"Becoming someone like the Hokage?" Sasuke muttered under his breath, his fists unconsciously tightening.
"Exactly," Naruto replied firmly. "If I had power on the level of the Hokage, my brother and father wouldn't hide things from me anymore."
Sasuke sighed heavily, his face shadowed.
"Weakness itself is a crime," Naruto suddenly declared, his voice carrying a weight that made Sasuke freeze.
For a moment, Sasuke stood there, stunned. Then, slowly, he repeated the words in his head. Weakness is a crime.
The phrase sent a chill down his spine and yet, at the same time, it struck him as profound. It had the kind of weight that could crush an opponent's will. He imagined himself in a future battle, standing over a defeated enemy, looking down with calm indifference and saying, "Hmph. Weakness itself is a crime."
He could almost hear the awe and despair in his enemy's last breath.
Sasuke licked his lips unconsciously. "That's… perfect."
His eyes sharpened as he looked at Naruto. "I don't care. From now on, I'm training with you. Otherwise, you'll end up leaving me in the dust." His voice was sharp, but beneath the hostility there was a grudging respect.
Naruto shrugged casually. "I don't mind. But… can you even use Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
"I…" Sasuke froze. His pride bristled, but he forced his tone into a confident growl. "I'll make my brother or father teach me. I'm not about to fall behind."
He was the second son of the prestigious Uchiha clan. With his lineage, it wasn't a question of if he could learn but when.
"Hmph." With his chin raised high, Sasuke turned and strode away, his figure stiff with pride.
Naruto watched him go, then tilted his head toward the trees nearby. "You've been watching for a while. Don't you think it's time to come out?"
The leaves trembled. A small figure hidden in the shadows panicked at being discovered and darted away.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Ran off?"
When he'd brought Sasuke here with his shadow clone, he had instinctively activated his Wind Barrier, a technique he'd developed beyond its original use. Though it could be used for defense, its greatest utility was reconnaissance. The surrounding wind became his eyes and ears.
Through it, he had sensed the little figure long ago. She hadn't even reacted when the breeze brushed against her cheeks and hair, but the wind carried every detail back to Naruto.
"Hinata?" Naruto whispered to himself, surprised.
Why had she followed them? She hadn't stepped out when he called her, and instead bolted. Naruto scratched his head, confused.
Still thinking about it, he stood up and made a string of hand seals. He inhaled deeply. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A blazing orb of fire, large as a cottage, roared from his mouth. It crashed into the river, cutting the flow short as clouds of steam billowed upward.
Naruto exhaled slowly, his breath hot from the flames. He hadn't even used much chakra. And yet the power was immense.
This was the fruit of his shadow clone training. By splitting into a hundred clones, he had compressed months of work into days. Two days of training with shadow clones was the equivalent of two hundred days of hard effort. His body, overflowing with chakra and blessed with abnormal healing, was one of the few that could endure such punishment.
"Next step," he murmured, stretching his arms as fatigue settled into his muscles, "is mastering fire chakra's shape and nature transformation."
Yawning, he trudged back toward his home.
Meanwhile, Sasuke had returned to the Uchiha compound. The moment he stepped into his house, he was greeted by a sight that made his chest tighten.
"Itachi!" Sasuke called out, his eyes lighting up.
His older brother turned. For once, the eternally calm face softened, his lips curving into a faint smile. Sasuke rushed forward, and Itachi raised a hand, flicking his younger brother's forehead with a practiced gesture.
"Ow! Geez, big brother!" Sasuke rubbed his forehead and glared half-heartedly.
Itachi chuckled. "Why so late today?"
Sasuke waved dismissively. "I was hanging out with Naruto."
"Ah, Naruto…" Itachi's eyes flickered with recognition. He knew of the boy. After a moment, he added gently, "That's good. You should spend more time with friends."
"Other kids are boring," Sasuke said with a huff, lifting his chin. The arrogance of the Uchiha clan was deeply ingrained in him.
Itachi sighed inwardly. He too carried that same arrogance the belief that his own judgment was absolute, that companionship was unnecessary. Even when it came to the family he loved, he rarely shared his thoughts with them.
"Big brother," Sasuke said suddenly, his voice urgent, "teach me Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Itachi blinked, mildly surprised. "Shadow Clone Jutsu? Why the sudden interest?"
"Because Naruto knows it!" Sasuke pouted, frustration bubbling up. "He's been cheating, sending clones to class while sneaking off to train on his own. I'm losing ground!"
A spark of amusement lit Itachi's eyes. "So he's thought of that too?" Back in his own Academy days, he had used the very same trick, though he had been caught when an enemy disrupted his clone.
For a genius, the Academy curriculum was little more than child's play.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu requires careful control," Itachi warned, his tone softening. "After dinner, I'll explain what you need to keep in mind."
"Really? Thanks, big brother!" Sasuke's face lit up. His brother's words were as good as a promise.
That very night, he threw himself into practice. It took him an entire day to finally manage a proper clone, but when he did, exhilaration coursed through him. His chakra reserves were limited, forcing him to carefully ration every drop, but it was enough to produce a single functioning duplicate.
Even so, it was a victory. He had mastered another jutsu and a B-rank one at that!
The next day, he ran to the training grounds to meet Naruto, his face glowing with triumph.
"Ha! Naruto, I did it!"
Naruto glanced up lazily. "Oh? You learned Shadow Clone Jutsu already?"
Sasuke nodded proudly. "I tested it. As long as no one dispels it, I can maintain one clone for half a day. When it fades, I'll replace it with another. Easy."
"Good," Naruto said with a wave of his hand. "Then there's no problem. The knowledge you get at the Academy will still transfer back to you when your clone disappears. We can start training right away."
Sasuke blinked. "Wait… what do you mean by we?"
His eyes widened.
Dozens of Narutos materialized around him, the training field filling with identical copies. Their sandals scuffed the dirt, their expressions brimming with determination.
Sasuke spun around in disbelief. "There must be a hundred of you!"
His jaw dropped. "Nani?! Are you even human?!"
Naruto crossed his arms, unimpressed.
"Watch your mouth," he said, clearly annoyed.
Sasuke's face twitched. His dark eyes burned with envy as he hissed, "What kind of monster are you? Did you swallow some expired stimulant or something? How do you have this much chakra?!"
Naruto blinked, then grinned. "What, this? That's just how I was born. And actually, I'm holding back. If I make too many, the flood of memories when they disperse is too much even for me."
Sasuke could only gape.
"You… you…" His voice cracked, his jealousy boiling over until his eyes tinged red at the edges.
"You bastard!" he finally shouted.
The words echoed across the training field as Sasuke watched Naruto hop across the ground, a massive boulder strapped to his back, frog-jumping his way up a steep hillside.
It was training beyond anything Sasuke could have imagined and Naruto was doing it like it was the most natural thing in the world.