A Sword Tempered for Three Years, Schemes Beneath the Seal and Undercurrents Beneath the Card Table

His head felt as though it had been struck by a hammer.

Naruto clutched his forehead and slowly recovered from the searing pain.

Only because he no longer had to worry about the Nine-Tails causing trouble did he dare do this.

Back then, if he fell into such a deep coma, the Nine-Tails would definitely have gone berserk like it had with other Jinchuriki and started tearing everything apart.

Naruto was so determined to pry open the seal not because he wanted to become a Perfect Jinchuriki as soon as possible.

What he wanted was to awaken the lingering souls of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

No teacher could compare to those two when it came to helping him.

Even Jiraiya had to step aside.

Jiraiya had spent three years teaching him, but in the end, it all boiled down to how to draw upon the Nine-Tails' chakra within him.

And that was precisely what Naruto did not lack now.

His cheap old man was far more skilled than Jiraiya at the Rasengan, Sage Mode, Summoning Jutsu, and all that.

Not to mention that Minato was proficient in Wind Release, Fire Release, Lightning Release, and the Flying Thunder God.

Once he learned all of that, he could evolve on the spot into an upgraded version of the Yellow Flash.

Add Kushina's collection of Uzumaki Clan sealing techniques and methods for developing the Uzumaki bloodline, and even if Madara and Hashirama stood before him, he could still weather a few rounds head-on.

The annoying part was that the seal his cheap old man had set up was simply too damn troublesome.

Even with the spiritual power accumulated over two lifetimes grinding away for a full three years, he had only barely reached the point where he could activate a Two-Tails Tailed Beast Transformation.

As for the day Minato Namikaze broke out of the seal in an Eight-Tails state, who knew how long he would have to endure before then.

Naruto stood up, dusted himself off, and muttered under his breath.

Could I snag a pair of Sharingan on the night of the massacre and make do with those for now? It seemed Sasuke could already barge into the seal space and show off once he awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"N-Naruto."

A soft call drifted over from beside him.

Hinata stood behind him, holding a lunchbox, her face red enough to bleed.

"This is your lunch."

Hinata stuffed the lunchbox into Naruto's hands and turned to flee.

Naruto grinned mischievously, stretched out an arm, and pulled her into his embrace.

"Why are you running? Eat with me. Come on, open up."

He opened the lunchbox, picked up a piece of sushi, and brought it toward Hinata's lips.

Hinata's eyes began spinning, heat practically steaming off her entire body, and her mouth opened on its own.

Without hesitation, Naruto put the sushi into his own mouth and fed it to her.

"Ah!"

The touch on her lips made Hinata's eyes widen. Like a rabbit whose tail had been stepped on, she sprang far away in an instant.

She did not even dare look back, covering her face as she ran off without a trace.

Naruto licked his lips and chuckled twice, then looked down at himself with a dissatisfied expression.

"I'm still too small."

In the distance, the brows of the two branch-family guards assigned to watch Hinata twitched incessantly.

The days passed one after another, and before long, half a year had gone by.

With Hiruzen Sarutobi quietly pushing things from behind the scenes, the friction between the Uchiha and the villagers of Konoha grew increasingly intense.

Every few days, someone would be arrested by the Uchiha Police Force and thrown into prison to reflect on their actions.

The common people at the bottom of Konoha were full of resentment with nowhere to vent it.

But the ninja clans were clearly not among them.

Inside an indoor training hall at the Ninja Academy, the six truants sat in a circle playing cards.

Unlike before, Ino had joined them too, skipping class with Naruto and the others.

"That Sasuke is getting more and more full of himself. Look at him, his nose is practically in the sky. Five sixes."

Kiba Inuzuka grumbled unhappily at the others.

"What can we do? He's number one, after all. Speaking of which, Naruto, are you really not going to teach him a lesson? I remember he was scared of you when we first entered the academy, wasn't he? Five tens. Raise it."

As Shikamaru spoke, he tossed out five tens.

Across from him, Ino's eyes widened. She pulled out five Aces and slapped them onto the chair, shouting excitedly.

"Raise it? Dream on! Hahaha, five Aces! I'm taking the tribute this round! You want it? You want it?"

Shikamaru looked at the pile of cards in her hand, which did not even contain a single King, and was about to shake his head.

Then Naruto abruptly threw down a hand of twos onto the table.

"Five twos, burn the cards. Big Joker, six eights. Big Joker, five queens. Double Little Jokers, seven sevens. Haha, I'm out."

Ino, who had been grinning from ear to ear, froze on the spot.

"Why do you have so many Jokers? Were you cheating?"

She shouted furiously at Choji, who was partnered with Naruto.

"Smash him! Draw cards! How can you let him get away like this?"

Choji looked innocently at the largest card in his hand, a two. I want to smash him too, but my strength won't allow it.

Ino angrily threw down her cards.

"I'm not playing anymore. Shikamaru and Naruto together are just cheating."

During the break after the card game ended, several secret letters silently made their way among Shikamaru, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Naruto.

The few of them acted as though nothing had happened. Once the dismissal bell rang, they each went home. Outside, the ANBU watching Naruto looked disgusted beneath their masks. Naruto had dragged these second-generation ninja heirs into playing cards every day. At first, they had been worried that this group of next-generation clan princes would band together, but later they discovered that these kids did nothing but skip class, gorge themselves, and fool around all day, so they had long since stopped caring.

What they failed to understand was that gathering intelligence, like during the first stage of the Chunin Ninja Exams, was the very first lesson ninja clans taught their children.