"Pant, pant." Sasuke clutched his eyes, breathing heavily. The fatigue transmitted from his Sharingan alarmed him.
He looked at Naruto, who still wore a gentle smile, not even flushed or out of breath, without a bead of sweat on him.
"What a terrifying Kekkei Genkai," he couldn't help muttering to himself.
"Oh~ Looks like this Kekkei Genkai is a bit more outstanding than I imagined." A rare flicker of movement appeared in Kakashi's dead-fish eye at the side.
"Well then, Naruto, I'm very curious, what's the principle behind your Kido?" Kakashi asked, seeking the information Konoha's higher-ups had been wanting to know.
It was clearly an illusion-type Kekkei Genkai, yet it could be used to produce Kido of various different attributes. Just the currently known attributes already included fire and lightning.
"You can understand it as elemental transformations derived from light and water." Naruto adjusted his glasses and replied, "Flowing water can generate electricity, light can generate heat, and various different movements can produce different attributes, thereby giving rise to the application of Kido. These involve scientific knowledge and are rather complex; you probably wouldn't understand."
Kakashi and Sasuke both looked completely baffled but coughed lightly, pretending to be cultured individuals who had already understood.
"I see, what a remarkable Kekkei Genkai indeed."
Kakashi diligently memorized Naruto's words, preparing to relay them to the Third Hokage.
Naruto then continued a day of training with Sasuke.
Recently, Sasuke had been seeking Kakashi's guidance on lightning-style chakra nature transformation.
He heard Sasuke was learning that special ninjutsu, Raikiri.
As for Naruto, he was still maintaining his Zanjutsu and chakra cultivation, looking forward to the day he could find a method to enhance his Reiatsu.
He had a premonition that this day was not far off.
"Now that I'm officially a ninja, future missions will certainly involve witnessing the passing of various lives and the departure of souls. Perhaps I can find a way to the world where souls reside through that." Thinking of this, Naruto's gaze darkened.
The Third Hokage had never imagined that after receiving guidance from a good teacher, Naruto's progress would be so immense. In less than a month, Kakashi was already somewhat at his wit's end.
For Naruto, the development of his Kekkei Genkai and the cultivation of Zanjutsu were clearly more important than ninjutsu.
This caused Kakashi, as a teacher, to seem somewhat like a chicken rib—not entirely useless but not crucial either.
Unless he picked up his swordsmanship again.
The swordsmanship inheritance of Konoha's White Fang was truly astonishing.
Kakashi understood this point as well. He returned home feeling somewhat wistful and lost, his mind preoccupied.
After the White Fang passed away, he had given up swordsmanship.
Originally, as a renowned genius of Konoha, he not only possessed superb ninjutsu and taijutsu but also had considerable swordsmanship skills to boot.
However.
His father, whom he had taken pride in, Konoha's White Fang, had chosen to commit suicide because of the village's rumors.
The pain of losing his only relative made Kakashi lay down his sword.
Kakashi took out the sword his father had left behind from a hidden compartment, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Having not used a sword for over a decade, he had even forgotten the swordsmanship he had once learned.
But as his hands once again touched the cold hilt, deeply buried memories surfaced, and a long-forgotten muscle memory reminded him.
He hadn't forgotten.
In the time that followed, Team Seven successively took on several simple missions, including some similar to the bandit subjugation mission.
Team Seven, now much more experienced, no longer feared bloodshed; even Sakura performed perfectly.
Everyone could flawlessly gather intelligence and formulate plans.
Kakashi was very satisfied with Team Seven's progress.
But their shortcomings were also very obvious.
That was their lack of practical combat experience and a keener combat intuition.
Crushing newbies was, after all, just crushing newbies. Without fighting ninja of comparable strength, it was difficult to improve combat experience.
Realizing this, Kakashi contacted Guy and Kurenai, hoping their three ninja squads could conduct a joint training camp lasting several days.
Guy readily agreed with his characteristic boldness. Kurenai, on the other hand, took a day to consider before finally agreeing as well.
One was a Jonin specializing in Taijutsu, another a Genjutsu specialist, and with Kakashi the Copy Ninja, who excelled in Ninjutsu, their trio of instructors was practically all-powerful.
When the members of the three squads gathered, Naruto immediately sensed different gazes upon him.
The first and foremost was naturally Hinata's somewhat admiring gaze. However, unlike her usual shyness, Hinata's gaze this time was slightly scorching.
Presumably, through the missions, her disposition had also been tempered, making her more outgoing and enthusiastic.
Besides admiration, Naruto also received some slightly hostile glares.
Undoubtedly, they were from Neji and Kiba Inuzuka.
The former had been "educated" by Naruto with loving bone-setting; the latter was dissatisfied with Naruto's status as the top of their grade, frequently issuing challenges, and getting beaten until he yelped like a dog every time.
But Kiba was different from Neji; Kiba was the type of ninja who fought harder the more he battled, unafraid of challenges.
No matter how many times he fell, he would challenge Naruto again next time with even greater fighting spirit.
It was just that, compared to true geniuses, Kiba's talent was indeed somewhat lacking; his progress couldn't be called fast.
However, even after being defeated countless times, Kiba and Naruto's private relationship was still quite good.
Fighting was fighting; life was life.
Naruto's refined and gentle demeanor made it impossible for anyone to dislike him.
After all, as the saying goes, one doesn't hit a smiling face.
Except for Neji, of course.
Even Naruto himself couldn't understand why Neji held such great animosity towards him.
During the seven days of joint training, Naruto received Kurenai's guidance and gained a deeper understanding of Genjutsu.
It made him realize just how terrifying a Jonin specializing in Genjutsu could be.
If Kurenai wanted to, she could break his Kyoka Suigetsu in an extremely short amount of time.
This also allowed Naruto to see the possibility of strengthening Kyoka Suigetsu.
That was, an illusion within an illusion: using a combination of Kyoka Suigetsu and genjutsu to trap the target in multiple layers of illusion, continuously torturing their spirit until they collapsed.
Of course.
These were all just ideas; the specifics still awaited Naruto's development.
Judging solely from Kyoka Suigetsu's abilities, as long as his Reiatsu quantity increased, even genjutsu ninja wouldn't be able to resist it.
Afterward, Naruto also received some more in-depth guidance from Guy.
He even learned the Eight Inner Gates.
The Eight Inner Gates technique wasn't some top-secret forbidden jutsu.
It was just that practicing the Eight Inner Gates required an extremely strong physical constitution as a foundation.
Even Rock Lee, who trained to the point of near self-abuse, had only barely reached the threshold for learning it.
Moreover, using the Eight Inner Gates often required starting training from a young age. After using the Eight Inner Gates, the chakra within the body would become extremely violent, easily causing injuries that required a great deal of time to recuperate.
When the Eight Inner Gates surpassed the limits the body could endure, the user might even die.
So, apart from Naruto and Rock Lee, the others could only watch with longing.
This period of devilish training brought about a huge transformation in everyone.
Among them, the most surprising was undoubtedly Hinata.
Hinata, who was previously timid and even considered weak, actually completely suppressed Sasuke in a one-on-one duel at one point, only narrowly losing after Sasuke activated his Sharingan.
The entire training camp concluded in an atmosphere of intense internal competition.
Everyone had gained a great deal.
On the last day, Guy, with tears in his eyes, proposed they all have a meal together.
After all, everyone had been busy training these past few days and had lacked communication.