When Sakura opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Instinctively, she tried to push herself up from the tatami beneath her, but the pain from her palm made her lose strength immediately.
It was the spot where she had been stabbed by Haku earlier, and it was now wrapped in white bandages.
"Kakashi-sensei! Naruto! Sasuke!"
Her memories were still stuck on the scene where she and Sasuke had been suddenly attacked by an intruder. Now that she had woken up and couldn't see the others around her, she panicked.
Just then, the sliding door made a soft creaking sound as it opened, and a familiar silver-haired figure walked in, carrying a bowl of hot porridge.
"Kakashi-sensei! Are you alright?"
Sakura didn't care about anything else. She weakly stood up and walked over to Kakashi.
Her eyes instinctively glanced toward the doorway.
"Sit down and have something to eat first. You've been unconscious for a whole day."
Helping Sakura sit down, Kakashi already knew what she wanted to ask.
"They're all fine. You were the only one seriously injured, so you need to rest for a while."
Sakura took small sips of the warm porridge and listened to Kakashi, with some 'artistic embellishments', recounting the events after she fell unconscious.
"We've already arrived at the mission location. Now, we just need to protect Tazuna while he builds the bridge."
"O-oh, is that so?"
Sakura nodded, still a little dazed.
'Kakashi-sensei really is strong, as expected of a Jonin.'
In Kakashi's edited version of events, the assassins from both sides had attacked each other, and he had seized the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos.
As for some of Naruto's actions, whether out of personal feelings or some other reason, Kakashi didn't mention them.
"Anyway, the most important thing is that everyone's safe."
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sasuke, who had woken up earlier, was sitting at the edge of the bridge, staring unblinkingly at Naruto, who was fishing with a rod in hand.
Beside them, Tazuna had already begun leading the other workers in constructing the bridge.
The old man was truly obsessed with his bridge. After waking up, he had only eaten a quick meal before immediately rushing to get back to work.
This wasn't surprising. In his view, the Land of Waves was now in a race against Gato.
The sooner the bridge was built, the sooner they could break free from Gato's grip.
However, what was strange was that even though it was already midday, the loud clanging noises from their bridge construction didn't seem to attract any interference.
'Under normal circumstances, Gato's thugs would have already come to harass us by now.'
Thinking this, Tazuna straightened his back, wiped his sweat, then glanced back at the two Genin protecting them, and nodded with satisfaction in his heart.
'As expected of Ninja from a Great Ninja Village. Even Genin had such strong intimidation.'
Perhaps no one present except Naruto knew that Gato likely wouldn't be causing any more trouble for the Land of Waves.
Of course, since no one asked, Naruto didn't plan on mentioning it.
Right now, he was leaning against a bridge pillar, with a straw hat covering his face and a fishing rod in his hand.
It was unclear whether there were simply too few fish here or if Naruto's fishing skills were just terrible, but after an entire morning, the fishing rod hadn't shown the slightest movement.
Fortunately, Naruto was not in a hurry. He just sipped his sake leisurely, looking completely relaxed… nothing like a Ninja on a mission.
At this time, a woman with long black hair approached, followed by a child wearing a fisherman's hat, carrying a basket.
It was Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, and his grandson, Inari. They had come to deliver lunch to the workers.
Tsunami greeted everyone warmly as she handed out simple meals, while Inari had somehow wandered over to Naruto and Sasuke, staring at them silently.
Sasuke quickly grew uncomfortable under the child's gaze, but since the other party was just a kid, he couldn't exactly snap at him.
Naruto, on the other hand, lifted the brim of his hat slightly and smiled.
'What's the big deal? You've been staring at me all morning without saying a word, and I didn't complain.'
Perhaps the awkward silence was too much for Sasuke to bear, as he was the first to speak.
"Why?"
"Hm?"
Naruto responded with a questioning hum.
"Why have you gotten so strong, Naruto?"
Speaking these words had cost Sasuke quite a few brain cells… and a fair amount of pride.
Under normal circumstances, he would never say something like this.
But after this actual combat, Sasuke had first been thoroughly beaten by Haku, then completely helpless against the surprise attack from the Akatsuki's member.
In contrast, Naruto, not to mention that unprecedented flying slash, just the sheer physical prowess he had openly displayed was already far beyond Sasuke's reach.
Sasuke still remembered clearly that before graduating from the Ninja Academy, Naruto had been a dead-last who could barely perform even the Three Basic Techniques
'If… if I could also become that strong…'
"You want to learn?"
Setting the fishing rod aside, Naruto sat up with a faint smirk, looking at Sasuke.
Sasuke felt embarrassed immediately after being pointed out so directly by him, so he immediately stood up and walked back toward the village without another word.
Naruto and Tazuna's grandson were the only ones left, staring at each other.
"You can't win. There's no way you can stand up to Gato."
The kid's first words were pure demoralization.
Of course, Naruto had no intention of explaining anything to him. He just smiled slightly before pulling his hat back down and pretending to nap.
Naruto could see it clearly that this kid was saying these things because he didn't want them to make pointless sacrifices.
Gato is already dead, but the fear living in people's hearts wouldn't vanish overnight.
Naruto had understood this long ago, back when he had witnessed Dragon liberating those countries.
'Some things could only be healed with time.'
Seeing Naruto's lazy attitude, Inari grew both anxious and frustrated. He stomped his foot but couldn't bring himself to say anything else before his mother led him away.
…
By dusk, Naruto still hadn't caught a single fish.
"Seriously, the water quality here is terrible. And this fishing rod is no good either. Even the bait..."
As he walked back to the village with the workers, Naruto kept making excuses for his failure.
The others couldn't help but laugh, and the air was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
During breaks, some of the craftsmen had chatted with Naruto.
They quickly realized that this boy, who looked like he was probably less than fifteen years old, spoke in a way that was unexpectedly engaging, perfectly matching the tastes of these middle-aged and older men.
By the end of the day, many had formed a favorable impression of him.
Plus, with the rare absence of thugs coming to cause trouble, everyone was in high spirits.
When they reached the entrance of the village, Naruto suddenly seemed to notice something and turned to look in another direction.
Then, he waved goodbye to the workers and walked off alone.
Thud!
Thud!
Under the setting sun, a solitary figure ran straight from the ground up the trunk of a large tree, and then, as if glued to the surface, he stood 'horizontally' against it.
But it didn't last long. The 'stickiness' vanished, and Sasuke's body plummeted straight back down.
Judging by the dust on his clothes, he had already repeated this many times.
This was the method he had swallowed his pride to ask Kakashi for after Naruto's blunt retort had shattered his defenses.
Using Chakra to adhere to the soles of his feet, allowing him to defy gravity and 'stick' to surfaces… even walk on water.
At the same time, it was also a way to train Chakra Control.
Sasuke brushed off the dirt and stood up again, his face showing no trace of discouragement or frustration. Like a machine, he charged at the tree once more.
Tap tap tap…
This time, he still didn't break his record, falling short of his target branch by about a meter.
Just as Sasuke felt his feet losing their grip and braced for another fall, a hand suddenly reached down from above, yanking him up before he could react.
It was Naruto, who had come over at some point! He had actually reached the top of the tree without making any sound.
"Don't try to rush it. Here, have something to drink first."
Without caring about Sasuke's expression, Naruto tossed him a canteen.
Sasuke took the canteen, his face flickering through several emotions before he reluctantly accepted Naruto's 'kindness'.
"Pfftt…!"
Unexpectedly, the moment the liquid touched his tongue, the strong stimulation of alcohol made him unable to hold back and spurt it out.
"Pffahahaha!"
On the side, Naruto, who had successfully played a prank, let out a shameless, old-man laugh.