Chapter 204: Sasuke's Strange Encounter
At the same time Ino was wrestling with her malicious counterpart on Turtle Island, back in Konoha Village, Sasuke, who had recently been promoted to Chunin, had been observing the Shūeisha Bookstore from the outside for two days. He was utterly dissatisfied with the book "Sasuke Youth Story" published there and harbored significant resentment towards the author, Haruno Sakura.
However, for the past few days, Ino had been appearing at the shop from time to time to reconcile accounts with the owner. Not wanting her to witness his rather embarrassing predicament, he had held back and avoided showing himself. Only after hearing that Ino had left the village in the last couple of days did he finally come over.
The bookstore owner was a very reasonable businessman. He knew that ninjas wielded great influence, and even with Jiraiya as a backer, he preferred to avoid offending them if at all possible. The moment Sasuke expressed his dissatisfaction, the owner immediately proposed a compensation plan.
He spoke politely: "Esteemed guest, how about this? Uh, for every book we sell, we'll give you a commission of one ryō."
Sasuke was furious. "What kind of joke is this?! Do you think I came here for money?! I want you to stop selling this book!"
"Two ryō."
"You are insulting me! You are insulting the Uchiha clan!"
The bookstore owner said calmly, "Alright, a commission of three ryō. I can't offer any more than that."
Sasuke immediately hesitated.
He wasn't foolish. Regardless of the author, the primary demographic for this book consisted of those infatuated fangirls in the village. Whether the book existed or not, they would still be just as obsessed. Preventing its sale wouldn't actually make much difference to them. But what if he agreed? For every book sold, he could get a commission of three ryō? That was starting to sound rather tempting...
Kakashi had formally accepted Sasuke as his disciple and had systematically helped him create a training plan.
Nominally, Sasuke was a clan ninja, but in reality, his clan was long gone. If not for the Sharingan, it wouldn't be inaccurate to call him a civilian-born ninja.
His foundation consisted solely of the standard Ninja Academy curriculum – it wasn't low, but it was certainly not high either.
Ino, on the other hand, had already created her own "Compound Ninjutsu: Poison Pufferfish." While this technique wasn't particularly sophisticated and still had significant room for improvement, in the evaluations of Tsunade, Jiraiya, and others, it was already being compared to Kakashi, who invented the Chidori at the age of twelve.
As for Sasuke, his understanding of ninjutsu was currently still at a very elementary stage.
He had no idea that in the future he would be running around in Susanoo and slashing wildly every day. From his current perspective, the foundation of a ninja was still ninjutsu. If you were to talk to him about something like Gundam, he would absolutely think you were spouting nonsense.
Kakashi possessed extensive theoretical knowledge, and for several consecutive days, he explained the application of various ninjutsu to Sasuke from his sickbed.
How to use Lightning Release, how to use Fire Release, how to use the Sharingan – he explained it all very thoroughly.
While Sasuke's clan inheritance was essentially gone, the Hatake family's ninjutsu inheritance was still present. Using secret medicine to increase chakra, special methods for body tempering, and developing entirely new chakra natures – these were all things Kakashi could teach him.
Sasuke felt that in the realm of ninjutsu, he couldn't even compare to Ino, let alone Uchiha Itachi. After his previous fight against Momochi Zabuza, he had developed some interest in Kenjutsu, so Kakashi taught him his family's inherited techniques.
After the age of twelve, Kakashi had stopped practicing his family's Kenjutsu. His understanding of the art couldn't be considered profound, but it was more than enough to teach Sasuke.
Secret medicine to increase chakra, medicinal baths to speed up his body's recovery, and the large amount of meat needed to supplement his diet during training – all these things required money!
As the saying goes, 'The master leads you through the door, but cultivation depends on the individual.' It's impossible for your master to teach you ninjutsu and all sorts of things, and then even subsidize you, right?
Earning one's own training resources was also a form of training in itself.
Sasuke was currently short on money. The kind of short where he was desperately in need.
Just two days prior, Jiraiya had formally returned the old Uchiha compound to Sasuke. The house was finally considered returned to its original owner.
The bloodstains, bodies, and other grim reminders from his memory were long gone from within the old compound. Nowadays, only empty rooms and a few simple furnishings remained within its walls.
'The house is yours,' Jiraiya had effectively told him, 'but money? Truly none!' Jiraiya himself was also short on funds, and it was impossible for him to use village money to subsidize Sasuke.
The bookstore owner watched Sasuke with a calm gaze. He had seen plenty of ninjas like this. 'What about the Fifth Hokage?' he thought. 'What about Miss Yamanaka, known as a genius?' There wasn't a single ninja who didn't love money!
Sasuke also felt that money was appealing, but having arrived with such an aggressive demeanor, suddenly changing his tune would make him lose face. He needed to find a way to back down gracefully. Just as he was about to speak, he felt an intense, sharp pain in both his eyes. His vision went black, and his consciousness was instantly pulled away into a strange, unfamiliar space.
In his hazy perception, he heard two people talking.
One voice said, "Brother, let's not continue this struggle. Let's stop."
The voice, which seemed to belong to the elder brother, sounded surprised. He asked, "Why are you here?"
The younger brother said, "Father said that mutual understanding is needed between people. Through the bridge of understanding, we have finally met again. This time, it's just you and me."
The elder brother didn't dwell on the issue of the two brothers meeting at this specific time and in this space. He let out a cold laugh. "Understanding? Is that still the same old, worn-out idea? Do you understand me?"
The younger brother stated firmly, "I understand you. I have understood you from beginning to end, but this understanding should be mutual. You are a genius, an existence that everyone looks up to. Those who followed you and I both understood you very well, yet you were unwilling to humble yourself to understand us. That is why they abandoned you and chose to stand with me instead."
The elder brother laughed scornfully. "The victor's complacency? Asura, you are as hypocritical as ever. By now, you are so surrounded by your own hypocrisy that you can no longer even see your own true nature clearly. Your will is completely dominated by the old man's theories. What is the meaning of your life? To be a mere compliant echo?"
The younger brother, Asura, said unhurriedly, "One's true nature is not important. Suppressing one's nature, listening to more voices, and striving to make this world better – that is our responsibility."
The elder brother didn't want to speak with him any further. He waved his hand dismissively. "Suppressing everything through forceful means and eliminating all conflict – that is our responsibility. Coward," he spat. "I have nothing more to say to you. Take your bridge and get lost."
"I will come again."
"Get lost!"
"...'Esteemed guest? Esteemed guest, are you alright? Are you okay?'" The bookstore owner thought Sasuke was trying to fake an injury to extort him and became a little flustered. He hurried out from behind the counter, intending to help him up, but just as he took two steps, he saw Sasuke stand up on his own.
Sasuke clutched his head. The intense pain in his eyes was rapidly receding. From the seal upon his eye, a trace of pure dōjutsu power flowed into his left eye. In just an instant, he knew that the dōjutsu power in his left eye had increased significantly. Although it hadn't reached the Three Tomoe level, it was undoubtedly a big step forward from before.
This evolution was very unstable. He gave a brief, perfunctory response and then left the Shūeisha Bookstore in a hurry.
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