A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Under Kurama-sensei's guidance, Naruto successfully mastered the BijuKamehameha.
Compared to the initial version that shot a beam from his hands, Naruto could now sustain the output for five seconds.
He didn't dare try any longer time, because Kurama-sensei warned him that exceeding five seconds could easily lead to instant death.
However, to use this technique, he still needed to enter the Biju Chakra Cloak mode.
As for its power...
He didn't really have a concrete sense of it.
Over the past month, he had essentially flattened every mountain outside the Land of Waves, to the point where he no longer dared to show his face beyond the country's borders.
He had asked Kurama about it, and he claimed that the BijuKamehameha could easily take down the Ichibi, Shukaku.
As for a certain white-haired old man...
Since the day he taught Naruto the Rasengan, Naruto hadn't seen him again.
He suspected the guy was probably lurking near some bathhouse, snickering to himself.
On the other hand, the white-haired uncle, Kakashi, had been visiting him more and more frequently...
Naruto had lost count of how many steaks Kakashi had taken from him to eat.
By the last two weeks, Kakashi couldn't settle for just one steak and he had to eat two before he could go to the Pure Land.
Naruto felt somewhat frustated after hearing that.
Right now, he could only eat three of those steaks a day at most.
But that white-haired uncle had somehow built up a resistance to them...
…
"Yo, good morning, Naruto."
Kakashi, with a short sword strapped to his back, greeted him from a tree branch before flipping down.
Naruto glanced at the short sword behind Kakashi and was slightly surprised.
'What the hell has this white-haired bum been doing in the Pure Land?
'Could it be that White Fang were actually teaching him Kenjutsu in Pure Land?!'
To be honest, Naruto was really curious about what Kakashi had been up to in the Pure Land.
But every time he asked, Kakashi would just wave him off and refuse to talk about it.
Sighing, Naruto pulled out another batch of steaks and statues.
This time, he took out a week's worth in one go.
Kakashi glanced at the statues and steaks neatly placed on the ground, and his eyes instantly lit up.
"Wait…!?"
"Kakashi-sensei, where's your Sharingan!?"
At this moment, Naruto suddenly noticed something was wrong.
Kakashi not only had a short sword on his back, but he also had his forehead protector pulled up, so his left eye is now uncovered.
The scarlet Sharingan had turned into a pitch-black pupil.
"Did you pluck out your Sharingan!?"
Naruto was completely stunned.
Moreover, he felt that the white-haired uncle had lost his usual sluggish, dead-fish aura after dying so many times recently.
"Oh, this?"
Kakashi gently touched his eye socket, his expression somewhat complicated.
A few days ago, while training Kenjutsu with his father in his 'dream', he woke up and found that he could now deactivate his Sharingan.
He can activate it freely like a real Uchiha Clan's member.
Not only that…
He also discovered that his Sharingan had evolved.
After consulting a ton of records, Kakashi realized he had awakened the Uchiha Clan's Mangekyo Sharingan.
This made him even more determined to find Obito in his dreams.
Kakashi wanted to share this good news with him and show the world through the eye Obito had given him.
"I just turned off the Sharingan, that's all."
Uzumaki Naruto: "???"
'Huh?'
'What nonsense is this white-haired pervert talking about?'
'You are Hatake Kakashi, not Uchiha Kakashi!'
Naruto looked incredulous when he heard this. Seeing his expression, Kakashi simply decided to show off his Mangekyo to Naruto.
"Here, it changed into this."
"Hiss…!"
"Mangekyo!!"
Naruto's expression grew even weirder when he saw Kakashi's Mangekyo.
'No way…'
'Could repeatedly dying actually unlock the Mangekyo?'
'Then…'
'Should I let Sasuke try it later?'
"Does that mean you won't run out of Chakra as easily now?"
Naruto suddenly realized the key question and looked up at Kakashi.
"Probably."
"My Chakra Reserves have increased a lot recently."
"Thanks to your food."
Naruto froze for a moment, then turned his head away, unable to meet Kakashi's gaze.
He had no idea how to tell the truth to Kakashi.
'And…'
'Was it possible that he had ended up like this because he died so many times?'
"Big fox, check how much Chakra Kakashi has now."
Kurama, who was reading a book, lifted his eyelids with great impatience.
"What's there to check?"
"It's just 30... Wait!?"
"How did his Chakra become 300 Ma!?"
Kurama was slightly surprised.
'The last time I saw this white-haired pervert, he was still a weakling with only 30 Ma of Chakra. How did his Chakra Reserves suddenly skyrocket like this?!'
Naruto wasn't too surprised when he heard what the big fox said.
After all, the white-haired uncle now has his Mangekyo unlocked, and he can also turn off the Chakra-draining Sharingan at will.
No matter how you think about it, he shouldn't lack Chakra anymore.
'Hmm…'
'If this white-haired uncle works harder, kept this up, he might even catch up to my 900 Ma.'
'So terrifying!'
'Did this mean the legendary '50-50 Kakashi' title was about to disappear?'
Kakashi ignored Naruto, who was standing there in a daze, and pulled out a sealing scroll to store the items on the ground.
"By the way, Naruto..."
"Don't forget to attend the final exam tomorrow."
"Who's fighting in the first match?"
Coming back to his senses, Naruto looked up at Kakashi.
He really didn't want to participate in this Chunin Exams anymore...
Especially since he was supposed to fight Hinata...
How was he supposed to handle that?
Fighting her seriously wasn't an option, but holding back wasn't right either.
He was genuinely afraid that if he hurt Hinata now, his future wife would take revenge on him with domestic violence after marriage.
"Sasuke vs. Gaara of Sunagakure."
"What!?"
"That's great!"
Naruto immediately perked up.
'Doesn't this mean that all subsequent matches would be canceled?'
"I'm going back first."
"Also, Sakura asked you to go see her at the hospital."
Kakashi put the scroll away, ignoring Naruto's nonsense.
Right now, all he wanted was to find Obito and share the good news about unlocking the Mangekyo.
"Sakura-Bro?"
Naruto scratched his chin, then casually tossed out a portal leading straight to the hospital.
Because of the brutal training he had put Sakura and Konohamaru through earlier, Sakura had held a grudge against him.
To ensure she'd agree to let her future daughter marry his future son, Naruto took out a complete set of mathematics, physics and chemistry books and gave them to Sakura.
He believed that based on her character as a top student, she should be able to master this knowledge quickly.
However...
Naruto is worried that she might turn into the next Orochimaru.
"Sakura-Bro, what do you want to talk to me about?"
As soon as he arrived at the hospital, Naruto saw Sakura sitting on a chair, fiddling with a strange armguard using a screwdriver.
The moment she noticed Naruto, the girl excitedly took off the armguard and shoved it in his face.
"Naruto, look!"
"Using the books you gave me, I combined Ninjutsu theory to develop a tool that can actively release Ninjutsu."
"I'm planning to name this thing..."
"The Scientific Ninja Tool!"
Naruto: "… Huh???"