"Hmph, I'm not going to turn ugly."
At Naruto's words, Sasuke pouted, clearly brimming with confidence in his own looks.
Hearing that, Naruto had to change his approach immediately.
"Ahem, well... Sasuke, you don't want to grow up still able to see your feet just by looking down, do you? How will your body develop without enough rest?"
"Naruto, you're awful! I'm not talking to you anymore. Hmph."
Sasuke's face flushed all the way to his ears. He huffed and hurried back to his room, leaving Naruto shaking his head with a smile.
Once Sasuke had returned to his room, Naruto strolled into the inner room of his own bedroom.
Rattle...
The moment Naruto slid the inner room's door open, he saw a heap of limp bodies sprawled across the floor.
The twenty clones looked utterly exhausted, as though they hadn't slept for seven days and nights.
"Researching Impure World Reincarnation might not use up chakra, but the mental drain is terrifying."
With that, Naruto willed it. "Release!"
Pop, pop, pop...
The twenty Shadow Clones that had worked through the night vanished in puffs of smoke.
At the same time, a flood of experience from their research into Impure World Reincarnation immediately poured into Naruto's mind.
"This really is a bug-level exploit, huh? Second, thanks for creating the Shadow Clone Technique."
Looking at the A4 sheets covered in scrawls littering the floor, Naruto gathered every last one and stored them in his System Space.
He absolutely couldn't let outsiders see these. If the village higher-ups learned he was secretly studying a forbidden technique, it would be trouble.
"At this rate... it'll probably take a few more days to master."
Remembering that he would see Shino at today's Graduation Party, Naruto steeled himself and exchanged for a hundred thousand sheets of