Chapter 7

How could a man who was almost thirty be interested in some little brat?

If he had to be interested, it would have to be in women on Terumi Mei or Princess Tsunade's level...

Of course, that was for later.

At the Ninja Academy, in the principal's office. "You're Sasuke, right? When you were just born, your father, Fugaku, came to me and said he wanted to name you after my father."

"I didn't expect you to grow so big in the blink of an eye."

"And just like Itachi, your talent is astonishing."

"Itachi has praised his little brother in front of me plenty of times."

Hiruzen Sarutobi said it all with a cheerful smile.

Sasuke rolled his eyes inwardly—this old fox really knew how to put on an act.

First he had fooled Itachi in circles, and now he wanted to use Itachi as a lead-in to fool him. "Grandpa... no, Lord Hokage!"

Sasuke was still figuring out how to answer without exposing the irritation and disgust in his heart when a foolish voice suddenly cut in.

That was right. After Naruto learned that the old grandpa who had always cared about him was the Hokage, how could he miss the chance to talk to Hiruzen Sarutobi?

Everyone else had left, but he had secretly followed them over. "Naruto, why aren't you in class?"

"Now is the time to study hard."

The smile on Hiruzen Sarutobi's face did not change at all. "I'm going to become Hokage one day! That's my dream!"

"So I wanted to ask you... can I... can I do it?"

Naruto rubbed his hands together a little nervously. "That's a very good dream. But if you want to become Hokage, you have to train hard."

"Do your best, Naruto."

"By the way, Sasuke, what is your dream?"

After casually encouraging him a couple of times, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned the topic back to Sasuke.

Naruto also stared at Sasuke with a face full of curiosity.

He knew Sasuke was incredibly strong.

Maybe in the future, Sasuke would be his biggest rival on the road to becoming Hokage.

At that thought, fighting spirit flared in Naruto's eyes. "Me?"

"I just want to lie flat. As long as I can eat my fill every day, I'll be satisfied."

Sasuke spread both hands and answered off the cuff. "..."

"..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Naruto both choked at the same time. "Itachi said you train especially seriously."

"You train that hard. Surely it can't be so you can lie flat in the future, can it?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to poke through Sasuke's disguise.

Who trained painstakingly every day just to slack off?

"So I'll have a good body when I lie flat, and can enjoy life properly."

"And so I won't get killed casually by someone."

Sasuke lifted his little face and revealed an innocent smile...

Sasuke glanced at his own portion—with this meal in front of him, the difference was too great.

After that, the two of them chatted casually for a bit, then returned to the classroom together. Next came boring cultural lessons, the basics of ninjutsu, tactical analysis... By the time all that had been covered, school was over. "Sasuke, why do you have to slack off?"

"Sasuke, let's work hard together toward becoming Hokage, okay?"

"Sasuke, you really can't keep doing this."

"Sasuke..."

All along the way, Naruto was like a fly, endlessly buzzing beside Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke was so annoyed he could not take it anymore. He turned around, stared into Naruto's eyes, and said seriously, "Naruto, we're friends now. Remember this. If you run into trouble in the future, come straight to me. Don't go digging through trash cans for expired food anymore, and you're not allowed to train on an empty stomach."

"Okay!"

"Then, Sasuke, let's work together with the goal of becoming Hok—"

Finally, when they reached the place where they had to part ways, Naruto's talk-no-jutsu finally stopped.

His ears were much quieter.

After separating from Naruto, Sasuke's expression instantly darkened.

Uchiha Fugaku had only started truly looking at him recently. Today, Hiruzen Sarutobi had called him over for a talk, which clearly meant he had noticed Sasuke's changes. Otherwise, according to the original plot, that old man would never have paid special attention to him. After all, with Itachi as a shining example ahead of him, Sasuke's original bit of talent was nothing worth looking at.

There was only one explanation—there was a Hiruzen Sarutobi informant inside the house. "Ha!"

"Bang!"

Just then, a low shout came from the public training ground not far away.

Sasuke looked over in the direction of the sound.

A watermelon head, green skintight suit...

"Rock Lee?"

After seeing the person clearly, Sasuke slowly walked over.

Hearing the movement, Rock Lee also stopped what he was doing. "You are..."

Rock Lee tilted his head and studied the child in front of him, curiosity in his eyes. "Uchiha Sasuke. I just entered the Ninja Academy. Hello."

Sasuke openly held out his hand. "Hello."

"Want to train together? Youth must never stop, not for a single second!"

Rock Lee grinned, showing a row of white teeth, and raised a thumbs-up. "Sure."

Sasuke nodded and stepped into the training ground.

Many people underestimated Rock Lee's potential. Might Guy himself had said that this kid's talent in taijutsu was even higher than his own. At fifteen or sixteen, Rock Lee had already opened the Eight Gates to the sixth gate—and that was under all kinds of unfavorable restrictions. During the Chunin Exams, he had forcibly opened the Gate of Limit, and before his injuries had even fully healed, he had gone and fought Kimimaro to the death...

In terms of taijutsu alone, there were definitely things to learn from this kid. "How about we exchange a few moves?"

Before Rock Lee even finished speaking, he directly formed the starting seal for a spar.

Uchiha—he had heard that name. A famous clan of geniuses in the village, with a bloodline limit as powerful as the Sharingan. And Uchiha taijutsu was also just as tough a nut to crack. "Come on."

Sasuke had no intention of hiding anything.

Right now, he still had the Uchiha Clan supporting him from behind, and Shisui and Itachi were both still alive. The village could not possibly do anything to a little kid who had stood out at the age of five.

Besides, he already had other plans for the Rock Lee in front of him.

To deal with this kind of one-track-minded guy, the simplest method was to use strength to crush him flat!

"Bang!"

The next second, a heavy kick chopped down.

Sasuke blocked with his arm, but he was still shaken back several steps.

That force smashed into his arm, making even the gaps between his bones go numb.

He had to admit, this thick-browed kid opposite him had a ridiculously solid physical foundation. "Lightning God Mode!"

A mass of lightning instantly exploded inside Sasuke's body.

This move was mainly used to strengthen his own power. It did not have to be made into that flashy kind of whole-body lightning effect. When he really did not want to leak electricity, he could completely keep it contained. "Bang!"

The next second, Sasuke's entire body directly vanished into thin air.

He was so fast that Rock Lee could not catch his figure at all. "Pfft!"

"Bang!"

"Boom..."

A series of punches came smashing down, and Rock Lee was beaten into confusion, unable to break out of Sasuke's attack range no matter what he did.

If this kept going, he would definitely lose.

The most fatal part was that the other side did not even deign to use ninjutsu, suppressing him completely with taijutsu alone.

Thinking of this, even stronger fighting spirit burned in Rock Lee's heart instead.

Before long, he had figured out Sasuke's attack pattern and started trying to counterattack.

Although he was still getting beaten most of the time, at least he was no longer standing there stupidly and letting himself be hit. "This guy learns really fast."

Although Sasuke had been suppressing him the entire time, he was inwardly quite shocked.

Winning or losing was not the issue. The issue was that this person's growth speed was too frightening. "Caught you!"

Taking advantage of the instant Sasuke's mind wandered, Rock Lee charged right up to him and punched straight at his face.

Good grief. Did this guy aim specifically for the face when he hit people?

"Zzzzt... zzzzt..."

"Boom!"

A burst of explosive lightning suddenly rebounded out, electrocuting Rock Lee on the spot.

Immediately afterward, Lee, smoking all over, toppled straight to the ground. "You're very strong."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. Want to train together from now on?"

Sasuke held out his hand and smiled at him.

That Lightning Release just now had actually been controlled very well. It only made him unable to continue fighting, and would not really leave anything wrong with him. "Sure!"

"From today on, you, Rock Lee, are my friend."

"Wait, I'll give you something. It's a symbol of youth!"

Rock Lee sprang up with a whoosh, looking nothing like someone who had just been electrocuted to the ground.

He dashed to the corner to rummage through his bag, and in the blink of an eye, pulled out a bright green outfit and handed it over. "My teacher gave me these clothes. I'm giving them to you."

"When you put them on—"

"Hey, why are you running... I..."

"Don't go!"

Before he could finish speaking, Sasuke was already gone.

Rock Lee stood there in a daze, holding the clothes, and muttered to himself, "Such handsome clothes. Why doesn't he want them?"

"Does he think the gift is too valuable?"

"Tsk, this friend is way too polite."

He put the clothes away, then started pondering again—since he had lost to Sasuke just now, today's training volume had to be doubled.

The moment he entered the house, cold sweat was still breaking out on Sasuke's back.

Sure enough, geniuses all had something wrong with them to some extent.

Those clothes... he would never wear them even if he were beaten to death. "Sasuke, you're back?"

"I'm free today, so I'll train with you."

Before he could even catch his breath, he heard Uchiha Itachi's perverted-fanatic-like tone drift over. "Sure."

"Brother, I want to ask you something."

"Did you tell Lord Hokage everything about me?"

Sasuke looked at his older brother with a face full of disdain.

Sasuke had been thinking the whole way back about who exactly had leaked his little matters to the Hokage.

Uchiha Fugaku? Impossible.

His mother? Even more impossible.

As for Aunt Buhin... what she had said to Naruto had already cleared her of suspicion completely.

Then there was only one option left—the grinning, foolishly smiling older brother in front of him. "That's right."

"Did Lord Hokage give you some indication that he wanted to cultivate you properly?"

Itachi's tone sounded exactly like a child waiting to be praised.

Tsk. This good older brother of his had already been fooled so badly he could not tell north from south. "Brother, let's go train."

"Also, I want to learn some genjutsu and ninjutsu."

"Dad refuses to teach me, so you have to teach me, right?"

Sasuke did not keep pressing that topic.

Changing Itachi's thinking was not something that could be done in a day or two.

Aside from his personality being a little stubborn, this older brother was still quite reliable toward him—at least when it came to Sasuke himself, there was absolutely no problem. "Okay."

"Let's go to the training ground."

Seeing Sasuke reveal that expression of dependence on him again, Itachi's smile deepened even more.

He led Sasuke all the way toward the training ground.

This training session lasted until midnight.

Aunt Buhin brought meals over twice in the middle before finally closing up her stall.

At this moment, Sasuke lay sprawled on the ground, exhausted like a dead dog. "Brother, you're way too ruthless, aren't you?"

"I'm only five!"

Sasuke gasped for breath in great gulps, still complaining nonstop. "Sasuke, your improvement lately really hasn't been small, but you need to fully master this power as soon as possible."

"Also—you've awakened the Sharingan?"

Itachi suddenly put away his smile, his tone turning calm. "Mm."

Sasuke did not hide it and nodded directly.

With Itachi's talent, plus the insight and reaction speed Sasuke had displayed during their spar just now—most importantly, after awakening the Sharingan, the chakra flow around the eye sockets could not be hidden at all.

How could a genius like Itachi, who paid extra attention to Sasuke, possibly fail to notice? "In a moment, I'll set up a barrier. Fight me for one round with your Sharingan active."

Itachi's tone remained very calm. "Okay."

Sasuke answered, then slowly climbed up from the ground.

He took a soldier pill from his pocket, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed it.

This thing had been requested from Uchiha Fugaku, supposedly to replenish stamina during training.

Once his stamina had mostly recovered, Sasuke slowly opened both eyes.

The three-tomoe Sharingan shone clearly. "Three tomoe!"

Itachi froze completely.

[Ding, Uchiha Itachi's shock detected. Mission triggered.]

[Completed 10 actions that shocked Uchiha Itachi]

[1/10]

Just then, the system's notification exploded in his mind. "Hm?"

"That shocked him already?"

Sasuke had originally only wanted to flash his Sharingan and show off his current strength in passing—letting Itachi, his elder brother, know that he was no longer the little brat who needed to be protected behind him.

That way, the moves he was going to make next would be taken seriously.

Then, bit by bit, he would pull Itachi back.

From the look of things now, he had to throw out some of his trump cards early. "Brother, get ready."

"I'm making my move."

As soon as the words fell, Lightning God Mode activated directly. "Boom!"