The Brat Was Feeling Stifled

A month later...

Another kunai-throwing exam was held. This one was a little different, and Lin Chuan skipped class again that afternoon.

To Lin Chuan, playing through such a boring exam once was enough. Doing it every day was ridiculous—he was not some idle little kid. He had plenty of training tasks, with little time and heavy responsibilities. He had no time to play ninja games with these children.

"Chiba Lin Chuan? Lin Chuan?" Iruka called Lin Chuan's name twice. When Lin Chuan failed to step forward, he realized that the little guy had skipped class again.

Helplessly rubbing his forehead, he passed over Chiba Lin Chuan's name and looked at the next student. "Uchiha Sasuke, you're up..."

"That guy didn't come?" Sasuke looked through the crowd, ignoring the chattering and especially irritating girls, and found that Lin Chuan was absent. He had heard about Lin Chuan's habit of skipping class and could not help gritting his teeth.

He had wanted to wash away his humiliation today, but that guy had actually skipped class. Over the past month, that guy had skipped twenty-eight days of lessons. It was not surprising, but failing to defeat him during this exam still left Sasuke extremely annoyed...

"Uchiha Sasuke, ten points." Seeing all ten kunai firmly embedded in the red center of the target, Iruka nodded slightly. So last time really was a mistake. How could a child of the Uchiha miss the target?

"Waaaah, ten points! Ten points!" When the girls saw Sasuke receive full marks, they shrieked again and rushed over to surround him, all wanting to ask about his kunai-throwing techniques.

Facing those chattering girls, Sasuke felt nothing but irritation. He only wanted to find Lin Chuan, defeat him, and prove his strength to his father. Yet Lin Chuan had skipped class today...

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka ignored the children's chatter and continued handling the exam. When he called Naruto Uzumaki's name, he found that Naruto was absent as well, and several black lines appeared across his forehead.

He already knew where Naruto was. The kid had skipped class with Lin Chuan quite often lately, claiming that he was learning kunai throwing from him.

He was not worried about Naruto. Naruto's identity was special, and ANBU were always following him. Besides, Naruto had no parents. Even if Iruka wanted to summon a guardian, he would not know whom to call. The only guardian who would come would be the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Skipping Naruto's name, he continued calling the next child. He could find Naruto later; class came first.

Meanwhile...

Lin Chuan and Naruto were training at the training ground near Lin Chuan's home...

After a month of training, Naruto's kunai accuracy had improved by fifty percent. Added to his original score of one, he could now score six points. It was a fairly good improvement, and the ANBU had seen all of it.

However, Naruto could not escape his punishment of cleaning toilets. He had not taken the afternoon assessment, so his score remained zero.

Lin Chuan understood this perfectly well. He knew that getting close to Naruto would inevitably bring the Hokage's ANBU surveillance, and that was exactly what he wanted. If word of his little-genius reputation reached Hiruzen Sarutobi, it would give him another layer of security.

For that reason, after finishing his afternoon training, he even brought Naruto home for dinner. "Naruto, come have dinner at my house after training!"

"Sure! The braised fish your mother makes is so delicious. I want to eat it again." Naruto ran alongside Lin Chuan, but collapsed from exhaustion after just five kilometers. Naruto was still young, so it was normal. He was not yet the future Chakra-donkey with endless stamina.

"Braised fish? Let's go fishing by the river first. If we don't catch anything, we'll buy some." Lin Chuan picked up his backpack, brushed the dust from his butt, and headed toward the river beyond the woods.

With Naruto included, there would be four pairs of chopsticks. They needed at least three pounds of fish to have enough to eat. Training consumed a great deal of energy.

"Chuan, wait for me!" Naruto grinned and chased after Lin Chuan. Fishing was what he was best at. Back when he had nothing to eat, he often fished in the wild.

When they reached the river, each used a kunai to carve a branch into a fishing rod. They had fishing line in their backpacks, used licorice as floats, hung casually dug earthworms on the hooks, and cast them into the river.

Fish soon took the bait. The river's fish population was fairly healthy, and before long they had caught two or three pounds of fish. Carrying their catch, they hurried back to Lin Chuan's home.

Seeing Naruto come again, Lin Chuan's mother was not surprised. He had already visited several times. At first, she had been a little afraid, but Lin Chuan had reasoned with her emotionally and logically...

He told his parents that the one sending Naruto living expenses was old man Sarutobi. If they did not seize the chance to build a good relationship, how would they get by in ninja circles later? They might even get into the salaried Hokage Tower. Most importantly, this man was their family's biggest benefactor.

An ordinary woman from Konoha might not understand the social dynamics of the ninja world, but his cheap father understood them perfectly and strongly approved of his son's actions.

Still, he had not forgotten the terrifying night of the Nine-Tails six years ago. He had retired from his injuries that very night. Rumors outside claimed that Naruto was the reincarnation of a fox demon, though he did not know whether that was true.

Lin Chuan could not say much about that. He had no way to explain whether Naruto was a fox demon, so he merely advised his Chunin father that the village had the Third Hokage. If the sky fell, taller people would hold it up. There was no need to worry blindly about it.

If the Nine-Tails' seal were unstable, how could Naruto have lived all these years? Since there had been no rampage for so long, that meant it was safe.

Using Naruto's status as the Third Hokage's grandson, he finally persuaded his cheap parents. This was an opportunity to catch old man Sarutobi's attention, and his cheap father could not afford to miss it.

After dinner with Naruto, he went to train in the backyard behind the wooden house. Since Naruto did not have his own training plan, he trained alongside him, going on a five-kilometer weighted jog.

After the run, Naruto collapsed to the ground again. He had only just begun weighted running, unlike Lin Chuan, who had worn weights for four months. Two kilograms were effortless for him, and he was even planning to increase them to four.

"Lin Chuan, do you train like this every day?" After running five kilometers, Naruto sat on the ground, gasping heavily as he grabbed his water bottle and drank wildly.

"Yeah, I train every day." Lin Chuan felt as though he were clocking in for work, grinding like this every day just to gain strength and earn Life Points so he could do whatever he wanted.

"So tiring. It's already dark. I'm going back to bathe and sleep." Naruto took off the weights from his feet, washed them clean, placed them on the corridor, and bade Lin Chuan farewell before leaving.

It was not that Naruto had never considered the upcoming ninjutsu training, but basic chakra exercises such as tree climbing and water walking were far too difficult for him. After failing many times, Naruto gave up.

Naruto's chakra was too difficult to control, which meant he could not even use the Three Body Technique, much less use chakra to climb trees, walk on water, or perform even more precise chakra control.

Without Sasuke, his rival, to spur him on, Naruto was not so obsessed with practicing tree climbing and water walking. Lin Chuan merely laughed at Naruto giving up and let him do as he pleased.

The protagonist had plot armor and could use cheats. He did not need to grind as desperately as Lin Chuan did. The protagonist's adventures were growth itself, so they did not seem tedious at all. Instead, they were filled with passion and youth...

Ahem, ahem. He seemed to have thought of something filthy that would summon a green pervert. He watched Naruto's back disappear, cautiously looked around, and only sighed in relief after finding the area dark and silent, with no one nearby. Then he continued grinding his ninjutsu until his chakra was exhausted before returning to the wooden house to wash up and sleep...

He did not know that while he slept, a shadow flashed across the treetops outside the wooden house and vanished without a trace...