"Refine, refine… the refraction of light… Chakra, chakra… angle of incidence… Ahhhhhh—" Naruto pulled at his hair so frantically that his head felt like it was about to explode. "That's impossible! If this continues, I'll go insane before I get become hokage!"
[Host, please…]
"…I see. Okay, okay, this time I'll just focus on the lesson and see if my body will start moving on its own. Activate… [Knowledge Absorption]!"
Naruto instantly entered a state of complete concentration, staring at every word written by Iruka-sensei with an eagerness for knowledge. His efficiency in listening to the class indeed skyrocketed in an instant. But… his chakra did not begin to refine on its own.
*'I'm trying my best!'* Naruto tried to form the hand seals again and started the chakra refining technique first. In the process, he suddenly entered the [Knowledge Absorption] state, but as a result, the chakra refining technique was quickly interrupted. However, Naruto seemed to see a glimmer of light. Because, although the chakra refining technique was interrupted once he entered the [Knowledge Absorption] state, it was not interrupted immediately, but still continued for a very short period of time!
"Aha! In that instant, he felt it! Maybe he could do it."
[Please…]
"I'm almost there! Chakra Refining Technique!" Naruto entered the Chakra Refining Technique once again, and then without even telling himself to, he suddenly entered the [Knowledge Absorption] state. In other words… he was tricking his own brain!
Sure enough, this time when he was listening attentively, his chakra continued to be successfully refined for a period of time, as if by inertia! Moreover, it was a few seconds longer than before!
"There is a way! There is a way!" Naruto was overjoyed and began to try it like crazy. At the beginning, he could only "parallelize" the two tasks for a moment, and gradually increased it to a few seconds, then more than ten seconds, and then dozens of seconds. By the end of this class, Naruto was able to maintain the state of "doing two things at once" for about a full minute!
"If I keep going like this, I can definitely turn Chakra Refining into a passive skill. As long as I can breathe, I can make my body move on its own and refine chakra day and night. Am I genius or something?! Ahaha, ahaha…" Naruto grinned and laughed, as if he saw an extremely bright and glorious future.
Iruka-sensei glanced at him, shook his head, and sighed. "That boy Naruto, I just praised him for a few days, but he started to lose focus in class again today… Is it because of the girls drama? But, alas, they are still young after all…"
For the first time ever, he didn't say anything. After announcing the end of class, he walked out of the classroom on his own. The classroom soon became noisy. Many people were still talking and pointing at Naruto and Hinata, obviously still immersed in the conflict that had happened before class.
Naruto didn't care and was completely absorbed in his own world of "doing two things at the same time." Hinata, however, felt a little complicated. She was not used to being the center of attention. She had always been known for being low-key and introverted in the class and had never received so much attention. What's more, those discussions were probably not all good things.
But… Hinata's first thought was… "Naruto-kun… does he usually receive this kind of attention? I… have only endured this little bit, and I already feel weird. I can only imagine how miserable and lonely he must be normally…"
Hinata felt even more distressed for Naruto. She cautiously stole a glance at him. "Naruto-kun is still training… That's right, he's already used to this. He's mentally strong enough to not care anymore. Besides, working hard to improve himself is indeed the best choice…"
Hinata had a small smile on her face. The confusion and gloom in her heart just now were swept away in an instant. She also quickly entered a state of practice. So, neither of them noticed… Ino had returned to the classroom in a daze. Her eyes were red, and she had clearly been crying. There were still two lines of tear marks on her fair and delicate cheeks. Under everyone's gaze, Ino dragged her sad body back to her seat. She lay down on her desk and buried her head deeply in her arms. Soft sobbing sounded again. But Haruno Sakura never came back, not until the very end.
After a whole day of hard work, Naruto became more and more proficient at multitasking. Under the premise that the power of the [Knowledge Absorption] entry was in effect, the chakra refining technique could still be maintained for a full three minutes! Don't underestimate these three minutes; it wasn't short anymore! This meant that Naruto only needed about three minutes to temporarily exit the [Knowledge Absorption] state, and then re-activate the chakra refining technique. Before the System's lightning release baptism was activated, he could immediately enter the [Knowledge Absorption] state and continuously do two things at the same time! This was what was called… Dual-Core Uzumaki Naruto!
The effect was that even though Naruto hadn't fallen behind in his academic studies at all, he had spent many times more time practicing his chakra refinement than usual! After all, normally one could only practice during scattered periods of time such as breaks between classes, lunch breaks, and after school. But now, it was for the whole day! On this day alone, Naruto's chakra amount increased by 9 points! This was equivalent to the effect of two or three days!
On the way home from school, he didn't even need the System to remind him. He took the initiative to decide to frog-hop home with weights while trying to continue practicing his chakra refining techniques! System haven't even told him to do that but he did it on his own accord.
Naruto, immersed in his self-improvement, seemed to have forgotten what had happened during the day. Originally, if he had offended Haruno Sakura so much, he would have definitely missed her very much and felt extremely terrified. He would have tried every possible way to beg her to forgive him, even if she had hit him back ten or a hundred times! But now… "Uzumaki Naruto, just want to practice!"
But… when Naruto saw Hinata's figure, he couldn't help but feel a slight movement in his heart. He flashed his signature bright smile and waved at her. "Hinata!"
Hinata turned around, saw Naruto, and her face immediately turned red again. "Naruto-kun…"
Naruto walked up to her and walked shoulder to shoulder with her in the dim sunset. "Um, thank you for what happened this morning…" Naruto laughed dryly and scratched his head.
Hinata shook her head quickly. "N-no, nothing…"
"But Hinata, I just can't figure it out… Why did you stand in front of me?"
Hinata instantly became flustered, and her whole body felt like it was electrified. "I… I don't know either. It's like my body just moved on its own…" Hinata was so shy that saying this was almost like a confession.
Naruto was stunned. "Does your body seem to move on its own?…"
"Uh-huh." His lack of understanding actually made Hinata feel relieved.
"Okay Hinata, I'm going home… See you."
Hinata said softly and gently, "See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun…" She looked at Naruto's back as he leaped away in the sunset, brushed her hair that was messed up by the summer wind, and felt very happy in her heart. Not only for Naruto but also for herself. She felt that she seemed to have become more… brave. This was not only because of her unexpected actions in the morning but also because of her daily interactions with Naruto.
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