Naruto's Challenge

The dismissal bell had just rung. Shuo Ye put his brush into his pencil case, his movements unhurried.

He did not like lingering in the classroom. It was not because he hated class—he had already gone over Teacher Iruka's lessons in his head countless times before he turned seven—but because there were always people looking at him that way in the classroom.

The Uchiha Clan's gaze.

It was not hostility, but an instinctive distance. Like looking at a beautiful cat that might bite.

Shuo Ye stuffed his pencil case into his schoolbag and stood up.

"Hey—Shuo Ye!"

Someone was blocking the classroom door.

Blond hair, blue eyes, two red patches on his cheeks, an orange jacket, and a grin like a child who had just received candy.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Shuo Ye sighed inwardly.

"What do you want now?" Shuo Ye asked. His tone was flat, neither malicious nor welcoming.

"Fight me!"

Naruto clenched his fists and raised his arms high, practically bouncing in place. His voice was loud enough that several first-years who had not left yet turned around from the back of the classroom.

Shuo Ye gave him a look.

Naruto was half a head shorter than him, his arms as thin as noodles. His chakra control was practically nonexistent—something Shuo Ye had known from watching anime in his previous life. Seeing it for himself now, he found reality even more exaggerated than the show.

"No."

"Why?!"

"You can't beat me."

Naruto's face flushed red. "Y-you haven't even fought me! How do you know?!"

"I know."

"You don't know shit!"

The remaining students in the classroom began whispering. Someone called out, "The dead last is picking fights again." Naruto heard it; his ears twitched, but he did not turn around. His eyes stayed fixed on Shuo Ye, like a puppy that had been kicked but still wanted to charge forward.

Shuo Ye slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and headed for the door.

Naruto sidestepped and blocked him again.

"Don't leave! You're always like this! You run off as soon as school's over. Are you scared of me?!"

Shuo Ye stopped and looked down at him.

Seven-year-old Uzumaki Naruto. The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. Hidden Leaf Village's ticking time bomb. The village adults went out of their way to avoid him, while children were told by their parents, "Don't play with that child."

But at this moment, he was just standing in the classroom doorway, his fists held before his chest, something burning in his eyes.

Shuo Ye had seen that look before.

In his previous life, he had watched Naruto. He had watched Naruto get knocked down again and again, then climb back up every time. He had watched him finally stand at the pinnacle of the ninja world and smile at Sasuke. "I knew you'd come."

Those scenes flashed through his mind like the pages of a comic book read to tatters.

"Do you really want to fight me that badly?" Shuo Ye asked.

"Yeah!"

"And after we fight, you'll stop pestering me?"

"That depends on who wins!"

Shuo Ye fell silent for two seconds.

He actually knew that whether Naruto pestered him had nothing to do with fighting. Naruto was simply too lonely. A seven-year-old child living alone in an apartment, with no one to eat with and no one to ask what he had learned at school that day. Whoever he latched onto became the only person he could talk to that day.

But Shuo Ye did not feel like analyzing any of that right now.

He just wanted to go home.

"The training ground," Shuo Ye said. "Just once."

Naruto's eyes lit up.

The training ground behind the Ninja Academy was empty.

At this hour, most of the children had already been picked up by their parents. The sandy ground had been baked hot by the afternoon sun, while a row of cherry blossom trees in the distance cast crooked shadows.

Shuo Ye stood at one end of the field with both hands in his pockets.

Naruto stood across from him in what he thought was a cool opening stance—his hands crossed before his chest, left foot stepped forward. He had seen the pose in a book, though he had completely forgotten what ninjutsu it was supposed to be for.

"Are you ready, Shuo Ye? Here I come!"

"Come on."

Naruto charged.

He was as fast as a crab running sideways.

Shuo Ye shifted one step aside. Naruto pounced at empty air and nearly fell face-first into the sand. He caught himself, turned around, and charged again.

This time, he remembered to throw a punch.

His fist came straight at him, its path as obvious as a line drawn through the air. Shuo Ye leaned back half a step, and Naruto's fist brushed past the tip of his nose.

"You—!"

"Your body tilts before you throw your punch," Shuo Ye said. "The moment you drive your shoulder forward, your balance shifts. Anyone could dodge that."

Naruto froze.

Not because Shuo Ye had hit the mark—he did not actually understand what it meant for his balance to shift—but because of Shuo Ye's tone.

It was unlike the village adults.

When the adults called him "dead last," there was disgust in their voices, along with the meaning of, "Why don't you just get lost already?" When Shuo Ye called him a dead last, he only sounded annoyed.

Like he was saying, "This soup is too hot to drink."

There was no hatred. Not even contempt. He was simply stating a fact, then finding it troublesome.

Naruto opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Without waiting for him to react, Shuo Ye bent down and picked up a small stone from the ground.

He flicked it casually.

The stone flew out and struck the trunk of a cherry blossom tree at the edge of the field with perfect accuracy. With a sharp smack, it embedded itself in the bark.

Naruto turned to look, his mouth falling even farther open.

"That was..."

"Basic shuriken technique," Shuo Ye said. "You don't need any ninjutsu. You just throw something and make it hit where you want."

He glanced at Naruto.

"Your problem is that you use too much strength. Every time you punch, you pour all your strength into it, but your body can't control that much force. It's like pouring water into a leaking bucket."

Naruto lowered his head and looked at his fists.

His fingers were still coated in sand from the field.

"Then... then how do I fix it?"

Shuo Ye shrugged. "Practice. Start with taijutsu without chakra. Break every movement down and practice it separately. Once you can throw a punch without thinking, then add chakra."

After saying that, he turned and left.

"Wait!"

Naruto called after him.

Shuo Ye did not look back.

"You said I can still get stronger, right?! You were teaching me just now, weren't you?!"

Shuo Ye stopped.

He wanted to say, No, I just thought you were too noisy. But somehow, by the time the words reached his lips, they had become:

"If you really want to get stronger, stop pestering people for duels all day. Run laps. Hit a punching bag. Go—"

He paused.

"Go ask Teacher Iruka to teach you how to break down the movements."

"Teacher Iruka's told me lots of times, but I can't remember..."

"Then keep at it until you do."

Shuo Ye left.

Naruto stood in the middle of the training ground, watching his back disappear behind the cherry blossom trees.

The wind blew a few cherry blossom petals down onto Naruto's shoulders. He picked one up and pinched it between his fingers. The petal was soft as paper.

"That annoying Uchiha."

Naruto muttered softly.

But his lips were curled upward when he said it.

Shuo Ye walked home.

The streets of Hidden Leaf Village were quiet in the evening light. A ramen shop had curtains hanging over its entrance, and the owner was bringing in the tables and chairs outside. Several ninja returning from work passed by him, the Hidden Leaf symbols on their forehead protectors gleaming in the setting sun.

Shuo Ye switched his schoolbag to his other hand.

Half of what he had said earlier had been because Naruto was troublesome. The other half—

He did not know why he had said it.

"Ask Teacher Iruka to teach you how to break down the movements."

It had been none of his business.

He had watched Naruto in his previous life and knew Naruto's path to growth. He knew Naruto would meet Iruka, meet Jiraiya, and meet so many others. Naruto did not need a transmigrator to become his mentor.

But when he had stood on the training ground and looked into Naruto's blue eyes, an image had flashed through his mind.

In the first episode of the original story, when Naruto passed his graduation exam with the Sexy Jutsu, Iruka had smiled beside him in helpless amusement. It was the first time Naruto had seen that expression in an adult's eyes: You're joking around, but I accept you.

Naruto had not seen that expression yet at the age of seven.

Shuo Ye switched his schoolbag back to his other hand.

He did not want to think about it anymore.

He turned into an alley, taking a shortcut back to the Uchiha Clan District. No one was there. Only a cat sat atop a wall, its green eyes glinting in the darkness.

Shuo Ye walked past it.

The cat meowed.

He did not look back.

Dinner was a bowl of miso soup and two pieces of grilled fish.

Shuo Ye sat alone at the low table and ate. No one else was home—his parents were away on a mission, supposedly on a business trip to the Land of Wind. They would not return for half a month.

He did not care much.

He had been an only child in his previous life and was used to eating alone. In this life, he still ate alone. The only difference was that his meals had been delivery food in his previous life, while in this one, he cooked them himself.

He picked the fish clean of bones and ate the last mouthful of rice.

Then he sat in the hallway, looking at the night sky over the clan district.

Most of the Uchiha Clan District's houses were built of dark wood, with black roof tiles. At night, every household lit its lamps, making the district look like strings of fireflies from afar.

But if one looked carefully, some houses had no lights.

Those houses were empty.

Three years ago, during the Nine-Tails Incident, many members of the Uchiha Clan had died. Those empty houses were proof.

Shuo Ye leaned against a hallway pillar and looked up.

There were no stars in the sky, only the moon. A full moon.

He stared at it for a while.

How much time did he have before the main story began?

He had calculated it many times in his head. It was now Year 56 of the Hidden Leaf, and he was seven years old, just starting his first year at the Ninja Academy. Naruto was seven too. Sasuke was six.

That meant the story—the real story—would begin when they graduated from the Ninja Academy at twelve.

Five years.

Five years until the Uchiha Massacre.

Shuo Ye closed his eyes.

Five years sounded like a long time. But for a child who knew his own fate, every day was a countdown.

Below the hallway, an ant was moving house across the stone pavement. Shuo Ye watched it for a while, then stood up and went inside to sleep.

He still had school tomorrow.

And that idiot Naruto would probably come looking for him to "duel" again tomorrow.

Shuo Ye spread out his bedding and lay down.

He thought that maybe it would not be so bad to occasionally practice taijutsu with that idiot.

It would not take much time anyway.

He closed his eyes.

Moonlight shone through the window, painting a rectangular patch of light across the floor. A few specks of dust floated slowly within it.

Shuo Ye fell asleep.

There was no Naruto, no Uchiha Clan, and no night of massacre five years later in his dream.

There was only a blond little boy standing on the training ground, his fist raised high, grinning as if he had just received candy.

"Fight me!"

Shuo Ye sighed in his dream.

Then he smiled.

Very faintly.

No one saw it.