They sat together on a bench, taking a moment to rest. Sora carefully cut the watermelon into slices and handed them to her one by one. She swayed back and forth contentedly as she ate the juicy fruit.
"It's good," she smiled, clearly enjoying the taste.
Seeing her happy expression, Sora smiled warmly and took a bite of his own watermelon slice. It was sweet, juicy, and refreshing on his tongue. They hadn't had any water to drink, so this delicious watermelon served as a perfect substitute to quench their thirst.
In the Hokage Office
Boom
The door was kicked open forcefully as a man wrapped in bandages walked into the room with purpose.
"Hiruzen, I've heard about the kid named Sora. I want him to join Root," he said directly.
"No, Danzo. He will be a great ninja in the future. He will not join Root," Hiruzen said coldly, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
"Tch, he attacked a villager without hesitation. If he isn't properly controlled, he will end up hurting more people," Danzo said with concern in his voice.
"It was self-defense, plain and simple," Hiruzen said firmly.
Before Danzo could speak again to press his case, Hiruzen spoke first to end the discussion.
"I'm the Hokage. My words are final," he said coldly, asserting his authority.
"Y-you—you'll regret this decision, Hiruzen," he said with frustration before storming off angrily.
Hiruzen let out a long sigh and smoked his pipe thoughtfully. He looked down at his desk covered in documents and sighed again heavily. He had a mountain of paperwork to complete, and new problems kept occurring that demanded his attention.
Training Ground 4
Sora trained together with Naruto in training ground four. He had originally planned to train by himself, but when Naruto expressed her desire to join him, he let her come along.
Now they were training together side by side. Through the course of their training session, he learned that she was more of a brawler in her fighting style. So instead of teaching her how to hide in the shadows or throw shurikens with precision, he decided to teach her hand-to-hand combat techniques.
He taught her his own personal creation.
—Body Destruction Fist—
A deadly fighting technique that aims specifically to kill opponents and only hit the vital points of the body. Of course, he made sure to tell her to be extremely careful not to use it on just anyone since it was an incredibly dangerous technique.
While teaching her the movements, he focused carefully on his own body conditioning. He needed to keep it fast, agile, and flexible, so he performed a bunch of different stretches to maintain his physical condition.
"If only I could awaken my chakra right now," he muttered to himself with frustration.
Naruto overheard this comment and immediately stopped her training to look at him.
"You want to awaken your chakra?" she asked with curiosity.
He nodded in response. It was the only thing truly bothering him at this point. Even though it was just a few days away before the academy started, the thought wouldn't leave his mind. He desperately wanted to check out its capabilities and potential.
She lifted her chin proudly with a smug grin spreading across her face.
"Well then, leave it to me," she said confidently and took his hand in hers.
Ten minutes later, they were standing in the Hokage's office.
"You want me to awaken your chakra?" Hiruzen asked, somewhat surprised by the request.
Sora nodded earnestly. Through his conversation with Naruto while they were walking over, he had learned that the Hokage had personally awakened her chakra for her.
Though he didn't know for certain if Hiruzen would do the same thing for him, it was definitely worth a try to ask.
"The academy starts in a day. Just wait patiently until then," he said reasonably.
Sora shook his head, disagreeing with that approach.
"I want to get ahead of the others. I know the clan heirs already have their chakra awakened by their families. I don't want to be left behind," he said with determination.
Hearing these ambitious words, Hiruzen nodded slowly in understanding.
"I can do this for you, but you must do something for me in return."
"What is it?" Sora asked, curious about the condition.
"Spend more time with Naruto."
Sora nodded without hesitation. He didn't quite know why Hiruzen would specifically ask him this since he was already doing that naturally.
But to Hiruzen, it was part of a larger plan he had carefully formed. Naruto was a jinchuriki, the container of the Nine-Tails. She was absolutely indispensable to the village. And with Sora, though he hadn't shown much yet in terms of abilities, Hiruzen could clearly see that with his determined mindset, he would inevitably become someone powerful in the future.
Tying them both to the village together was the best strategy he could think of at this moment—Naruto had no one in her life to connect with, and the normally aloof and cold Sora seemed to genuinely like Naruto.
Hiruzen stood up from his chair.
"Take a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair.
Sora nodded obediently and sat down. Naruto watched attentively from the sidelines as everything happened before her eyes.
Hiruzen moved closer and started the process of opening Sora's chakra points. One by one he felt his internal energy that he wasn't able to control or access before now move slightly according to his will.
A few hours later, all of his chakra points were finally released. Hiruzen sat back heavily in his seat and took a deep breath from his pipe, exhaling slowly as he stared at Sora.
Sora on the other hand carefully inspected himself. Nothing had changed on the outside of his body, but so much had fundamentally changed from the inside.
Hiruzen could sense it clearly. Sora had slightly much more chakra than the average child his age. Though it was nothing particularly special or remarkable, he wanted to see how far Sora could go with his disciplined mindset and determination.
Sora turned respectfully to Hiruzen.
"Thank you very much, Hokage-sama," he said with gratitude.
Hiruzen smiled warmly at him.
"Then I'll be off now," he said and left the office with Naruto by his side.
Hiruzen watched them carefully as they left through the door. He could still remember that occurrence from earlier today. That intense killing intent emanating from the boy. It didn't really scare him personally, but that much raw killing intent coming from a child is quite terrifying to witness.
He couldn't imagine who someone like that could possibly become in the future. He just hoped deeply that he won't turn out like Danzo had.
Training Ground Four
After returning to the training ground, he immediately started focusing intently on chakra control and manipulation. He had already read many books on the subject and knew all the basic chakra exercises that were commonly taught to beginners.
He used leaves to stick to various parts of his body and didn't stop the exercise until he had completely run out of chakra and felt completely drained. When he finally did stop, he realized something interesting and important—his chakra pool had actually increased in size from the intensive training.
It was a great and exciting discovery since his chakra reserves were quite small and limited compared to what he could feel emanating from Naruto's body.
Though this particular exercise alone wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, for now it was the only and best thing he could possibly do with his current knowledge and skill level. He knew there were advanced techniques called jutsus that required an abundance of chakra to perform properly, so he absolutely had to find ways to increase his chakra pool significantly.
Naruto, on the other hand, was completely different from him in every way. Her chakra control was absolutely terrible and all over the place. Sora found the reason for this almost immediately after observing her attempts—she had way too much chakra flowing through her system.
He had to constantly help her and provide guidance throughout their training session. He used his own chakra pathway to carefully guide her chakra flow and show her the proper way to control it. Though it was quite dangerous for him since her overwhelming abundance of chakra could potentially destroy his delicate chakra points if he wasn't careful, it was also surprisingly beneficial to him. As long as the amount of chakra entering his body wasn't too much at once, his chakra network could gradually adapt and expand accordingly to accommodate the increased flow.
By doing this unique training method together, he was increasing his own chakra pool extremely quickly and efficiently while also simultaneously improving both of their chakra control abilities at the same time.
A few hours later, as time continued to pass, the sun had begun to set below the horizon. Sora opened his eyes slowly and turned his head to look at Naruto beside him.
"It's getting late now. Let's go home," he said in a calm voice.
Naruto opened her eyes and looked around at their surroundings, noticing the fading light. She hadn't realized that so much time had already passed by. She had been so completely focused and absorbed in her chakra control training that she had completely lost track of time passing.
They both stood up from their seated positions and started walking home together through the village streets.
"Let's go to my apartment instead. Yours ran out of food," Sora said matter-of-factly.
Naruto nodded in agreement with a bright smile on her face. After reaching his apartment building, he took out his keys from his pocket and opened the door carefully. They both entered inside, and he made sure to lock the door securely behind them.
He went over to a closet and took out some clean clothes and a fresh towel from inside.
"Here, go take a bath and clean up," he said, handing the items to her.
She took the clothes and towel from his hands and ran excitedly to the bathroom.
"Don't you dare peek," she said with a playful grin on her face.
He completely ignored her teasing comment and started preparing to cook dinner. She pouted at being ignored and closed the bathroom door behind her. Checking his fridge to see what ingredients he had available, he realized with some concern that he was also running quite low on food supplies.
But with what ingredients he currently had on hand, he could still manage to make a decent and nutritious meal for both of them. He grabbed eggs, fish, tofu, onions, garlic, chives, and several more ingredients before he started the cooking process.
He added water to a pot and started cleaning the rice grains thoroughly. After he was completely done washing it, he added the right amount of water to the pot and started boiling it over the heat.
He grabbed another pot from the cabinet, added water to it, and started boiling it as well. He then turned his attention to the fish and started carefully and meticulously cutting it into appropriate pieces.
Being extremely careful not to leave any fish bones behind that could be dangerous, he put the cut fish pieces into the boiling water and added the other vegetables he had already cut into smaller pieces. He then added cubes of tofu and covered the pot with a lid.
Leaving it to cook and simmer on its own, he took out a pan and put cooking oil in it. He placed it carefully on the stove and started cracking eggs and mixing them thoroughly together in a bowl. He added other vegetables to the egg mixture as well.
For someone like him who was still actively growing and developing, he needed to consume as much nutrition as possible to support his body. And with Naruto joining him for dinner, he needed to cook significantly more food, especially since she had such a big appetite and loved to eat.
He skillfully flipped the eggs in the pan with practiced movements and then folded them repeatedly until they formed a long, thick strand. He transferred it onto a plate and cut it carefully into even pieces of equal size.
Picking up the plate with both hands, he got off the stool he had been standing on and put it down on the kitchen table. He then turned back to check on the boiling pot, and seeing that the soup was almost done cooking, he turned the fire down to a lower setting.
He also checked on the rice to see if it was ready, and seeing it was completely done, he turned off the fire entirely and cleaned his hands thoroughly. He walked over to the closet and picked out a new set of clean clothes for himself and grabbed a fresh towel.
Just at that moment, Naruto came out of the bathroom looking refreshed and clean.
"Wait patiently, the food is almost done now," he said with a small smile.
Naruto nodded in understanding and walked over to the sofa and sat down comfortably. Seeing a drawing lying on the table in front of her, she picked it up curiously and started inspecting it closely.
Sora entered the bathroom and started taking a bath to clean himself. The cold water hitting his skin made his mind feel clearer and more focused.
Now that he had successfully found multiple different ways to practice and increase his chakra capacity over time, he needed to make full and efficient use of all of them.
But not only that—he had read in one of the books that there was an advanced exercise called tree walking. He didn't fully understand the technique yet since the books he had access to didn't explain it in much detail or depth.
But he sincerely hoped that at the academy when it started, he could find more detailed information and resources about it. After he was done bathing and getting dressed, he left the bathroom feeling refreshed.
Seeing Naruto still intently looking at the drawing he had drawn earlier that day, he walked up closer to her. She noticed his presence and looked up at him with curious eyes.
"Did you draw this yourself?" she asked with genuine interest.
He nodded in confirmation. She suddenly smiled widely with enthusiasm.
"Wow, that's really impressive! Then maybe you can make me a custom weapon design in the future," she said with clear excitement in her voice.
"There's already something on there that matches you perfectly," he said, pointing to one of the specific drawings on the paper.
She looked down at where he was pointing and saw it was a pair of brass knuckles designed for close combat. She blinked a few times in surprise, then looked back up at him with a slightly disappointed expression.
"Um, it doesn't really look cool enough," she said honestly.
He paused for a moment at her unexpected words. He couldn't quite understand why a weapon needed to look cool rather than just being functional and effective.
"Well, I'll make another design later—one that is cool looking," he added to make her happy.
Her bright smile immediately returned to her face as she put the drawing back down on the table.
"Now, let's eat. It's almost nine o'clock already."
She stood up quickly in excitement and followed closely behind Sora as he led the way. Arriving at the kitchen area, she sat down at the table in eager anticipation.
Sora turned off the fire on the stove and grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and carefully added the fish tofu soup into each one. He placed them gently on the table, then grabbed two more bowls and added the perfectly cooked rice into them.
Putting the rice bowls down on the table next to the soup, he sat down in his seat across from her, and they both started eating their dinner together. She swayed back and forth happily as she ate her food.
"Mm, you're really incredibly good at cooking," she said enthusiastically as she took another large bite of food.
Sora, observing her genuine happiness and contentment as she ate, couldn't help but smile warmly at the sight.
"Make sure to eat up and finish everything. Tomorrow is an important day—the academy starts," he said with an encouraging smile on his face.
She nodded her head in acknowledgment and quickly continued eating her food with enthusiasm. After they had both finished eating their dinner completely, they cleaned up the dishes and then made their way to the bedroom together. Sora walked over to his closet and took out a futon from inside, intending to sleep on it separately, but Naruto suddenly stopped him before he could set it up.
"Let's sleep together on the bed," she said with a bright smile as she patted the empty space on the bed beside her invitingly.
He paused for a moment, looking down at the futon he was holding in his hands, and then decided to put it back into the closet where it belonged.
"Alright, okay," he said simply and climbed onto the bed, lying down next to her on the comfortable mattress.
As the darkness of night began to settle around them and sleep started to pull them into its embrace, Naruto suddenly spoke up softly, breaking the quiet silence.
"Thank you so much for being my friend," she said in a quiet, sincere voice filled with genuine gratitude.
"Mm," he replied simply with a soft hum of acknowledgment.