Alex promptly carries the collapsed Naruto back to Tazuna's house, followed by Sasuke and Sakura, who can't help but snicker.
"He's just exhausted. He's not hurt, don't worry!" Alex says.
"We're not worrying," Sakura replies with an innocent face.
As they walk back, Alex looks at Sasuke with an apologetic expression. "You better rest as well, Sasuke. I also want to apologize for what I did earlier. I just felt, since you wanted quick results, this would benefit you the most. If I had warned you beforehand, it wouldn't have worked."
"I'm fine! I admit you managed to rattle me pretty good, but I'm fine now. It was worth it. I didn't know such a shortcut existed. I'm grateful!" Sasuke responds, looking pretty satisfied with his new power.
"Your results are very good too, Sakura. Once you're back in Konoha, you can learn more Jutsus. I think Shadow Clones would be very difficult for you, but there are always Water Clones," Alex says.
"Yes. I'll visit the library as soon as we're back," she says. "I wonder why I didn't care about this before, but this kind of training is more interesting than I thought."
As they arrive, Kakashi is already sitting upright in front of the table, reading a little book, which he suspiciously puts away as soon as the group enters.
"Problems?" Kakashi asks in a calm voice.
Alex sighs. "No… things are going maybe too incredibly well, but this idiot dismissed my advice and did whatever he wanted to. I failed to properly supervise him. He's fine though—just exhausted."
Alex briefly summarizes his exercises, including the method he used to awaken Sasuke.
"I'd never do these things… they're risky, and I consider them shortcuts. We haven't even gotten the basics down yet," Kakashi says.
"I know, but you have to motivate your students. It doesn't hurt to show them a glimpse of their end goal and then go through the basics. In fact, that will motivate them even more—especially if the basics help them master what they really want to learn," Alex explains.
"I thank you for this, but I really have to wonder… even I am not aware of that Jutsu you taught Naruto. How could you have learned about it?" Kakashi asks.
Alex briefly activates Gyo and stares at Kakashi. "My eyes are pretty good. I can spot hand seals just fine!"
"Impressive," Kakashi says. Sasuke is also staring at Alex. "Your eyes are indeed special… but this is a technique, right? Can I learn it?" he asks.
"No. As far as I know, my techniques aren't compatible with people who use Chakra. In return, they prevent me from learning Chakra," Alex lies, before going on, "I'm researching Chakra a little. Maybe I can combine these two skills after all."
"An ambitious but difficult goal," Kakashi says. "I can't comprehend your techniques, but I can certainly recognize that they're strong."
As Alex talks with Kakashi, Naruto wakes up and looks around. "I guess I overdid it, huh? I'm hungry!"
Alex lightly slaps Naruto's head. "I told you to use five! Not fifty!"
"Sorry… I won't do it again, believe it!" Naruto says, holding his head.
"I don't believe it! Not even for a second! You know there's a chance you won't ever wake up—or wake up with brain damage. Be careful! Slowly increase the number! You lack common sense!" Alex curses.
If he would've died I'd be fucked!
"Okay…" Naruto whines.
Alex smiles. "Good. I was worried, you know?"
He nods, seemingly realizing his mistake.
Tsunami meanwhile brings in a lot of food, and Naruto's stomach audibly rumbles.
"Eat first, then we will continue—but very carefully," Alex warns, lifting his finger and pointing at Naruto.
"Fine!!" he responds.
They quickly eat and return to continue their training.
Alex asks Sakura to join his spar with Sasuke. "You can use your Taijutsu and your new Jutsu to support Sasuke. Even if you're too weak to fight on your own, you can provide support!" Alex explains.
Sakura cheers, "Okay!" even lifting her hands, happy to be paired up with Sasuke.
Sasuke himself continues training with Alex, who immediately yells at him whenever he makes a mistake or falls back into old habits, breaking form.
Every hour, Alex orders them to take a break while he looks after Naruto, who is now training more carefully.
"Naruto… I count seven versions of yourself. You increased the number!"
"I… just by one! You said to slowly increase it!" he retorts.
Alex smiles before punching a nearby clone, making it explode in a cloud of smoke.
"Lucky for you, that was indeed a clone! Stick with five clones!" Alex commands before returning to the others.
Alex smiles, drawing his [Executioner's Blade], making Sasuke stare at him in shock as he says, "How about you fight me using a different weapon?"
"..."
"..."
[Scene Break]
The young ninjas of Team 7 are visibly tired as they sit at the table eating dinner.
Alex approaches Menchi and Jewel and asks them, "Had fun? Stumbled across something interesting?"
"Yes, we certainly had fun. We also found out that we can't travel too far away. Apparently, this story mission is limited in scope, and the system is warning us that we will be forcefully ejected from the mission once we leave a certain area. So we just visited the nearby villages, hunted in the woods, and even fished. We'll keep that up for a while before I try to turn my experiences and all those ingredients into dishes! Don't expect anything great, with these limitations, I can only aim for White dishes, with a lot of luck maybe a Light-Green one here or there," Menchi explains.
Two more days pass, and Alex continues to train Team 7.
Finally, Kakashi arrives at their training location. Alex turns toward him, asking, "Feeling good enough to take over already?"
"Yes. It's time for my training. I wanted to see their individual results before starting my own program, I've devised for them," Kakashi responds.
"Sakura, Sasuke? Up for a real spar? You can go all out!" Alex says.
"Yes," Sasuke replies. "Back me up, Sakura, but stay out of my way."
Sakura nods and gets into position.
Sasuke draws the [Sword] borrowed from Alex and activates his one-tomoe Sharingan, rushing forward.
Alex skillfully blocks his attacks, using Shu to enhance his [Executioner's Blade]. Sasuke displays a variety of techniques, beautifully chaining them together.
"Much better! I feel some real weight behind your strikes now—not like the shallow attacks from before!" Alex notes as he continues to dodge, block, and parry Sasuke's attacks.
Meanwhile, Sakura circles around him and unleashes Water Release: Gunshot, a medium-sized water orb flying toward him with a seemingly decent amount of force. Alex quickly strikes it with his sword, only to see that she's unleashed a second one, which forces him to lift his left hand and use Aura to protect himself.
Sasuke uses this opportunity and attacks him from behind.
Laughing a little, Alex jumps back and spins around, his blade hitting Sasuke, who desperately blocks with his sword—which receives serious damage in the process and forcing him to desperately jump back.
"Not bad, huh?" Alex asks Kakashi.
"Impressive… this style of swordsmanship is unique. It focuses on heavy strikes but also has so many different defensive techniques. At first, it looks unsuitable for Sasuke, but on second thought, it gives him what he needs: decisive attacks, stability, and some defensive options." He then turns to Sakura. "Learning this Jutsu this fast tells me that you are indeed very talented. While your Chakra is certainly limited, using a lot of Jutsus will increase your capacity and will benefit you even more on the long run. I think you should learn more Jutsus—you clearly have a knack for them."
"Let's see how Naruto is doing," Alex suggests.
They walk over to Naruto, who's still practicing. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! Ready to look at the future Hokage? Hehe, I'm a genius! I succeeded!" he brags with a smile.
"Show it to us then," Kakashi responds calmly.
Naruto dissipates his remaining clones and then throws a Shuriken, shouting, "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
To Alex's surprise, only five additional Shuriken appear, but they actually land on the tree, while a few drift off to the side, hitting the ground, disappearing shortly afterwards.
"He actually did it," Alex says with a smile. "Smart idea to reduce the number of Shuriken. I didn't expect this! This is the smart way of doing things. You start with just a few and then improve the amount. Great job!"
"Yeah… I totally wanted to do this!" Naruto says, looking visibly confused.
Kakashi's eyes almost bulge out, causing him to yell, "It was pure luck! He didn't want to create this small amount of copies at all. However, by sheer luck, he messed up—leading to him actually succeeding. It's impossible to master this kind of Jutsu in just a few days. This was pure luck! You've surprised me, Alex. Despite luck being involved, all three have made great progress in just a few days!"
[Secret Quest completed
Mission: Help Team 7, by improving their combat abilities.
Reward: [Skillbook: Chakra Awakening (Inferior)]
Time Limit: ???
Failure: —]
"You said you were interested in Chakra?" Kakashi says as he hands Alex a few notes. "Don't get your hopes up—these are notes created by a ninja from one of the smaller villages. They don't contain any secrets from Konoha. However, if it's merely about research, I believe these notes should be useful regardless."
[Skillbook: Basic Chakra (Inferior)]
Quality: Deep-Green
Effect: Teaches the skill: Basic Chakra (Inferior) and unlocks the Chakra stat.
Note: Picked up and gifted by Kakashi, the source of this skillbook remains a secret.
"Thank you!" Alex says with a smile, genuinely grateful.
This is the shittiest Skillbook ever. It unlocks the Chakra stat, but the quality is merely Deep-Green. This is pathetic. It's the kind of garbage Zabuza offered me. Well, it still might be valuable—I can sell it… but will anyone even buy it? This is like a trap… learning this will gimp you for a long time. Since there's a stat connected to it, it'll also be quite difficult to unlearn.
Alex waves at Team 7 and says, "I'll leave you alone for now. Of course, I'll stick around, so feel free to ask me any questions you might have. We can also spar sometimes if you want. You can keep that sword, Sasuke."
"Thank you!" they all say, even bowing down a little.
"Hehe, no problem!" Alex says, walking away satisfied.
Looks like my last week in this world will be quite relaxed. I can aim for smaller side-quests, maybe pick up a few low-rank items, and I can relax. This sounds like a fun time! I'd also love to spend some relaxed time with Menchi and Jewel.
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