A few days passed quietly.
During these days, Shinji's class rewards were almost all ordinary Ninjutsu and Taijutsu.
When his physical education class was rated A+ again, he was rewarded with an original Taijutsu, Leaf Dragon God.
He reluctantly gave up on his goal of brushing up on classes and instead began teaching Naruto and others the beginning stages of Eternal Fist.
The first stage was basic foundation building, two hours of Chakra Pathway Stabilization.
Standing on a specially made wooden stake, balancing on one leg, Shinji's Shadow Clone would be nearby, shaking them again as soon as they stabilized. At the same time, they had to hold a bowl of water, making sure not to spill any.
Although Naruto and the others' Chakra control was quite good, their central line stability still needed practice.
"It's almost two hours. Later, whoever has the least water left in their bowl will get ten extra assignments." Shinji's main body walked back and forth, emphasizing this repeatedly.
"Sensei, it looks like Shadow Clone sensei's arm is very sore."
Naruto, standing on the wooden stake, spoke, holding the bowl steadily, and even having enough energy to observe Shinji's Shadow Clone.
Shinji then looked at his Shadow Clone.
The Shadow Clone below Naruto pointed at Naruto helplessly and said, "Main body, I think Naruto has mastered it. The number of times he needed me to shake him within these two hours was several times that of the others."
"Dismiss." Shinji said, and in the next instant, he watched the Shadow Clone dismiss itself.
Receiving the information, he shook his head and chuckled, "Come down, Naruto."
"Alright!"
Hearing this, Naruto jumped up and landed steadily. The bowl in his hand was still perfectly stable, not a single drop of water spilled.
"Not bad, you've completed it." Shinji said, patting Naruto's head when he saw the scene.
He had originally thought that Sasuke would be the first to master it. He didn't expect it to be the boisterous Naruto who finished first.
"Hehe, sensei, does that mean I can move on to the next stage of training?" Naruto spoke while making a face at Sasuke, which made Sasuke, standing on the wooden stake, roll his eyes in annoyance. Some water spilled from his bowl.
Shinji lightly tapped Naruto's head in exasperation and said, "Naruto, don't disturb the others' training."
"Yes, sensei!" Naruto immediately stood at attention, his eyes burning as he looked at Shinji.
"Alright, I'll take Naruto to the next stage first. You all continue your training." Shinji said helplessly to his other disciples, then turned and walked out of the training ground with Naruto.
He brought Naruto to the riverside again. After Naruto and the others' training and his occasional use of Water Release, this stream, which was originally considered small, had gradually become a small river.
Shinji came to a patch of grass, squatted, clenched his fists, and adopted a straight punch stance, striking at the fireflies flying around in the grass. What was originally a beautiful scene was shattered by his attack.
Naruto squatted down, looking at the fireflies lying on the ground, and asked Shinji a soul-searching question, "Sensei, what are you doing?"
Shinji explained, "This is your next stage."
"Use the method I just did to continuously strike moving targets."
"Huh?!" Hearing this, Naruto couldn't believe it.
"Sensei, if I have to do that, there won't be enough fireflies near the training ground for me to hit."
Tap—
Shinji exasperatedly used his fingers to tap Naruto's forehead.
Then he pointed at the dead fireflies on the ground and said, "I'm demonstrating for you. Tomorrow, I'll make a training tool for you."
Naruto then realized he had misunderstood and scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "Hehe, I thought I had to do it like that."
"You rascal." Shinji shook his head with a smile.
This kid Naruto, he had now let go of his previous respect. Instead, he started interacting with him in his own way. Shinji felt good about this.
"Alright, let's take a break while we have time. We shouldn't disturb their training."
Sasuke had several of Shinji's Shadow Clones with him, so there was no need to worry.
Shinji put his arm around Naruto's shoulder and they sat by the river, taking off their shoes and soaking their feet in the river water.
Naruto, beside him, followed his actions.
Feeling the gentle breeze and the coolness of the river water, Shinji asked, "Naruto, has your dad woken up yet?"
Naruto pouted, clearly dissatisfied with his father. "Not yet. I haven't seen that stinky old man since last time."
He said he would rest for a while, but now so much time had passed, and he hadn't even come out once.
Shinji reached out and stroked Naruto's head, speaking slowly, "Alright, he probably expended a lot last time, after all, it wasn't his main body."
From Naruto's words, it seemed that Minato's spiritual imprint was severely depleted, which was why he hid in that urn to recuperate and hadn't come out yet.
'This kid, I hope he won't be too sad when the time comes.'
Shinji had a premonition that the next time Naruto saw Minato would be when the spiritual imprint in the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style completely dissipated.
"I know, sensei." Naruto nodded, but then remembered something.
"Oh, by the way, sensei, that Kurama bastard keeps dragging me in when I'm sleeping."
"Oh? Why?" Hearing this, Shinji was a little curious.
It was already a good thing that Kurama wasn't disturbing Naruto's Chakra, and with Minato's presence, logically speaking, it shouldn't be actively seeing Naruto.
Naruto pouted. "It said it was bored, and that I once extracted it's Chakra, which it considers payment for me to chat with it."
Anyone would be annoyed if someone dragged them into a chat when they were trying to rest at night. Fortunately, Kurama would soothe Naruto's body with Chakra the next day, otherwise, he would have collapsed long ago.
That Kurama, he really is a tsundere.
Shinji was a bit speechless.
Kurama had been stuck there for a long time. It was a rare hope, so it naturally could only focus its attention on Naruto.
Although it had been stubborn, it saw that Minato hadn't come out. Plus, a while ago, Shinji had been out on missions. Without the two targets that might threaten it, Kurama naturally sought out Naruto.
In the sealed space, Kurama was roaring in exasperation at this moment. "Damn Naruto! I clearly told you not to mention my affairs!"
"Kurama, actually, it's not a big deal." A gentle voice sounded.
Kurama looked over and saw that the urn, which had been missing for a long time, had reappeared.
Kurama immediately understood and angrily said, "Minato! You've been hiding all this time."
Minato said, "No, even with such abundant Yang Chakra nourishing me, I can still clearly feel that my spiritual imprint is gradually disappearing."
Kurama, who had been furious, calmed down. After a long while, it said, "You really aren't afraid of your son being eroded by me."
"If it were before, I might have been worried, but not anymore."
"I'm too lazy to deal with you." Kurama glanced at him speechlessly, then turned his back to the urn and lied down.
(End of Chapter)
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