Uchiha clan compound.
After dinner, Sasuke hesitated for a moment, then headed toward the lake.
By the lake.
Uchiha Itachi was drenched in sweat, sitting by the shore and panting.
Hearing footsteps, he turned his head slightly.
“Big Brother.”
Sasuke walked up, hesitated briefly, and handed him a towel.
Itachi took it, a faint smile appearing on his aloof face as he shifted aside to make room.
“I heard your taijutsu teacher changed?”
“Mm.”
Sasuke nodded.
He thought back for a moment, then said, “His taijutsu and Body Flicker Technique are much better than my previous teacher’s, and he’s really good at throwing kunai too.”
Itachi’s gaze softened. “Is he good to you?”
“Mm!”
Sasuke nodded, smiling. “He’s not as strong as you, Big Brother, but he teaches seriously, and… he’s really interesting.”
Itachi stroked his hair, his expression turning somewhat complicated. After a long silence, he said, “Then from now on, you must get along well with your teacher and classmates.”
“I will!”
Sasuke nodded firmly.
After that, he hesitated for a moment, then said, “Big Brother, can you teach me how to use shuriken?”
Itachi was just about to answer when he heard another series of footsteps.
He looked up…
Only to see Uchiha Shisui dropping down from a tree.
He fell silent for a moment, his gaze dimming slightly, then poked Sasuke on the forehead with one finger. “Forgive me, Sasuke. I still have something to do tonight. Next time.”
“It’s always next time!”
Sasuke covered his forehead and muttered unhappily.
Itachi gave him an apologetic smile, then vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
…
Outside Konoha, beside a stream, Naruto sat on the grass roasting fish. Sarutobi Hiruzen sat by the fire, wearing a gentle smile.
“Naruto, how was your new teacher today?”
“Terrible!”
Naruto answered angrily, “He’s a really awful guy. Next time, I’m definitely gonna beat him flat!”
“Oh? What makes him awful?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen was still smiling as he casually added branches to the fire.
“He, he…”
Naruto was at a loss for words.
He couldn’t very well say that, after his prank had been caught, the other man’s look had pissed him off. After holding it in for a long while, he finally answered, “Grandpa Third, he looks down on people!”
“Hahaha. Why don’t you tell me what happened from beginning to end?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen said with a smile.
Naruto lowered his head, then briefly recounted the events.
Afterward, he said indignantly, “Everyone treats Sasuke well and looks down on me. I’m definitely going to beat him and make him see me in a whole new light!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen listened seriously, then sighed. “Naruto, with many things and many people, you can’t just look at the surface…”
“Grandpa Third, I saw what he was really thinking!”
Naruto huffed as he bit into the fish.
Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned and glanced over, then was immediately speechless. “Naruto, the fish isn’t cooked yet!”
“Huh? Then… I’ll roast it a little longer?”
“Forget it. I’ll roast it. You keep training.”
…
Early the next morning.
Naruto, dressed in his pajamas, lay sprawled across his bed, snoring softly.
Suddenly—
Bang, bang, bang!
The window was knocked on. Naruto opened his eyes from his sleep and muttered unhappily, “Who is it now?”
He sat up and smacked the alarm clock.
Six in the morning.
Naruto looked at the time and fell into a brief silence.
The next second.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
The window was knocked on again.
Naruto raised his head, a trace of anger rising in his eyes.
“Hey, even if you’re throwing stuff or playing pranks, smashing things this early in the morning is way too much!”
He jumped out of bed and strode to the window.
Whoosh!
The window opened.
Naruto froze for a second, rubbed his eyes, and said in disbelief, “Teacher Masahiko? You…”
“Look at what time it is. At your age, with grades like yours, how can you still sleep?”
Yagyu Masahiko sat lazily by the windowsill.
Naruto’s mouth fell open, and for a long while he gave no response.
Masahiko stood up and patted off his pants. “In my class, I don’t allow good-for-nothings like you to exist! Get up. Go run and train!”
After he finished speaking, his smile was dazzling.
“I only called you. Doesn’t that mean I’m treating you well?”
“You!”
Naruto gnashed his teeth, furious. “So what if you’re a teacher? Does being a teacher mean you can keep targeting me?”
“Sorry, but being a teacher really is amazing!”
Masahiko answered with a smile.
Naruto’s eyes widened in anger. Then…
“Bang!”
With a loud crash, the window slammed shut.
A minute later, the window opened, and Naruto flew out with a kick from inside.
He had meant to ambush Masahiko, but the moment he came out, Masahiko caught his leg with a turn of his hand, leaving his entire body dangling upside down in midair.
“Perfect.”
“From now on, every morning, you’ll run fifty laps along the route I give you. Otherwise, you’ll have to run twenty-five laps on your hands.”
Masahiko held up the defiant-looking Naruto, his smile warm and pleasant. “If you’re not convinced, you can go file a complaint about me.”
After that, he jumped down from the second floor and very rudely threw Naruto onto the ground.
“Keep up.”
Masahiko ran forward along the road.
Naruto wailed, “I haven’t eaten yet!”
“What food? A good-for-nothing’s time is more precious than a normal person’s. You don’t deserve to eat food. You only deserve soldier pills!”
As Masahiko spoke, he tossed out a soldier pill. “Eat it.”
Naruto caught the soldier pill, both angry and annoyed.
Masahiko looked back and mocked him:
“Don’t tell me you’re scared? Someone like you has the nerve to shout every day about becoming Hokage? Maybe in your next life!”
“Who said I’m scared!”
Naruto swallowed the soldier pill in one gulp, and then his whole face collapsed.
Disgusting!
So disgusting!
His face twisted bitterly as he kept retching. Only after a long while did he manage to say, “Why does it taste so bad?”
“Tasty things are for people.”
Masahiko’s words were merciless.
Naruto’s face turned livid. His hand quietly gripped the kunai in his ninja tool pouch, but in the end, he still let go of it.
When they reached the outskirts, while Masahiko ahead of him wasn’t looking back, he quietly grabbed a stone and gave a cold little chuckle to himself.
It was currently the turn of winter into spring, and at six in the morning, the sky was still dim.
As they ran into the woods, at the instant light and shadow crossed, Naruto threw the stone in his hand, sending it smashing toward Masahiko’s back.
But.
Just as the stone was about to hit, Masahiko shifted slightly to the side. After his palm blocked the stone, it gave a jolt…
“Ah!”
Naruto was struck in the stomach by the flying stone. His body arched, pain showing on his face.
Yet Yagyu Masahiko continued forward as if nothing had happened, his tone cold. “During the noon break, you’ll come out and run another fifty laps. That’s the price for your sneak attack.”
“Damn it!”
Naruto roared and charged all the way up, kicking at Masahiko.
However.
In a single instant, Masahiko grabbed him by the ankle and threw him straight ahead.
Thud!
Naruto slammed heavily onto the ground, cutting a sorry figure as he crawled back up in pain.
“Another fifty laps this afternoon.”
Masahiko looked at Naruto with a beaming smile.
Naruto gnashed his teeth, but he knew that the teacher before him was very different from the ones in the past—
Those teachers from before had looked at him with the same cold, merciless eyes, but most of them had chosen to ignore him, treating him as if he didn’t exist.
But this Yagyu Masahiko…
He himself didn’t act like a person, and he didn’t treat Naruto like a person either. The punishments he spoke of would probably really be enforced until Naruto completed them.
Naruto finally behaved, obediently following behind as he ran, while inwardly swearing—
Once he became stronger, he would definitely give Yagyu Masahiko a vicious beating!
“I’ll definitely get a lot more screen time in the next episode!”
Masahiko’s smile was brilliant.
As a villain, he couldn’t wait for Naruto to come to him the way Iruka did. He could only take the initiative to make trouble for Naruto.
Fortunately, he was a teacher, so he had every right to do it. Besides…
“Teacher Masahiko, behind you…”
“Oh, my student. His taijutsu grades aren’t good, so I’m taking him out for running practice.”
“To treat even someone like him so seriously… You really are too kind!”
The neighbors even had to praise me for it!