In Natsuki's view, Kakashi was doing this on purpose.
Clearly, after hearing him say he had to go home and cook for his girlfriend, Kakashi's jealousy kicked in, so he deliberately assigned him a mission.
At a time like this, shouldn't a single guy volunteer for the mission? After all, a single guy goes home to a cold, empty house—might as well take the mission and let others go home to their partners, right? Wouldn't that be the decent, selfless thing to do?
Of course, when Natsuki had handed out the sunglasses earlier, Uchiha Itachi had indeed tried to cast genjutsu on him.
The reason it didn't work was probably due to his system
After all his study of ninjutsu, Natsuki had long realized that he seemed to be immune to genjutsu. It was likely because the gravity training room existed inside his mind—genjutsu couldn't shake the mental space of the gravity lab.
In other words... Natsuki was a bug!
Forget Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi—even the Infinite Tsukuyomi probably wouldn't affect him.
But there was no way he could tell others that. It was better to let them think he just had a high resistance to genjutsu.
That said, it really did mean he had to take on this mission, since he was clearly the most suitable person to deal with Uchiha Itachi.
Didn't they all see Kakashi get tortured by Itachi's genjutsu for three days and three nights?
Asuma and Kurenai had no choice but to close their eyes!
Only Natsuki had been completely fine.
And with Natsuki's current strength, he had the recognition of the other jōnin. Even if he was technically just a genin, sending him out on a solo mission wasn't really a problem.
Thankfully, Guy showed up at that moment, so the final decision was for Natsuki and Guy to go together.
Natsuki couldn't object, so he asked Kakashi to pass a message to Tenten—he didn't know how many days he'd be away, so he didn't want her to worry.
"Well then, we'll be off."
Just as Natsuki and Guy were about to leave, Sasuke suddenly called out.
"Natsuki, wait!"
"Huh?"
Sasuke spoke up, "That... Solar Flare technique you used earlier—how did you do it?"
Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai were also curious.
After all, being able to make your body emit a blinding flash of light was an incredibly useful ability—able to create a huge advantage in battle. Just look at how close Kisame came to being beaten to death, and even Uchiha Itachi had been caught off guard.
Natsuki grinned. "It's not exactly a secret. Sasuke, you need to think for yourself.
For example, in Doton (Earth Release), there's the Hardening Technique, right? That's when you channel chakra to absorb the properties of rock into your body to make it tougher.
Well, I had a flash grenade on me. Get it now?"
Sasuke's eyes widened in realization. "So you absorbed the properties of the flash grenade into your body... and then released it yourself!"
"Exactly. Well, I'm off."
Natsuki nodded to everyone, then left with Guy.
Sasuke fell into deep thought.
He realized he really wasn't very good at thinking things through.
The Solar Flare was such a simple concept, yet he hadn't even considered it—he really was too dim.
But thinking about it, maybe it wasn't just that he was slow—Natsuki was just too clever.
After all, the Hardening Technique wasn't rare. Plenty of Earth Release users knew it.
But until now, only Natsuki had thought of absorbing the properties of a flash grenade to create the Solar Flare.
Perhaps most people simply didn't have that kind of flexible thinking.
"Training, learning, borrowing, imagination... The Solar Flare is the result of learning and imagination! Natsuki's advice really wasn't wrong!"
Sasuke silently engraved these words in his heart. They were the guiding lights on his path to becoming stronger.
Kakashi and the others also praised Natsuki's ingenious idea, and after that, Asuma and Kurenai took their leave.
They walked away side by side, shoulders nearly touching, creating an ambiguous atmosphere.
Kakashi couldn't help but feel a bit envious.
Still, his main focus was on his student's current state.
He couldn't help but ask, "Sasuke... you didn't think about going with Natsuki to chase after them?"
Sasuke froze for a moment, clenched his fists tightly, then took a deep breath and shook his head.
"Going now would be meaningless. Natsuki told me—I need to stay calm. This is the result of my calm thinking.
I need to get stronger first... then I'll go after that guy."
"...I see. That's good, actually."
Kakashi let out a deep breath of relief, genuinely happy for his student's growth.
He had been really worried that Sasuke would recklessly chase after Itachi no matter what.
But now, Sasuke had managed to restrain himself—he had learned to stay calm.
And that... was all thanks to Natsuki.
"Looks like you've learned quite a bit from Natsuki." Kakashi's eyes curved into a rare smile.
"Yeah. I asked Natsuki for advice, and he taught me a lot of useful things!"
Sasuke admitted it honestly, then quickly changed the subject.
"Kakashi... sensei, please teach me how to combine chakra nature transformation and shape transformation—like the moves Natsuki used when he fought the Tailed Beast.
I want to create my own original techniques too!"
Kakashi was taken aback, but his expression soon turned serious as he nodded.
"Alright. Since you've already learned Chidori, it's time to move on to this stage. But I'm warning you—this kind of training is going to be tough. Are you ready for that?"
Sasuke's eyes lit up. "Of course I'm ready!
Natsuki said that because it's hard, mastering it makes you stronger!"
"Good! Very good attitude! In that case, I'll draw up a training plan for you today.
Come find me at the training grounds tomorrow. We'll officially begin!"
"Yes, Kakashi... sensei!"
Meanwhile, Natsuki and Guy were speeding down the road.
Along the way, Natsuki recounted the details of the battle with Uchiha Itachi and Kisame, sharing intel with Guy so he wouldn't be caught off guard if they ran into trouble.
The two also discussed some tactics, and their pace didn't slow down one bit.
Fortunately, Jiraiya and Naruto hadn't been subtle about their whereabouts, so tracking them wasn't too difficult.
Before long, they locked onto a small town.
Outside that town, Naruto was training by himself, looking quite excited.
Jiraiya—the pervy sage—had claimed he needed to gather intel and had gone off womanizing somewhere, even lightening Naruto's frog-shaped wallet a little in the process.
But Naruto didn't mind at the moment.
Because the pervy sage had taught him how to train the Rasengan.
Back at the exam venue, Naruto had seen Natsuki's big move, which seemed to be the Rasengan, though maybe not quite the same.
Regardless, the swirling chakra ball was clearly powerful—definitely worth learning.
However, after a short while of training, Naruto started feeling frustrated.
His noisy, hyperactive nature made training alone feel lonely and boring. He couldn't muster much enthusiasm—he still wished someone would keep him company.
But this was clearly a test.
Jiraiya wasn't going to hold his hand.
If he couldn't even endure the solitude of training alone, becoming stronger would be nothing more than a pipe dream.
Naruto was dumb, sure, but he more or less understood that much.
So for the sake of getting stronger, he could only grit his teeth and keep training, hoping to impress the pervy sage soon.
But that day, outside the town, he encountered two strange figures...
Wearing straw hats, black cloaks, and red clouds.
(End of Chapter)
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