With the matters handled, Menma's Shadow Clone was about to dissipate.
Before it vanished, Menma specifically went to see Vortex Misaki—the poor woman who wasn't even mentioned by name in the original work and was eventually bitten to death by Grass Ninjas.
Now, she lived a stable life in the underground base of the [Ashes] organization, enjoying a peaceful and prosperous existence.
When she saw Menma again, the woman who had once been full of wariness had completely let down her guard.
Facing Menma, who had brought her out of Hidden Grass, tears welled up in her eyes, and she thanked him profusely, even wanting to perform a dogeza as a sign of extreme gratitude, but Menma quickly helped her up.
He always disliked such formalistic displays of thanks.
The system's notification sound arrived as expected.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host: You have established a Level 5 bond with the original character "Vortex Misaki"!]
[Points gained: 50 points!]
...A bit few, huh?
Naruto sighed softly in his heart but quickly let it go.
After all, in the original work, this woman's existence merely served to highlight Karin's tragic past.
Being able to change such a tragic fate made him far more gratified than gaining any number of points.
As the Shadow Clone's memories returned, Naruto's consciousness refocused on the classroom at the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy.
The cherry blossoms outside the window bloomed and withered, and days passed peacefully, one after another.
In the days without major plot events, Naruto led an enviable, fulfilling life, training daily with his childhood friend Satsuki and interacting with children from various prominent clans.
The Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Inuzuka Kiba, Shino Aburame... all had now become his close friends.
But behind this seemingly leisurely daily life was an almost frantic training regimen.
Compared to simply relying on the system as an "effort-based cheater," the current Naruto was more like a "desperate cheater."
After acquiring the four Chakra natures bestowed by the system, he had also independently cultivated the Wind nature, only needing time to become a perfect Five-Element Ninja.
The training of Adamantine Sealing Chains had never stopped.
With the massive Chakra boost from the system's rewards, the golden chains now extending from his body could make the Nine-Tails in the sealing space shiver involuntarily.
One evening, after finishing his Taijutsu training with Naruto, Might Guy wiped the sweat from his forehead, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he said, "Naruto, I've recently met a very special student!"
"Although that child has absolutely no Ninjutsu talent, I am certain—he will definitely become a powerful Ninja in the future!"
Naruto smiled slightly at the words, understanding in his heart that Guy Sensei had already met Rock Lee.
Rock Lee—the young man with arguably the lowest talent throughout the entire Naruto series.
His Ninjutsu talent was a tragic 0; he couldn't even perform the most basic Three-Body Technique.
He firmly believed in the creed that "effort can surpass genius," yet he didn't know that he was surrounded not by ordinary geniuses, but by cheaters.
In the later stages of the original work, when the power levels were completely disparate... Rock Lee proved that effort ultimately couldn't catch up to cheaters, while Guy proved with his life that—at least effort could achieve mutual destruction with a cheater.
At the same time, Naruto's companions were also growing rapidly.
Shikamaru and Choji had already begun to learn their clan's secret Ninjutsu—after all, having the most dazzling genius in the class, constantly hanging out with Naruto, the "cheater," made it impossible not to feel pressure.
Even the usually lazy Shikamaru had recently begun to seriously study advanced techniques for his clan's Shadow Imitation Jutsu.
Inuzuka Kiba had started his Beast Mimicry Ninjutsu training even earlier, constantly charging around the training grounds with Akamaru, pushing the "when in doubt, Fang Over Fang" tactic to its extreme.
As for his childhood friend Satsuki, how should one put it, she became increasingly strict with Naruto in his training.
Even though Naruto was training desperately, she remained unsatisfied, always frowning and demanding more practice.
Naruto didn't understand the reason—Satsuki was actually worried about the power gap after her Sharingan awakened.
She felt that she was also nearing the age to awaken her Sharingan, and as a member of the Uchiha Clan, a qualitative leap in strength would occur once a clan member activated their bloodline limit.
The seemingly evenly matched spars with Naruto were merely Naruto deliberately holding back.
But Satsuki worried that if the gap in their strength became too great due to the awakening of her Sharingan in the future... what if her father didn't approve of Naruto?
Because of this, Satsuki almost frantically demanded that Naruto train, while her own Fire Style Ninjutsu hand sign speed became faster and faster, her Lightning Style Ninjutsu power grew daily, and her Shurikenjutsu displayed dazzling variations.
Recently, she had even begun to dabble in the fields of Genjutsu and Body Flicker Technique.
Training, spending time with friends, receiving guidance from Iruka and Might Guy... two years passed in such a peaceful yet fulfilling routine.
Just as Naruto was silently calculating the approaching Uchiha Clan Massacre incident, preparing to use all his system points to act as Menma—
[Ding!]
The system's notification sound suddenly rang out in the night, making Naruto, who was lying in bed, sit up sharply.
[Major original event detected: Main Quest "Uchiha Clan Massacre" triggered!]
[Quest Objective: Based on the location hint, save Uchiha Shisui from suicide and change the Uchiha Clan's fate of destruction!]
[Quest Reward: Obtain Stand ability "Gold Experience"!]