"Sasuke-kun…"
Sasuke said coldly, "I was also unlucky and lost to Naruto. Is that what you wanted to say?!"
Sakura Haruno waved her hands hurriedly. "I-I don't mean that…"
"If you lose, you lose! There's no excuse!" Sasuke left behind a cold remark and continued to stride away.
Sakura Haruno wanted to catch up again.
Sasuke said coldly, without even turning his head, "Instead of pestering me here, why don't you think about how to improve yourself! What you call being at the top of the class is just your academic achievement! That kind of thing won't be of much use when you graduate and become a real ninja! Besides that, your true strength is probably just at the bottom of the pile!"
Sakura Haruno was struck as if by lightning, a jarring wake-up call. "Sasuke-kun, you…"
In fact, deep down in her heart, Sakura Haruno knew that what Sasuke said was the truth. Although she excelled in academic subjects, she had only mastered the basics of ninjutsu and had almost no chance of winning in actual combat. But when Sasuke suddenly said it so bluntly, she still felt aggrieved. Two lines of tears couldn't help but slide down her face. "Sasuke-kun…"
But Sasuke was already far away. Sakura's mind replayed the words that Iruka-sensei had said to her. *'Only by making yourself better and stronger can you be qualified to stand beside the person you admire!'*
"Sasuke-kun! I… I will work hard to become stronger! I must stand by your side and fight alongside you!" Sakura cried out loudly at Sasuke's back, with tears in her eyes. But Sasuke never looked back once.
At this moment, Sasuke, in addition to his goal of killing Uchiha Itachi, had a new purpose: to defeat Naruto and regain his dignity and pride! For this reason, he had no other selfish thoughts at all. This summer, he was prepared to live on the edge of death. As long as he was not dead, he would continue to practice hard, squeeze every ounce of his life force, and fulfill his long-cherished wish! To defeat Naruto!
…
At this moment, Naruto sneezed several times in succession just after arriving home, and he didn't know who was scolding him. But he didn't have the mind to think about such things and immediately responded to the System in his mind. "System, I'm going to draw my random reward!"
[Do you wish to begin now?]
"Yes!"
Naruto rubbed his hands excitedly, as if there were a spinning wheel in his mind, with all kinds of dazzling rewards flashing by like a revolving lantern, finally stopping at a certain grid.
"This… this is…" Naruto's eyes suddenly widened!
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining his own exclusive Ninjutsu Gift Pack!]
[It is detected that the main attribute of the host's own chakra is Wind Style, and the current ninjutsu obtained is a Wind Style ninjutsu!]
[Currently obtained the first Wind Style Ninjutsu scroll: Wind Style! Fierce Wind Palm!]
Naruto's heart moved. *'Ninjutsu! And it's an advanced ninjutsu! This is a precious thing that I've never had before!'*
What Naruto lacked most now was actually a good teacher, or a path to improve himself. It should be known that most of the other students had their own families, teachers, seniors, and supporters. Even Uchiha Sasuke, who was now alone, actually had a ninjutsu scroll inherited from the Uchiha clan, such as Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique, Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique, and Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Technique. But Naruto had nothing. It was impossible to learn high-level ninjutsu in the ninja academy; they only taught the most basic three-body technique. Even the Shadow Clone Technique was something Naruto had figured out himself. This had actually caused him to suffer a lot of disadvantages when fighting against people like Sasuke and Neji.
But now, he had finally gotten his own unique and most suitable ninjutsu!
"Wind Style? It turns out that everyone has their own strengths. Sasuke has Fire Style, and I have Wind Style. Hahahahahaha, as long as I learn this Wind Style ninjutsu, won't it be easier to defeat Sasuke in the future?!"
[Please note that Fire Style restrains Wind Style, so learning a Wind Style ninjutsu will not make it easier to defeat Uchiha Sasuke, who is skilled at Fire Style.]
Naruto was stunned. "…Huh?! It's countered by Sasuke's Fire Style?! Then why should I even learn it!"
[If the host does not want the current reward, this system can take it back at any time. Are you sure you want to give it up? Countdown: 5…]
"No, no, no, no! Of course I still want the reward! Forget it, even if I can be countered by Sasuke, at least I can be useful against other enemies!"
Soon, a scroll of Wind Style ninjutsu appeared in Naruto's mind. It was exactly what the System had said: Wind Style! Fierce Wind Palm!
"Wind Style: Fierce Wind Palm, C-rank, medium- to short-range, attack and support type! A technique that transforms the nature of chakra into wind and uses clapping as an opportunity to transform it into a violent gale! The Fierce Wind Palm can easily send enemies flying. It's quite powerful. More importantly, you can use the wind generated by the Fierce Wind Palm to increase the power of kunai or shuriken, doubling their speed and power. It has endless uses!"
Naruto rubbed his chin. "Um… it looks very impressive, but I don't know if it's difficult."
Naruto didn't waste any time and was immediately eager to try it out. Of course, the System was happy to see this happen.
[Host, please start practicing Wind Style: Fierce Wind Palm immediately!]
[Host, please raise your proficiency in Wind Style: Fierce Wind Palm to at least 60 points within ten days! Otherwise, you will be baptized by this system's lightning release!]
Naruto was at a stage where his confidence was overflowing. "Ten days, 60 proficiency points? Hehe, with my genius talent, there will definitely be no problem!" At this time, he had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem.
He decided to just do it! Naruto immediately began to practice according to the methods described in the ninjutsu scroll. "The hand seals are… Boar, Dragon, clap hands together!" Having practiced the Shadow Clone Technique before, Naruto was quite proficient at forming hand seals. "Boar! Dragon! Put your hands together and clap! Wind Style! Fierce Wind Palm!"
*Whoosh—*
A gust of summer wind blew in through the window. Other than that, nothing happened.
Naruto closed his eyes and pouted, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "What's going on?! Wind Style! Fierce Wind Palm!" Still dead silent. "Ha?! It actually has absolutely no effect at all?! Is this Wind Style ninjutsu so difficult?!"
In fact, this was because Naruto had greatly underestimated the difficulty of practicing this kind of ninjutsu. After all, he was just a student at the Ninja Academy now. Although, with the "supervision" of the System, his strength had increased dramatically, he was still far from the stage of truly mastering advanced ninjutsu. For example, in the original story, it was only after joining Team 7 that Kakashi trained his disciples in tree climbing. The purpose was to allow the chakra to be precisely concentrated in a certain part of the body and to maintain it for a period of time. And then, Naruto had followed Ebisu and Jiraiya to practice treading water, the purpose of which was to control the release of chakra more precisely. Needless to say, in the original work, Naruto's real contact with nature transformation had been two years later when he was practicing the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken. That was still a long way from where he was now. Of course, it didn't mean that one couldn't successfully release ninjutsu of various attributes without practicing these exercises.