The moment Naruto stepped out of the hut, all three girls froze.
They could hardly believe the person standing before them was actually him. The difference between the original Naruto and the young man in front of them was simply too much to process.
Naruto had already wiped away most of the black impurities using his shirt, leaving him standing there completely shirtless. His body was now well-shaped, firm, and refined. He wasn't excessively muscular, but he was built exactly like someone who had trained his body perfectly.
His face had changed even more. His features had become much sharper, and his blue eyes appeared clearer than ever. His black, silk-like hair fell naturally around his face.
The loud, annoying boy whom they had never considered attractive was now handsome enough to stand right beside Sasuke. Perhaps he was even more handsome than Sasuke.
Even though a powerful, terrible stink was still coming from Naruto's body, Sakura did not just stand there. She had not come here to admire his appearance. She had come here after throwing away her pride, and she had made her decision.
Sakura moved forward, walking straight through the terrible smell. Then, right in front of Ayame, Haku, and the disguised Ino, she dropped onto her hands and knees in front of Naruto.
"Naruto, I am sorry…"
Her head was lowered entirely to the ground, but her voice was loud and clear.
"I will respect you as my teacher. I will never disrespect or disregard you again. I don't want to feel helpless again."
Sakura's fingers pressed tightly against the dirt. The terrifying memories of being restrained by ice, unable to move, the looks of people in land of waves for her body and entirely unable to protect herself everytime still burned hotly inside her mind.
"Please give me one last chance to become your disciple."
Ayame stared at Sakura in pure shock. But the most shocked person among them was Ino.
Still hiding in her disguise, Ino looked at Sakura as though the girl kneeling in the dirt could not possibly be the Sakura she knew.
'This… This can't be Sakura,' Ino thought, her eyes widening to their limits.
'That self-prideful bitch… How can she kneel before Naruto? Why is she kneeling before him?'
This was Sakura. The girl who always argued over the smallest things. The girl who stubbornly refused to accept defeat. The girl who had always behaved as though Naruto was completely beneath her foot.
Yet, that exact same Sakura was now on her hands and knees, openly begging Naruto to accept her.
Naruto silently looked down at her. He did not immediately give her an answer.
Instead, he calmly reached out and placed one hand on Sakura's shoulder.
Feeling his touch, Sakura slowly lifted her face and looked up into his deep blue eyes. Naruto carefully examined her expression, searching for any lies.
This time, he did not see false respect. He did not see the frightened obedience she had shown before just because she feared what he might do to her.
He saw pure sincerity in them.
More importantly, Naruto saw a burning, desperate passion to become strong. Sakura had finally tasted true helplessness, and now that helplessness was eating away at her old pride, replacing it entirely with a hunger for power.
"Fine…" Naruto said quietly.
Sakura's eyes trembled slightly with hope.
"I accept you."
Before a smile of relief could fully appear on her face, Naruto's voice turned much colder.
"This is your last chance. Don't fuck it up again."
Sakura immediately lowered her head back down in deep submission. "Thank you… Sensei."
Watching from the trees, Ino simply could not understand what she was seeing. Naruto was only a genin. He had graduated from the academy at the exact same time as them. What could Sakura possibly learn from him that made her kneel like a servant?
Sakura had always been absolutely disgusted by Naruto's courage to approach her. She had mocked him, beaten him, and treated his feelings like they were a shameful joke.
Now, she was kneeling before that same Naruto, gratefully accepting him as her teacher. To Ino, none of it made any logical sense.
'What happened between them?' Ino wondered desperately.
Suddenly, Naruto's expression changed. He sensed a hidden presence a short distance away.
He could not identify exactly who it was, but he knew for a fact that someone was watching them from the forest. Naruto's eyes shifted slightly toward Haku.
Without speaking a single word, he merely glanced toward the exact direction of the hidden presence with his gaze sharp on that area.
That was enough. Haku understood his master's silent command immediately.
A freezing cold energy quickly gathered in Haku's hand, forming into a razor-sharp ice sword. In the very next moment, Haku vanished completely.
Ino barely saw him move.
Before she could even react, Haku appeared right beside the tree where she was hiding. He pressed the cold edge of the ice sword directly against her neck.
Ino's entire body went stiff. The icy blade sent a chill right into her skin.
Realizing she had been caught perfectly, Ino slowly raised both of her hands into the air. She stepped out from behind the tree in total surrender.
Haku followed close behind her, keeping the deadly sword pressed to her neck.
Naruto looked at the unfamiliar woman standing before him. "Who are you?"
Then he looked toward his new disciple. "Do you know her, Sakura?"
Sakura carefully examined the woman's face. After a moment, she shook her head. "No. I have never seen her in this village."
Neither Sakura nor Ayame recognized Ino at all.
Ino had not completely changed her physical body, but her disguise was incredibly skillful. She had let her blonde hair fall freely instead of tying it into her normal high ponytail. She wore a completely different shirt and shorts, wrapped a thick scarf around her neck, and placed a green band over her head.
She had also made very small, clever changes to the shape of her mouth and nose using chakra. Those few minor adjustments were enough to make her look like a totally different person. She even changed her scent on her body
Ino let out an awkward smile. "Sorry, guys…"
She slowly reached up and removed the green band and the scarf. Then, she gently pressed her fingers against her mouth and nose, releasing the chakra and returning them to their original appearance.
Finally, she gathered all of her loose blonde hair and tied it up into her usual, familiar ponytail.
Sakura and Ayame abruptly shouted at the exact same time. "Ino?!"
They both stared at her in utter disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
Both girls were entirely shocked. Not only because Ino had secretly followed Sakura all the way here, but also because her disguise had easily fooled every single one of them. Sasuke is having red cheeks that Ino saw everything that happened between Naruto and her.
Even Naruto was surprised. He looked at Ino with a new spark of interest.
'She is quite good at disguising herself,' Naruto thought. His eyes narrowed slightly as another idea entered his mind. 'If used correctly, she could become a very useful intelligence collector.'
Ino glanced nervously toward the sharp ice sword that was still resting dangerously against her neck.
"Sakura hasn't been herself for the past few days, so I started following her. Then I saw her entering the forest."
She looked around the clearing at the grand house, the destroyed-looking hut, Haku, and the shirtless Naruto. "And now I am here."
Naruto looked at Haku calmly. "Leave her."
Haku immediately lowered the ice sword and stepped away without a word.
Naruto continued, "Prepare a bath for me." He then pointed toward the small, smelly hut. "Destroy this hut and take the scraps far away from the house."
"Yes, Master," Haku replied, immediately beginning to carry out Naruto's orders.
Naruto then looked back at the three girls. "I will talk with you three after I have my bath. Until then, talk among yourselves."
Without waiting for any response, Naruto turned his back and walked inside the large house.
Once inside, he filled the bath with water and released a highly controlled amount of Yang Fire into it. Heating the water was a simple task for him now. Within minutes, thick steam began rising, making the bath feel exactly like a private hot spring.
Naruto entered the heated water, letting out a breath as he began scrubbing away the remaining blood, sweat, and black impurities covering his skin. After four days of agonizing, painful seclusion, his body finally relaxed in the heat.
Outside the house, however, the situation among the three girls was incredibly uncomfortable.
Sakura could not bring herself to look directly at Ayame. She was the one who had recklessly spoken to Teuchi and caused that deeply humiliating misunderstanding between Naruto and Ayame.
Now that Ayame was sitting directly in front of her, Sakura lacked the courage to even begin a normal conversation. She felt deeply ashamed of her actions.
She was also very embarrassed to speak casually with Ino, especially after Ino had just watched her begging on her knees before Naruto.
Ino, however, did not care about the awkward atmosphere at all.
She immediately began talking to the two girls, casually throwing out questions. Before long, her sharp mind understood two very important things.
First, Naruto had given Ayame a special, powerful medicine. Second, Naruto was actively teaching Sakura how to fight and become stronger.
That information only made Ino far more curious. After some time, she finally asked the main question that had been circling inside her mind for days.
Looking straight at Sakura, Ino gave her a familiar, challenging sneer. "What about you and Sasuke? I haven't seen you with him for the past few days."
Her smile widened playfully. "Are you finally admitting defeat to me?"
In the past, Sakura would have immediately become furious. She would have shouted at Ino, loudly declared that Sasuke belonged only to her, and turned the entire conversation into another heated competition.
But Sakura did not react like that at all. She looked right at Ino without losing her calm focus.
"If you want to pursue Sasuke, go ahead."
Ino's challenging sneer instantly disappeared.
"What I want right now is strength," Sakura said firmly. "I don't want anything else."
Her mindset was entirely unshaken. The humiliation of the past few weeks had permanently changed something deep inside her.
During the dangerous Land of Waves mission, enemy shinobi had almost dragged her away while she was completely powerless. If Naruto had not forcefully broken out of the ice sphere in time, something terrible would have happened to her.
Then, only a few days ago, she had been easily trapped in Haku's ice. Her entire body had been restrained. She could not move an inch. She could not fight back. She could do absolutely nothing except accept whatever was going to happen to her.
That raw helplessness had crushed Sakura's pride far more painfully than any insult ever could.
She was a beautiful girl, but beauty had not protected her in the ninja world. Instead, without strength, her appearance only made her a target and made her feel even more vulnerable.
That harsh truth made Sakura's heart ache constantly. She never wanted to feel so powerless again.
She would rather kneel in the dirt. She would rather become Naruto's willing servant. She would rather throw away every piece of her old pride than remain weak enough for others to decide her fate.
Ino stared at Sakura, completely unable to believe what she had just heard.
'Sakura… Since childhood, her crush has always been Sasuke,' Ino thought, her mind spinning.
Sakura had thought about Sasuke constantly. She followed him, spoke about him endlessly, and probably even dreamed about him every night.
Now, that exact same Sakura was telling Ino to pursue him freely.
'She is saying she is not interested in Sasuke anymore… Unbelievable.'
Ino hesitated for a moment, then finally asked the question that interested her even more than Sasuke did.
"What about you and Naruto?" Ino asked, leaning slightly closer. "Are you two…?"
Sakura opened her mouth, about to respond. But before she could say a single word, the wooden door opened.
Naruto walked outside with only a white towel wrapped securely around his lower body.
His upper body remained completely exposed, clearly revealing the refined, athletic build created through his brutal purification process. Drops of water still remained on his dark black hair and slowly ran down his broad shoulders.
As always, Naruto had appeared at exactly the moment they were talking about him.
He looked flatly at the three girls. "What are you talking about?"
Sakura quickly turned her gaze away from his exposed chest, a faint blush on her face. "Nothing. Just girl talk."
Then she looked back up at his face. "How about you get dressed and come out, Sensei? I have doubts."
Naruto looked at her silently for a moment before turning around and walking back inside to dress.
The moment the door closed behind him, Sakura turned sharply toward Ino.
"Between Naruto and me, there is nothing going on." Her voice was incredibly clear and firm. "We are like Sensei and disciple."
A short while later, Naruto returned to the outside clearing, now fully dressed in fresh clothes.
The very moment Sakura saw him, she immediately rose to her feet and rushed eagerly toward him with the breathing-technique scroll held tightly in her hands.
"Sensei, I have doubts."
She quickly opened the scroll and showed him the specific places in the diagrams and text that she had failed to understand.
Naruto looked over each part carefully. He took a few minutes and clarified her doubts theoretically, explaining how the chakra was supposed to flow.
But Naruto wanted to explain her doubts practically, too. He needed to physically correct her posture and flow.
Without any hesitation or change in his calm expression, Naruto reached out and placed both of his hands directly onto her small, perky breasts.
"Now use the breathing technique," Naruto instructed firmly.
Sakura felt incredibly shy, knowing perfectly well that Ino and Ayame were watching her right now. However, not wanting to risk upsetting Naruto and ruining her last chance, she swallowed her embarrassment and remained completely silent. Her cheeks quickly turned a bright, glowing pink.
Following his firm grip, Sakura used the breathing technique right there, right in front of Ino and Ayame.
Seeing this casual display of deep intimacy, Ayame's eyes widened. "Awww," she gasped softly, immediately placing her hand over her mouth.
Ino had the exact same reaction. "Awww," Ino whispered, slapping her hand over her own mouth as she watched Naruto's hands resting firmly on Sakura's chest.
Ino's mind raced, entirely unable to process the bizarre scene unfolding before her.
'Is this really a sensei and disciple relationship?!' Ino screamed in her head.
(.....to be continued.)