Naruto's eyes were wide with disbelief.
He stared quietly at the small scorch mark on the tree that seemed to almost blend in with its bark before snapping out of disbelief with an excited yelp!
"Yes!!!! I did it!!!!"
Haruto nearly smiled but managed to control himself at the last second.
In the end he asked Naruto a quick question, "What do you think? Do you think you can do the real thing now?"
Naruto looked excited and even before he replied to Haruto he quickly closed his eyes and began to form another fireball, this one more real than before, using balanced chakra.
Within half a minute Naruto opened his mouth again and spat out a giant fireball that was a meter wide in diameter! It was hotter than before, enough to give Haruto who was standing quite close a slight fright but since it wasn't anything when compared to his flames he relaxed a little bit.
BOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
The fireball exploded with a louder explosion this time, ripping off a part of the tree like some giant monster had just taken a bite out of it, leaving a charred hole in the thick trunk.
"WWWWOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" With a shout louder than the ensuing explosion, Naruto celebrated with his hands in the air. He even hugged Haruto out of excitement before realising what he'd done and blushing a little after quickly separating.
"That was so cool!!!! Like the fireball went woosh!! And then fuwa!!! And then Booomm!!!!! And then the air was like psss!!!" Naruto elaborated on his state excitedly.
"That was honestly decent." Haruto nodded plainly without commenting on Naruto's overjoyous reaction since at the same time he was trying hard to control the overexcited shouts of Megumin inside his head.
Megumin was overjoyed at another disciple walking the path of explosion magic. So overjoyed in fact that she fired off multiple terrain altering Explosion Magic spells inside the template inventory space for all to witness.
Haruto felt a quick sting in his head as he gained new memories of having practiced the basic chakra control exercise for hundreds of thousands of times within the span of a few seconds. He tried hard and managed to control the flood of memories with his Occlumency and store it away for later review and absorption when he was in a more appropriate location, effectively delaying the reward.
Naruto then calmed himself down a little, although he failed terribly in doing so since he was practically vibrating on his feet, before he bowed deeply to Haruto, "Thank you for teaching me this jutsu!! In exchange, I give you this!!" Naruto held out his hand and offered Haruto a piece of paper.
Haruto stared at Naruto's outstretched hand for a second, wondering if he should take things from Naruto, especially when he was already rewarded in the form of improved chakra control, before deciding it wouldn't be against his directive and grabbing the piece of paper that Naruto had so devotedly offered him.
'What's this?'
'A coupon? Free ramen?'
'Oh! The infamous Ichiraku Ramen Coupon…'
'I still haven't been there… might as well save myself the trouble of cooking today and get some takeout or just eat outside.'
"Thank you…" Haruto said as Naruto stood back up with small drops of tears in his eyes.
Naruto then turned around and quickly rushed away, his face flushed with embarrassment as if he'd just confessed to a girl he liked.
A small smile threatened to crack Haruto's carefully crafted expression but he managed to hold it in well.
With that done, Haruto decided it was a priority to visit the infamous Sage of Six Bowls!!
Haruto arrived at the rather small front of a restaurant styled like an Izakaya front, and then quietly found himself a seat on one of the six seats, of which three were seemingly already occupied by a genin team.
"One miso ramen." Haruto said to Teuchi, placing the ramen coupon on the table.
Teuchi looked at the coupon and smiled softly and warmly since he recognised it instantly. He gazed at Haruto for a few seconds before turning around and speaking over his shoulder, "Coming right up!"
'Aww… no Rinegan for Teuchi…'
As Haruto waited for Teuchi to finish making his bowl, he inadvertently eavesdropped on the genin team because of their proximity.
"Did you hear?" the boy on the team asked.
"What about?" the girl questioned in response.
"The Uchiha news…" the boy said in a low whisper.
"You're talking about the news of Shisui Uchiha saving the Daimyo right?" the other boy interrupted and the first boy nodded swiftly, "They say the Daimyo was about to be assassinated and Shisui Uchiha protected him and beheaded the attacker!"
"No way!!! Shisui of the Body flicker!? I've always admired him ever since the third shinobi war!! I remember mum and dad used to tell me his tales when the war was still going on and I was in the academy…"
"But…" the first boy wanted to say something but seemed put off by the enthusiasm of the girl. "What is it? Don't tell me you're jealous of Shisui! He's too powerful for people like us stuck as genin to even compare with!"
It was then that the second boy interrupted, "I heard that the news was just a rumor the Uchiha were spreading to further their interests in the Jonin meetings…"
"Oh come on… the Uchiha won't lie about it, just think about it, do you think those stuck up fools who keep going on and on about their pride would stoop to something as low as falsifying credit?"
"Yeah… that's the thing… " The first boy nodded, "Just think about it… how would an intruder even get to the Daimyo to assassinate him in the first place? The royal palace is heavily guarded with samurai and shinobi round the clock… the Daimyo even has the twelve guardian shinobi guarding him around the clock… there's no way anyone would be able to get to him without inside information."
"Hiss!!! No way!! You aren't insinuating that Shisui leaked the inside information and allowed the attack on the Daimyo!!" the girl hissed.
"Well… I'm not saying anything… that's what they're saying…"
Haruto who'd been eavesdropping until then suddenly found himself confused.
'Danzo's blocking the information about the Uchiha from spreading…'
'He obviously doesn't want them to grow a strong influence in the village… but isn't this a little too overt? Anyone in the know will obviously be able to put two and two together to arrive at the conclusion that Danzo is muddying the waters on purpose?'
'What's his intention in doing this?'
'Is it to isolate the Uchiha?'
'To mark them off as evil so that the other clans don't even think about taking their side?'
'Is Danzo afraid that the Uchiha are about to rebel against him?'
'Wait a second… Did Kakashi-sensei give me that three week deadline because the Uchiha are about to rebel in a little while?'
'The research succeeding will take away jobs… ergo dissatisfaction…'
'So Kakashi-sensei wants me to create as much dissatisfaction in the shinobi ranks before then so that everyone takes the side of the Uchiha when they rebel?'
Haruto suddenly became excited, 'Does this count as mission accomplished, Grindelwald!?'
'...Hmm… I'd say not, because you still haven't figured out how Danzo is controlling the Ino Shika Cho trio.'
'Hmm… true…'
***
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