I forgot it, resets, but anyway... (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ drop em stones!
Chapter 45: The Uchiha Trait
Time passed day by day, and Naruto's life gradually fell into a fixed rhythm. Every morning he would engage in taijutsu training, and if he was lucky, he'd encounter Might Guy. This passionate man would enthusiastically invite Naruto to train together, requiring no deliberate approach from Naruto's part.
During their second encounter, Might Guy gave Naruto a special gift—the same green spandex suit that Lee wore. Although Naruto no longer cared about the villagers' opinions, wearing such an outrageous training outfit still made him hesitate. In the end, he could only respond dryly, "I'll treasure it properly."
As their time together increased, Might Guy's favorability toward Naruto continued to climb. System notifications rang out in succession.
[Congratulations Host: Bond Level 4 established with original character "Might Guy"!]
[Congratulations Host: Bond Level 5 established with original character "Might Guy"!]
This friendship brought Naruto 500 system points.
After one training session, Might Guy solemnly made a promise to Naruto—when Naruto graduated from the ninja academy, he would teach him an incredibly powerful technique.
Guy rarely boasted, saying that in all of Konoha, only he had completely mastered this technique. Naruto naturally knew what this technique was—the Hachimon Tonkou (Eight Gates).
As time progressed, Konoha's bookstores suddenly experienced a reading boom. A novel titled "Battle Through the Heavens" quickly became popular, practically becoming the must-discuss topic for all young shinobi during their leisure time.
This was precisely the manuscript Naruto had originally given to Hizashi, now officially published. It proved that even across different worlds, people's aesthetic tastes remained remarkably similar.
Taking advantage of this trend, Naruto decided to visit Yu no Kuni to check on Hizashi's base construction progress. Using Hiraishin to arrive instantly, he discovered that Hizashi had already used the Transformation Technique to assume the identity of a merchant named "Tanuma," establishing himself as a nameless person in the local area.
In their secret meeting, Hizashi gave the disguised Menma-Naruto a detailed report on current progress. Using profits from chakra metal sales and novel royalties, he had first invested in an entire hot spring district—in Yu no Kuni, famous for its tourism industry, this was undoubtedly the most stable profit method.
As for the concealed and easily defensible base Naruto specifically requested, Hizashi had already purchased large plots of land on the town's outskirts. Though construction had just begun, at the current pace, fulfilling all of Naruto's requirements was merely a matter of time.
Regarding why he wasn't immediately recruiting more shinobi to join the Ember organization, Naruto had his own considerations—the timing wasn't ripe yet.
In Iwagakure, Deidara was still active as the Tsuchikage's disciple, not yet exiled by his village. At this time, he was completely immersed in creating explosive art, with no need to seek other paths.
Hoshigaki Kisame remained trapped in the blood mist controlled by Obito, executing dirty missions that violated his conscience as an ANBU member. This "Tailless Tailed Beast" filled with confusion about reality was still under Obito's watchful eye—now wasn't the optimal time for contact.
As for Sasori of the Red Sand and Kakuzu, Naruto planned to recruit them after his strength advanced further. Because without displaying overwhelming power, these two rebellious individuals would never willingly submit.
As for fanatics like Hidan, Naruto had excluded him from the recruitment list from the beginning.
Therefore, Naruto focused his attention on daily life with Satsuki. The afternoon training sessions became his most anticipated part of each day. Bantering and sparring with this tsundere childhood friend, watching her pretend not to care when she clearly did—this ordinary daily life made Naruto treasure it all the more.
Just like that, on what seemed like an ordinary evening—just like the dozens of previous farewells—after Naruto waved goodbye and watched Satsuki leave, a system notification suddenly rang out.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations Host: Bond Level 7 (Maximum) established with original character "Uchiha Satsuki"!]
[Points gained: 500!]
Unexpectedly, this highest-level bond had been achieved without any earth-shattering events, simply through day-to-day interaction.
As the conquest target with the most generous rewards, Satsuki's favorability had grown at rocket speed, a contrast that made Naruto smile wryly.
This result wasn't actually surprising, because the Uchiha clan had always been this way—outwardly cold as ice and difficult to approach, but once they granted their recognition, favorability would skyrocket at an astonishing rate.
However, this intense emotion was also a double-edged sword. If the recognized person met misfortune, Uchiha clan members would fall into extreme emotional whirlpools. More troublesome was that their Sharingan precisely required these violent emotional fluctuations to evolve, with exceptionally gifted individuals potentially awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan directly.
This was the fundamental reason Senju Tobirama always harbored wariness toward the Uchiha clan. This peculiar family would gain favorability faster than anyone when they recognized someone, but once they lost someone important, their strength would advance by leaps and bounds while simultaneously falling into extreme obsessive states—a perfect interpretation of "sacrifice friends and family for infinite power."
For emotion-first Uchiha clan members, feelings always trumped reason. Just like Uchiha Obito—after his beloved died, he unhesitatingly abandoned everything, even capable of killing his own teacher.
Imagine if such a person became Hokage—once they encountered upheaval, the blow to Konoha would be devastating.
The only Uchiha that Senju Tobirama trusted was Kagami, precisely because he was an anomaly. In the "Book of Formation," Tobirama mentioned that Kagami's thinking was closer to the Senju clan, completely unlike typical Uchiha characteristics.
Just like that, Naruto gained another 1900 system points. Just as he thought it would be difficult to gain more points in the short term, on an utterly ordinary night, an accident quietly arrived.
That evening was no different from usual. Naruto finished his day's training, packed his ninja tool pouch, and walked along familiar streets toward home. Moonlight quietly spread across the stone-paved road, with surroundings so quiet he could only hear his own footsteps. Without any warning or abnormality, in this perfectly ordinary moment—
[Ding!]
[Congratulations Host: Initial bond established with original character "Hyuuga Hinata"!]
[Points gained: 200!]
The sudden system notification made Naruto's whole body tense, nearly jumping up. Although he was happy to gain points, this notification sent a chill down his spine—the system only triggered reward mechanisms during actual contact with people!
This meant...
Naruto suppressed his hair-raising feelings, pretending nothing had happened as he continued forward, but all his senses were on high alert. He deliberately slowed his pace, suddenly accelerating when passing a corner, then spinning around abruptly.
Sure enough, a small white figure was frantically trying to hide. Hyuuga Hinata stood there at a loss, her Byakugan wide with panic. In the moonlight, her face visibly reddened at lightning speed, from cheeks all the way to her ears.
The moment she was discovered, Hinata turned and fled in shock. Before Naruto could even speak, that white figure had already vanished into the night, leaving only a string of panicked footsteps echoing through the streets.
***
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