"Whoa!"
Naruto's eyes snapped open, and he sprang up from the grass.
His chest heaved as his hands instinctively searched his body.
There was no dim sewer.
No towering iron gates.
And certainly no enormous fox lurking in the darkness, whose mere growl could shake the entire space.
The moon shone cold overhead, and the evening breeze rustled the leaves in the courtyard.
Cangyue was still sitting cross-legged before him, slowly drawing his right hand away from Naruto's face.
I'm back.
Naruto looked down at his hands, then felt his stomach.
"Where's Kurama?"
"Still inside you."
Cangyue opened his eyes, his voice calm.
He had successfully entered the sealing space on his first attempt at Mental Guidance, but he was nowhere near as composed as he looked.
Not only had he actually met the Nine-Tails, he had also gotten a hefty sum of valor points out of the fox.
More importantly, the Nine-Tails had voluntarily reined in his leaking chakra.
The dream training he had made up on the spot had actually benefited Naruto.
Naruto was still reliving what had just happened.
He reached up to touch his left cheek, then suddenly froze.
The spot where Sasuke had punched him that afternoon had still been a little swollen.
During dinner, his cheek had ached whenever he chewed too hard.
But now, the pain was completely gone.
Naruto pressed it hard twice, then pinched his cheeks and pulled them outward.
It doesn't hurt.
Even the swelling had disappeared.
He hurried over to the water jar at the edge of the courtyard and examined his face in its reflection.
Aside from the slight redness where he had rubbed it, there was no sign that he had been punched.
"It's healed!"
Naruto turned around and bounced on the grass several times in excitement.
"My face really healed!"
"It was still swollen this afternoon, but now it doesn't hurt at all!"
He rushed back to Cangyue, seized his hand, and shook it up and down.
"Thank you, Cangyue!"
"Dream training really works!"
[Valor points +30]
Cangyue's eyes lit up.
Naruto really was easy to please.
All he had done was take him into the sealing space once and get the Nine-Tails to rein in his chakra a little, and Naruto had contributed another thirty points.
At this rate, his valor points would grow steadily as long as he taught Naruto a few more times.
"Don't get too excited yet."
Cangyue pulled back his hand, which had gone numb from all the shaking, and raised one finger.
"You can't tell anyone what you saw tonight."
Naruto blinked.
"What things?"
"The Sage of Six Paths, Kurama, and the sealing space."
Cangyue deliberately slowed his speech.
"If word gets out about these things, it could bring you trouble. You can't tell anyone, whether it's Iruka-sensei or your classmates."
The excitement on Naruto's face faded a little.
He hadn't quite understood why the Sage of Six Paths had appeared through Cangyue.
Nor did he understand why Kurama lived in his stomach, but he did understand the words "don't tell anyone."
He nodded firmly, then covered his mouth with his hand.
"Don't worry!"
"I won't tell anyone!"
"Even if someone tries to bribe me with a hundred bowls of ramen, I won't talk!"
Cangyue stared at him for a couple of seconds.
"What about a thousand bowls?"
Naruto's resolve visibly wavered.
He seemed to be picturing a thousand bowls of ramen piled up before him.
Cangyue watched him expressionlessly.
Naruto hurriedly shook his head and crossed both hands in front of his mouth.
"Not even for a thousand bowls!"
"I, Naruto Uzumaki, keep my word!"
Only then did Cangyue nod in satisfaction.
Keeping it secret was only the first step.
After all their efforts tonight, they still needed to test the actual results.
Although the Nine-Tails had reined in his leaking chakra, whether that would improve Naruto's control could only be determined through practice.
"Try sensing your chakra."
Naruto closed his eyes and clenched his fists.
A moment later, he opened his eyes again, looking bewildered.
"How do I sense it?"
"..."
Cangyue had almost forgotten that despite spending several years at school, Naruto's grasp of theory was still abysmal.
"Then let's test your chakra control directly."
Naruto looked even more confused.
"How do we test it?"
Cangyue stood up and brushed the grass clippings from his clothes.
He lifted his chin slightly, gesturing for Naruto to look at the large tree in the corner of the backyard.
Its trunk was thick and straight, its branches and leaves stretching high above the courtyard wall. Moonlight fell through gaps in the foliage, casting broad patches of dappled shadow across the grass.
"Walk up it."
Naruto tilted his head back.
"Walk?"
"With your feet."
"I know you use your feet!"
Naruto ran over to the tree and patted its trunk.
The rough bark was very hard, and the trunk stood almost perpendicular to the ground.
He looked back at Cangyue.
"How could anyone possibly walk up a tree?"
Cangyue didn't explain.
He walked straight to the trunk, gathered chakra in the soles of his feet, and planted one foot against it.
One step.
Two steps.
His body gradually became parallel to the ground, yet he didn't fall.
Cangyue walked up the straight trunk just like that, his clothes swaying gently in the night breeze.
Upon reaching the crown, he stepped onto a branch extending sideways, turned around, and stood with his hands behind his back.
Below him, Naruto stared up, his mouth falling wider and wider open.
"That's amazing!"
He immediately copied Cangyue, pouring all his chakra into the soles of his feet before stepping onto the trunk.
Bang!
The instant his sole touched the bark, his chakra blasted a small chunk out of the trunk.
Naruto lost his balance and toppled backward onto the grass.
"That hurt!"
He sat up, clutching the back of his head, and looked from the shallow dent in the trunk to Cangyue standing in the treetop.
Cangyue stayed where he was and simply held up one finger.
"Too much."
Naruto rubbed his head and got back up.
On his second attempt, he deliberately used less chakra.
His right foot landed on the trunk without blasting the bark apart.
Delight spread across Naruto's face, and he hurriedly lifted his left foot.
Smack!
The chakra in his right foot suddenly cut off, and he slid down the trunk, planting his face straight into the grass.
Cangyue held up one finger again.
"Too little."
Naruto spat out the grass in his mouth and scrambled up, refusing to give in.
On his third attempt, he didn't rush to take a step. Instead, he pressed his hand against the trunk and recalled how he had felt in the sealing space.
In the past, whenever he drew out chakra, another violent force inside him would surge out alongside it.
The harder he tried to control it, the more easily that force disrupted his rhythm.
But things were different now.
There were still two sources of chakra inside him, but they were no longer tangled together.
His own power stayed on one side.
Kurama's power stayed on the other.
The two were clearly separated.
Naruto tried drawing on only his own chakra, sending it little by little into the soles of his feet.
His right foot came down.
It stuck firmly to the trunk.
He paused for a moment to make sure his chakra wouldn't suddenly go out of control, then lifted his left foot.
One step.
His body wobbled slightly, but he didn't fall.
Naruto held his breath and took another step.
The second step.
The third.
He moved slowly, stopping after every step to adjust his chakra.
His body stayed pressed close to the trunk, his arms spread wide, as though he were walking along a narrow log suspended in midair.
Halfway up, the chakra in his soles suddenly increased.
The bark gave a faint crack.
Naruto tilted away from the trunk and was about to fall.
Instinctively, he tried to draw on more power, but stopped himself at the last moment.
Don't lose control.
This is my own chakra.
Naruto gritted his teeth and forced the surging power back down.
His feet held firm again.
Standing in the treetop, Cangyue's eyes flickered with surprise.
Naruto's improvement was more noticeable than he had expected.
Without the Nine-Tails' chakra interfering, Naruto's ability to sense his own power was still crude, but he could already make the most basic adjustments.
As long as he didn't get impatient, climbing up wouldn't be difficult.
Naruto kept moving upward.
Sweat gradually beaded on his forehead, and his legs began to tremble.
But whenever he came close to losing his balance, he stopped and readjusted the chakra beneath his feet.
The branches and leaves drew closer and closer.
Taking his final step, Naruto grabbed a branch and hauled himself into the crown.
He crouched on the branch, panting heavily.
Only after confirming that he really wasn't going to fall did he slowly straighten up.
The entire backyard lay beneath his feet.
The courtyard wall, the rooftops, and the distant streets all looked lower than usual.
The evening breeze blew against his face, and Naruto's disbelief gradually turned to elation.
"I made it up..."
He looked down at his feet.
"I really walked all the way up!"
He hadn't used a rope.
Nor had he climbed with his hands.
He had walked up this tree, step by step, using his own chakra.
Back when they practiced chakra control at school, he had always been the worst.
Other students could succeed on their first try, while he often failed to get the hang of it even after a dozen attempts.
Yet tonight, he had made it up after only two failures.
Naruto turned excitedly toward Cangyue.
"Well?"
"Have I learned how to train in my dreams?"
Cangyue stood on the highest branch with his hands behind his back.
The wind lifted the hem of his clothes, but his expression barely changed.
"Just barely."
Naruto's smile froze.
He had thought he had done incredibly well.
He hadn't expected Cangyue to consider it barely adequate.
Naruto looked down at the trunk he had walked up, then raised his eyes to Cangyue, who stood perfectly still on a slender branch.
His newfound satisfaction swiftly turned into determination.
"I'll work twice as hard from now on!"
"Next time, I won't just walk up. I'll stand upside down on the tree!"
"When I become Hokage, I'll let everyone know how amazing training in dreams is!"
[Valor Points +20]
Another twenty points.
Cangyue couldn't help smiling.
Fifty points in one evening.
And that didn't even include the huge sum the Nine-Tails had contributed.
Taking Naruto through a single training session tonight had already earned him more than many past incidents combined.
What's more, Naruto firmly believed in training in dreams, so Cangyue didn't need to keep laying the groundwork.
How was this a student?
He was clearly a gold mine that produced Valor Points all on his own.
"Not bad."
Cangyue raised a hand and patted Naruto's shoulder.
"That's all I'll teach you tonight."
"Go home and get some sleep."
Naruto wanted to walk up the trunk a couple more times, but the moment he opened his mouth, he couldn't help letting out a long yawn.
He had already been busy all day, then gone through Mental Guidance and tree-climbing practice. Once his excitement faded, his eyelids immediately grew heavy.
"You still have class tomorrow."
Cangyue reminded him.
Naruto rubbed his eyes and nodded.
"Then I'll come back tomorrow night!"
"We'll see."
Cangyue didn't agree right away.
If Naruto really came over every day, sooner or later he would exhaust everything Cangyue knew.
Naruto, however, automatically interpreted those words as a test from a master.
He moved to the edge of the branch, bent his legs, and leaped straight from the treetop over the courtyard wall.
"Cangyue, see you tomorrow!"
His voice was still echoing through the yard when he disappeared behind the rooftops.
Watching the now-empty courtyard wall, Cangyue suddenly remembered something.
Naruto had indeed learned how to walk up a tree.
But he hadn't learned how to land safely yet.
A dull thud soon sounded outside the yard, followed immediately by Naruto's muffled cry of pain.
"I'm fine!"
"Nothing happened to me!"
His uneven footsteps quickly faded into the distance.
Cangyue looked away, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
He dropped from the treetop onto the grass and brought up his panel.
Tonight's haul had been substantial indeed.
The Nine-Tails' shock, Naruto's gratitude, and his admiration after successfully completing the chakra training had all turned into tangible Valor Points.
Even after deducting the cost of purchasing Mental Guidance, his available Valor Points had still increased considerably.
[Total Valor Points: 896] [Currently available Valor Points: 341]
Cangyue's gaze settled on the Swordsmanship section.
Since reaching his current level in Swordsmanship, he had been able to begin forming Sword Intent and even briefly part the curtain of rain with the Flame and Thunder Swords.
Although advancing further would require 800 Valor Points, that goal no longer felt so distant.
His current level had already brought such changes.
What kind of improvement would the next level bring?
Fully solidified Sword Intent?
The ability to fight a Jonin head-on?
Cangyue gripped the sword hilt at his waist, anticipation gleaming in his eyes.
Possessing Jonin-level combat strength at twelve would put him on par even with Uchiha Itachi and Kakashi Hatake at that age.
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