Originally, Kakashi had been half-skeptical about Naruto's story of "transmigration," but when he witnessed Naruto's instant disappearance in the middle of the night with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe it.
It wasn't a clone jutsu dispersing or a Body Flicker Technique—it was a complete vanishing into thin air, without any chakra fluctuations. Naruto had even been sound asleep at the time.
After Naruto disappeared, Kakashi both calmed the others and personally conducted a carpet search of the surrounding area.
The results were exactly what he had expected.
With Kakashi's speed as a jonin, searching a radius of twenty to thirty miles within a day was no problem.
But no matter where he went, even deploying his ninja hounds, he couldn't find any trace of Naruto's movements.
Then he remembered the "truth" Naruto had initially revealed to him.
Now, even if he didn't want to believe it, he had to.
Seeing Naruto approach, he immediately greeted him and smoothly provided him with an excuse.
After all, Kakashi's reason for calming the two younger members of Team 7 had been "this kid got drunk and ran off on his own, I couldn't stop him" and "don't worry about him, don't you trust his strength?"
So neither Sakura nor Sasuke had been too concerned.
It was Kakashi, who knew the inside story, who had been anxious the whole time.
Because he didn't know when Naruto would return.
If he never came back, then on his first mission as a team leader, he would have lost the Nine-Tails jinchuriki and the Fourth's son. Even if he talked himself blue in the face, there would be no way to make the Third Hokage believe him.
"Hahaha, how embarrassing. After getting drunk, I actually fell into the water and drifted quite far downstream. I just made it back."
Naruto scratched his head and told a little lie quite naturally.
The two performed as if it were real, and Sakura and Sasuke nearby didn't pay much attention. They simply greeted Naruto, and the group returned to the village together to pack their things.
The mission in the Land of Waves was complete—today they would head back.
"Goodbye!"
"Goodbye! Come visit when you have time!"
"Goodbye! Big Brother Naruto!"
A crowd of people kept waving at Team 7, their faces full of grateful smiles.
Just yesterday, when Kakashi had searched the surroundings for Naruto, he had also found Gato's now-empty headquarters.
Then he had seen the man's corpse.
After that, news of Gato's death spread throughout the village. Although the villagers didn't know who had killed Gato, they had their suspicions.
Therefore, their gratitude toward Naruto and the others reached an even higher level.
After bidding farewell to the people of the Land of Waves, the return journey was peaceful, with no more blind assassins volunteering to deliver themselves.
This also gave Naruto time to continue training Sasuke.
Before going to the pirate world, he had already sensed that Sasuke's physical condition might be ready to awaken Haki.
This time was perfect for putting it into practice.
Regarding Armament Haki, which could only be accumulated through long-term physical training, there was no need to worry about it for now.
He first had Sasuke train in Observation Haki.
First was to experience what effects Observation Haki actually had.
Naruto had Sasuke attack him while he only dodged without counterattacking, even setting a boundary for himself and limiting himself to small-scale evasions within that area.
All these restrictions made Sasuke feel that Naruto was underestimating him too much, and his pride, which had been scattered, began to rear its head again.
"Hmph, don't blame me if you get hurt."
He regained some face verbally, but then Sasuke was completely stumped.
Whether he used fists, feet, or ninjutsu, Naruto could completely dodge with minimal movement, even attacks from behind.
"Damn it..."
Sasuke was sweating profusely and panting from exhaustion, while Naruto still stood calmly in place, even closing his eyes.
This made Kakashi, who was watching from the side, click his tongue in amazement. This kind of comprehensive, dead-angle-free attack prediction was somewhat similar to the Byakugan possessed by the Hyuga clan in the village.
But the Hyuga clan's Byakugan was something only they possessed. Unless someone stole and transplanted it into themselves, it was impossible for others to imitate.
Because of this, the Hyuga clan had even come up with the so-called Caged Bird curse seal to protect their bloodline—what a tragedy.
Now, Naruto was saying that through training, people could master similar abilities.
If the Hyuga clan heard this, who knows what they would think?
Not dwelling on what Kakashi was thinking, after exerting himself to the fullest and still being unable to touch Naruto's body, Sasuke realized how powerful the ability called "Observation Haki" was.
So, in addition to his original ninjutsu practice and physical training, Sasuke's daily routine now included Haki training.
The training method was also extraordinarily simple and brutal.
Naruto would stand behind Sasuke and attack him with a wooden stick.
Sasuke had to dodge based on his own instincts.
After achieving that, he would then be blindfolded, and Naruto's attacks would become even more silent.
Soon, Sasuke, who had been somewhat complacent about quickly completing the first stage of training, immediately became humble.
Before, he could still rely on faint wind sounds and changes in surrounding light for assistance, but now he received no information at all.
Everything was pitch black in front of him, and the surroundings were completely silent.
Only the punctual wooden stick kept striking various parts of Sasuke's body.
Soon he was covered in bruises, making Sakura feel sorry for him.
"Naruto..."
She wanted to stop it, but Sasuke wouldn't appreciate it.
Fortunately, Naruto was measured in his strikes. Even after being hit hundreds or thousands of times, Sasuke didn't suffer any serious injuries.
Mostly just bruises.
But the pain was very real.
But that's why Sasuke was truly considered a genius.
After only a short period of such training, he showed obvious improvement.
Perhaps it was because the Uchiha family's natural Sharingan made his mental power strong, or perhaps for some other reason.
Originally, Naruto thought it would take at least a month or two for him to grasp the concept of Observation Haki, but after just a few days of deliberate training, this kid successfully predicted an attack once.
Although he failed many times in subsequent attempts.
But undoubtedly, that state of "the heart knows before the eyes see" was the embryonic form of Observation Haki.
Surely before long, even without my training, Sasuke will be able to master Haki on his own, right?
That should give his "bastard brother" some surprises.
That's what Naruto thought.
Of course, this was also related to his not knowing exactly how strong Uchiha Itachi was.
If he knew the power gap between Itachi and Sasuke, he might directly multiply the training intensity several times over.
Speaking of which, this also confirmed one of Naruto's suspicions.
—That Haki originated from the mental and physical strength within the human body and was compatible regardless of which world one was in.
However, this also brought new questions.
Because according to textbooks, chakra was also a special power extracted from the life force in human body cells, combined with will and focused mental cultivation.
So fundamentally speaking, the two should be very similar or even interconnected and complementary.
He himself was a living example.
But in the pirate world, even someone as strong as Captain Roger couldn't extract even a trace of chakra.
Could it be that the birth of chakra was related to some other factors?
Thinking this, Naruto decided to conduct some experiments when he had time in the future.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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