Chapter 25: Kai Makes a Grand Entrance

"Today's atmosphere in the village feels so strange, doesn't it?"

Naruto walked down the street, scanning his surroundings.

Although the shops were open and the crowd bustled as usual, he sensed that something about the atmosphere had shifted.

As he walked a bit further, Naruto noticed that the crowd ahead had parted, leaving the entire street clear. In the middle of the street stood a Leaf Village ninja, forcefully guiding a man forward. Their expressions were unusually serious.

"What's going on?"

Naruto instinctively stepped back, standing amidst the crowd. As the ninja passed in front of him, he instinctively looked up to observe the figure's attire and spotted a vaguely familiar emblem on the back of the man's clothing.

It was the symbol of a fan.

"Wait, I remember that..." Naruto's footsteps halted as he recalled the emblem.

"Which Uchiha is this now?"

"It's ridiculous! The police force is supposed to protect us, yet they've become thieves themselves!"

"After all, they're from the Uchiha clan! Besides causing us trouble, they've done nothing good!"

"I heard they lost several ninjas this time. Sigh... even the police force had a mole among them..."

The crowd buzzed with murmurs, and from their fragmented conversations, Naruto pieced together a rough outline of what had happened.

To summarize, it turned out that a traitor had emerged from the Uchiha clan, which was responsible for the village's security. This traitor allowed ninjas from other villages to infiltrate their own, and thankfully, the Anbu had discovered and stopped them in time, preventing any sensitive information from leaking out.

However, many Anbu members had also perished in the process, and the Third Hokage was furious, now seeking to capture the Uchiha spies.

It's worth noting that even though Naruto was merely standing aside, wanting to hear what had transpired, people still noticed him, pointing and whispering, avoiding him as if he were contagious.

"...Hey." Naruto felt confused, a bit dejected. Though he was curious about the Uchiha situation, the cold gazes directed at him stung more deeply.

Now, in the midst of the gathering, he only wanted to escape and no longer cared about the events occurring in the village. Instead, he silently made his way to the training ground.

He was unaware that each time he headed to the training ground, a pair of snow-white eyes stealthily followed him from behind, shyly observing him from within the crowd.

The village's turmoil soon passed. After several days of tension, peace returned once again.

Yet, the undercurrents hidden beneath the calm surface were far more turbulent than anyone could imagine.

In the past few days, Naruto's dreams had been filled with the basic ninjutsu techniques taught by Minato. It was as if Minato sensed that Naruto had begun to practice independently and had paused his lessons on specific techniques, instead focusing on filling in foundational knowledge to strengthen Naruto's skills.

However, even someone as capable as Minato found it challenging to handle Naruto's strong resistance to theoretical knowledge during these dream sessions. There were moments when Minato attempted to demonstrate basic illusions, only to find Naruto, although asleep, nearly dozing off again in his dream.

But that wasn't even the most exasperating part for Minato; he soon discovered that another student, hidden in the background and eavesdropping on the lessons, also hinted that the theoretical classes were too dull, nearly putting them to sleep.

This significantly raised the difficulty of Minato's lesson preparation.

But it didn't stump him for long. After putting in some effort, Minato successfully mastered a unique skill called "how to teach using comedy."

When Naruto awoke, he felt refreshed, his mind buzzing with countless ideas and knowledge he wanted to put into practice. Bursting with motivation, he quickly freshened up, grabbed a bottle of milk and bread he had bought a few days earlier, and rushed off to the training ground.

Along the way, Naruto felt exhilarated, stuffing breakfast into his mouth while his hands instinctively formed hand signs.

Over the past year, he had become accustomed to waking up with new knowledge and muscle memory to review, finding that practicing was the best way to remember the techniques.

Behind him, a petite head resembling a cute mushroom peeked out from behind a utility pole. Hinata blushed as she stealthily followed, thinking to herself, Naruto-kun gets up so early to train every day. He's so diligent.

She was completely oblivious to the fact that sneaking out early from her home was, in its own way, quite diligent as well.

Just as Naruto reached the familiar training ground he had been visiting lately, he suddenly heard a strange cry: "Ouch!"

Accompanying this cry was a loud "boom," causing the ground to tremble slightly.

"What... what's happening?" Naruto wondered. He hadn't seen anyone else training at this dilapidated training ground since discovering it.

He remembered the first time he saw the old, broken wooden posts and thought it was an abandoned training area. Why was there someone here today?

Naruto hurried over to investigate and saw a man with a watermelon-shaped hairstyle, wearing a watermelon-green training outfit, jumping around the area like a whirlwind. While making strange sounds, he accurately struck the wooden posts, causing explosive noises to erupt.

The sounds Naruto had heard earlier were from this very scene.

"Leaf Village, Great Whirlwind!" The man shouted, growing more excited as he continued to attack. With a powerful kick that created a whirlwind, he actually kicked the massive wooden posts in half, sending splinters flying everywhere.

"Ha ha! After completing my mission, it feels so good to return to the village and train like this!" The man paused mid-air, landing and wiping the sweat from his brow, revealing a sparkling smile with rows of bright white teeth. "This is what youth is all about! Alright, next up, I'm going to run a hundred laps around the village upside down... huh?"

It was only then that the man noticed Naruto, who stood frozen a short distance away, and he greeted him cheerfully, "Hey, kid! Isn't it a beautiful morning? You can really feel the fire of youth burning in moments like this!"

"Uh..." Naruto was momentarily taken aback.

He had never seen this person in the village, but the ninja headband on the man's waist indicated he was from the village.

But that wasn't crucial; in his memory, very few people had ever greeted him so openly. He didn't even instinctively know how to respond.

"Ah, the early bird catches the worm! Being here so early means you're a passionate young man... oh, and there's a young lady too!" The man seemed unfazed by Naruto's lack of immediate response. He waved at both Naruto and Hinata, who was hiding behind him in the trees, and gave them a thumbs up. "So, how about we warm up with a hundred laps around the village, upside down?"

As he spoke, the man dashed toward Naruto, grabbing his hand, and was about to drag Hinata along with him when he suddenly froze.

Realizing something, he turned to the two children he was holding, his expression stiffening.

"Wait a minute... upon closer inspection, isn't this the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, who's strictly prohibited from associating with any Jonin, and the daughter of the Hyuga clan?"