Days passed, and Naruto's life gradually settled into a fixed rhythm. Every morning, he would undergo taijutsu training, sometimes lucky enough to encounter Might Guy. This fiery man would proactively invite Naruto to train together, without Naruto needing to deliberately approach him.
During their second encounter, Might Guy gave Naruto a special gift—a green jumpsuit identical to Rock Lee's. Although Naruto no longer cared about the villagers' opinions, wearing such an exaggerated training outfit still made him hesitate. In the end, he could only respond dryly, "I'll treasure it."
As the days they spent together increased, Might Guy's favorability towards Naruto continued to climb. System prompts rang out one after another.
[Congratulations, Host: You have established a Level 4 bond with original character "Might Guy"!]
[Congratulations, Host: You have established a Level 5 bond with original character "Might Guy"!]
This friendship brought Naruto 500 system points.
After one training session, Might Guy solemnly promised Naruto that when he graduated from the Ninja Academy, he would teach Naruto a super powerful technique.
Guy, uncharacteristically, boasted that this technique was fully mastered by him alone in the entire Konoha Village. Naruto, of course, knew exactly what this technique was—the Eight Inner Gates.
As time went on, a reading craze suddenly swept through the bookstores in Konoha Village. A novel titled dou po cangqiong quickly became popular, almost becoming a must-discuss topic among all young ninjas after meals.
This was precisely the manuscript Naruto had given Hizashi, now officially published and distributed. It proved that even across different worlds, people's aesthetic tastes were surprisingly similar.
Taking advantage of this craze, Naruto decided to go to the Land of Hot Springs to check on Hizashi's base construction. After instantly arriving via the Flying Thunder God Technique, he found that Hizashi had already established himself in the local area as a merchant named "Tanuma" using the Transformation Technique, without a surname.
In a secret meeting, Hizashi reported the current progress in detail to Naruto, who was disguised as Menma. With the sale of Chakra metal and the royalties from the novel, he first invested in and leased an entire hot spring street, which was undoubtedly the most stable way to profit in the Land of Hot Springs, known for its tourism.
As for the main base, which Naruto specifically requested to be hidden and easy to defend yet difficult to attack, Hizashi had already purchased a large tract of land on the outskirts of the town. Although construction had just begun, at the current pace, fulfilling all of Naruto's requirements was only a matter of time.
Regarding why he wasn't immediately recruiting more ninjas to join the [烬] organization, Naruto had his own considerations—the time was not yet ripe.
In Iwagakure, Deidara was still active as the Tsuchikage's disciple, not yet exiled by the village. He was currently immersed in the creation of explosive art, nowhere near the point of needing to find another path.
Kisame Hoshigaki was still trapped in the Bloody Mist controlled by Obito, performing dirty tasks as an Anbu member against his true nature. This "Tailless Tailed Beast," full of confusion about reality and still under Obito's nose, was not the best time to approach.
As for Sasori of the Red Sand and Kakuzu, Naruto planned to recruit them after his own strength had further improved. Because if he couldn't display overwhelming power, these two unruly individuals would never willingly submit.
As for fanatics like Hidan, Naruto had excluded him from the recruitment list from the very beginning.
Therefore, Naruto focused on his daily interactions with Satsuki. The afternoon training sessions became the part of his day he looked forward to most. Bickering and sparring with this tsundere childhood friend, watching her pretend not to care even though she clearly did, this ordinary daily life made Naruto cherish it even more.
Thus, on one seemingly ordinary evening—just like hundreds of farewells in the past—when Naruto waved goodbye and watched Satsuki leave, a system prompt suddenly rang out.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host: You have established a Level 7 bond (maxed out) with original character "Uchiha Satsuki"!]
[Points gained: 500 points!]
Unexpectedly, this highest-level bond was achieved not through any earth-shattering events, but simply through day-to-day interactions.
As the most rewarding conquest target, Satsuki's favorability soared like a rocket, a contrast that made Naruto smile wryly.
This result was not surprising, as the Uchiha Clan had always been like this—cold and unapproachable on the surface, but once they recognized someone, their favorability would skyrocket at an astonishing speed.
However, this fervent emotion was also a double-edged sword; if the recognized person met with misfortune, Uchiha Clan members would fall into an extreme emotional vortex. Even more troublesome, their Sharingan precisely required such intense emotional fluctuations to evolve, and talented individuals could even directly awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.
This was the fundamental reason why Tobirama Senju always harbored reservations about the Uchiha Clan. This peculiar clan's favorability grew faster than anyone else's when they recognized someone, but once they lost someone important, their strength would advance by leaps and bounds, while simultaneously falling into an extremely paranoid state—a perfect interpretation of "sacrifice friends and family, gain boundless power."
For the emotion-driven Uchiha Clan members, sensibility always superseded rationality. Just like Uchiha Obito, after his beloved died, he unhesitatingly abandoned everything, even killing his own sensei.
Imagine if such a person became Hokage; once a crisis occurred, the blow to Konoha Village would be devastating.
The only Uchiha Tobirama Senju trusted, Kagami Uchiha, was precisely because he was an anomaly. In the "Book of databooks," Tobirama mentioned that Kagami's way of thinking was closer to the Senju Clan, completely uncharacteristic of a typical Uchiha.
Just like that, Naruto had another 1900 system points. Just as he thought it would be difficult to gain more points in the short term, an unexpected event quietly arrived on a perfectly ordinary night.
That night was no different from usual. Naruto finished his day's training, packed his ninja tools, and walked home along the familiar street. The moonlight quietly spilled onto the flagstones, and the surroundings were so quiet that only his footsteps could be heard. Without any warning, and without any abnormality, at such an ordinary moment—
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host: You have established an initial bond with original character "Hyuga Hinata"!]
[Points gained: 200 points!]
The sudden system prompt made Naruto jolt, almost jumping. While he was happy to gain points, this prompt sent a chill down his spine—the system only triggered the reward mechanism upon actual contact with someone!
This meant...
Naruto suppressed the creeping sensation in his heart, pretending to walk on as if nothing had happened, but all his senses were on high alert. He deliberately slowed his pace, then suddenly accelerated when passing a corner, and sharply turned around.
Sure enough, a small white figure frantically tried to hide. Hyuga Hinata stood there flustered, her Byakugan wide. In the moonlight, her face visibly flushed, from her cheeks all the way to her earlobes.
The moment she was discovered, Hinata turned in fright and ran. Naruto didn't even have time to speak before the white figure had already disappeared into the night, leaving only a string of hurried footsteps echoing on the street.