Two and a Half Days, Success, I'll Teach You Lightning Style!

"Ah... you see, didn't I tell you?"

"Not everyone has a natural talent for Chakra Control."

"Naruto, Sakura, if you don't believe me, why don't you give it a try..."

Seeing Sasuke, the most monstrously gifted of the three, suffer a setback, Kakashi didn't hold back, rubbing salt into the wound.

Hearing this, Naruto took a deep breath and, fueled by a burst of reckless momentum, charged straight at the tree.

But the next moment, as expected, he was sent sprawling, completely disoriented...

"Ugh... help me, I think I might have to start using crutches like Kakashi-sensei..."

With stars in his eyes and his head spinning, Naruto muttered subconsciously as he lay on the ground.

"Oh, boy..."

Looking at this clown of a teammate, Sasuke and Sakura were rendered speechless, their faces darkening with exasperation.

"Sakura, the two of them have both tried. Now it's your turn..."

At this moment, Kakashi reminded her.

Glancing at Naruto, who was still dazed not far away, Sakura couldn't help but swallow hard.

Unlike Naruto and Sasuke, she didn't sprint at it from the start.

Instead, she walked slowly and cautiously up to a tree trunk, then gradually gathered her chakra, taking a step upward bit by bit.

And then...

Then, a scene that left Sasuke and Naruto wide-eyed and slack-jawed unfolded!

Sakura showed absolutely no signs of falling.

Step by step, she walked steadily, arms spread wide, just like someone crossing a balance beam.

Although she wasn't fast, she was clearly doing better than the failed Sasuke and Naruto beside her!

"This..."

Naruto and Sasuke stared, eyes wide, unable to utter a single word.

They had actually been beaten by a girl.

Though they were unwilling to accept it, the facts were right there, beyond any doubt.

Not far away, Kakashi saw the two of them looking as wilted as frost-bitten eggplants.

He chuckled and teased them loudly:

"Sasuke, Naruto, one of you has a boundless future, and the other is a man who aspires to become the Hokage."

"Are you really going to slack off and lose your drive just because of this tiny setback?"

"How will you ever accomplish great things in the future?..."

The words jolted Naruto awake. He clenched his fists, suddenly energized as if he'd been injected with adrenaline, and roared:

"Yes! I am the man who will become the Hokage!"

"I will never give up!..."

While these words were extremely effective for Naruto, they had little impact on Sasuke.

Training? Talent?

Sasuke didn't have any so-called talent; all he had was a cheat.

In other words, without the support of the system, the original owner of this body would still be a loser who struggled to even awaken his eyes, even if his entire clan had been wiped out.

With that kind of aptitude, talking about talent was complete nonsense!

Thinking of this, Sasuke focused his mind and shouted internally:

"System, upgrade my Chakra Control to level three!"

[Ding! Chakra Control successfully upgraded! It is now at level three. Consumed one skill point.]

[Remaining skill points: 4]

[Level: 8 (No level-up from this skill point consumption.)]

After such a long time, plus the heavy cost of wasting a skill point without even leveling up, Sasuke felt a bit dejected.

But just then.

Kakashi seemed to notice the look of disappointment on Sasuke's face.

So, gritting his teeth as if he had finally made up his mind, he spoke again:

"Sasuke, actually, hard work can sometimes bridge the gap in talent!"

"This time, if you can successfully walk up the trunk of this tree within three days... no, two and a half days, I promise to teach you a Lightning Style jutsu. How about that?"

At the mention of Lightning Style, Sasuke instantly snapped out of his dejection.

He hadn't expected such a gain; heh, he had been craving Chidori for a long time now.

Thinking this, Sasuke forcibly reined in his inner joy.

He didn't let it go to his head; he had just heard that Kakashi likely didn't want to teach him Lightning Style right now at all.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have imposed a two-and-a-half-day time limit.

Thus, Sasuke looked up, deliberately feigning anxiety on his face as he addressed Kakashi, who was perched in the tree:

"Kakashi-sensei, is it really only two and a half days?"

"Could you perhaps extend the time a little? After all, I'm still just a child..."

Hearing this, Kakashi didn't even think about it, waving his hand to refuse him heartlessly:

"That won't do. Two and a half days is the limit of what I can accept."

"I originally wanted to give you only three days, but seeing you like this, I couldn't bear it and made a concession..."

A sly arc quietly tugged at the corner of Sasuke's mouth as he asked again:

"Well... alright then."

"This is very difficult for me; it's quite a challenge."

"Kakashi-sensei, if I manage to do it, you won't go back on your word, will you?"

Hearing this, Kakashi waved his hand, his tone somewhat displeased:

"Rest assured, I never go back on my word!"

"The only obstacle standing between you and that Lightning Style now is yourself."

"Of course, if you exceed the time limit or simply fail to learn it, you have no one to blame but yourself..."

Having said that, Kakashi looked at Naruto and then at Sasuke.

Despite saying so much, there was actually one thing he hadn't confessed to the three of them.

That was the fact that the greater a ninja's chakra reserves, the harder it was to master Chakra Control.

The reason Naruto had fallen the hardest was because of the Nine-Tails sealed within him.

Sasuke was second.

Sakura might have succeeded on her first try, but that precisely proved she had the least talent of the three.

Seeing Kakashi standing on the tree trunk, lost in thought after finishing his sentence, Sasuke dropped the act. He chuckled and said to Kakashi:

"Kakashi-sensei, you must never forget what you just said."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Hearing this call, Kakashi instantly snapped out of his contemplation.

Seeing the slight upturn of Sasuke's lips, he felt a strange sense of panic.

"Don't panic, Kakashi-sensei. I just wanted to say that I'm going to try again now, so please don't run off..."

Don't run off?

Swallowing hard, Kakashi forced himself to remain calm:

"You... go ahead. I won't be leaving for a while..."

"Good!"

Before the words had even faded, Sasuke didn't dawdle.

This time, he imitated Sakura, walking up to the tree trunk with steady steps, then raised his hands slightly and slowly closed his eyes.

"What on earth is this guy doing?"

"Does he think he can successfully control the chakra in his body just by copying Sakura?"

Naruto watched Sasuke's movements, his face full of confusion.

"If I had known, I would have pretended I couldn't do it..."

"By outshining Sasuke, will he hate me? Is that why he's using this method to mock me on purpose?"

Twisting her fingers together, Sakura's thoughts were complex.

"This guy, he didn't look like he was faking it before..."

"Could it be that he was doing it on purpose earlier, and it wasn't an accident?"

"The hypothesis holds, but that doesn't feel right, does it?"

"After all, I didn't promise the kid anything before this, did I?"

"No matter how calculating he might be, he couldn't possibly predict the future, could he?..."

Thinking this, Kakashi let out a sudden sigh of relief, his tense nerves finally beginning to unwind.

"It seems I must have been overthinking things, hmm..."