Chapter 36: Sasuke Disconnects

"You're already very strong, Naruto," Kakashi praised him directly.

He had never seen a genius like Naruto in his life, whether it was chakra control, chakra nature training, or sensory abilities.

He always had a feeling that if he tested a few more things, Naruto would give him even more surprises.

"Just so-so, third in the world," Naruto mumbled, scratching his head, modestly feigning embarrassment.

"Team Seven, gather!"

Kakashi agreed to the suggestion; staying there any longer was pointless.

Night

Seeing the single room accommodation, and the two teammates, Sasuke and Sakura, giving him 'covetous' looks, Naruto was quite displeased.

"Kakashi-sensei, aren't there any other rooms?"

While he agreed to let his two teammates enter the training space to cultivate, he wanted to be the active one, not the passive.

It just felt different.

Before Kakashi could speak, Sasuke vetoed it.

"It's good enough that we have a place to sleep, Naruto; you can't ask for too much." Sasuke firmly disagreed with Naruto's desire to sleep alone.

When they first set out on the mission, he hadn't realized it, but upon entering the room that night and seeing the huge tatami mat, Sasuke instantly knew: he could probably cultivate all night!

There was no way he'd let Naruto escape this opportunity.

"Well, that's how it is on missions, Naruto, it's good enough to have a place to stay," Kakashi said with an apologetic look.

With that, he stood up and walked out. At the door, he turned back and said, "You three rest; I'll stand guard tonight."

"Okay, Kakashi-sensei." x3

Sakura and Sasuke were both very excited; only Naruto called out reluctantly.

Kakashi patrolled once, then stayed on the roof for a few hours, finding no danger whatsoever.

He jumped down and returned to the room. Through the moonlight, he saw the three of them sleeping in disarray.

Naruto was in the middle, with Sasuke and Sakura sleeping on either side.

Naruto's hands were holding Sakura's and Sasuke's respectively.

This scene made Kakashi's eye twitch.

"Do kids change affections so quickly?" he mumbled, bewildered.

If he remembered correctly, during their self-introductions two days ago, wasn't Sakura pursuing Sasuke? How was she holding Naruto's hand now?

Could it be that Sakura was looking at Naruto back then?

And Sasuke, it's one thing for a boy and a girl, but why are you holding Naruto's hand too?

Unable to comprehend, Kakashi temporarily doubted his understanding of life. Was this the emotional landscape of kids these days?

He didn't understand, but he was greatly shocked.

After some thought, Kakashi still decided to go forward and separate Sasuke's and Naruto's hands, and cover all three with a thin blanket.

But as soon as he separated Sasuke's hand—

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" Kakashi turned his head to see Sasuke's resentful little eyes.

After discussing life and career plans with Master Leopard and then cultivating with him for two hours, Sasuke had just found Naruto, preparing for a one-on-one challenge, when he was cut off.

Disconnected.

The resentment in his eyes made Kakashi feel as if he were looking at a newlywed wife who had just heard her husband was leaving for a year-long business trip.

At that moment, Kakashi felt like he had committed some heinous crime.

"Um, I think there's a place I forgot to patrol."

Whoosh~

Kakashi vanished.

Helpless, Sasuke glanced at the disappearing Kakashi-sensei, then at Naruto.

He grabbed Naruto's hand, channeled chakra, and tried to reconnect—

Naruto: Rejected.

Tried to reconnect again.

Naruto: Rejected again.

Kept trying to reconnect.

Naruto: Kept rejecting.

The Next Day

Early in the morning, Kakashi announced a great piece of news for Sasuke.

"We didn't find the thief yesterday, so we might be staying here for a few days."

Upon hearing this, Sasuke almost jumped up. He tried hard to suppress the upward curl of his lips, his face almost twitching.

Sakura asked, "How long will we stay?"

"Five days at most. If we find them earlier, we can go back sooner," Kakashi explained.

"That's great!"

Sasuke had fallen in love with missions. From now on, if there were long-term business trip missions like this, no one should stop him.

"Sigh!"

Naruto sighed quietly. Five days stuck together meant five days of not being able to do anything.

"Of course, during this time, you also need to train."

"That's right, Naruto, we need to train!" Sasuke pointedly looked at Naruto, seemingly still holding a grudge about yesterday's rejection.

"Sigh!"

Naruto sighed quietly again. His freedom, his freedom to travel the shinobi world with Flying Thunder God at night, was gone!

Next, during the day, Kakashi-sensei trained the three of them, mainly Sasuke and Sakura.

It was primarily chakra control training.

However, when Kakashi taught them tree-climbing training, a chakra control technique, he turned around and saw that both of them had already climbed to the top of the tree.

Kakashi was stunned.

"Am I such a good teacher?"

Kakashi truly hadn't expected to be so talented at teaching students.

"Very good. Next, practice water walking."

Clapping his hands, Kakashi gave them a new task.

As for Naruto, Kakashi began to teach him various ninjutsu he had mastered over the years.

To his surprise again, Naruto was carrying half a satchel full of 'Xiaoyaowan' (Carefree Pills), which he hadn't anticipated at all.

What he hadn't expected even more was that this half-satchel of Xiaoyaowan was entirely prepared for him.

Mainly to "squeeze" Kakashi, their jonin sensei, dry.

Because he lacked chakra.

Time passed with Naruto 'squeezing' Kakashi during the day, and Sasuke and Sakura 'squeezing' Naruto at night, a cycle that continued.

However, this cycle didn't last long.

After just two days, Kakashi was "squeezed" dry by the Naruto-brand juicer and kicked out of the cycle.

Fortunately, after Sasuke and Sakura mastered water walking, they replaced Naruto in the "squeezing Kakashi" lineup, forming a new cycle.

Until, five days later.

"Finally back."

Looking at the Konoha gate, Naruto was almost in tears.

Back in Konoha, his freedom was back!

"I love you, Konoha!"

If Kakashi hadn't stopped him, Naruto would have been so moved that he might have kissed the wooden gate at the village entrance.

Passersby stared, and the other two quickly distanced themselves from Naruto, signaling that they didn't know him.

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Rarely complaining, Sasuke then asked Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, when will our next mission be?"

He really loved these business trip missions.

In these five days, he had learned tree-climbing and water-walking, and his chakra control had received Master Leopard's approval.

Moreover, he had learned and mastered three new Fire Style ninjutsu, and his Sharingan had even evolved directly to two tomoe due to continuous setbacks from Naruto.

Because of this, he also learned Lightning Style: Chidori from Kakashi-sensei.

The progress in these five days was greater than his progress in six years.

Sasuke felt his future was bright, and revenge was within reach.

The prerequisite was to continuously undertake missions, preferably long-term business trip missions.

"What about you two?" Kakashi looked at the remaining two.

"I agree!"

Sakura was more than happy to go on missions with Sasuke.

"I refuse!" Naruto clearly refused.

He had been looking forward to missions before, but now Naruto didn't like them one bit.

Missions = No freedom!

But...

2:1, Naruto was utterly defeated.

Kakashi-sensei announced their next plan: "We'll rest today, and tomorrow we'll continue taking missions."

Upon hearing this, Naruto was silently speechless.

He felt his life had turned grey.

Third Hokage, when will you finally step down and let a worthy successor take your place?!

When would he finally become Hokage?!

For this Hokage seat, he truly was enduring hardships!