Born evil...

"Naruto, remember to study properly with the book. Don't go jumping into the water on your own again."

Yugao handed the book to Naruto, who lay in bed with lifeless eyes, then explained that Grandpa Third would be bathing him from now on.

Naruto's dull eyes gradually lit up.

Yay! I won't run into the Acorn Kappa again!

After Yugao left, he sat up in bed. With his recovery ability, the red marks on his body had long since disappeared. Only the mental torment remained.

"Hmm, On Chakra (Abridged)?"

"Big Sis told me to take good care of it. I'll give it to Teacher tonight."

In Naruto's eyes, although Hashirama occasionally made little mistakes while teaching him, such as making him blast himself away while gathering chakra, or tricking him into the water during their water walking practice just now.

Most of the time, though, he was fairly reliable.

Besides, Big Sis had said this was the edition annotated by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, and it was very precious.

Wouldn't giving it to Teacher for safekeeping be perfect?

At that moment, Tobirama's soul, still asleep in the underworld, inexplicably shuddered.

If he knew what Naruto was thinking, he would absolutely let out a piercing shriek, knock Naruto unconscious with Flying Thunder God, then take back his precious first-edition annotated book.

Let my big brother keep it? How is that any different from throwing it into a doghouse?

Back in the day, his brother had run off halfway through his work to fool around with that evil Madara Uchiha, leaving him to handle the remaining administrative duties, only for him to find himself practically searching for shit in a doghouse.

Countless documents were strewn about in a mess, piled on top of one another, with folded ones left as they were. In short, it wasn't dirty, but it was a complete shambles.

Let us observe a moment of silence for this book.

"Oh, another one of Tobirama's books. Let me see, let me see."

The instant Hashirama heard it was his little brother's book, he climbed off his galloping wooden horse and rushed over excitedly, carrying little Kurama.

Kurama: I hate humans with no sense of boundaries, especially plant people!

"Now then, let's have a look!"

Hashirama opened the book to the first page. Looking at the blacked-out line, he felt an itch in his brain.

"Oh, right, I think I read this book back in the day!"

Hashirama smacked a fist into his palm with a look of sudden realization.

"Huh? Then what's been blacked out after 'evil' here?"

Naruto pointed at the word "evil" and asked curiously.

Hashirama scratched his head. He felt he shouldn't say it.

After all, these were words Tobirama had written.

Question: What was evil in Tobirama's eyes, and please explain why it was the Uchiha.

After all, the blood feud between the Senju and the Uchiha during the war years was no small matter, but fortunately, two best buddies had changed that situation together.

Actually, if either of those two had been a woman afterward, the other four great nations probably wouldn't have existed.

And the original version of this passage should have read: The evil Uchiha Clan is forbidden from reading the annotated edition of the training methods the great Senju Clan developed specifically for Konoha's next generation! You are unworthy! Also, tell your clan leader to stay away from my big brother (the First Hokage)!

However, after Hashirama happened to see it, he had forcibly made him black it out.

No subsequent annotated editions were printed, either.

"Evil people aren't allowed to read this book."

Hashirama spoke, and Kurama caught a powerful whiff of lies.

But even without smelling it, Kurama could have figured out who it meant with a single tail.

After all, back when Tobirama was doing his research, he had often sought Mito out for discussions, and every time, he would say "evil Uchiha" two or three times.

Kurama had gotten used to hearing it.

"Really? Why is this black patch so big?"

Naruto was a little skeptical, because the few words his teacher had said couldn't possibly fill such a long blacked-out passage!

"Really. Back then, I personally... watched my foolish little brother black out this passage."

"He said something about how becoming a ninja made you evil."

"But ninjas aren't actually evil. We're people too, and people come in all kinds."

Hashirama spun his tale, leaving Kurama staring in utter disbelief.

No wonder Madara had been so thoroughly fooled by him back then. How should he put it? This fellow was both clever and not clever-a true-false pseudo-proposition.

"Oh, I get it."

Naruto nodded, defeated by the First Hokage's mind-bending mouth.

Hashirama stroked his gradually lengthening hair in satisfaction and turned to the next page.

Something needed to be mentioned here: why was Naruto growing his hair out?

There were two reasons.

For one, his teacher Hashirama Senju had long hair, and Naruto thought the way his teacher's hair flew around when he used Wood Release was incredibly cool, so he had started growing his hair out too.

For another, the village barbers didn't like Naruto. Naruto was afraid that if he went there, what they cut off wouldn't be his hair, but his head.

Though most likely, the scissors would get stuck at Naruto's neck, and then Nine-Tails chakra would simply blow up the entire barbershop.

"Hmm, first, you need to slowly gain control over the direction your chakra flows inside your body. The chakra students have just extracted is unstable, so a lot of it is lost when they use it, and the results aren't necessarily good."

Hashirama rubbed his chin. Had it been like this when he first extracted chakra as a child?

It seemed using ninjutsu really had been difficult at first, but after a few months, a few hand signs had generally done the trick.

After that, he had basically just clapped his hands together, and whatever he called out appeared.

The chakra inside him had been unbelievably cooperative.

This could be understood as Hashirama's formidable control over chakra.

But Naruto was still young, after all, and really did need to build a solid foundation slowly.

The book's recommended training method read: After examining various approaches, we recommend that students with some foundation undertake climbing training.

Then came a whole heap of little tips on how to control chakra while climbing.

Most came from Tobirama and Mito, with a small portion from Madara and Hyuga Tennin.

Among them, Tobirama had circled Madara's suggestions in red pen and added a note: You may use these as a reference, but do not let the evil Uchiha lead you astray.

As expected of Tobirama's own first edition, the writing was truly unrestrained, its impassioned words brimming with loathing for the evil Uchiha Clan.

In that case, let's have Naruto start with tree climbing.

Hmm, let me think about how tall a tree I should give Naruto. This really is a difficult question.

Then, under Naruto's shocked gaze and Kurama's gaze of thirty percent reluctance to watch, twenty percent fear, and fifty percent gloating, a towering tree a head taller than the Nine-Tails rose into the sky.

"Naruto, once you've climbed this tree, you can start water walking training again."

Although Naruto was a little afraid, his teacher's sunny smile rubbed off on him.

"Okay! I'll do my best!"

Kurama couldn't help covering his face. Sigh, he's been thoroughly hoodwinked.