Training Begins!

The team sent after Sasuke had returned. No one had died or been injured, but they had failed to bring Sasuke back.

Naruto and Sasuke had fought, but unfortunately, Sasuke still had not been persuaded to return.

The mission had failed.

News of it spread quickly through Leaf Village, but no one dared mention it in front of Naruto. After returning to the village, Naruto did not go home. He went to the hospital first, though not to treat his own injuries—he was hurt too, but not badly. He went through the wards one by one, checking on Choji, Neji, and Kiba. Once he confirmed they were alive, he turned and left.

As he walked out of the hospital entrance, he heard something. He caught it by chance from the nurses' idle chatter—someone named Senju Yunju had defected from Orochimaru to Konoha, and Neji and Choji had both been saved by him in the forest.

Naruto stopped, then turned toward the guard force headquarters.

Yunju had been arranged to wait in a reception lounge within the guard force headquarters. He had been there for three days already, with someone bringing him food and water every day. His movements were restricted to that room and a simple training room at the end of the corridor. ANBU stood guard outside his door and never spoke to him.

Apparently, this isolation plan had been devised by a man named Danzō.

There were three knocks on the door before it was pushed open.

Naruto stood in the doorway. Several wounds on his face had already scabbed over, his forehead protector was tied crookedly across his brow, and dark circles hung heavily beneath his eyes.

"Are you Senju Yunju?"

Yunju rose from his chair and looked at the blond boy before him. He had seen him in the Forest of Death and during the preliminary matches—Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki, Jiraiya's disciple, and Sasuke's teammate.

"I am."

Naruto stepped inside, shut the door, and sat down across from Yunju. There was no small talk and no beating around the bush.

"Thank you for saving Neji and Choji." Naruto's voice was deeper than Yunju had expected, lacking the brashness he had shown when shouting, "I'll defeat every last one of you!" outside the exam hall. "They're very important comrades to me."

Yunju looked at Naruto and fell silent for two seconds.

"You're welcome."

Naruto raised his head, his blue eyes staring directly at Yunju. "What was Orochimaru's place like?"

Yunju did not ask why Naruto wanted to know. After thinking for a moment, he sorted the things he had seen over the years at the hideouts into words and slowly spoke.

"Orochimaru has more than one hideout. The valley hideout in the Land of Rice Fields is the headquarters where he has been staying most often lately, but besides that, he has underground fortresses and concealed caves along the borders of the Land of Fire, Land of Wind, Land of Earth, and Land of Lightning. He also has laboratories built on isolated islands. The hideouts communicate through summoning beasts and specific contact channels. They are independent of one another, and none of them know the others' exact locations. I have only been to a few myself."

Naruto listened without speaking.

"The valley hideout was carved into the mountainside, with its main structure underground. It has at least three or four levels below the surface, with the deepest areas more than ten meters down. There are training rooms, scroll repositories, prison cells, and testing grounds, but nothing like Konoha's streets or homes. No shops, no ramen stands, no benches beside the training fields. Everyone lives in stone rooms, and the corridors contain nothing but torches and the bitter smell of medicine."

Yunju paused.

Naruto's fingers clenched the fabric of his pants over his knees.

The two of them were silent for a long time.

"Why did you run away from there?" Naruto asked.

Yunju looked at him and considered for a long time how he should answer.

"From the moment I learned that I was originally a backup vessel—one of Orochimaru's potential body-stealing targets—I wanted to escape."

Naruto nodded and asked nothing more. He stood, walked to the door, rested his hand on the handle, and paused.

"Thank you for telling me." He did not turn around. "Next time, I'll definitely bring Sasuke back."

The door closed.

When Naruto walked out of the guard force headquarters, Jiraiya was leaning against a tree by the roadside. A book rested in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the direction Naruto had come from.

"Finished asking?"

"Yeah."

"What did he say?"

Naruto repeated what Yunju had told him. The hideout was built in the mountains, underground, where the sun could not be seen. There were no streets or shops, no ramen stands, only torches and the bitter smell of medicine in the corridors.

Jiraiya closed his book and looked at Naruto's profile.

"Have you made up your mind?"

Naruto raised his head and looked at the sky above. Konoha's sky was blue, the clouds white. In the distance, children were flying kites, their laughter drifting over on the wind.

"I have."

Naruto turned to face Jiraiya. The confusion and dejection in those blue eyes were gone, replaced by a clear, unwavering light. He said he wanted to become stronger, strong enough to drag Sasuke back from that path. It was not a fit of temper or an impulsive decision. It was a choice he had made after thinking it through. Jiraiya looked into his eyes, fell silent for several seconds, then smiled.

"Alright."

He turned and headed out of the village, with Naruto following behind him. Just like that, they disappeared beyond the gates of Leaf Village.

Training! Begin!

Several days later, after Tsunade announced that Senju Yunju had been granted Konoha citizenship and the rank of chunin, though a few shinobi were dissatisfied or curious, no one openly opposed it.

After granting Yunju his status, Tsunade began personally teaching him various ninjutsu. Yunju quickly learned a range of medical ninjutsu and began asking Tsunade about the Strength of a Hundred Seal and the Yin Seal.

"The principle behind the Yin Seal is to continuously store your excess chakra in the seal on your forehead, accumulating it day after day into a reserve." Tsunade pointed at the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead. "The Strength of a Hundred Seal actively releases that seal, unleashing all the stored chakra at once. Combined with bodily activation, it grants regenerative abilities that are almost impossible to kill."

Yunju sat on the ground with his eyes closed, sensing the path of chakra flowing through his body. There was not yet a diamond-shaped mark on his forehead—that was something that took years to accumulate.

But Tsunade discovered something that surprised her.

This child extracted chakra faster than she did. This little Senju's speed and volume of chakra extraction were truly astonishing.

"So fast."

Yunju opened his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you begin steadily storing chakra now, your Yin Seal will accumulate much faster than mine did back then. In the same amount of time, you can store more chakra than I could. Combined with your constitution, the Strength of a Hundred Seal's activation effects may even surpass mine."

After saying that, Tsunade paused before adding, "Of course, that assumes you live long enough."

Yunju took those words to heart, then closed his eyes and continued practicing precise chakra control. The diamond-shaped mark had not yet appeared on his forehead, but every time he compressed excess chakra toward it, he could feel a faint warmth there.

It was worth mentioning that while Yunju was studying the Yin Seal, Sakura also became Tsunade's apprentice and began learning basic medical ninjutsu.

Yunju found that Sakura was indeed talented at learning medical ninjutsu, but she still could not keep up with him. The two got to know each other.

Yunju could barely be considered Sakura's senior apprentice brother, seeing as his learning speed surpassed hers by far.

Land of Rice Fields, Sound Village hideout.

Orochimaru sat in a sealed chamber, his arms hanging at his sides, concealed within his sleeves.

"Yunju has run away." Orochimaru's tone was so calm that it did not sound as if he were speaking of something that angered him. "Kimimaro is dead too."

"However—"

Orochimaru's gaze shifted to the large wooden barrel in the corner of the chamber. It was covered in sealing formulas, and its body trembled faintly as something inside breathed.

"Sasuke has arrived."

Orochimaru rose and walked to the barrel, extending a hand. Kabuto stepped forward from the side and removed the seal on the barrel for him. The instant the lid opened, an icy chakra poured out. Sasuke was curled up at the bottom of the barrel, his eyes closed, black Curse Mark patterns spreading from his neck across his entire face.

Orochimaru looked at Sasuke in the barrel, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose.

"Three years." His voice was low, so low it sounded as though he were speaking only to himself. "In three years, this body will be mine."

He turned and looked out the window. The sky outside was gray, thick clouds pressing low overhead.

"Yunju-kun..." Orochimaru softly spoke the name, his tone like someone savoring something interesting. "Did you think running away meant you would be safe?"

He had not planted a Curse Mark on Yunju. The Curse Mark's effects were too potent, making it easy to discover and easy for medical shinobi to detect. But he had left something else behind—a Snake Seed. It was a ninjutsu he had created himself: a tiny parasitic snake seed bearing a trace of his unique chakra, implanted beneath the target's outer layer of skin.

The Snake Seed would not harm its host, consume flesh and blood, or cause any abnormal symptoms. It merely lay dormant, continuously sensing the host's life force, chakra strength, and even broad changes in emotion. All of that information was relayed in real time to the caster through a mental link—Orochimaru himself.

That was enough. Once he had changed bodies, once his hands had recovered, once he had enough energy to deal with those "unresolved matters from the past," Yunju-kun, we will meet again.

Orochimaru turned and walked deeper into the chamber. Kabuto followed behind him and pushed up his glasses.

"Kabuto."

"Yes."

"During my three-year cooldown, we need to give Sasuke special training. You will create Sasuke's training plan. What I need is a very strong Sasuke-kun three years from now."

"Yes."

For a long time to come, Sasuke would remain in Orochimaru's hideout. He would learn to turn Chidori into an electric current that covered his entire body, condense Lightning Release chakra into sharp spears and senbon as thin as hairs, integrate Chidori's shape transformation into swordsmanship, and even draw down heavenly lightning for his own use.

He would become very strong.

But it would not come without a price.

Through the corridor window, Orochimaru looked at the bleak gray sky.

Special Training! Begin!