Training Ground, Konoha Village.
The midday sun blazed, hot and glaring.
Naruto clenched his teeth, both hands cradling an orange rubber ball as he poured chakra into it. The surface bulged and warped under the pressure, but no matter what he did, it refused to burst.
Sweat beaded at his temples. His arms were already aching from hours of intense practice.
"Damn it…" he muttered, and shoved even more chakra in.
The ball only trembled faintly, then sprang back as if nothing had happened.
Naruto sucked in rough breaths, his hands starting to shake. He'd been grinding at this for hours. Compared to the water balloon, this rubber ball was way harder to deal with.
He remembered yesterday's lesson in the dream—Dad's first step, stirring chakra inside the water balloon until it exploded. He'd mastered that quickly.
But the second step?
Compressing and condensing chakra into an even higher density to shred a rubber ball—no matter how he tried, he couldn't get it to work.
"Haah!" Naruto roared, forcing the last scraps of chakra into the ball.
In the end—pop. A soft sound. The ball was still perfectly intact.
Naruto, on the other hand, collapsed flat on his butt from sheer exhaustion.
Panting hard with both hands on the ground, his head swam. His arms were so numb they barely felt like his own. He flopped onto the grass and stared up at the sky.
"Why… why won't it work…"
He lifted his right hand and shook his stiff wrist, frustration and unwillingness churning inside him.
This jutsu—Rasengan—was an A-rank technique Dad had spent three years creating. Of course it wouldn't be easy to learn overnight…
Naruto let out a long breath, raking his fingers through his hair, irritated. Then his brow twitched.
"Wait… I didn't even get a chance to ask about the trick for the second stage last night."
Lying there, his mind started racing.
If that was the case… then maybe he should go ask Kakashi-sensei?
Naruto's eyes lit up. He sprang upright in one quick motion.
"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei's a jonin—he's seen everything!"
Even if Kakashi didn't know Rasengan himself, he'd have to be able to give some advice.
Decision made, Naruto dusted himself off and took off running toward Kakashi's place on the other side of the village. Kakashi had given them his address and a way to contact him when Team Seven formed, just in case of emergencies.
…
Meanwhile, out on the outskirts of Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha walked alone down a quiet path.
The road grew more and more desolate, the people fewer and fewer. He kept his head lowered and his face dark until he reached the end of a ruined district—
The Uchiha clan's remains.
Shattered tiles. Crumbling walls. Blackened scars from fire and battle, still faintly visible. The streets he'd once run through as a little kid were dead and silent now.
Sasuke moved slowly through the wreckage, his chest tight with a mess of emotions. Before he knew it, he stopped in front of a half-shut gate.
Vines and weeds crawled all over the courtyard walls, but the old layout was unmistakable.
This had been his home.
He stood there for a long while, then drew in a breath and pushed the gate open.
"Creeeak—"
Rusty hinges wailed, and a crow burst up into the air.
Sasuke stepped inside. The yard that had once felt warm and alive was empty and broken, only wind passing through.
His mind dragged him back to that night.
Blood under the moonlight. Cold steel. The bodies of his family falling one after another. His father's stern face, his mother's gentle smile—frozen forever as corpses.
And that man… atop the telephone pole.
Sasuke's breathing turned ragged. His fists clenched so hard his knuckles ached.
"This… is reality," he rasped. "Everything warm in last night's dream… was nothing but a lie."
He snapped his head to the side, flinging away the last lingering wavering in his heart.
"I have to get stronger. I have to kill him."
He strode into the open space behind the house. Weeds had taken over, and a few wooden training posts were barely standing, rotted and warped.
Sasuke planted his feet, formed seals in a blur, and inhaled sharply.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of flame erupted from his mouth. The heat roared as the decayed training dummies were swallowed up, reduced within moments to black ash.
Smoke drifted upward. Sasuke's face, lit by the dying fire, was cold and grim.
He slammed a fist into a nearby tree, voice low and furious.
"Family… a dream like that is nothing but a fake illusion. I won't be like Naruto, that idiot—getting tricked by a dream!"
The moment the words left his mouth, he launched into savage taijutsu practice. He struck and kicked the empty air and the battered posts alike, using them as targets for his rage.
Sweat soaked his forehead protector. Dust and splinters clung to his clothes. He didn't slow down even a little—as though only pushing his body to the brink could drown out the dream scenes that kept replaying in his head.
His parents' loving smiles. His brother's gentle voice…
Sasuke panted like a bellows but kept going, teeth gritted, veins standing out at his temples. Hatred burned in his eyes, scorching away every trace of last night's warmth.
Far away, atop the crown of a tall tree, another figure watched silently.
Kakashi stood on the branch. His single visible eye, peering beneath his forehead protector, observed the boy training himself to the edge of destruction.
He let out a quiet sigh, emotions complicated.
So the dream really did hit Sasuke hard.
Kakashi had only seen Sasuke head out of the village alone and followed out of concern. He hadn't expected Sasuke to come straight here and throw himself into practice like this.
Still… at least he didn't look like he was going to do anything reckless. He was just training himself raw.
Kakashi finally relaxed a little.
Forcing a twelve-year-old into a life of endless hatred and obsession with power was never a good sign… but at least Sasuke was still in the village, still sane, still alive.
"Hang in there, Sasuke," Kakashi murmured.
After one last look at the boy's lonely, sweat-drenched back, he vanished without a sound.
-------
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