Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“Kakashi-sensei!”

Once the test was over, Naruto caught up with Kakashi, looking at him expectantly.

“Could you give me some extra training? Elemental ninjutsu, taijutsu… I don’t know a single elemental jutsu yet, and my taijutsu still needs a lot of work.”

Kakashi turned toward him. His visible eye drooped as he regarded Naruto with a weary look.

“Sorry. I don’t have time.”

Naruto’s expression stiffened, but he quickly tried again.

“Then just five minutes! Teach me one elemental jutsu. I can learn it!”

Kakashi scratched his head and looked up at the white clouds overhead. After hesitating for a minute, he finally answered.

“Well… I didn’t bring any chakra paper today. Until we know your chakra nature, I can’t tell which kind of jutsu I should teach you.”

Naruto opened his mouth to say that he already knew he had wind, earth, and water natures.

The [Uzumaki Sage Body] had given him the latter two.

But he stopped himself. How was he supposed to explain knowing that?

When Naruto said nothing, Kakashi turned and continued on his way, waving a hand over his shoulder.

“Another time.”

“Kakashi-sensei, didn’t you see how hard I was working? I’ve been training since early this morning!”

Naruto’s voice rose despite himself.

Kakashi glanced back, his eye still heavy with that sleepy expression.

“One morning of training doesn’t tell me much. What have you been doing all these years?”

Naruto clenched his fists.

At the mention of those years, frustration and anger welled up inside him, leaving him struggling for an answer.

He wanted to shout. But he didn’t dare.

An ANBU shinobi was watching him from nearby.

He could only swallow the words and rage silently.

‘Because for those ten years, the Naruto who lived here was struggling just to survive. He’d convinced himself that pulling pranks was the way to make people acknowledge him.’

‘And where were you, Kakashi? If you knew he wasn’t training, why didn’t you teach him?’

‘Why? Because there was nothing you could do?’

‘When your father took his own life, you couldn’t do anything. When Obito died, you couldn’t do anything. When Rin Nohara, the girl who loved you, died, you couldn’t do anything. And when your teacher’s son was struggling just to survive, you still couldn’t do anything!’

‘Now I’m asking you to teach me, and you won’t even do that!’

‘Kakashi… what can you do?’

There was so much he wanted to say.

He couldn’t voice any of it.

Orange-red chakra began to seep from his body. A sinister presence spread through the air around him.

Kakashi immediately turned, fixing his eye on Naruto.

The hidden ANBU shinobi stepped out of concealment, appeared behind Naruto, and pressed a sealing tag against his back.

The tag could temporarily suppress chakra and the malevolent influence that came with it. It wasn’t particularly powerful, but it could buy enough time for the Third Hokage to arrive.

At that moment, the [God Bloodline] and [Uzumaki Sage Body] within Naruto responded.

His Sage Body could suppress a tailed beast’s chakra. The Nine-Tails’ chakra leaking from him was forced back, and Naruto abruptly came to his senses.

For a moment, he stood there in a daze.

Then he realized what had nearly happened. Cold sweat broke out across his skin.

The fear lingered only briefly before his expression cooled again.

He looked blankly at Kakashi, who was watching him tensely a short distance away, then at the ANBU shinobi behind him.

Lowering his head, he turned and left.

‘I can’t rely on anyone here. If I want the power to decide my own future, I’ll have to earn it myself.’

His heart had grown cold, but his thoughts were clear.

Kakashi’s response had only strengthened his conviction. Everyone in this world was living for themselves.

Perhaps there was still kindness somewhere. Perhaps there were friendships deep enough to move him.

But would he ever have those things himself?

As far as he was concerned, only two people in the original story had truly cared about Naruto.

The first was Iruka-sensei.

His care had gone far beyond what a teacher owed a student. Plenty of people had wondered whether, without Iruka, Naruto might have ended up walking the same dark path as Obito.

The second was Hinata.

Her shyness had kept her from expressing herself openly, but she had always supported Naruto in her own quiet way. She had worked hard to become stronger for him, too.

Sasuke? His mind had been consumed by revenge. Naruto had been the one pouring far too much of himself into that bond.

And Jiraiya?

‘Where was he for those twelve years? If Naruto hadn’t been a possible Child of Prophecy, would he have even given him a second glance?’

‘In this life, the only people worth going out of my way for are Iruka-sensei and Hinata. No one else.’

He gave a bitter snort.

‘Comrades, huh…’

…

Naruto didn’t care how the ANBU shinobi reported his near loss of control to the Third Hokage.

The old man never came to speak with him afterward, either.

All Naruto wanted now was to become stronger.

At Sasuke’s house, he sat before a dozen or so ninjutsu scrolls, studying them intently.

After the Uchiha clan’s destruction, their possessions had inevitably been plundered. Generations of accumulated knowledge and countless jutsu had largely ended up in the hands of Konoha or other clans.

Sasuke had managed to keep a small portion of what remained.

Those were the scrolls laid out before Naruto.

Apparently, whoever had decided what Sasuke could keep hadn’t wanted him to grow too powerful. The scrolls contained only C-rank and D-rank elemental ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu—basic techniques with limited power.

To Naruto as he was now, however, they were exactly what he needed.

“Here. Chakra paper.”

Sasuke handed him a thin sheet.

“Just channel your chakra into it.”

“Thanks!”

Naruto took the paper and did as instructed.

His chakra natures were already listed on his system’s status panel. But if he wanted to use elemental ninjutsu openly, he needed to establish how he had learned about them.

As chakra flowed into the paper, it first became damp, then split down the middle. Finally, it crumbled into dust and fell to the floor.

“Water, wind, and earth…” Sasuke looked at him in surprise. “You have three chakra natures?”

More chakra natures meant more types of elemental ninjutsu a shinobi could learn. That wider range of techniques could, in turn, make them a stronger opponent.

Naruto scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

“It’s nothing special. You don’t have to say it so loudly.”

“The elemental jutsu scrolls are over here. Read them yourself.”

With that, Sasuke went off to train.

Naruto’s progress was putting him under considerable pressure. If he didn’t work harder, he felt he might never catch up, let alone surpass him.

Naruto gathered the three scrolls covering Wind Style, Earth Style, and Water Style, treating them like precious treasures as he laid them out before him.

Then he began to read carefully.

This was his first time studying elemental ninjutsu. Apart from asking Sasuke about the hand signs, he would have to work everything out himself.

It felt strange when he thought about it.

In the original story, Naruto had relied mostly on the Rasengan, shadow clones, and senjutsu rather than learning a wide range of elemental techniques. Yet here he was, studying those very jutsu in earnest.

His need to become stronger was simply too urgent.

He had no intention of following the original story at every step as he developed his abilities. He had the [Fate Selection System] now.

With it, he was certain he would become even stronger than the Naruto he remembered.