Sasuke: I Won't Be Fooled by a Dream

Konoha Village Training Ground.

The noon sun was scorching and blinding.

Naruto gritted his teeth, cupping an orange rubber ball in both hands as he tried to pour chakra into it.

The ball's surface swelled and warped, but showed no sign of bursting.

Sweat beaded on Naruto's forehead, and his arms ached terribly from hours of intense training.

"Damn it!"

Naruto cursed under his breath and fiercely increased the flow of chakra.

Yet the rubber ball only trembled slightly before returning to normal.

He panted heavily, his arms trembling faintly.

Without realizing it, he had been training hard for several hours.

The rubber ball... was far more difficult to deal with than the water balloon from before!

Naruto recalled the first step his dad had taught him in yesterday's dream: use chakra to churn the water inside the balloon until it burst.

He had mastered that stage quickly, but now came the second step.

Condense and compress chakra at a higher density to crush the rubber ball—no matter how hard he tried, he could not succeed.

"Haah!"

Unwilling to give up, Naruto shouted again and forced every last bit of chakra into it.

But in the end, there was only a soft pop. The ball in his hands remained perfectly intact, while Naruto collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion.

Bracing himself with both hands, Naruto gulped down breaths. His head spun, and his arms ached and felt so numb that they barely seemed like his own.

He flopped onto the grass in dejection and stared blankly at the sky.

"Damn it... why isn't it working?"

Naruto raised his right hand and shook his stiff wrist hard, his heart filled with frustration and disappointment.

This Rasengan was an A-rank ninjutsu that Dad had spent three years developing. Was it really not so easy to learn?

Naruto sighed. The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became, until he scratched at his hair.

Suddenly, he frowned and muttered, "Come to think of it... I never got the chance to ask about the trick to training the Rasengan's second stage last night."

Lying on the ground, Naruto's mind raced.

In that case, why not... go ask Kakashi-sensei for advice?

An idea struck him, and he sprang up from the ground in a kip-up.

"That's right! Kakashi-sensei is a knowledgeable jonin!"

Naruto nodded to himself. The more he considered it, the more feasible it seemed.

Even if Kakashi-sensei did not know it, he could at least offer some advice.

No time like the present!

Naruto immediately dusted off his clothes and ran toward Kakashi's home on the other side of the village.

He remembered that when Team 7 had been formed, Kakashi-sensei had given them his address and contact information in case they needed to gather or faced an emergency.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Konoha Village, Sasuke Uchiha walked alone along a quiet path.

The road beneath his feet grew increasingly desolate, while fewer and fewer people could be seen around him.

Sasuke kept a grim expression all the way until he reached the end of a ruined district. What came into view was a familiar sight that stabbed at his heart—the ruins of the Uchiha clan.

Shattered rubble, mottled walls, and faint scorch marks left behind by the battle of that year...

The streets that had once been filled with childhood joy had long since become silent and bleak.

Sasuke slowly walked along the desolate street, his heart filled with conflicting emotions.

Before he knew it, he stopped in front of a residence.

The gates of the residence stood half-open. Weeds and vines crawled across the courtyard walls, yet they could not conceal the grandeur it had once possessed.

This was the home he had lived in as a child.

Sasuke stood still for a long time. Finally, he took a deep breath and reached out to push open the courtyard gate, which had been sealed for so long.

"Creaaak—"

The old hinges let out a piercing groan, startling a crow perched in the courtyard.

Sasuke stepped inside. The once-warm courtyard was now empty and dilapidated, with only the wind whistling through the halls.

That horrific night surfaced uncontrollably in his mind.

Bloody moonlight, cold blades, and scenes of his loved ones falling one after another flashed past like a revolving lantern.

His father's stern face and his mother's gentle smile had been forever frozen into cold corpses that night. And there was that man on the utility pole...

Sasuke's chest heaved violently, his fists already clenched tight.

He desperately suppressed the churning emotions inside him, hatred blazing in his black eyes.

"This... is reality!" Sasuke's voice was hoarse. "The warmth in last night's dream... it was all a false illusion!"

"Hmph!" Sasuke violently shook his head, throwing the lingering doubt from his mind.

"I want to become stronger. I have to kill that man!"

With that thought, he strode toward the open space behind his family's residence.

Several wooden humanoid targets remained in the weed-choked clearing, long since rotten and warped.

Sasuke planted his feet, rapidly formed several hand seals, and took a deep breath.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A blazing, massive fireball erupted from his mouth in an instant!

Amid the roaring heatwave, the already broken wooden dummies were swallowed by flames and turned into heaps of charred ash within moments.

Black smoke slowly rose. The remaining firelight reflected off Sasuke's face, making his expression look grim and chilling.

He slammed a fist into the tree trunk beside him and snarled, "What family... they're nothing but fake phantoms! I won't be fooled by this kind of dream like that idiot Naruto!"

The moment he finished speaking, he began wildly punching and kicking as he trained in taijutsu across the clearing.

Whether wooden posts or empty air, everything became an outlet for his rage.

As the wind from his fists howled, the forehead protector on the boy's brow was soaked in sweat, while his clothes became covered in dust and debris.

Yet he showed no intention of stopping, as though he could not keep those fragments of the dream from repeatedly surfacing in his mind unless he drove his body to the limit.

His parents' loving smiles, his brother's gentle voice...

The intense exercise left Sasuke panting like a bull, but he still gritted his teeth and persisted, veins bulging on his forehead.

Only the flames of hatred remained in his eyes, burning away every trace of warmth from last night's dream.

As Sasuke released his anger without restraint, another figure was hidden atop a tall tree several hundred meters away, silently watching him.

Kakashi stood on a branch, his dark eye gazing through the single eye exposed beneath his slanted forehead protector at the boy frantically throwing punches in the distant training ground.

He sighed softly, a complicated look appearing in his eyes.

Last night's dream really had a profound effect on Sasuke.

Kakashi thought to himself.

He had merely seen Sasuke heading out of the village alone from afar and felt somewhat worried, so he had quietly followed him to observe the situation. He had not expected Sasuke to head straight for the Uchiha Clan District and begin training desperately.

Still, judging by the current situation, Sasuke showed no signs of doing anything foolish. He was only training with ruthless determination.

Kakashi relaxed slightly.

Forcing a child barely twelve or thirteen years old to this point, making him obsess over strength and hatred day and night, was truly not a good sign.

But at least for now, Sasuke was still in the village. He had not lost his reason, nor had he fallen into any danger.

"I hope you can endure this, Sasuke," Kakashi murmured quietly.

After taking one final look at Sasuke's lonely back, drenched in sweat, his figure flashed and vanished silently from the tree.