After returning home, Naruto sat down at the small table and began eating the meal his shadow clone had already prepared.
He had to admit that, shadow clone or not, this clone's cooking was only mediocre. Compared with Naruto's own cooking, the flavor fell well short.
After finishing his meal, Naruto took a carton of milk from the refrigerator, tipped his head back, and gulped down a mouthful.
He didn't linger in the living room, heading straight back to his bedroom instead.
He found a clean glass bottle, filled it with some water, and carefully placed the pale purple bellflower Ino had given him inside, letting it rest against the glass.
Once that was done, Naruto didn't immediately begin his evening training.
Instead, he reached out and gently touched the delicate petals. Then he quietly drew on the Wood Release chakra within him, still unpracticed but brimming with life, and tried to infuse the uprooted bellflower with a little gentle vitality.
An almost imperceptible pale green glow flickered at his fingertips and vanished. The bellflower seemed to stand a little straighter, its petals a little more vibrant.
"Heh..."
Inside the sealing space, the Nine-Tails' deep voice rang out, carrying a hint of teasing.
"Some little girl casually gave you a wildflower, and you're already smitten?"
Naruto's consciousness sank into the space. Looking at the enormous crimson eyes watching him teasingly from behind the cage, he shook his head. His voice was calm, but tinged with complicated emotion. "It's not that I'm smitten, Kurama."
He said softly, "I'm just... feeling a little emotional.
I never thought someone like me would receive flowers from anyone in this lifetime."
At those words, the teasing look faded from the Nine-Tails' face. He fell silent, slowly closing his mouth.
Because he knew all too well.
He thought of the rejection, cold stares, and abuse Naruto had endured since childhood, of that unhappy, lonely childhood.
And the source of it all...
It could be said that Naruto's unhappy childhood had, to a large extent, been brought about by Kurama himself.
He had killed Minato and Kushina.
His existence had made Naruto a Jinchūriki.
Seeing the Nine-Tails fall silent, Naruto gave a soft chuckle.
"I don't blame you. I'll personally kill the guy who controlled you back then."
Obito had to die. Naruto also wanted to try out those eyes with Kamui.
Before that, though, he would first train his body into a Sage Body on Hashirama's level.
Perhaps someday there would even be another S-rank item in the Naruto world, just like Hashirama cells-Naruto cells!
After his consciousness returned from the sealing space, Naruto lay down on his bed, but didn't immediately go to sleep. With a thought, he dispelled the four shadow clones at home that had persisted all day.
In an instant, like four raging torrents of information bursting through floodgates at once, everything the four shadow clones had studied, pondered, attempted, and even failed at regarding Sealing Jutsu that day-all their memories and fatigue-flooded into Naruto's mind.
An ordinary ninja would probably have been left with a splitting headache by that enormous influx of information, perhaps even dazed and disoriented.
But Naruto merely furrowed his brows slightly before regaining his composure. He began methodically absorbing the scattered knowledge the shadow clones had learned, the rune patterns they had drawn, and the lessons their missteps had taught them.
With his eyes closed, he focused. Then, like the most patient of librarians, he slowly and systematically sorted, integrated, and digested that vast jumble of knowledge.
He filed away failed attempts as experience and consolidated successful insights into knowledge of his own.
The process took quite some time. Only after sorting through the final piece of information did Naruto let out a long breath, fine beads of sweat forming at his temples.
Though mentally exhausted, he had undoubtedly taken another step forward in his understanding of Sealing Jutsu.
Then he got up and switched on the rather dim light in his room.
After sorting through his shadow clones' memories, he felt his understanding of the basics had become much clearer, though some of the more profound aspects remained vague.
So he began carefully reading through the scroll containing Sealing Jutsu himself.
Sure enough, many of the basic rune structures and principles of chakra circulation that had baffled him when he first received the scroll yesterday suddenly became clear when combined with his shadow clones' practical experience. Many of his questions resolved themselves.
However, when his gaze reached the latter half of the scroll, where the advanced sealing formulas involved space, contracts, and even the soul, it still felt as though he were reading gibberish. He couldn't understand any of it.
Those intricate patterns and principles were far beyond his current understanding.
Looking at those headache-inducing formulas, Naruto couldn't help recalling a saying from his previous life. He shook his head with a wry smile and grumbled inwardly, Sealing Jutsu really is just like math.
Math will never betray you, because if you don't get it, you don't get it.
It's the same with the advanced Sealing Jutsu in this scroll. If I don't get it, I don't get it. No matter how hard I stare, I still won't get it.
The next day, dawn had only just begun to break, and the morning light had yet to fully dispel the night's chill.
Inside the sealing space, the Nine-Tails slowly opened his enormous crimson eyes. He sensed the time outside, then woke the sleeping Naruto with a faint pulse of chakra.
Naruto woke, rubbed his eyes, and looked out the window.
Outside, the sky hovered between darkness and daylight. Far to the east, the sun was slowly beginning to cast golden rays, heralding the start of a new day.
He didn't linger in bed, getting up briskly instead.
After washing up, he tied on an apron and got to work in the kitchen, making breakfast and the lunch he would take to school.
Rhythmic chopping soon filled the kitchen, and the aroma of food gradually spread through the morning air.
Unlike the passable dinner his shadow clone had made last night, Naruto put far more care and skill into cooking himself, whether it was the miso soup and fried eggs for breakfast or the carefully balanced dishes in his lunchbox.
After breakfast, Naruto didn't leave right away.
Standing in the middle of the living room, he formed Hand Seals and created four shadow clones again.
Unlike yesterday's haphazard approach, when all of them had plunged into studying Sealing Jutsu at once, he made a more precise plan today:
One shadow clone would be dedicated to continuing to study the Sealing Jutsu scroll, focusing on building a solid foundation.
Another shadow clone would begin practicing chakra nature transformation.
The remaining two shadow clones would work together through repeated attempts, exploring the chakra blending ratios that would make Wood Release more stable and powerful.
Naruto made this adjustment because yesterday's practice had driven home a realization: Sealing Jutsu truly depended on talent and understanding. It also had to be learned step by step, starting with the most basic knowledge and principles.
Sheer quantity couldn't win the day.
He reflected, Having all four shadow clones blindly force their way through the basics of Sealing Jutsu, which are still incredibly difficult for them, is inefficient. Twice the effort for half the results.
It would be better to have one shadow clone focus entirely on establishing a theoretical foundation first. That would give it a clearer direction and actually produce better results.
And that would free up three shadow clones for other equally important training, such as chakra control and developing Wood Release.