Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 16 Cultivation

What is summer vacation?

It's a time when children finally escape school and indulge their natural instincts to play. It's also a time when children with goals and plans are no longer burdened by classes and can strive to improve themselves.

Sasuke maintained the same routine he had when he was in school. He would get up at 5:30 every morning, go out for a run, and return home at 6:30. At that time, Naruto would sometimes be on his way to fry eggs, and sometimes he would still be in bed. No matter what, Sasuke would go straight to Naruto's house to wake him up. He would buy a day's worth of food before leaving in the morning, and while they were making breakfast, they would also prepare lunchboxes before heading out.

Unwavering physical fitness, ninjutsu, shuriken, and combat training are essential. They chase each other through the vast forests of Konoha, try out common ninjutsu found in books, study what force and angle can change the trajectory of shuriken, and simulate countermeasures in various situations.

Naruto had to lead the way when running laps, act as a moving target when practicing shuriken, and serve as a mock enemy during sparring. He was constantly busy and attracted a lot of hatred.

Their training had no fixed location; they could train anywhere that wasn't crowded. Therefore, they would often run into other people randomly. The most frequent encounter was with a thick-browed, big-eyed kid who was training like a madman. Whenever they met, this guy was always frantically pushing his body, chanting numbers that were unbelievably absurd.

"Oh! Naruto, Sasuke! Good morning!" Rock Lee greeted them with his free hand while maintaining a one-handed push-up.

"Good morning, Lee! You look great today too!" Naruto gave him a thumbs up, while Sasuke waved his hand in greeting.

Rock Lee returned a bright, sunny smile and gave a thumbs-up. "I met a senior who greatly admired my ambition to become a ninja through taijutsu and even gave me guidance on my training! I must work even harder and strive to become a ninja as soon as possible!"

"Li, you will definitely succeed!"

Who facilitated this reunion of master and student? It was undoubtedly Naruto. He had long known where his master, with his thick eyebrows, frequented, making it easy to lure Rock Lee there for training under the guise of a sacred place. Lee's spirit, almost identical to his master's, made him hard not to be favored. The reason for specifically helping Lee was that most of the future pillars of society had family traditions, or at least parental support, while Lee had been training in the dark before meeting Guy, wasting precious time. Naruto, already preoccupied with both Hikaru and Sasuke, had no other energy to spare, so he naturally had to "scheme" against his future teachers.

"Tooth, you don't think you've hidden it well, do you?"

Sasuke ignited a bush with a fireball, burning out the child hiding inside. Kiba frantically smothered his fur collar, then was met with Naruto's teasing smile. One of them had Sharingan, and the other was a sensory user; they had already noticed Kiba sneaking over, but pretended not to know, deliberately playing a trick on him during the fight.

Kiba stared furiously at his charred collar. "Naruto, we agreed to a duel!"

“I didn’t agree to that,” Naruto deliberately denied.

"You're too scared? Then give up your number one spot!"

Before Naruto could react, Sasuke suddenly stepped forward and punched him, sending him flying. Naruto stared in disbelief at Sasuke striking his cool pose, and said with a look of disgust, "You couldn't even dodge this attack and you still want to fight Naruto? You're too weak."

The result, of course, was that they pounced on him menacingly, only to be beaten back with bruises and swelling on their faces.

"Wait until I... have my own ninja dog, then I'll come back and beat you all to a pulp!" Kiba stumbled away, not forgetting to utter a threat as he left. He still seems quite energetic, which means Sasuke didn't go too far and knew his limits! Tonight, I'll reward him with some chilled candied tomatoes!

"Next time someone makes that kind of noise, just beat them up. What's with all the talk?" Sasuke disliked Naruto's overly friendly attitude towards everyone. Even if someone said something about monsters in front of him, he wouldn't get angry; in fact, he would patiently argue back. Those guys wouldn't be so gentle when bullying other kids. They only dared to talk because they knew they couldn't beat Naruto, since Naruto wouldn't take the initiative to fight.

Naruto disagreed, saying, "That's called 'courtesy first, then force'! Not all conflicts can be resolved by fighting; the important thing is to resolve the contradictions."

"Solving the problem by dealing with the person who created it is also solving the problem!"

"Sasuke! You're training too!" Ino, lunging forward, nearly crashed to the ground. Having suffered so many sneak attacks from Naruto, Sasuke was especially wary during training and instinctively dodged. Naruto had to brace himself against Ino's forehead; he couldn't let the girl fall flat on her face.

"Hey, you guys are here early." Shikamaru yawned as he walked over from a short distance away, dragging the absent-minded Choji along with him.

Ino managed to snag her favorite handsome guy, just as she'd hoped. But then again, Naruto, with his blond hair and blue eyes, was a sunny type, so handsome he was completely out of place among the other boys in class—much more pleasing to the eye than her two friends. Damn it, why did her future have to be tied to those two guys?!

"Did the three of you come out together?" Naruto was a little curious, after all, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio at this age were not as inseparable as they were during training as they were in his previous life.

"Dad and my uncles said we should work on our teamwork... Ugh, this is such a hassle." Although Shikamaru verbally refused, he didn't actually use his clever brain to avoid training.

Sasuke became a little curious and asked, "Are we going to start building teamwork now?" It's a tradition for ninjas to form three-person teams, but before graduation, no one knows how the teams will be divided.

"Because the Ino-Shika-Cho combination move from Dad's generation was incredibly powerful, they can't wait for us to be able to do it too... Hmph, I really don't want to see them." Ino expressed that she didn't like her teammates at all, but she was still standing there.

"...Pig? Are we having pork chop rice today?!" Choji, who seemed to be asleep, suddenly opened his eyes and uttered the inner voice of a foodie.

"...Damn it! Forget about that food!"

In short, this is the chaotic daily routine of morning training. After lunch, they usually go indoors, since Konoha summers are still very hot, and even with chakra protection, they can't escape the sun.

At this time, Naruto will continue to be enthusiastic about exploring local customs, products, and legends, while Sasuke will be determined to find a few training manuals.

Ninja training is inherently exclusive. On the battlefield, intelligence is life itself; a secret technique unknown to the enemy can sometimes decide the outcome. Therefore, most ninja books available on the market are quite rudimentary; truly powerful ninjutsu resides within the lineages of individual clans and families. Without a teacher, it's extremely difficult for them to make significant progress in this area.

But you know how luck always seems to strike in unexpected places. Just when one's ninjutsu training hits a bottleneck, a helpful person appears out of nowhere!