Hinata's Jealousy

"So fast!" Tahm was somewhat surprised by Naruto's progress. Was this really the dead last from the original story? But thinking about it, Naruto had only been stuck at the bottom of the class because Kurama's chakra inside him affected his ability to use ninjutsu, and because he knew nothing about written exams. In truth, he had an exceptional affinity for chakra. Otherwise, how could he have become the protagonist?

"Yeah! I really am the man who'll become Hokage!" Naruto grinned smugly and held out his hand, intending to gather a ball of chakra to show off. But after straining for a long while until his face turned red, nothing happened in his hand.

"Um... I could clearly do it just now." Naruto gave an embarrassed laugh.

"You got carried away when you haven't even mastered it yet! Kid, go back and practice properly." Tahm suddenly understood how Sage Fukasaku must have felt when teaching him.

Thinking of something else, Tahm turned to Sakura and said, "Sakura, go teach Naruto how to refine chakra. You can take a break while you're at it. That scroll only covers the basics of chakra, but the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya personally annotated it, so it'll be good for you too."

Sakura readily agreed, while Naruto was so thrilled that he nearly forgot himself. He shouted excitedly, "Great! Sakura's going to train with me?" As he spoke, Naruto clumsily reached out to take Sakura's hand. There was a faintly reproachful look on Sakura's face, but unexpectedly, she did not refuse. She let Naruto pull her away. It seemed that Naruto's heroic rescue of the damsel in distress had indeed brought the two closer.

Tahm had his own thoughts about this. Because of his appearance, the scene where Naruto saved Hinata had strangely turned into Naruto saving Sakura. Why not give them another push and let Naruto's childhood wish come true? Of course, Tahm would never admit that he simply did not want Hinata to be swept off her feet by Naruto or anyone else. That was right, it was definitely "fatherly love." How could such a gentle, pretty little cabbage be so easily rooted up by a pig? Tahm thought solemnly.

Naruto and Sakura had gone far away. Tahm suddenly noticed that Hinata's mood had become somewhat low. Her clear eyes had dimmed, her head hung low, and her fingers weakly rubbed the hem of her clothes. Her lips moved as though she wanted to say something, but she remained silent.

"What's wrong?" Tahm set aside his plans to continue training and asked with concern. After all, Hinata held the highest priority in his heart.

Only then did Hinata raise her head. A cute blush colored her face, while a mist of tears welled in her pale eyes. After a moment of silence, she finally said in a conflicted tone, "Sakura is pretty, and she's stronger than me. She's more talented than me too. If it were her, wouldn't it be better for her to be with you, Tahm?"

Seeing Hinata's unconsciously pouting lips, Tahm finally realized it: this little girl was jealous!

Tahm gently rubbed Hinata's little head and said with a smile, "Sakura may be excellent, but you, Hinata, are my contractor. You're the lifelong partner who'll live and fight alongside me!"

The tears in Hinata's eyes stopped at once. She could not help wrapping her petite body tightly around Tahm, as if afraid that he might disappear.

"You are irreplaceable, Hinata," Tahm added.

"Mm!" Hinata's little face was still buried in Tahm's embrace as she answered softly, her voice tinged with shyness.

Nearly a month passed, and all of them made considerable progress in their training.

Tahm, Sakura, and Hinata had all mastered tree climbing and water walking, and their chakra control had improved by a great deal. Tahm could directly feel that his skills consumed less and had become more effective. Through targeted training, his chakra reserves had grown to over 500 points, far surpassing the level of an ordinary genin.

More importantly, because of Tahm's selfless instruction, Sakura's favorability toward him had reached 80, the level of a lifelong close friend. This unlocked the first-tier reward, allowing Tahm to draw a new hero skill: Alpha Strike. He could dash across the battlefield at a speed invisible to the naked eye, dealing damage to multiple targets. This was Master Yi's signature skill in the game. It could save his life by evading opponents at critical moments, while also dealing enormous targeted damage to enemies. Tahm was delighted by this gain for several days. If he had not considered Hinata's feelings, he would have wanted to pick Sakura up and spin her around a few times.

Hinata and Sakura improved even more noticeably. They mastered tree climbing and water walking within the first few days of training. Tahm could only spare time to train Hyuga Compound's Gentle Fist with Hinata, but she did him proud by learning the Hyuga Compound's Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms. It could be said that she had caught up to the genius Neji's pace.

Tahm also picked several simple ninjutsu from the huge pile of ninjutsu scrolls he had obtained from his senior brother Jiraiya and taught them to Sakura. Sakura was indeed exceptionally talented. While acting as Naruto's assistant instructor, she did not neglect her own training at all. Not only did she complete her practice of the Three Basic Jutsu, she also mastered several Water Release techniques Tahm had taught her. Her tremendous progress and Tahm's praise nearly caused jealousy to fill Hinata's little head again.

As for Naruto, he had refined an enormous amount of chakra over the past month, enough to make even Tahm envious. Yet he had not managed to learn even one of the basic Three Basic Jutsu. Sakura, who was responsible for tutoring him one-on-one, had nearly erupted into a second personality and beaten him up. Still, Naruto was happy every day, smiling like a husky as he constantly hovered around Sakura.

The purpose of their training had been perfectly achieved, and the results had even exceeded expectations. That day, Tahm did not ask everyone to train any further. Instead, he specially prepared a whole table of Chinese dishes remembered from his previous life, then invited Naruto and Sakura to have a picnic together.

"These dishes are so delicious! I've never seen anything like them before!" Sakura, also quite skilled at housekeeping, exclaimed in amazement.

Hinata was not particularly surprised. Ever since Tahm had first displayed his cooking skills, he had made these dishes for her at home every day. Even the entire Hyuga Compound knew that their eldest young lady had a summoned beast who was exceptionally good at cooking. Thinking of this, Hinata gave Sakura an elegant smile that seemed to carry a trace of pride.

"Of course. I know lots more dishes! Some are too spicy because I was afraid you wouldn't be used to them, but actually, those are what I'm best at." Tahm proudly showed off his culinary knowledge. "For example, boiled beef in chili oil, mapo tofu, dry pot bullfrog... uh... never mind the dry pot bullfrog." Tahm suddenly remembered his current body. Eating bullfrog seemed like a rather bizarre and horrifying thing to do...

"Won't we train together anymore?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"This stage of training is temporarily over," Tahm explained his plans.

"Then doesn't that mean I won't get to see Sakura... and Tahm anymore?" Naruto said anxiously.

That brat is only thinking about Sakura, isn't he? Tahm grumbled inwardly before replying, "Idiot Naruto, don't you know Ninja Academy starts the day after tomorrow?"

"Huh? Ninja Academy?" Naruto had yet to process it.

"Yeah, all three of you are enrolling, and I have reliable information that you'll even be in the same class!" Tahm revealed his exclusive news. "From now on, the few of us can train together whenever we want."

"That's great, Boss Tahm!" Naruto cheered, though his eyes openly darted toward Sakura. Sakura glared at him with slight embarrassment and annoyance, but her face was still full of smiles. Hinata was also very happy to hear this. Over the past month, she had truly become friends with Sakura and Naruto, and being able to see them all the time in the future was something worth being happy about.