When Sakura Haruno opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Instinctively, she tried to push herself up from the tatami mat, but a sharp pain in her palm made her falter.
That was where she had been injured by Haku earlier, now wrapped in a white bandage.
"Kakashi Sensei! Naruto! Sasuke!"
Her memory was still stuck on the moment when she and Sasuke were attacked by the sudden intruders. Not seeing anyone else nearby, she naturally panicked.
At that moment, the door creaked open and a familiar silver-haired figure entered, carrying a bowl of hot porridge.
"Kakashi sensei! Are you alright?"
Ignoring everything else, Sakura weakly got up and walked over to Kakashi Hatake.
Her eyes kept glancing nervously toward the door.
"Sit down and eat something first. You've been unconscious for a whole day."
After helping Sakura sit, Kakashi knew what she wanted to ask.
"They're all fine. You were just the most seriously injured and need to rest for a while."
Sakura sipped the warm porridge, listening as Kakashi "artistically" recounted what had happened after she lost consciousness.
"We've already reached our mission destination. Now we just need to protect Tazuna while he builds the bridge."
"I... I see."
Sakura nodded, still a little dazed.
Kakashi-sensei really is strong, she thought. Truly worthy of being a jonin.
In Kakashi's edited version of events, the two groups of assassins attacked each other, and he managed to seize the opportunity and benefit from the chaos.
As for Naruto's actions, Kakashi—whether out of personal reasons or something else—didn't mention them at all.
"In any case, everyone's safe, and that's what matters most."
Elsewhere, Sasuke Uchiha, who had woken up earlier, was sitting at the edge of the bridge, staring intently at Naruto Uzumaki, who was fishing.
Nearby, Tazuna was already leading the other workers in building the bridge.
The old man really was obsessed with his bridge. As soon as he woke up, he ate a little and immediately went to work.
Not surprising—he saw the Land of Waves as racing against Gato.
The sooner the bridge was finished, the sooner they could break free from Gato's grip.
But it was strange: even though it was already late morning and the sounds of construction were ringing out, none of Gato's thugs had come to cause trouble.
Thinking this, Tazuna straightened up, wiped his sweat, and glanced back at the two Genin assigned to protect him, nodding in satisfaction.
Truly, ninja from a great village—even Genin had such deterrent power.
Perhaps only Naruto knew that Gato was unlikely to trouble the Land of Waves again.
Of course, since no one asked, Naruto didn't plan to say anything.
At that moment, he was leaning against a bridge pillar, a straw hat over his face, holding a fishing rod.
It was unclear whether there were too few fish or Naruto's fishing skills were terrible, but after a whole morning, the rod hadn't moved once.
Fortunately, Naruto wasn't in a hurry. He kept sipping his sake, looking relaxed and at ease, nothing like a ninja on a mission.
Just then, a black-haired woman and a boy in a fisherman's hat approached, carrying a basket.
They were Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, and grandson, Inari, bringing lunch for the workers.
Tsunami greeted the workers and handed out simple lunches, while Inari wandered over to Naruto and Sasuke, silently watching them.
Sasuke quickly felt uncomfortable under the boy's stare, but since he was just a kid, he couldn't say anything.
Naruto lifted the brim of his hat and smiled.
You can't take it already? I've been sitting here all morning with you staring at me, and I haven't said a word.
Perhaps because of this awkward silence, Sasuke couldn't hold back any longer and was the first to speak to Naruto.
"Why?"
"Hmm?"
Naruto responded with a questioning grunt.
"Why did you get so strong, Naruto?"
Just saying, this took Sasuke a lot of brainpower—and pride. Normally, he would never ask something like that.
But after this mission, having been beaten by Haku and then completely powerless against the Akatsuki members, Sasuke couldn't help but compare himself to Naruto.
Not to mention that before graduation, Naruto had been dead last, who could barely perform the basic jutsu.
If only I could become that strong...
"Want to learn?"
Naruto put down his fishing rod, sat up with a half-smile, and looked at Sasuke.
Being called out so directly, Sasuke's face turned red. He stood up without a word and walked back toward the village.
That left only Naruto and Tazuna's grandson staring at each other.
"You can't win. You can't resist Gato."
The little guy's first words were pure discouragement.
Of course, Naruto didn't bother to explain. He just smiled, pulled his hat back over his face, and went back to napping.
Naruto could see perfectly well that the boy only said such things because he didn't want anyone to make pointless sacrifices.
Gato was dead, but the fear living in people's hearts wouldn't disappear in a day or two.
Naruto had already learned this from watching Dragon liberate countries.
Some things only time can heal.
Seeing Naruto's lazy posture, Inari grew anxious and angry, stomped his foot, but couldn't say anything more before his mother took him away.
By dusk, Naruto still hadn't caught a single fish.
"Seriously, the water here is terrible, and this fishing rod is no good, and the bait..."
Naruto walked back to the village with the workers, making excuses for his "empty-handed" day.
The others couldn't help but laugh, and the air was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
During breaks, some of the workers chatted with Naruto.
They found that, despite looking not even sixteen, he was very funny and always had something to say that resonated with the older crowd.
By the end of the day, many had a good impression of Naruto.
And with no thugs causing trouble, everyone was in high spirits.
When they reached the village entrance, Naruto seemed to sense something, turned and waved goodbye to the other workers, and walked off alone.
Bang! Bang!
In the sunset, a lone figure sprinted up the trunk of a tree, then seemed to stick horizontally to the bark.
But he couldn't hold it for long, and Sasuke fell straight down.
Judging by the dust on him, he'd repeated this many times.
After Naruto's earlier retort, Sasuke had swallowed his pride and asked Kakashi for advice on how to get stronger.
He was now practicing using chakra to stick to surfaces—tree climbing, a classic chakra control exercise.
Sasuke dusted himself off and charged at the tree again, like a robot, undaunted.
Tap, tap, tap...
Once again, he couldn't reach the target branch, falling about a meter short.
Just as Sasuke felt his feet leave the ground and braced himself for another fall, a hand suddenly reached down and pulled him up.
It was Naruto, who had somehow silently appeared above him on the tree.
"Don't think you can do it all at once. Sit down and have a drink first."
With that, Naruto tossed Sasuke a water bottle, unconcerned about his reaction.
Sasuke took the bottle, his expression shifting, but in the end, he accepted Naruto's kindness.
Pffft!
The instant the liquid entered his mouth, the strong taste of alcohol made him spit it out.
"Hahahahaha!"
Nearby, Naruto, delighted at his prank's success, let out an unrestrained, uncle-like laugh.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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