At the top of the second-floor stairs.
Rino Yamanaka had actually been standing there quietly for a while.
She had heard the entire conversation between the two children downstairs.
Since her daughter was a ninja, Rino Yamanaka hadn't peeked at them. That would have made it easy for her daughter to notice her.
Only when their conversation downstairs drew to a close did she walk gracefully down the stairs, wearing a gentle, composed smile, as though she had only just noticed the activity below.
Her gaze first settled softly on the unusual bouquet of bellflowers in her daughter's arms, then shifted to Naruto as she asked in a perfectly measured tone, with just a hint of curiosity:
"Do we have a guest?"
"Mom!"
Seeing her mother coming downstairs, Ino instinctively hid the bellflowers behind her back, as though a little secret of hers had been discovered, her face flushed with embarrassment.
Rino caught every bit of her daughter's little gesture. Torn between exasperation and amusement, she couldn't help remembering her own youth.
This girl really does take after me...
She recalled her teenage years, when she, too, had favored handsome boys. Inoichi Yamanaka had been good-looking back then, and she had been the one to pursue him. To her surprise, she had actually succeeded in the end.
Rino Yamanaka's gaze returned to Naruto, now carrying a measure of an elder's scrutiny.
This boy named Naruto really is handsome. Blond hair, blue eyes, such a sunny smile. He seems to have a nice personality, too, and looks quite levelheaded.
But there was one practical consideration she couldn't overlook.
The only drawback... is his identity as Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki...
That identity did, after all, carry a certain sensitivity and controversy within Konoha.
Yet the thought passed in an instant.
Still... as long as Ino genuinely likes him, and she feels happy with him, none of that really matters.
As a mother, she chose to respect and support her daughter's feelings.
Before a secluded, spacious lake on the outskirts of Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha rapidly formed hand seals, his chest swelling before he exhaled sharply.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A searing fireball roared out, tore through the air, and slammed into the calm lake, sending up great clouds of steam and spreading white mist.
Flames churned across the lake's surface, burning for a moment before slowly dissipating, almost reluctantly. All that remained on the violently disturbed water were rings of ripples that spread outward and gradually settled.
Sasuke panted. Under the surge of his emotions, his black eyes involuntarily turned scarlet, one tomoe and two tomoe slowly rotating in an uneven pattern.
His Sharingan had activated on its own.
Memories seemed to surge and spread along with the dense mist created when the fireball struck the lake.
It had been here that he first tried to perform the Great Fireball Technique in front of his father, Uchiha Fugaku, only to fail.
His father had merely stood quietly behind him and watched for a while. Then... without saying a word, he had silently shaken his head, turned, and left.
That wordless shake of the head, that cold retreating figure, had branded itself deep into his young heart like an icy mark, one that had never faded.
His father's disappointed gaze, his older brother Uchiha Itachi's despair-inducing, unreachable talent, and now...
Naruto Uzumaki, whom he had always dismissed as a hopeless loser and never taken seriously, had actually beaten him head-on during combat class, in full view of everyone!
Though many days had passed, the memory of that crushing defeat and the humiliation that followed still haunted Sasuke like a nightmare, refusing to let him move on.
Those images...
His father's disappointment, his brother's strength, his own defeat at Naruto's hands...
All of it intertwined into the sharpest of thorns, stabbing viciously into his heart again and again, bringing waves of suffocating pain.
I... really am still too weak...
I... can't measure up to that bastard Uchiha Itachi...
And now... I can't even beat Naruto Uzumaki...
Overwhelming humiliation and surging self-doubt engulfed him in an instant, like the lake's bone-chilling water.
He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging so deeply into his palms that they nearly drew blood.
Yet right at the edge of that abyss of despair, another memory, buried beneath his turbulent emotions, suddenly pierced his mind like a beam of light breaking through dark clouds.
The memory finally settled on another scene-the day he had at last successfully performed the complete Great Fireball Technique.
The enormous fireball had illuminated the lake, lighting up his face, filled with hope and apprehension.
His father had watched silently for a while, just as he always did, then... turned to leave once again.
Just as young Sasuke's heart filled with disappointment once more, believing his father was still dissatisfied with him, that ever-stern, taciturn man, his back turned, left him a few softly spoken words that drifted over on the wind. His tone held a barely perceptible trace of pride and approval that Sasuke had never heard before:
"That's my son."
That's right...
I am the son of Uchiha Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha Clan!
The noblest Uchiha blood flows through my veins!
I bear the hatred and hopes of my entire clan!
How can I... let a setback bring me down so easily?
How can I... just give up?!
Uchiha Itachi isn't dead yet. I can't fall here. I have no right to be a coward!
I've already been a coward once. That cowardly Sasuke Uchiha died on the night the Uchiha Clan was massacred.
I am an avenger who crawled out of hell. My only purpose is to kill Uchiha Itachi!
That pride and defiance, born from the depths of his bloodline and memories, erupted like one final surge of strength, shattering the ice of despair.
The Sharingan in Sasuke's eyes seemed to grow more resolute. He gritted his teeth and raised his hands again, beginning to form hand seals.
He had to grow stronger, no matter the cost!
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
With that deeper, more forceful shout, the Sharingan in Sasuke's eyes seemed to sense its wielder's fierce will and the opportunity for a breakthrough. The previously uneven tomoe spun and split again, evolving into a stable, symmetrical two-tomoe Sharingan in both eyes!
An even greater volume of chakra surged through his body, accompanied by a more refined transformation of its shape.
What erupted from his mouth was no longer a single fireball, but an immense curtain of flame that filled the sky like a scorching tidal wave, sweeping toward the vast lake ahead with the force to incinerate everything!
The extraordinarily wide-reaching B-rank Fire Release Ninjutsu engulfed nearly half the lake in an instant. Vast amounts of water evaporated, white steam shooting skyward like a mushroom cloud and intertwining with the churning crimson flames in a spectacular, terrifying sight.
At that moment, the evolution of his Sharingan and the strengthening of his resolve carried Sasuke's power to a new level.