Naruto Is My Big Battery!

The moment a rough idea for improving the Ten Shadows Technique had taken shape in his mind, the school bell rang.

Sasuke shook his head and decided to go home and think about it some more.

He straightened up, grabbed his schoolbag from the desk, and slung it over his shoulder. Then he walked past Naruto, who was arguing with Shikamaru, and left the classroom.

The evening sky over Konoha was a beautiful orange-red. Sasuke walked along the street, stepping over the shadows of the telephone poles stretched out before him, and headed for the new place the Third Hokage had arranged for him.

"Hey! Sasuke!"

Footsteps scuffed against the sandy ground behind him. Then a stone was kicked hard, striking a telephone pole with a sharp crack.

Naruto walked a short distance behind Sasuke, his hands clasped behind his head as he dragged his feet.

"Are you running so fast because you're afraid of me, huh? Heh. You must be scared of the ultimate jutsu I've just developed!"

Sasuke really didn't want to respond to such a pointless provocation.

That blond kid was even louder than Itadori, and he had absolutely no idea how to read the room.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" When Sasuke ignored him, Naruto quickened his pace and drew closer, still chattering away.

"What are you doing on this road? This is the way to my house! Don't tell me you're such a fan of mine that you're secretly following me!"

Sasuke sighed.

"Who follows someone by walking in front of them?"

"You bastard! Don't think acting cool at school makes you so great!" Naruto raised his voice another few notches at Sasuke's attitude.

Sasuke suddenly stopped.

Naruto clearly hadn't expected him to do that. He couldn't brake in time and nearly ran into Sasuke's back.

He hurriedly hopped backward a few steps and assumed a defensive stance.

"W-what... What are you doing? You wanna fight?"

Sasuke looked up and pointed to the apartment building ahead.

"I live here."

Naruto stood rooted to the spot, mouth hanging open as he watched Sasuke climb the stairs.

"No way..." Naruto muttered, then hurried after him.

Sasuke went up to the second floor and stopped in front of the room at the very end. He took the key Hiruzen had given him from his pocket.

Sasuke turned his head.

Naruto stood in front of the neighboring door, clutching a set of keys with a frog keychain.

His eyes were full of disbelief as he stared hard at Sasuke.

"You-you-you!"

"How are you actually living here?! This is my territory!"

"Did you do this on purpose? You definitely did, didn't you?! So you can sneak up on me in the middle of the night!"

Sasuke put the key in the lock and turned it to the right. The door swung open.

"Clearly, it's my territory now, too."

"How is that possible?! Where'd you get the key?"

"Lord Hokage gave it to me."

"No! You—you can't live here!"

He was so noisy.

Sasuke had been planning to go straight inside and shut the door on the chattering nuisance.

But as he pushed the door open to enter, he stopped.

A strange flow of energy was seeping slowly outward from Naruto's abdomen, following the emotions stirred up by his outburst.

Sasuke released the doorknob and turned to study Naruto.

He gathered what little Cursed Energy he had left and concentrated it in his eyes.

Through a Jujutsu Sorcerer's sight, the scene before him changed completely.

He could see more than just Naruto. A mass of dark-red energy nearly engulfed the entire hallway.

It wasn't chakra. Or rather, it wasn't just chakra.

It was filled with rage, hatred, a desire for destruction, and boundless malice.

The energy radiated negative emotions that made his scalp crawl.

A word came to Sasuke almost instantly.

Special Grade.

The sheer volume of those negative emotions was on the level of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, perhaps even one of the most powerful.

Cursed Energy was energy drawn from human negative emotions.

And now, a mass of negative emotions powerful enough to engulf an entire city stood right in front of him, radiating energy without a care in the world.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's abdomen for a long time.

Under Sasuke's unrelenting gaze, Naruto began to feel uneasy.

He took half a step back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"W-why are you looking at me like that? I'm warning you, I'm really strong!" Naruto's voice grew a little quieter despite himself.

Sasuke looked away. The dark-red energy field disappeared from his eyes, and the hallway returned to normal.

Maybe I can experiment with converting the emotional energy leaking from him into energy to power the Ten Shadows Technique. And with him around, it'll be like having a signal jammer. I can experiment with Cursed Energy without anyone finding out...

Lord Hokage, you've done me a huge favor.

Sasuke remembered the way people on the street had looked at Naruto.

So that's why. They fear him because he has something like this inside him?

It's just like those people among the Jujutsu Higher-Ups treating Itadori that way.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Sasuke said. His tone wasn't sharp; it was actually quite gentle.

Naruto froze. He wasn't used to Sasuke calling him that out of the blue.

"W-what?"

"I just moved in, and I don't have any kitchenware yet." Sasuke looked at him. "What do you usually eat?"

Naruto's eyes lit up. His wariness and provocations from moments ago were instantly forgotten.

"What? So you need me to take care of you after all, huh?"

He flung open his own door and rushed inside. Less than two seconds later, he dashed back out with three different flavors of cup noodles in his arms.

"Instant noodles! Ichiraku Ramen is the best, of course, but cup noodles are great, too! I've got seafood, pork bone, and miso!"

Naruto held the cup noodles out in front of Sasuke, looking like a kid showing off his treasures. "Which one do you want? I'll make a special exception and give you one!"

Sasuke looked at the instant noodles and took the seafood-flavored one.

"Thanks."

Holding the cup noodles, Sasuke pushed open his door.

"Hey!" Naruto called from behind him.

"We've got shuriken throwing tomorrow, and I'm definitely gonna beat you! I mean, I took care of you, so I'm your boss now!" Naruto's voice echoed down the hallway.

Sasuke walked into his room and shut the door behind him.

"Whatever you say."

The door closed.

Naruto stood in the hallway, staring at Sasuke's closed door for a while.

He looked down at his frog keychain, then over at the neighboring door.

Sasuke seemed different from before—and even more different from the adults in the village.

"Tch, what's so great about him?" Naruto muttered, then turned and opened his own door.

The apartment was laid out simply: a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and a small balcony.

The furnishings were just as sparse: a single bed, a wardrobe, and a wooden table.

A faint fragrance lingered in the air. Someone must have just cleaned the place.

Sasuke tossed the cup noodles onto the table and walked to the open space in the center of the room. He sensed the energy pulsing from Naruto through the wall between them.

Naruto seemed to be rummaging around for something next door. His footsteps were heavy, accompanied by the sound of a chair scraping across the floor.

As he moved, the dark-red negative emotions waxed and waned, washing slowly over Sasuke's room.

Sasuke waited in silence, waiting for a moment when Naruto's emotions would swell!

A cup fell over next door, followed by Naruto's startled cry. The energy pulsed, reaching a slight peak.

Now.

Sasuke's hands moved quickly, crossing in front of his chest.

He drew out chakra and guided it through his pathways and into his hands.

As it passed through his arms, he added a crude transformation of chakra's nature, then guided the force downward and poured it into the shadow beneath his feet.

To be honest, the nature transformation was rough, but the Ten Shadows Technique was Fushiguro Megumi's innate technique. The shadow on the ground still began to ripple.

It was working!

Sasuke took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes and began to use the pitifully small amount of Cursed Energy in his body as a catalyst, drawing in and assimilating the negative energy seeping through from next door.

He could imagine that capturing negative energy would be difficult, but experiencing it firsthand still shocked him.

The energy was intensely repellent, resisting his attempts to guide it.

Sasuke felt as though he were trying to catch a hedgehog with his bare hands.

He gritted his teeth. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he forcibly pressed the violent energy into his own pathways.

"Hiss—"

A knife-like pain ran through his meridians.

But he succeeded.

A small amount of strange Cursed Energy, mixed with chakra, took shape inside him.

Sasuke's fingers moved rapidly. He pressed his thumbs together and formed a hand sign resembling the head of a dog.

The rippling shadow in the corner began to churn. Something was about to break through it.

"Divine... Dogs?"