Second Pillar Is Absent—Is He Planning Not to Sleep?

Inside Ichiraku Ramen in Konoha Village.

Behind the counter, Shigure quietly summoned the system panel in his mind. A pale blue screen, visible only to him, immediately appeared before his eyes.

His gaze was instantly drawn to the number in the corner.

It showed the current accumulated emotion points. He was only a little over ten thousand points away from leveling up!

A flash of wild joy passed through Shigure's eyes. He hastily suppressed the excitement in his heart and quickly glanced around, confirming that only he and Uncle Teuchi were in the shop at the moment.

Using an excuse, he slipped into the back kitchen and focused on studying the system interface.

The thought of the system's first upgrade being imminent nearly made anticipation spill from his chest.

Would the upgraded system unlock even more powerful abilities?

It probably wouldn't be as simple as merely increasing the target limit, would it?

Perhaps entirely new dream modes or even more heaven-defying functions were waiting for him.

Suppressing his restless thoughts, Shigure summoned the system store interface with a thought.

The virtual store displayed a dazzling array of goods.

All kinds of ninjutsu scrolls, bloodline limits, physical enhancements, special items, and more were available. It was almost all-encompassing and dazzling to behold.

His gaze shifted to the "Physical Enhancement" category. After redeeming the basic physical enhancement, he saw that the intermediate physical enhancement option had indeed unlocked below it.

But when he opened it, he could not help clicking his tongue.

Even Intermediate Physical Enhancement Lv1 required far more emotion points than he currently had. It seemed he could not afford it for now.

"Forget it. Maybe next time."

Shigure shrugged, shifting his attention away as he looked through the store's other items.

For the time being, he had no plans to keep spending emotion points to upgrade offensive ninjutsu.

After all, he had yet to find a real opportunity to test just how effective the ninjutsu he had redeemed actually were.

It would not be too late to decide what to upgrade after trying them out.

After confirming there was nothing he urgently needed to redeem, Shigure closed the system panel with a thought.

Seeing the sky outside gradually darken, a relaxed smile appeared on Shigure's face.

At least for now, he had barely gained the ability to protect himself.

At the very least, he could handle his current life and work, so there was no need to rush into getting stronger.

"Fuh..."

He stretched.

"That's enough for today. I'll work hard tonight and strive to level up smoothly."

Shigure then quickly left the back kitchen, putting that slightly shy smile back on his face as he waited for customers to arrive.

Night.

Naruto dragged his somewhat heavy steps back to his small apartment.

The room was pitch-black. He fumbled for the light, ate some instant noodles for dinner, then stared blankly at the empty room.

What had happened during the day lingered in his mind.

Kakashi-sensei looked lazy and unmotivated, as if he did not care about anything, but he actually carried a lonely past too...

All kinds of thoughts tangled together, leaving Naruto, who was usually so carefree, much quieter than usual.

He scratched his messy blond hair and murmured to himself, "So Kakashi-sensei is alone too, just like me..."

Thinking of the loneliness that had flashed across Kakashi's face, Naruto felt a faint ache in his heart.

He suddenly felt that he was actually very fortunate.

At least in his dreams, his father and mother were there with him.

And in reality, he had Iruka-sensei, everyone at Ichiraku Ramen, and his Team 7 companions who cared about him.

With that thought, Naruto's troubled mood felt a little lighter.

He looked at the deep-blue night sky outside the window, rubbed his face, and pulled himself together again.

"Oops!"

Naruto suddenly slapped his forehead and cried out in frustration, "I totally forgot to ask Kakashi-sensei about the Rasengan!"

He had gone to see Kakashi that morning to ask for the trick to mastering the second stage of the Rasengan. But after rambling on about all sorts of things at his house, the topic had been completely derailed by the photograph. In the end, he had not mentioned any serious business at all.

On the verge of tears, Naruto could only give a bitter smile. "Sigh, forget it... I'll just ask Dad directly after I fall asleep tonight! Dad in my dreams is so amazing—he'll definitely know the trick."

He perked up, tossed the empty noodle cup onto the table, darted to the bed in a few strides, and flopped onto the soft bedding.

Lying on his back, Naruto stared at the ceiling, hope rekindling in his blue eyes.

He secretly swore to himself.

No matter what, tonight he had to find out how to train the second stage of the Rasengan.

Then tomorrow, he could keep working hard. Maybe he would soon be able to use the Rasengan successfully and show Sasuke and Sakura!

Carried away by the thought, he could not help rolling over in bed. He wrapped himself in the blanket, closed his eyes, and forced himself to fall asleep as quickly as possible.

"Dad, wait for me..." Naruto murmured with a faint smile on his lips. "You have to teach me tonight!"

The night deepened, and the insects outside gradually quieted into soft chirps.

Inside the room, the blond boy's breathing steadily evened out as he sank into sleep.

In the pitch-black space, rows of seats slowly emerged.

Sakura slowly opened her eyes and found that she had indeed returned to this dreamlike yet surreal space.

After experiencing similar situations several times, she no longer felt the initial panic and fear. She simply instinctively searched for familiar figures nearby.

"Phew, that's a relief." When she saw Kakashi-sensei sitting in the seat beside hers, Sakura quietly let out a breath and gave him a trusting smile.

Kakashi nodded at her, looking calm and composed.

The two of them had grown accustomed to meeting in dreams every night. They each chose seats near the front and sat down, quietly waiting for tonight's dream to begin.

However, several minutes passed, and the huge screen they expected did not light up as usual. Instead, the surroundings remained dim and quiet.

"Strange, why hasn't it started yet?" Sakura asked softly in confusion.

Usually, images would appear soon after they arrived here, but today was somewhat unusual.

Kakashi looked around, then suddenly furrowed his brow. "Wait... where's Sasuke?"

Only then did the two of them suddenly realize.

Sasuke had not arrived yet.

Concern showed on Sakura's face. "I barely saw Sasuke during the day either. He... he hasn't run into any trouble, has he?"

Thinking of how Sasuke had seemed off since last night's dream ended, and how he had been nowhere to be found today, she could not help growing flustered.

Kakashi comforted her, "Don't worry. He merely went back to his clan to train. He isn't in danger."

After a brief pause, he continued, "Most likely... Sasuke didn't sleep tonight, so he didn't enter this dream space."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Didn't sleep? But how could his body handle that..."

Kakashi did not answer. He only sighed softly, his expression complicated as he looked at the empty seats.

Sasuke probably refused to sleep because he wanted to resist tonight's dream.

This child's inner knot is even more serious than I imagined...

In the darkness at the back of the audience seats, a figure was also watching the empty seat, his eyes flickering.

[Detected that Sasuke Uchiha has not entered a sleep state. The target cannot join the dream space!]

The system's cold prompt confirmed Kakashi's guess.

"That Second Pillar actually thinks he can resist the dream by refusing to sleep?"

Shigure, hidden in the shadows, frowned slightly.