"What?!"
"Kakashi-sensei, how could you do that?"
Upon learning that Kakashi had been secretly watching him train all afternoon, Naruto's face scrunched up into a ball.
This was his secret, his special move that he planned to use to show off in front of everyone.
He never expected Kakashi to find out about it right after he started learning.
To this, Kakashi simply said calmly,
"Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to run off like this? Zabuza could attack at any moment. Do you think you can beat him?"
"But Goku is here."
Naruto shrunk his neck slightly, his gaze turning to Goku.
Seeing him look over, Goku didn't say anything, just gave a smile.
"Ahem, Mr. Goku hasn't known us for long. Do you really feel okay having him protect you?"
Kakashi coughed a few times, his expression somewhat helpless.
He couldn't very well say that a small part of the reason he came here was because he was still somewhat wary of Goku.
"I know I was wrong, Kakashi-sensei, but could you please not tell Sasuke that I'm training in Ki?"
Naruto also realized he was somewhat at fault, so he apologized readily, but he absolutely did not want Sasuke to know about this in advance.
"That's not a problem, but I have a question. What exactly is this 'Ki' you're talking about?"
Kakashi had heard this term many times now, but he truly couldn't figure out what this so-called 'Ki' was.
"Huh? Kakashi-sensei, you don't know?"
Naruto scratched his head in confusion.
In his view, the very capable Kakashi-sensei should at least know about this thing, even if he couldn't use it.
"?"
A question mark appeared above Kakashi's head.
"Why would I know about this?"
Seeing this, Naruto gave an awkward laugh, then replied,
"This 'Ki' refers to the hidden energy within our bodies."
Having learned very seriously this time, he effortlessly stated the concept of Ki, completely unlike his usual slacker self from school.
'Hidden energy within the body?'
'Isn't that just Chakra?'
'Why is this kid Naruto changing the concept.'
After hearing the answer, a trace of speechlessness flashed in Kakashi's dead-fish eye.
"Naruto, it's not called Ki, it's called Chakra. What were you doing during school?"
At this moment, he couldn't help but feel somewhat doubtful about the educational standards of the school teachers.
"Chakra?"
"What's that?"
Naruto's face was full of bewilderment.
'That sounds familiar?'
'Where have I heard it before?'
He scratched his head, unable to remember where exactly he had heard it.
"It's the hidden energy within your body you mentioned. Here, this is it."
Although he felt very exasperated inside, Kakashi still patiently explained and condensed Chakra in his hand to show him.
"So this is called Chakra!"
Naruto leaned in for a look and immediately recognized that this blue stuff was the same energy he had initially drawn out.
"Yes, this is called Chakra, not Ki."
Kakashi thought Naruto had realized his mistake and breathed a sigh of relief.
Good, he managed to correct him.
Otherwise, he would have a real headache.
He just never expected that Naruto's next words would immediately hit him like a bolt from the blue.
"But what I'm training isn't that, it's Ki."
Before Kakashi could recover from his confusion, Naruto closed his eyes.
Immediately after, a stream of white gas appeared in his hand.
"This is?"
Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he perceived this unknown energy somewhat similar to Chakra, feeling countless question marks popping up in his heart.
'What the hell is that thing?!!'
After some explanation, Kakashi finally understood what Ki was, but the doubts in his heart only increased instead of decreasing.
For example: Why is there this kind of energy inside the human body?
How is it trained?
Who invented this method, etc.
Thinking this, he looked towards the source of all these questions.
"Mr. Goku, I've had a question on my mind. Who are you, or rather, where are you from?"
Whether it was his attire, his training methods, or even his appetite, Goku was very different from them.
This made him constantly speculate.
Could it be that outside the shinobi continent, there are unknown places where people like Goku live?
"I came from Earth."
Goku, who had been silently listening to their conversation, grinned and scratched his head upon hearing Kakashi's question.
"As for me, I guess I'm a traveler now."
Goku looked at the sky, his gaze seeming to pierce through the world's barriers, seeing his family and friends living peacefully on Earth.
'Earth?'
'Traveler?'
Hearing the answer, Kakashi felt his guess was mostly correct.
Although he didn't know where Earth was, he assumed it was somewhere outside the shinobi continent.
This could also explain Goku's various differences from them.
Thinking this, the last remnants of his wariness towards Goku dissipated.
As long as Goku wasn't from another shinobi village, it was unlikely he would harm them.
Coupled with his earlier act of saving Naruto, this was even more certain.
"We're back!"
Naruto pushed the door open, swaggered in with his hands behind his head.
Then, he looked at Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, and said, "Tsunami-neechan, we're adding to the meal tonight!"
Hearing this, Tsunami, who was preparing dinner at the stove, looked over in surprise.
"Add to the meal?"
Outside the door, Kakashi looked at the two giant wild boars slung over Goku's shoulders, a few drops of cold sweat running down his forehead.
On the way back, Goku had suddenly left. When he met up with them again, they found him carrying two large wild boars.
And he called it: tonight's dinner.
This gave rise to a terrible speculation in his heart:
'This guy, could it be that he eats like he did at lunch for every meal?'
'And these two boars... each one looks like it weighs several thousand pounds, right?'
'The fact that he can carry them on his shoulders is one thing, but he looks like it's no effort at all?'
'What kind of terrifying strength is this?'
'With this kind of strength, even within the shinobi continent, he should rank quite high.'
Although he had made a very high assessment of Goku's strength, he didn't know that the power Goku was displaying now was just the tip of the iceberg.
In the future, when Goku displayed even greater power, he would be utterly astounded.
"This, this is way too much, isn't it?"
Tsunami walked outside, her mouth agape in surprise at the sight of the two large boars.
Two boars this big... they wouldn't know how long it would take to finish them.
"This one is for you."
Goku placed one of the boars on the ground, smiling as he said it.
Then he pointed to the other boar still on his shoulder.
"This one is for me."
Don't be fooled by Goku's usual carefree and simple-minded appearance; he's actually quite perceptive.
During lunch, he had noticed the exchange between Tazuna and Kakashi and knew that Tazuna's family had spent a lot to feed him.
So when he caught a wild boar for his own dinner, he conveniently caught its mate too, as a repayment to Tazuna's family.
Thus, both parties were happy.
A world where only the wild boars were hurt was achieved.
In the blink of an eye, it was the next day.
Since Tazuna needed to go work on building the bridge, Kakashi took Sasuke and Sakura along to protect his safety.
Incidentally, he also planned to teach Sasuke and Sakura some Chakra training methods.
As for Naruto, he temporarily entrusted him to Goku.
On one hand, he now felt relatively at ease with Goku, believing he wouldn't do anything to harm Naruto.
On the other hand, Naruto was determined to train Ki, and he himself wanted to see what Naruto could achieve with it.
If nothing came of it, it wouldn't be too late to resume Chakra training.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Zabuza sent out Haku to gather intelligence on them...