Paying Tuition

Back home, Sasuke rummaged through his family's ninjutsu collection, found some C-rank techniques, picked two at random, and tucked them into his pocket.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough were both simple ninjutsu. Sasuke thought them over. Surely these would be respectable enough.

With his mind made up, Sasuke eagerly hurried off to find Meihui.

"Here. My tuition."

Looking at the two ninjutsu Sasuke offered him, Meihui nodded with an air of solemn wisdom, calmly took the scrolls, and tucked them into his own pocket.

"Ahem. Sasuke, make sure you train hard with me from now on."

With that, he struck what he thought was an inscrutably profound pose, tilting his head up forty-five degrees and gazing straight ahead.

Seeing Meihui like this, Sasuke felt as though he'd just gotten a raw deal.

But ninjutsu given away was like water spilled, and someone who cared about saving face couldn't very well ask for it back.

And so Sasuke began training alongside Meihui and Naruto. From their simple daily practice of the Three Basic Techniques to taijutsu, chakra training, and basic ninjutsu, Sasuke gradually discovered Meihui's strengths, both in his grasp of theory and his practical execution. He grew more astonished by the day.

He realized that Meihui really was strong. At the very least, he couldn't match him now, though that might not be true in the future.

Meihui had no idea what Sasuke was thinking at that moment. Otherwise, he definitely would have given him a sharp rap on the head.

The sky had cleared, the rain had stopped, and Uchiha Sasuke thought he had what it took again.

During their training, Naruto constantly found Sasuke irritating. He challenged him every time, and every time Sasuke knocked him flat.

Sasuke, meanwhile, challenged Meihui, got utterly thrashed every time, then turned around and picked on Naruto.

The three fell into a peculiar cycle.

But to outsiders, Naruto and Meihui were clearly twins, yet completely different.

Meihui ranked first in their year, while Naruto was the dead last in his class.

With the same golden hair and faces cast from the same mold, how could there be such a huge gap between them? It was like one was the model child every parent held up as an example, while the other was their own disappointing kid.

Meihui became the object of his classmates' admiration, while Naruto became the loser everyone talked about.

But that was only how things looked on the surface. Naruto wasn't actually that stupid; Meihui had simply told him to hide his abilities.

Sasuke also knew how strong Naruto was, so he asked about it in confusion.

"Sasuke, our village isn't as peaceful as you imagine. Think about it. The Uchiha Clan's assets and all that couldn't just vanish into thin air, could they?"

Meihui stopped there, leaving Sasuke to think it through himself.

Sasuke didn't understand and wanted to ask more, but Meihui cut him off.

"Sasuke, if you really want to know about things like this, go back and look through what your clan left behind more often. Some things can't be learned just because someone teaches you. You need to understand them for yourself."

Paying him no further attention, Meihui went back to his training.

Sasuke nodded, only half understanding, and sank into thought.

Meihui left him alone and murmured inwardly.

Already starting to lay the groundwork, huh? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Konoha.

Time flew by as Meihui trained with Naruto and Sasuke.

Under Meihui's guidance, Naruto and Sasuke worked hard on chakra control, from climbing trees to keeping their footing on them.

From falling off trees and plunging into the water at first to properly climbing trees and then walking on water, their chakra control steadily improved.

And just like that, the day of the graduation exam arrived.

When Meihui saw that the test was on the Clone Technique, he knew this world hadn't changed because of his arrival.

Then he would keep lying low and building his strength.