Naruto Shadow Emperor - Chapter 39
“What?! What did you just say, you little brat?!”
Naruto, enraged by Inari’s words, pointed at him furiously. “You little brat!”
Sakura quickly grabbed the fuming Naruto and yelled, “Don’t yell at a kid like that!”
“Those who defy Gato never have a good ending,” Inari said, lowering his head.
Tazuna closed his eyes, and his face darkened.
“Listen up, Inari! Listen carefully!” Naruto waved his fist. “I’m going to become an unbeatable hero, a super ninja — the future Hokage! Gato is nothing but a small fry!”
Yukigetsu lazily turned over to bask in the sunlight, a slight smile playing on his lips. This boy sure is something…
“Hmph!” Inari scoffed. “There’s no difference between heroes and fools! They don’t exist!”
“You… what did you say?!” Naruto was so angry he was about to explode.
In the sunlight, Yukigetsu squinted his eyes, then suddenly got up. “Ah… you’re right!”
“What…?” Naruto stammered.
Yukigetsu looked at Inari, a smirk on his face. “I think he’s right. There’s no difference between heroes and fools. They’re both idiots who get used until they die without realizing it.”
Ignoring Naruto’s face, which looked like he had just eaten something foul, Yukigetsu glanced at the surprised faces around him and closed his eyes with a faint smile. “Being a hero is pointless. If you’re going to be something, be a tyrant. Kill anyone who crosses you!”
Everyone: “…”
“Hmph!” Inari was momentarily stunned by Yukigetsu’s words, but his expression remained disdainful. “You’re just another poser. What can a newbie ninja like you change? If you want to stay alive, you’d better go home…”
With that, he opened the door and left, even his last glance at Yukigetsu filled with contempt.
Yukigetsu shook his head with a chuckle, lying back down. How could such a young child understand my thoughts? But Kakashi has that worried look on his face again. When will I be able to live without any concerns in this world?
Sakura suddenly snapped out of her thoughts and asked Kakashi, “Sensei, what do you mean by preparations? You can’t move right now…”
“You should start training with Yukigetsu. He knows what you need most right now.”
Kakashi withdrew his gaze from Yukigetsu and lay back down, covering himself with a blanket and sighing contentedly.
Yukigetsu turned his back, his lips curling in disdain. “No way!”
Kakashi casually glanced at him and said lightly, “Naruto, I promise, if Yukigetsu trains you, your strength will double in a week!”
“Really?” Naruto’s eyes lit up instantly. Without another word, he grabbed Yukigetsu and dashed outside. “Teach me how to train!”
Looking exasperated, Sasuke and Sakura followed them on Kakashi’s signal.
Outside, Yukigetsu’s irritated voice faded away:
“Hey! Naruto, put me down!”
“What are you doing? I need to rest!”
“Kakashi, you win!”
“I’ll remember this!”
…
Not long after, in a nearby forest, Naruto dropped Yukigetsu, asking excitedly, “How do I train?”
Yukigetsu, not even glancing at him, leaned against a tree root, unmoving with a blank expression.
“Yukigetsu, no matter how hard we train, it won’t make a difference!” Sakura arrived, frowning. “The enemy is so strong, even Kakashi-sensei, with his Sharingan, struggled against him!”
Yukigetsu stopped pretending to be indifferent, instead cleaning his ear with a finger and giving her a sidelong glance. “So you’re saying we shouldn’t try because the enemy is too strong?”
The girl stood there, bewildered. “But… but…”
“Sakura…” Yukigetsu suddenly stood up, walking over to her. “Do you know who the weakest among us four is? It’s you. I want to complete this B-rank mission, so stop holding us back!”
Stop holding us back…
Sakura’s expression grew despondent as she recalled the bloody hands that had blocked a blade. Since when had she fallen so far behind the others, who had all graduated at the same time?
“But if Zabuza is still alive, he could come back at any time.” Sasuke frowned. “How are we supposed to train?”
Yukigetsu chuckled and spread his right hand. “Speaking of which… once someone enters a state of false death, it takes time for their body to recover.”
Hearing this, Naruto brightened up, clasping his hands together. “Perfect! We can train in the meantime. This is getting interesting!”
“What can you teach us?” Sasuke asked skeptically.
Yukigetsu, seeing Sasuke’s defiant look, shook his head with a smile. “Sasuke, I could easily beat you now. Do you believe me?”
Sasuke’s face darkened, remembering his poor performance the previous day. He truly was far behind. This guy… During the graduation exam, they were almost evenly matched. In just a few months, the gap had widened even more. It was infuriating!
Seeing Sasuke fall silent, Yukigetsu shrugged and said, “But before that, you need to recall the relationship between chakra and ninjutsu.”
“Wait a minute…” Naruto looked puzzled. “What’s that?”
Yukigetsu sighed, covering his face. “You’re a ninja, aren’t you? Didn’t you learn this in school?”
Naruto scratched his head awkwardly. “Ha, haha… I usually fell asleep when I didn’t understand something…”
“This is such a hassle…” Yukigetsu bent down, pointing to Sakura. “You explain it to him!”
Sakura immediately adopted a scholarly demeanor. “Naruto, listen carefully. Simply put, chakra is the energy needed for a ninja to use ninjutsu. This energy mainly comes from two sources: the physical energy from all the cells in the body and the spiritual energy gained through training and experience.”
Naruto scratched his head, still confused.
“Actually, ninjutsu is performed by extracting and refining these two types of energy from the body, then activating it through hand seals.”
Sakura wiggled her finger proudly, feeling validated. Maybe she wasn’t as useless as Yukigetsu claimed…
“Wait, what?” Naruto frowned and said, “That’s so complicated. Who cares about that? Just use your body to remember it!”
“Exactly…” Sasuke echoed. “We can already use ninjutsu.”
It seemed the proud Uchiha heir wasn’t thrilled about being taught by someone his age.
“No!” Yukigetsu shook his head with a slight smile. “As Sakura said, chakra is refined from physical and spiritual energy. Depending on the ninjutsu, the required amount of chakra varies. Right now, you can’t effectively use chakra.”
“Even if you can extract a lot of chakra, if you can’t control it properly according to the ninjutsu, the effect will be weakened or even unusable.”
He paused, then pointed at Naruto. “Just like Naruto’s pathetic clones during the graduation exam!”
Sasuke and Sakura both winced, while Naruto’s expression turned sour. Pathetic clones, huh…
“Moreover, battles will be difficult to sustain because of the significant energy consumption. For example…” Yukigetsu glanced at Sasuke and Naruto, smiling. “The amount of chakra I can refine now can easily support me in a fight against Sasuke or Naruto. You don’t doubt that, do you?”
The three nodded in agreement. His performance yesterday was too impressive for him to have less chakra than Sasuke.
“You probably think my chakra is no less than yours, right?” Yukigetsu looked at them before saying, “Actually, my chakra is, at most a third of Sasuke’s and even less than Naruto’s!”
“What?” Naruto and Sakura were shocked.
Sasuke, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, said, “So this is what you mean by effectively using chakra?”
Yukigetsu nodded nonchalantly.
Naruto became excited again. This meant he had a lot of room for improvement. Kakashi-sensei wasn’t lying. With eyes shining, he eagerly asked, “So what should we do?”
Yukigetsu rolled his eyes and smirked. “Climb! Trees!”
“Climb trees?”
Their expectant expressions immediately deflated. “That sounds boring. How is that training?”
“It’s not what you think.” Yukigetsu grinned. “You can’t use your hands!”
He walked over to a tree and effortlessly walked up its trunk, stepping onto a branch. As his cloak billowed, he crossed his arms, hanging upside down from the branch, eliciting a gasp from Sakura.
“He climbed up… just using his feet…”
Naruto and Sakura were slack-jawed while Sasuke’s face twitched. It seemed impressive, but was it really necessary to show off like that?
“That’s the gist of it!” Yukigetsu’s voice came from above. “You gather chakra at your feet to stick to the tree trunk. If you control it well, you can do this.”
Sasuke, still skeptical, asked, “Wait! Does this really make us stronger?”
“That’s the point… learning to control chakra and gather the right amount where needed is crucial for using ninjutsu,” Yukigetsu explained.
“The amount of chakra needed for tree climbing is very subtle, and the feet are the hardest place to gather chakra. It’s like trying to balance an egg on end. Even experienced ninjas find it difficult. But once you can perfectly control chakra, you can learn any ninjutsu!”
He silently added in his mind: theoretically…
“Secondly, this trains your stamina, the ability to maintain gathered chakra at your feet. Sustaining controlled chakra for different ninjutsu is no easy task!”
Yukigetsu continued, “And when ninjas manipulate chakra, it’s usually during a moving battle. In such situations, controlling and maintaining chakra is even harder!”
Naruto, puzzled, asked, “Then why do you make it look so easy?”
Yukigetsu fell silent momentarily before saying, “There’s a reason for that…”
Naruto’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Was there a special technique?
“That’s because…”
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