72 - Side story 1, Naruto Uzumaki-

A.N.: So, this is different from the what-if story. This one had a real impact on the story, and would describe Sanada's interaction with other characters or even the point of view from other characters.

Some of you might ask why not just make a regular chapter, so I'll tell you my reason here.

I have released the chapter in the patron previously, but when I re-read it, I felt that the interaction between Sanada and Naruto was pretty insignificant, and I decided to create one more chapter for it.

The reason that I didn't put this as a normal chapter is that that means I need to edit the rest of the chapter, and I would rather use those time to write a new chapter, rather than editing the previous one >_<.

By the way, I read this chapter after reading the latest Boruto chapter, so there might be some minor spoiler here >_<.

. . . . . . . .

The night after Naruto's first training with Sanada.

Naruto's body was all bruised up from the close combat training, and it was the first time Naruto felt this tired.

Heck, all his training so far was like a walk in the park compared to this.

Nonetheless, Sanada couldn't blame Naruto for this. The thing that Naruto did just now didn't only burden his body but also his mind.

To speed up the training, Sanada asked Naruto to use his shadow clones to do a few separate things during the same time, and it gave a lot of burden to Naruto.

Sanada watched Naruto, who was lying on the ground while panting heavily, and he decided to take a seat next to Naruto.

In his previous life, it never once crossed his thought that he would be able to share this kind of moment with his childhood hero, someone who told him to never give up even when everything was against him.

" Hey, Naruto..."

" Hmm.. what is it, Sanada-Sensei?"

Sanada saw Naruto who was still smiling brightly even after all this harsh training, and a reluctance grew in his heart.

He wanted to say it, but he was afraid that it might hurt Naruto. Still, in the end, Sanada decided to open his mouth and asked:

" Naruto, your dream is to be a Hokage, right?"

" Hmm? Yeah, I'm gonna be a Hokage! A strong one that could protect the village like grandpa third or the fourth Hokage!"

" Then.... what if I told you, that after being a Hokage, you will lose everything you have? And by everything, I literally mean everything, like everything, you know? Everything?"

Sanada was a bit out of character as it was a bit hard for him to maintain his composure. He still remembered how hard he cried when he saw Kurama's final moment, or how it was a bit frustrating for him to see the adult Naruto's life was so full of work that he even began neglecting his family.

If he could, Sanada wanted to ask Naruto to just stop dreaming about being a Hokage, as it would only bring him a painful moment.

The atmosphere was filled with silence as Sanada said those words.

Sanada saw naruto, who looked dazed and quickly recovered his composure.

It seemed that what he had just been saying was a bit too hard for the twelve years old Naruto.

Sanada sighed inwardly as he was about to apologize to Naruto, but then..

" I'm sorry, it might be a bi-"

" Hmm, I don't really understand what you mean by that, Sanada-Sensei. However, one thing I can say for sure is I will never back down again and let any difficulties bother me. I will never run away, and no matter how hard the future is, I will always face them with a smile on my face because that is my ninja way!"

"!!???"

It was at this moment that Sanada felt all his words were stuck on his throat.

He always prided himself as a big fan of naruto, but now, he felt like he had betrayed Naruto.

' *Sigh* What am I doing? I as a big fan of Naruto, should have known it myself... this guy, he is a super stone head who would never backdown once he gets something on his mind.'

A smile grew on Sanada's face as he received Naruto's response.

The thought of telling Naruto to stop dreaming of being a Hokage was no more, and instead, now he was full of anticipation regarding what will Naruto di in the future.

Sanada stood up as he was going to leave. It was just the first day, and they still have training tomorrow early in the morning.

However, the moment Sanada was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something.

" Hero..."

Sanada murmured something that caught Naruto's attention,

" Hmm?"

" You are a hero, Naruto! You are a hero now, and you will be one in the future. However, there is one thing that I must correct from that previous words of yours."

Sanada turned around as now he looked at Naruto's eyes directly.

" You said you will never back down, right? Sometimes, it's okay to back down or even give up. Experiencing both victory and defeat, running away and shedding tears, A man will become a man. It's okay to cry, but you have to move on, rely on your friends more, and never take everything alone. Remember, Naruto, you are not alone anymore, and there are a lot of people here who would want to share all the burden together with you."