a bit numb.

The force wasn't immense, but the angle was tricky, aimed directly at the tendon attachment point of his elbow joint.

Teacher Mitarashi taught her well.

Sakura's offensive didn't cease. She retracted the kunai in her right hand and drew a new one with her left, alternating attacks with the two blades, her angles consistently locked onto Sasuke's joints and weak muscle points.

The steel blades carved several silver arcs in the midday sun, the sound of them cutting through the air whistling sharply.

Sasuke retreated while dodging, occasionally blocking with his arms, but he never once counterattacked.

Naruto watched from the sidelines, his eyes wide: "Since when did Sakura get so good at fighting..."

Ino crossed her arms, the corner of her mouth twitching: "Big Forehead is much stronger than before!"

White Dog stood up at some point and crouched on the stone pedestal, watching the two in the arena.

"This Big Forehead's taijutsu has improved a lot."

Black Dog stood beside White Dog, exhaling a puff of hot air through his nose in agreement.

Sasuke parried Sakura's kunai and jumped back two steps to create distance.

"Not bad." Sasuke's voice was calm. "Again."

The corner of Sakura's mouth twitched slightly.

She threw one of the kunai in her hand toward Sasuke's face.

Sasuke dodged to the side, and the kunai flew past his ear.

But Sakura didn't give him a chance to breathe; she had already completed three hand seals, her speed a full magnitude faster than it had been a year ago.

"Water Style: Water Wave!"

A powerful column of water erupted from Sakura's mouth, striking straight at Sasuke's face.

At the same time, several shuriken were thrown, sealing off Sasuke's left and right paths.

Naruto jumped to his feet on the sidelines: "Sakura can actually use Water Style!"

Ino was also stunned by Sakura, her mouth hanging open, unable to speak.

Sasuke stomped his foot, and a wall of shadow rose up, blocking the water column.

But Sakura had already used the cover of the water to circle around to his side.

Her right fist was clenched tightly at her waist, chakra condensing at her knuckles into a visible blue glow.

Teacher Mitarashi hadn't just taught her taijutsu.

There was a technique in medical ninjutsu that concentrated chakra into a single point to repair minor tissue trauma.

But Sakura had discovered that if this method of concentrated release was applied to an attack, the power was entirely different.

This was something she had figured out on her own over countless nights during the past year.

Sakura's body suddenly slid forward, cutting into Sasuke's blind spot, the blue glow of chakra at her knuckles trailing behind her like a tail.

Her fist, propelled by the force of her chakra, smashed fiercely toward Sasuke's chest, the pressure of the punch blowing his black hair to both sides.

Sasuke leaned backward.

His back was almost touching the ground as he kicked his right leg upward, the tip of his foot striking Sakura's wrist joint.

The kick parried her fist, but the force of the punch still erupted, knocking Sasuke back to the side.