Chapter 36:
"Sasuke, are you really not letting me stay at your place?"
After school, Naruto looked at Sasuke, who was about to split off at the intersection, and scratched his head in hesitation.
Inviting someone to stay over when his own house was messy and empty was actually quite embarrassing.
But when Sasuke went home, he would be facing the huge, empty Uchiha clan grounds all by himself…
"No, thanks… Naruto."
Sasuke shook his head and refused Naruto's offer.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly added a quiet "thank you."
Then, before Naruto could reply, he turned and ran toward the Uchiha district outside the village.
The Uchiha clan grounds were quite far from the main village, which naturally created a sense of distance.
The more Sasuke thought about it after getting home, the more he felt there was a deep conspiracy behind everything. But since Naruto was busy with his own things, Sasuke didn't ask any further.
Once home, Sasuke cried for a while, then cleaned up the house and even slowly reviewed the taijutsu he hadn't practiced for half a year…
Meanwhile, Naruto, who had parted ways at the intersection, wasn't nearly as motivated. He went straight home, took off his clothes, and crawled into bed to sleep.
At the same time, inside his soul space, Naruto continued extracting and assimilating Nine-Tails chakra while letting his thoughts wander, considering how he should proceed in the future.
The exams for this year were about to begin. They still had four more years in the academy.
During these four years, he at least needed to strengthen his body. Taijutsu training was a must. As for ninjutsu…
He could only wait until Sasuke started learning techniques and then secretly copy them.
But Uchiha-style ninjutsu…
"Looks like this bit of power is going to be completely used up again…"
Naruto looked at the chakra swirling around his body. He really had become Sasuke's laborer.
That guy had already awakened three tomoe. If he couldn't learn and use some of the Uchiha clan's techniques soon, he would fall behind.
But to find those things, he would have to ask the Uchiha clan head who had hidden them — Uchiha Fugaku, who was currently in a half-dead state…
In the following days, Naruto and Sasuke attended classes normally. Although they ate together and walked home together, neither mentioned training for the time being.
Just when everyone thought Sasuke would skip the exam because of his long hospitalization, the boy who had only recently been discharged took first place in the test.
The result naturally shocked everyone.
Because of that, no one made a big deal about the fact that Sasuke had accidentally given his opponent a small head wound during the practical exam due to lack of recent practice.
After the final rankings were announced, Sasuke still held the top spot, while Naruto once again firmly claimed the position of dead-last.
Although a few students scored slightly worse than him in some areas, when the total scores were calculated, Uzumaki Naruto once again proudly took the very bottom place!
"This money is for your meals during the break. If you spend it all early, you'll have to go hungry afterward…"
Iruka handed Naruto the living expenses with obvious worry. However, he had other things to do during the break, so he couldn't keep watching the two boys all the time.
"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei! I'm going to stay at Sasuke's house for a while, so he'll keep an eye on me. I definitely won't spend it all!"
Naruto put the money away safely, waved at Iruka, and ran off.
During this holiday, everyone had things to do.
And the task Naruto planned to complete during the break was to have Sasuke sort out and properly store all the valuable items in the Uchiha clan grounds, so that one day when Konoha came searching, they wouldn't be able to take everything away.
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