The pride of the last Uchiha

Sasuke's plan was a huge success. The next day, Sasuke invited Naruto to train with his group once again. When Naruto learned that Hinata would also be there, he immediately agreed.

Naruto stopped his training with his clones in the waterfall, and he was now training together with his new girlfriend. Both of them had silly smiles on their faces and couldn't take their eyes off each other.

It was finally time for Sasuke to proceed with his next plan. Sasuke took Neji to his house for a private conversation.

"Neji, I have a new mission for you. This mission involves some of my secrets, and it must stay between us."

Neji's expression turned serious, and he nodded.

"I have copied the Mind Body Switch technique from Ino, and I want you to use it on you," Sasuke said with a serious expression.

"WHAT? YOU WANT TO TAKE CONTROL OF MY BODY? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, UCHIHA?" Neji said with fury.

Sasuke's expression didn't change, but his tone turned cold. "I thought that we had an agreement, Hyuga. Do you want to stay a slave for your whole life?"

Neji gritted his teeth and said, "UCHIHA, YOU ARE ASKING TO USE ME LIKE A PUPPET! I MAY BE A SLAVE, BUT I STILL HAVE MY PRIDE."

The anger was now clear in Sasuke's expression, and he also looked offended. "Hyuga, you are an idiot. Who do you think I am? What do you think I will do to your body? I want to use your eyes to view chakra points like you did the last time when you created the flip book."

Neji's expression turned a little complicated, but he still replied, "I understand why you want to use my body, but I still can't allow that. I have my pride as a Hyuga, even if I am only a slave."

'Checkmate,' Sasuke thought and said, "What about my pride as the last Uchiha? Do you think that I enjoy it when another man secretly peeks at my women for his satisfaction? I PUSHED MY PRIDE AWAY BECAUSE WE HAD A DEAL, AND YOU ARE MY FRIEND!"

Neji's expression twisted completely, and he knew that he now had no way out. After almost a minute of silence, he reluctantly agreed.

'I only had to let him watch my playthings, and I gain access to the Byakugan… Such a good deal,' Sasuke thought without a care in the world.

---

Later in the training, Sasuke secretly informed Tenten that their private meetings were canceled for the next month. The girl was extremely disappointed, but Sasuke gave her his word that he would make up for it.

After the training, Neji stayed back, and they both went into Sasuke's house.

Sasuke created a shadow clone, and his main body went directly in front of the sofa. Neji was directly opposite from him.

'Mind Body Switch Technique.'

Sasuke's body fell behind on the sofa. Neji didn't resist, and Sasuke's consciousness successfully took control of his body.

He instantly felt the difference from his own body and had instinctive knowledge about his new eyes. He immediately activated his new eyes and looked at the clone.

'What incredible eyes!' Sasuke thought, and it took him almost a minute to get used to the 360-degree vision.

His clone immediately started pushing fire out of his hands.

Sasuke focused his eyes to see how the chakra point on the clone's palm worked.

'These eyes are a treasure. For research purposes, they are definitely better than the Sharingan. If Mangekyou Sharingan didn't exist, I would have considered replacing my eyes… The more I see, the more I dislike Hyugas for their waste…'

Sasuke could clearly see that the chakra point was like a big labyrinth. The chakra was moving constantly through it, and its internal paths were changing many times each second.

'It's no wonder that Neji's drawing was a mess. It's almost impossible to draw something like this… He actually did a good job.'

Sasuke lost himself as he observed the procedure for almost an hour.

'That's why Naruto told me that Neji's flipbook is repeating the same things… Basically, the whole flip book was describing the same procedure for different chakra ratios… It seems that the chakra point is changing based on the elemental concentration and the amount of incoming chakra. However, the influx and the quality of chakra are not something fixed. The chakra point constantly takes different forms and looks like a labyrinth because it is adapting to the chakra. 

That also explains one of the benefits of better chakra control! If your chakra control is better, that means that the influx of chakra will be more stable and, in turn, your chakra point will make fewer changes and have a much easier time… I thought that my chakra control was very good, but I was very wrong. My metric of comparison was the rest of the shinobi and their standards… The peak of chakra control should have been to completely control each influx of chakra through the body… Even after spending so much time training my control, my chakra point changes too many times each second! I wonder how many changes the chakra point of a ninja with bad control performs… 

I now have a better understanding of the first school of thought about ninjutsu that Kakashi talked about. The chakra points are truly resembling circuits…'

Sasuke had already prepared a new empty flip book for him to use. His clone started using lightning instead of fire, and Sasuke made a few drawings.

'Considering that this is one process that repeats itself, Naruto should be able to understand it with fewer pages. I will test him with different pages. I will start with one and I will increase the limit until he gets it. This will show me the minimum sample that he needs for his ability to work. 

I have already taught him how to create the storage scroll and explosion scroll, and Kakashi is also going to teach us some of his knowledge. The Uchiha scrolls didn't include much knowledge about fuinjutsu. However, they still had a small number of scrolls. 

I should teach Naruto the Portable Water Field, which is a variation of the generic storage scroll, and the Barrier Tag, which can be used to create a barrier around a location. 

When Naruto learns all these scrolls, he would have a better understanding of fuinjutsu's symbols and patterns. I will then make him create Neji's flipbook and my pictures with proper fuinjutsu. If he succeeds, I can make comparisons between the source and the final results to figure out the language… Of course, I will need many more samples, but this would be a good starting point.'

---

Shikamaru returned to his house after training with a thoughtful expression. He took a bath, had a light meal, and then went to the living room to play shogi with his father.

However, he couldn't stop thinking about Naruto and Sasuke.

After his initial discussion with Sasuke and beating him at Shogi without breaking a sweat, he started analyzing his daily behavior. Uchiha Sasuke was an enigma to him. When his father told him to keep an eye on him, Shikamaru realized that there is much more to Sasuke than meets the eye.

'Up to this point, Sasuke has only invited people to his group who are useful to him. His three girls need no explanation, and he probably wants to use Neji's status to turn him into an ally. He also used me to come in touch with my father. When Hinata came to the group, I thought she would be another girl to restore his clan… However, he has done all that just to bring her and Naruto together… This does not match at all with his character. 

The kindness that he shows towards Naruto is not right based on the time they spent together. Father told me to befriend Naruto, and I have already suspected that something is special about him… It seems that Sasuke knows about Naruto's secret, and it is great enough to attract his attention…'

cough

Shikamaru realized that he got lost in his thoughts once again…

Shikaku looked at him with a smile and said, "I think that instead of Shogi, we should have a talk today."

Shikamaru nodded and asked, "What's so special about Naruto?"

Shikaku smiled and said, "Another question, please."

Shikamaru's eyes opened widely. 'It seems that it is forbidden to talk about this… This is a very big clue.'

'Let's see, what I know about Naruto... I know that he is special because the Hokage gave him his own jonin sensei while he was still in the academy… In the past, people openly hated Naruto and stayed away from him. I overheard some parents who called him a monster… However, this changed… When did that change? It changed when Sasuke worked with my father and took care of the secret force… After that, people didn't create more trouble for him… Does that mean that this secret force spread information about Naruto that made the people hate him?'

Shikamaru spent almost 5 minutes thinking.

Watching him like this, Shikaku finally said, "Shikamaru, I have told you many times that you should finish analyzing one thought before moving to the next. You keep skipping steps, and you lose yourself in the process. This was also a bad habit of mine when I was younger."

Shikamaru nodded and started following his father's advice.

'Naruto is special, and he has a very close relationship with the Hokage. Why? I can think of three different options: 

-He has a special origin 

-He has a hidden power like a bloodline limit which makes him a special asset 

-He is a potential risk to the village, and Hokage wants to keep him close to control him. 

Let's take the first option. Naruto is blonde with blue eyes… From the clans, only the Yamanakas are blonde in the village, and Naruto isn't one of them. Who else was blonde? 

Don't tell me! The 4th! Is he, his son?'

Shikamaru's expression changed, and he immediately asked his father about it.

"No comment," Shikaku said with a smile.

'That means that my theory is true! He is the son of the 4th. But my father is still looking at me with expectations. That means there is more. Does he also have a hidden power? Hmmm.'

Shikamaru was thoughtful for two minutes. However, he was once again interrupted by his father who said, "Use your new data."

Shikamaru nodded and immediately there was enlightenment in his eyes. 'Naruto's special power has something to do with the 4th Hokage! YES, THAT'S IT.'

He looked at his father and said with excitement, "The 4th didn't kill the 9-tail fox! He sealed it inside Naruto, his son. That's why people called him a monster!"

Shikaku nodded with a smile. "It is an S-rank secret of the village. Don't talk about it with anyone."

Shikamaru nodded and said, "Sasuke knows about it! That's why he approached Naruto! Naruto has huge potential, and he wants to befriend him!"

Shikaku heard his son's conclusion, but his thoughts were different. 'Shikamaru, it seems that your thoughts are still naive…'

"Tell me everything that happened," Shikaku finally said.

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Give the story some love with your soulstones!

Goal for an extra chapter on Saturday 19 / 330.