Chapter 7: This Is My Ninja Way!
Naruto noticed the fleeting red glint that flashed through Sasuke's eyes and muttered inwardly.
[Damn, did I just push him so hard he nearly awakened his Sharingan?]
Seeing Sasuke's unhappy expression, Sakura quickly leaned over to comfort him.
"It's okay, Sasuke. Being good with shuriken doesn't mean anything. You're definitely better than Naruto in other areas."
However, her consolation had zero effect. Sasuke simply snorted coldly and turned his face away, completely ignoring her.
Ino, on the other hand, kept staring at Naruto with a growing sense that he looked better and better the more she watched.
...
During lunch break, Naruto returned to his seat and opened his bento box.
What he saw made his brows furrow tightly.
Instead of the lunch he had prepared, the box contained two dead rats.
At the same time, in the corridor, two boys from Class A were secretly peeking at him.
When they saw Naruto open the bento, they pulled back, squatted against the wall, and covered their mouths, snickering.
Their laughter was quiet, but to Naruto it was extremely grating. His expression turned ice-cold.
Hinata, who sat diagonally behind him, also saw the dead rats. Her usually soft and gentle face actually showed a flash of anger.
She wanted to speak to Naruto, but before she could gather the courage, he had already stood up abruptly.
Holding the bento box, he walked straight toward the classroom door.
The two pranksters saw this and immediately tried to run.
They had only taken two steps when they felt a powerful force slam into their backs.
After crashing face-first onto the floor, they endured the pain and looked up.
They saw Naruto retracting his leg, staring down at them with cold eyes.
"You… what are you doing?! Teacher Iruka said no fighting inside the school except during combat class!"
As the increasingly intimidating Naruto got closer, the two boys panicked and tried to use Iruka as a shield.
"Teacher Iruka!! Help! The demon fox has gone crazy! He's hitting people!"
Their loud cries drew a crowd of curious students.
Iruka, who had been eating ramen in his office, immediately put down his chopsticks and rushed over when he heard the commotion.
By the time he arrived, Naruto was forcefully stuffing the two dead rats into the boys' mouths.
With his overwhelming physical strength, the two boys couldn't move at all.
They tasted the foul stench of the rats in their mouths but were powerless to resist. They burst into loud sobs, filled with pure terror.
"Naruto! Stop right now!" Iruka roared in anger.
Having achieved his goal, Naruto released them and stood up with a somewhat bored expression.
The two boys frantically spat out the rats, dry-heaving and crying with tears streaming down their faces.
Looking at Naruto's indifferent expression, Iruka's face grew serious.
"Naruto, do you even realize what you're doing? How could you do something so terrible!"
If it had been any other student, he would have immediately contacted their parents.
But since it was Naruto, Iruka was at a loss for a proper solution and could only lecture him himself.
Before Naruto could reply, Hinata surprisingly stepped forward.
Her face was slightly red, but her eyes were unusually firm. "Teacher Iruka… it was them who put the dead rats in Naruto-kun's bento first."
Iruka glanced at Hinata. Knowing she wouldn't lie, his expression softened a little.
"Even so, their prank was wrong, but your actions were still far too vicious, Naruto!"
"Violence is never the best way to solve problems! If something happens, you should come to me or the other teachers first. Understand?"
Naruto casually wiped the filth off his hands, looking completely unconvinced.
"Really? But I think it was very effective. Looking at their faces, do you think they'll dare to mess with me again? Is there a better way to achieve the same result?"
"You… that's completely twisted logic!" Iruka was left speechless for a moment.
"You can always come to me about these things. I'll definitely find a way to handle it!"
Naruto let out a light chuckle. "Tell you? At most you'd just scold them once and give them a lecture. You'd feel satisfied after teaching them, but I'd still feel uncomfortable."
"Repay kindness with kindness, and repay grudge with grudge. That is the ninja way of Uzumaki Naruto!"
Iruka was stunned by Naruto's string of words.
As a teacher at the Ninja Academy, he actually felt a sense of powerlessness toward this student.
"What a violent and unreasonable guy…" Sakura muttered under her breath.
This was also the opinion most students held of Naruto at that moment.
A small minority, however, thought Naruto's clear sense of gratitude and revenge, along with his decisive style, was pretty cool.
Ino was one of them.
After school, at the academy gate.
Iruka stood in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi, head lowered in shame.
He reported everything Naruto had done in full detail.
After listening, the Third Hokage frowned and murmured:
"Repay kindness with kindness… and grudge with grudge…"
[Naruto, it seems you inherited Minato's talent, but not his Will of Fire.]
[His personality is more like Kushina's… This is going to be tricky. Danzo really messed things up.]
Iruka said quietly, "Lord Third, I'm afraid I may disappoint you. I don't think I have the ability to teach Uzumaki Naruto. If things continue like this, I'm worried I'll start doubting myself too."
The Third took a puff from his pipe, his cloudy eyes looking at the somewhat defeated Iruka.
He raised his aged hand and patted Iruka's shoulder.
"Iruka, as long as you show the sincerity and passion from your heart, I believe Naruto will eventually be influenced by you. Don't lose heart."
The Third's gentle encouragement successfully pulled Iruka out of his spiral of frustration.
When Naruto returned home, the next self-discipline task arrived right on schedule.
"Reach max proficiency in the Three Basic Jutsu within ten days."
Current progress: Clone Technique (0/10000) Substitution Technique (0/10000) Transformation Technique (0/10000)
The Three Basic Jutsu, huh.
Sitting on the sofa, Naruto took out the two scrolls the Third had given him earlier — one for [Chakra Refinement] and one for the [Three Basic Jutsu].
He didn't open the Three Basic Jutsu scroll immediately. He had been busy training Wind Breathing and hadn't yet started refining chakra.
Learning the Three Basic Jutsu required chakra first.
Now that he had reached the [Constant] stage, it was finally time.
Naruto was quite curious about how much chakra his current powerful body could refine.
He looked at the scroll.
Chakra was formed by combining physical energy and spiritual energy in a 1:1 ratio.
Naruto closed his eyes and followed the method on the scroll, attempting to merge the two energies within his body.
He had expected it to be somewhat difficult, but perhaps due to his [Perfect Chakra Control] ability, he succeeded in refining his first strand of chakra in just one minute.
But before he could feel happy about it, something unexpected happened.
A sudden surge of fiery red, scorching energy abruptly rushed into the mix of his physical and spiritual energies!
The originally stable 1:1 ratio instantly became chaotic because of this intrusive red chakra.