Jokichi could not believe it.
Naruto was Konoha's Jinchuriki!
Although Konoha's villagers all loathed and hated Naruto, at most they would just verbally curse him, or throw things like eggs and rotten vegetables at him.
But no one would ever truly attack him.
Because they had all received warnings not to harm Naruto.
Therefore, the villagers directly adopted an attitude of ignoring Naruto.
In recent years, Naruto used pranks to attract the villagers' attention again.
Although everyone still disliked him, the hatred in their eyes was fading little by little.
After all, seeing is believing.
No one, watching a troublemaking child causing mischief everywhere every day, growing up little by little, would still think he was the demon fox that almost destroyed Konoha a few years ago.
Although they had not completely changed their minds, and not everyone thought this way, it was developing in a good direction little by little.
Now, for everyone, Naruto was more of a headache.
Under the general environment where Konoha's villagers were slowly accepting Naruto, someone actually attacked him; Jokichi simply could not imagine it.
Are they tired of living!
Attacking the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in Konoha...
If it was like the villagers throwing eggs and whatnot in the past, it would be nothing.
But this involved drawn blades.
Do they really think the Third Hokage's kind face means he will not kill?
That is the guy who took command in the face of danger in his youth, and in the name of Hokage, led Konoha—with the older generation dying and the new generation not yet grown—to victory in both the First and Second Shinobi World Wars!
Heaven knows how much blood stains his hands.
"Naruto, who hurt you?"
Jokichi grabbed Naruto's shoulders and asked excitedly.
It was not just shock that someone dared to hurt Naruto in Konoha, but also resentment.
No matter what, Naruto was his friend.
How could he ignore a friend being injured!
"Uh, no, um..."
Faced with Jokichi's anger-filled questioning, Naruto was a bit flustered. After hesitating for a while, he said, "It is no big deal, I was training in the back mountain yesterday and ran into three ninjas from an enemy village."
"Ninjas from an enemy village!?"
Jokichi's eyes widened, his mouth opened so wide you could fit an egg in it.
"What exactly happened?"
After a series of follow-up questions, Jokichi finally understood what happened.
It was exactly like in the anime, the three female Grass ninjas Naruto met at the back mountain.
In the grade assessment, Jokichi easily defeating Sasuke using a shadow clone greatly stimulated Naruto.
Although Jokichi was not aloof and pretentious like Sasuke, which meant Naruto did not find him an eyesore like he did Sasuke in the anime.
But he was also someone who refused to admit defeat.
Jokichi had even learned an advanced clone jutsu, yet he could not even practice the basic clone jutsu well.
Unwilling to fall behind, Naruto skipped class yesterday and went to the back mountain to train.
As a result, that place was a spot where Grass village spies passed intelligence to their own village.
And at that time, the Grass spy had just hidden the intelligence prepared to be passed on in the forest, waiting for ninjas from the village to come and receive it.
As a result, that intelligence was obtained by Naruto.
But Naruto did not realize what this intelligence was. When those three Grass ninjas came to receive the intelligence, they found it had been taken by Naruto beforehand, so they began a pursuit to kill him.
Fortunately, Iruka arrived at that time and saved Naruto.
However, the ones who finally dealt with those three Grass ninjas were not Kakashi who happened to arrive, but Sasuke and his father.
After graduating, Sasuke was not assigned to a team like other graduates, but directly entered the Police Force for an internship.
And his guiding instructor was his father, Uchiha Fugaku.
It had to be said, with the Uchiha clan as the Police Force, Konoha's defenses were much stricter than in the anime.
The back mountain was originally an uninhabited place, but once a commotion occurred, it was quickly noticed, and support arrived in time.
After listening to Naruto recount the entire process, Jokichi was also very speechless.
Occasionally skipping class to train and bumping into the exact time and place where spies and enemy villages exchange intelligence, this kind of luck...
He did not know what to say.
"Jokichi, you do not know, Sasuke's arrogant look, it was just defeating an enemy, yet he ended up in such a sorry state, what is there to be proud of." Naruto's tone was sour; obviously, he was very envious.
Jokichi smiled and comforted, "Do not worry, you will definitely be able to catch up to him in the future."
"Really? Do you think so too?"
Hearing Jokichi's comfort, Naruto instantly became happy, his big azure eyes blinking, full of anticipation.
"Mhm!" Jokichi nodded sincerely.
Past reincarnations of Asura all needed to rely on the power of the Nine-Tails to contend with Indra, but there were exceptions.
Hashirama and Naruto were these exceptions.
Madara Uchiha needed the Nine-Tails to contend with Hashirama, and Sasuke, without relying on the chakra of other Tailed Beasts, was not a match for Naruto with the Nine-Tails' help.
Receiving Jokichi's affirmation, Naruto became so happy he forgot himself. The trace of self-doubt caused by being left behind by Jokichi and Sasuke instantly vanished without a trace.
Afterwards, the other students in the class arrived at the classroom one after another.
After Jokichi greeted Shikamaru and the others, a new day of classes began.
It was another relaxing and happy daily routine, nothing much to talk about, just that time passed exceptionally fast.
Jokichi had not yet recovered from the daily joy when the school dismissal bell rang.
Pouting unhappily, Jokichi said goodbye to the group and went home.
He had relaxed for two days; it was time to dive back into training.
...
The next morning, Jokichi let his shadow clone go to school while he himself arrived at the 39th Training Ground early, and then began the wind chakra nature transformation training.
There was nothing much to say about the training content; in the anime, Naruto had already demonstrated it all.
It was just using chakra to cut leaves, and then cut a waterfall.
In the anime, Asuma taught Naruto a technique, so the leaf was cut very quickly.
However, the waterfall...
Konoha only had a waterfall in the back mountain, which was the place where Jiraiya returned to the village to peep during the Chunin Exams.
But there was nowhere to stand.
Helpless, Jokichi changed cutting the waterfall to cutting the river.
Although the river water was not as turbulent as a waterfall, if he could part the river barehanded relying on chakra, that would be sharp enough.
The wind chakra nature transformation training took one month.
Afterwards, Jokichi did not go to train Wind Release, but after resting for a few days, began training the lightning chakra nature transformation.
He prepared to finish learning the nature transformations of all attributes in one go, which would make learning ninjutsu more convenient when the time came.
Lightning attribute, water attribute, earth attribute.
For these three nature transformations, Jokichi spent nearly half a year.
Training with shadow clones is an overloading task.
Although Jokichi's Sage Body could withstand it, the mental fatigue was irresistible.
Short-term training was fine, but training like this continuously for several months would kill someone.
The First Hokage also possessed boundless vitality, yet he died in his prime.
How did he die?
His strength was so great, there was no one in his era who could defeat him.
The only things Jokichi could think of were dying from overwork or illness.
Although this idea was very unbelievable, Lu Xun once said: Eliminate all the impossible, and whatever answer remains, no matter how unbelievable, is the correct answer.
So, one must take it as a warning.