Chapter 362

Chapter 362: Chapter 362

Because Naruto slept much earlier than I did, he naturally woke up first. I discovered this the moment I opened my bedroom door to find a highly annoyed blond standing directly in the hallway, crossing his arms with a heavy pout.

"Noa, you overslept! Why are you so lazy today? You didn’t even do your morning exercises!"

I scratched my chin, feigning deep thought. "Since acquiring my newfound strength, I do not need to do any of that anymore. Or at least, not to the same excessive degree."

A gleeful grin spread across my face as Naruto started jumping up and down, screaming in sheer objection. "Not fair! Not fair!"

I rolled my eyes, lowered my stance, and flicked his forehead mid-jump. He went down instantly, clutching his head and rolling on the floor in exaggerated agony. "For someone possessing unlimited chakra, you sure complain a lot about unfairness."

Peering up at me from the floor, Naruto spoke from behind fake tears. "Takemura-ojisan won’t teach me any cool ninjutsu. Can you teach me, Noa? Please?"

I considered the idea for a moment before raising a single finger. "Only if you overcome my challenge."

Naruto snorted, brushing off his non-existent injuries and standing up tall. "But I can’t beat you in a fight! That means I won’t ever learn ninjutsu until I go to the Academy!"

I wiggled my raised finger back and forth. "Not against me. Against my puppet."

His blue eyes shone with intense interest. He nodded sagely, mimicking the same idiotic expression his older brother often wore when acting wise, which was a dangerous sign. "I can totally beat a puppet."

I snorted, turning toward the kitchen. "I love your confidence. But first, breakfast."

Naruto’s face brightened instantly. All thoughts of the impending battle vanished as he jumped around me. "Yayyy!"

After a delicious and fulfilling breakfast, I sat comfortably in the living room, sipping a freshly brewed cup of tea. Naruto stood a few paces away across the room, a fiery determination burning in his gaze.

"Aren’t you going to bring out the puppet now?" he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at me. "Why are you still just sitting there?"

I replied with a sly smile. "Right."

With a single hand sign, I created a shadow clone. It stepped forward and summoned my puppet in a thick puff of smoke. The wooden construct clattered ominously into a combat stance. "That should be more than enough."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as my clone spoke. "I get to hit you, brat. I am glad to have been brought out."

Before the boy could even formulate a reply, the puppet launched itself aggressively toward him.

I noted how my newly enhanced chakra control made piloting the puppet much easier than I remembered. The threads felt like natural extensions of my own fingers. I took a slow sip of my tea, sighing as I enjoyed the fragrant aroma and lightly sweet taste while Naruto fought for his life.

I intentionally ensured the construct was not too fast, but it remained entirely relentless. Its right arm rotated with a mechanical whir, swinging a heavy wooden stick directly at its target. Naruto jumped backward to evade the sweeping arc. Then, relying on his impressive natural agility, he lunged forward to strike the exposed side of the retreating machine.

However, the leg he aimed for suddenly detached with a sharp click. Naruto hit dead air, stumbling forward off-balance. The chakra thread pulled taut, and the heavy wooden limb snapped right back into place, almost crushing his hand as he frantically scrambled away.

"Noa! That’s cheating!" he yelled. "Real shinobi can’t just pop their legs off like that!"

I shook my head slowly, taking another calm sip of tea. "Sand ninja actively fight with puppets, you know. Are you going to ask them politely not to detach their puppet’s limbs in a real fight? And if you think a wooden construct doing it is bad, believe it or not, there are actual human shinobi who can do exactly the same thing. I know, because I have fought one."

Naruto’s eyes widened in sheer horror. "Wait, real people can take their arms off? How?!"

Before he could finish the question, the puppet’s chest cavity clicked open. A storage seal glowed vividly, launching a volley of blunt wooden senbon at him with incredible speed.

Naruto yelped, diving into a messy roll across the floor and scrambling behind a sturdy wooden table for cover. The projectiles thudded aggressively into the wood just inches above his head.

I whistled in genuine appreciation, taking a large bite of a sweet ohagi. "Impressive reflexes. Not bad at all."

Swallowing the food, I popped my neck loudly and took a deep breath, closing my eyes to fully enjoy the crisp morning air. The chaotic sounds of my clone terrorizing Naruto were surprisingly relaxing.

Naruto was finally starting to use his head. Instead of reacting blindly, I noticed his bright blue eyes darting frantically, actively tracking the puppet’s individual limbs rather than its main body. I intentionally kept the choreographed attacks predictable, ensuring nothing too surprising was introduced until he fully adapted to the current level of difficulty.

Then, the puppet lunged. Deciding to play dirty, Naruto scooped up a decorative ceramic flower vase off the porch and hurled it directly at the wooden construct.

"Ah!" I shouted in genuine alarm.

With a rapid flick of my fingers, I sent out a fresh set of chakra threads. They latched onto the vase, freezing it perfectly in mid-air just inches before it shattered against the floor after the puppet dodged it. I sighed heavily, deeply annoyed at having to interrupt my relaxing post-breakfast laziness. I mean, my morning meditation period.

Naruto grinned widely as he escaped yet another one of the sweeping attacks. He leaped completely over the flying wooden construct, landing neatly on his feet. Turning back, he pulled his lower eyelid down with one finger and stuck his tongue out in a classic taunt.

However, as he backed away, he moved dangerously close to a very specific artifact resting on a pedestal. It was a supposedly rare item I had purchased, promised by a traveling merchant to purify the air using ambient nature chakra. It absolutely did not work. I was stubbornly convinced it was simply because I lacked the correct activation method, but since I met the merchant on a random mission and never saw him again, I had no way to ask. Post-purchase support was truly abysmal in the shinobi world.

Seeing Naruto’s heel inch closer to what I refused to confess was now just an overpriced paperweight, my shadow clone suddenly got entirely serious.

With a few aggressive, sharp hand gestures from the clone, the puppet twisted violently in mid-air. Its arms and legs detached simultaneously with a sickening clatter, shooting directly toward Naruto. He screamed, but since he was caught in the middle of a jump, he had absolutely no room to maneuver. The detached limbs swarmed him, thick chakra threads wrapping around his small body until he was bound tight like a mummy.

Before he could even thrash, the puppet’s wooden chest clicked open. A terrifying, unnatural darkness swelled within the cavity, making it look vastly larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. The threads dragged a screaming Naruto straight into the chest compartment.

The wooden plates slammed shut, sealing him inside.

"Noa! This is really scary! Get me out!" his muffled voice echoed from the wooden belly.

I laughed softly, casually picking my teeth with a wooden toothpick. "I did not hear the magic words."

"I surrender! I lost!" he yelled immediately, abandoning all his previous bravado.

With a subtle nod, my clone twitched his finger. The puppet’s chest sprang open, and Naruto launched himself out of the dark cavity like a cannonball. He scrambled across the living room and instantly ducked behind my back, peering around my knees to glare at the clone and the construct it controlled.

"That thing is scary," he muttered.

The puppet retreated quickly before being sealed away. The shadow clone then disappeared in a thick puff of white smoke.

Naruto looked down, his shoulders slumping heavily as he realized he had missed his chance to learn a new technique.

I leaned forward, muttering in a hushed, conspiratorial tone. "How good are you with the leaf-sticking exercise now?"

His eyes brightened instantly, his head snapping up. "I can stick it on any part of my body, and it stays there for some time!"

I replied dryly, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? Like, for an entire hour?"

He scratched the back of his head, his face scrunching up nervously before replying. "For... some time."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I will skip ahead and teach you how to walk on water." I gestured toward the yard. "I will dig a knee-deep pond in the back, explain the core principle to you, and demonstrate it. Then, I will just observe. Once you succeed in walking on water, you will automatically be able to walk up solid walls."

Naruto’s eyes almost exploded out of his head. "So cool! Noa, you are the best!" He started jumping around me again, his infectious, boundless energy completely lighting up the atmosphere of the quiet morning.

Just then, the front door swung open, and Genta walked in, leaving it slightly ajar behind him as he caught the tail end of the bright scene.

"Wow," he said. "You are in a good mood today."

Naruto ran over to him with happy, bouncing steps. "Big brother Genta! Noa is going to teach me how to walk on water like an amazing, cool shinobi!"

Genta looked directly at me, adopting a highly dramatic, betrayed tone. "Are you trying to steal my chance of looking cool in front of my younger brother, you demon?"

I stood up straight, lifting one leg high into the air and dropping my arms into a ridiculous, exaggerated crane stance with a wide smile. "Bring it on. I am the superior here."

Genta immediately mirrored the stance, balancing on one leg with a fierce, challenging glare. We were just about to clash in the middle of the living room when the doorbell rang.

I lowered my leg slowly, my eyes narrowing.

The chakra signature standing just outside the threshold was completely foreign to me, not to mention incredibly powerful to a terrifying degree. That combination was extremely rare, considering I made it a strict point to memorize the signature of every single important person in Konoha. They had likely rung the bell because the house’s barrier did not recognize their chakra, physically refusing to let them walk through the slightly open door.

Genta dropped his stance, walking toward the front door to answer it. Naruto and I followed closely behind him.

Genta pulled the door open.

Then, all three of us froze with our mouths wide open.