"Another bowl, please," Naruto announced, sliding the empty bowl across the table with a thud. "I'm starving!"
Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, chuckled and took the container. "That's your fourth, Naruto. Are you sure you have a stomach and not a black hole?"
"Training burns a lot of energy!" he defended himself, his mouth full of rice.
"Especially when you end up full of poison," Kiba shot back from the other side of the table, giving Akamaru a playful nudge. The dog whimpered in agreement. "Isn't that right, buddy? They almost took us out for good."
Sakura frowned. "It wasn't that bad. I had the antidote ready."
"Easy for you to say," Kiba retorted, pointing at his dog. "Akamaru saw his canine life flash before his eyes. He needs compensation. You deserve that last piece of fish, don't you, champ?"
Akamaru barked enthusiastically.
"Don't even think about it, fleabag," Naruto intervened. "That fish is mine. I helped with my clones."
"And I sniffed out the enemies! That's tactical work!"
As they argued, Hinata discreetly took a portion of her own fish and slid it onto Naruto's plate when no one was looking. Engrossed in his debate with Kiba, he didn't notice and ate it in one bite, causing a tiny smile to form on Hinata's face.
Shino adjusted his glasses. "Logically, food distribution should be based on caloric expenditure. Naruto and Sasuke engaged in the most strenuous combat. Therefore, their claim to the fish is the most valid."
"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Kiba complained.
In a corner, separate from the rest, Sasuke ate in an impenetrable silence. He didn't say a word, but his eyes moved from Naruto to Kiba, then to the disputed piece of fish, with an expression of absolute disdain for their childishness.
Kurenai watched it all with amusement. The argument over the fish wasn't just noise; it was a manifestation of the group's energy. She could feel Kiba's simple, direct pride, a clear and uncomplicated emotion. She felt Naruto's chaotic and overflowing energy, an overwhelming force that seemed to need constant fuel. Next to him, Hinata's concern was a warm and constant presence, an unconditional affection flowing in his direction.
Sakura was more complex. Kurenai felt her irritation at her teammates' stupidity, but underneath was a layer of relief and a pang of guilt. "I feel useless," she had thought earlier. Now, that feeling mixed with the satisfaction of having healed Kiba and been useful.
And then there was Sasuke. His presence was a cold spot in the room. It was the wounded pride of a prodigy who had been surpassed, even momentarily, by the class idiot. But there was something else, something new and tiny, buried under layers of arrogance and rage: a spark of grudging respect directed at Naruto. It was so faint she almost missed it, but it was there.
"Are you okay, Kurenai?" Kakashi's voice pulled her from her analysis. He was sitting beside her, book in hand, but his one visible eye was fixed on her.
"Yes, just... tired," she lied, though it wasn't entirely a lie. Processing all that information was exhausting.
Kakashi studied her a second longer. "This team is... loud."
"Tell me about it," she sighed, turning her gaze back to her students just in time to see Naruto snatch the last piece of fish from Kiba. "But they're alive."
"That, for now, is enough," Kakashi agreed, returning to his book.
Exhaustion soon took its toll. Kiba was the first to fall, snoring with Akamaru curled up beside him. Hinata and Shino followed soon after.
Naruto, however, seemed to have energy to spare. He remained seated, watching Sasuke, who was still in his corner, sharpening a kunai with a whetstone.
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto began.
Sasuke didn't even look up. The sound of metal on stone was the only thing to be heard. "What."
"What you did when they ambushed us at the lake... That was amazing."
The sharpening stopped for an instant. Sasuke looked up, and his dark eyes met Naruto's. "So? I don't need the dead last to tell me what I did."
"No, it's just... how did you do it? Moving like that, so fast..."
"By training," Sasuke cut him off, returning to his kunai. "Something you wouldn't understand. Now shut up and leave me alone."
Naruto clenched his fists but said nothing more. He stood up and went to his own futon, the energy he felt now tinged with frustration.
Tazuna watched the scene from his seat by the fire, a bottle of sake in his hand, though this time it was closed. "That boy... he has a lot of demons inside him, huh?"
Kurenai nodded, collecting some empty bowls. "More than you can imagine."
She couldn't sleep. The energy the Falna had given her was buzzing under her skin, a constant vibration that made it impossible to stay still.
"Kakashi, I'm going to do one last patrol of the perimeter," she said, using the most believable excuse she could think of.
"Be careful," he replied without looking up from his book. He knew it wasn't just a patrol.
Naruto couldn't sleep either. Sasuke's words echoed in his head. "By training." It was true. Sasuke was always training, always one step ahead. And now, Naruto felt this new power inside him, an energy he didn't know how to use. It was like having an arsenal of new weapons without an instruction manual. He heard Kurenai leave and waited a few minutes. The need to move, to do something, was too strong. He slipped out of his futon and followed her into the night.
The moonlight turned the lake into a disk of polished silver. Naruto moved silently, looking for a place where he could practice without being disturbed.
He stopped at the edge of the forest, hidden in the shadows. He wasn't alone.
Kurenai was in the center of a small, sandy beach. She didn't seem to be on watch. Her eyes were closed, an expression of intense concentration on her face. A swarm of butterflies made of light flowed from her hands. They weren't real, but they looked it. Each had a unique pattern on its wings, moving without the slightest sound. They danced over the water's surface, creating silver ripples and circling around her.
She was so immersed in her creation that she didn't sense Naruto's presence until he spoke, his voice barely a whisper.
"Whoa, sensei... that's... incredibly beautiful."
The spell broke. The butterflies vanished like smoke. Kurenai flinched, her eyes snapping open as she turned toward him. In the moonlight, Naruto saw a faint blush on her cheeks.
"Naruto!" she hissed, a mix of surprise and embarrassment in her voice. "What are you doing here? You should be sleeping!"
He stepped out of the shadows, approaching with his hands up in a placating gesture. "I couldn't sleep. To be honest, I felt... I don't know, too energetic. And it looks like you couldn't either." His gaze shifted to her hands. "Is it because of the new power?"
The question was so direct it disarmed Kurenai's defensive posture. Her shoulders relaxed with a sigh. "Yes. It feels... strange. I have so much energy." She looked at her palms as if they belonged to someone else. "It's like I've had a veil over my eyes my whole life, and suddenly, someone's pulled it away."
"The Mind's Eye?" Naruto asked, remembering the term.
She nodded, sitting on a rock by the shore. He followed her lead, sitting at a respectful distance.
"It's... it's a completely new sense," she tried to explain. "I feel emotions as if they were colors or temperatures. At dinner, I could feel Sasuke's frustration. And Hinata's loyalty to you... it's new to me."
Naruto scratched the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "Wow. What do you feel from me?"
Kurenai turned to look at him, a small smile appearing on her face. "You're a chaos of energy, bright and very powerful. You draw others in, even if you don't realize it." She paused, looking back at her hands. "And it's not just that. My genjutsu... they've become easier to manifest. I thought of butterflies, and they just... appeared. Effortlessly."
They sat in silence, the only sound the gentle lapping of water against the shore.
"It must be cool to be so good at something," Naruto said quietly, almost to himself. The melancholic tone didn't escape Kurenai.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... genjutsu. You're a master. The best. You always have been, right? You were born with that talent."
The question, so personal and laden with Naruto's own insecurity, hung in the air between them. Kurenai let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Everyone thinks that," she said, with a sad smile. "That I was born an illusion prodigy. The truth couldn't be more different."
Naruto looked at her, surprised.
"When I was your age, on my genin team," she began, her voice taking on a distant tone, "I was the useless one. My taijutsu was mediocre, to be generous. And my chakra control... was a complete disaster. I was on a team with Asuma Sarutobi, who was already a genius with his wind jutsu, and another boy who was a master with ninja tools. And me? I was the one who always fell behind."
The confession left Naruto speechless. Trying to imagine Kurenai-sensei, the calm and lethal commander, as a clumsy genin was almost impossible.
"I remember one mission in particular," she continued, her gaze lost in the reflection of the moon. "It was a simple escort mission, but we were ambushed. Asuma was holding off three of them, our other teammate had two... and I was left with just one. A simple thug with no ninja training. And he was beating me badly. I couldn't land a punch, and when I tried to use a basic ninjutsu, my chakra went haywire and I almost hit my own teammate. I felt so... humiliated. Honestly, it was embarrassing."
Naruto hung on every word, captivated. The story felt painfully familiar.
"My sensei noticed. He saw that I didn't have Asuma's raw strength or the other's precision. But he saw that I had imagination. He told me something I never forgot: 'Kurenai, genjutsu isn't about power, it's about control. You don't need to destroy a mountain; you just need to make your enemy believe the mountain isn't there.' So that's what I did. I trained. While my teammates were learning fire jutsu that could burn down a forest, I spent weeks just trying to make a single leaf look like two. It was frustrating. I'd hear about their progress while I was still stuck on the basics."
She looked directly at Naruto, and in her red eyes, he saw the ghost of his own struggle, his own loneliness.
"But one day, it finally worked. On another mission, we were cornered. We were outnumbered. And while everyone was preparing for a last-ditch battle, I caught the enemy leader in an illusion. A very simple one: I made him think the ground beneath his feet was turning into a swamp. He stumbled. It only lasted three seconds, but that was long enough for Asuma to disarm him and turn the tide of the battle. That's when I understood. My strength wasn't in destructive power, but in deception. In creating the perfect distraction at the right moment."
A new understanding formed between them in the silence that followed. They were two people who knew what it was like to be at the bottom of the class, what it was like to fight for every ounce of respect.
"You're amazing, Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said, and the sincerity in his voice surprised and moved her.
"You are too, Naruto," she replied, her voice soft. "In a much louder and more chaotic way, but you definitely are."
They stood up to head back. The night air was beginning to cool.
"You know," Kurenai said suddenly, her tone shifting, becoming more analytical, more like a sensei's. "Now that I can feel your chakra more clearly with the Mind's Eye, I understand your problem."
"My problem?" Naruto asked, defensively. "Hey!"
"It's not an insult," she laughed. "Your chakra is... a mess. But not in the way everyone thinks. You have too much power for the tools you've been given. You use too much force for everything, which is why you get tired so quickly and why your clones are so fragile."
Naruto pouted. It was the clearest explanation anyone had ever given him. "It's just that no one ever taught me how to regulate the pressure."
They reached the edge of the clearing where Tazuna's house stood. Kurenai stopped and turned to him.
"Kakashi is teaching you how to fight. He's giving you more weapons. But what you need first is to learn how to aim," she said. "Since we're both awake, and since you've helped me accept this new power... let me help you with yours. Tomorrow morning. Before the others wake up."
Naruto's eyes went wide. "For real? You're going to train me? But Kakashi-sensei said...!"
"Kakashi is focused on the team. I'll focus on you for a moment," she interrupted, her voice firm. "There's a chakra control exercise every genin should master. It's the foundation for everything. But with your massive reserves, you likely skipped it or never mastered it because you could just overwhelm it with brute force."
She looked at him, and in the moonlight, Naruto saw a challenging smile on her face.
"Tomorrow at sunrise, at this very lake. I'll teach you something much more important. I'm going to teach you how to walk on trees."
The offer hung in the air. A promise of control, of self-mastery. For Naruto, who had always felt like a passenger to the immense energy living inside him, it was the chance he had been waiting for his entire life. The chance for someone to finally teach him not how to be a weapon, but how to be a true ninja.
"Believe it!" he whispered, the words filled with an emotion so pure and overwhelming that Kurenai couldn't help but smile in the darkness.