55. The First Test of Will

Naruto left the training ground, leaving Chō-sen alone; there were only the two of them left, as the rest of the monks had left immediately after training.

Curiosity burned in Chō-sen's heart, greater than ever before, compelling Naruto to spar with her after the training. She lost; Naruto had no flaws in his style, he was overwhelming.

If a third person had witnessed their spar, they would have mocked her. Among the entire group of new monk trainees, she was one of the strongest, yet Naruto toyed with her like a child, dominating her in every aspect.

Chō-sen thought she could easily defeat him. First, she forced him to partner with her during training to see what he was capable of, then she challenged him to a duel. She didn't give him a chance to refuse; she surrounded him and ordered him to fight her. However, she was humiliated; not that she had never lost to anyone before, but Naruto was too strong for his age. He was like an anomaly in an exceptional environment.

Chō-sen adjusted her tattered clothes and struggled to stand, holding onto her aching body.

"My organs are screaming in pain..." Chō-sen grimaced.

Naruto's strikes were incredibly precise and painful. His accuracy was astonishing; he could easily hit her weak points in the human body.

"Am I training too little...? I dedicate sixteen hours a day to improving myself, and yet... I lost to someone who just began their training."

For someone like Chō-sen, it was hard to believe, but she couldn't deny the reality she saw with her own eyes. She now had a moment to regenerate before the third stage of today's training began, so she returned to her quarters to rest during that time. She skipped a meal; she wouldn't be able to eat it anyway.

She pulled out a certain family scroll from under her bed to review it again; it was an incomplete technique of her family, created by her grandfather.

"As soon as I acquire the Hermit Group's Gift, I can defeat him..." She was absolutely certain of it. Even her anger evaporated at the thought of future revenge and the potential this technique gave her.

After a while, she fell asleep from exhaustion, forgetting about the next training session, which was about to begin.

...

Naruto unexpectedly sneezed.

That little antagonist in his story surely plans something again; he was sure of it. She's probably consumed with anger right now, devising a way to defeat him.

Well, he doesn't care. He still can't lose to someone like her, even if she's ten times stronger.

After an hour break, Naruto began the third stage of training today. He couldn't see Chō-sen anywhere, so she's probably still curled up in pain. He purposely struck her in sensitive spots to make her understand the vast gap between them.

Once, he familiarized himself with all Taijutsu styles in the Leaf Village to create his own fighting style. He became interested in the Hyuuga Clan's style, which involved blocking Chakra release points, Tenketsu, with their Byakugan. That's when he first thought of attacking sensitive points in the body. Besides Tenketsu, there are many other points in the body that can cause excruciating pain or other symptoms. Thanks to his sensory perception and medical knowledge, he knows where they are and can easily hit them.

As a result, the entire fight with Chō-sen looked pathetic, but at least he taught her a lesson in humility.

The training went smoothly without any complications. The next day, Naruto trained again with his Master, not meeting Chō-sen anywhere except in the cafeteria, where she stared at him intensely.

About a month after becoming a Trainee Monk, Naruto had to undergo the Trial of Will. His Master, Shoka-sen, ordered him to participate in his first Trial of Will as a Monk. It was a record time, and no one had ever taken such a risk at such an early stage of training like Naruto.

The first Trial of Will for a Monk usually involves purging Chakra from the body after a year of training as a Monk, with a survival rate of about 60%. However, it's not that you can't participate in another Trial of Will before purging Chakra; there have been such cases, but they are very rare.

Naruto took on the challenge, which is said to aim at ridding the mind of fear. The survival rate is almost 99%, except for isolated cases that mar the perfect score. However, it's not that this Trial of Will is entirely safe. Nearly 30% of participants experience psychological problems afterward and, to find peace, give up the Monk profession.

The Trial of Will takes place in a sensory-sealed place that resembles an old cellar or dungeon used in ancient times as a place of torture. Upon entering, Naruto's power was sealed; all his skills, including his sensory perception, were sealed, preventing him from examining how it was done. The senior Monk used the Hermit Group's Gift instead of Seals, which intrigued Naruto, but his blocked sensory perception prevented him from investigating, leaving him somewhat annoyed.

After a while inside, Naruto's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. In the darkness, he saw an old room with tattered items and dried blood on torture tools. Naruto didn't really know how to feel; if his brain were normal, he would feel fear because of this place, but he couldn't. Besides, it's not like he had never seen scary things; he himself had done many dark deeds in the Black Market and felt nothing special about it.

The place he was in had several rooms and resembled an old dungeon. After finishing exploring the whole place, Naruto sat in a comfortable spot and closed his eyes, trying to meditate. However, due to the sealing, he had some trouble with it.

Naruto didn't receive any specific instructions; he was just supposed to be here until the doors opened again. The time he had to spend here was indefinite, and the sealing of his abilities and strength didn't even allow him to train or meditate. Trying to meditate, he felt a slight headache and the suppression of the seals, which greatly distracted him, so he gave up after a while and simply sat with his eyes closed.

Although he had a high pain tolerance and could endure a lot, meditation had to be done in silence and tranquility.

At some point, it became difficult for Naruto to determine the time he had spent in this place. Even when hiding in complete darkness for several days, Naruto believed he could easily tell the time of day and hour, but now he was slowly losing that orientation. Was it because of the seals or this place? It was hard to say; Naruto couldn't investigate any of it.

At some unspecified time, Naruto began to feel dizzy due to the increasingly powerful aura prevailing in the area. The seal weakened him greatly, intensifying his sensations.

"8923, 8924... 8930..." Naruto counted the seconds to keep track of time, having nothing else to do.

Probably about two hours and forty minutes had passed since he entered here. He didn't start counting right away, only after losing the ability to gauge time with his instinct. Altogether, it amounted to about two hours and forty minutes.

The aura of this place seemed to be getting stronger, or perhaps Naruto was growing weaker and feeling it more acutely. His field of vision also became less clear; he was probably getting weaker, but strangely, his physical abilities remained the same since he entered.

Or maybe it's disorientation? Naruto sniffed a few times to check for poison but sensed nothing. So, is it the aura of this place causing mental disorientation? Or is it because of the seal?

Naruto pondered for a moment, but couldn't find the cause. It wasn't his goal anyway; he was just satisfying his curiosity out of boredom.

At one point, Naruto heard noise nearby on a nearby table. He glanced there out of the corner of his eye but saw nothing concrete, just a metal chain lying there, seeming slightly shifted?

Despite the disorientation and the seal, his memory worked well; he wasn't mistaken. The situation repeated after a while, but this time with a different object; again, he could hear a faint noise, as if someone had stepped in that place and moved an object.

Naruto observed with his eyes closed because even if he looked around everywhere, nothing special would happen, and his vision would only get worse in this gloomy place. He noticed that with his eyes closed, his vision deteriorated more slowly.

Time passed; it had been about four hours since Naruto arrived here, but if he didn't count the time, he could swear he had been sitting here for many long hours.

Then he heard footsteps, then another and another; someone was approaching, groaning loudly like a ghost and placing cold fingers on Naruto's neck. The cold spread immediately through his body, and Naruto instinctively struck at the spot of the mysterious intruder. His hand passed through his body, and he felt as if he had struck dense smoke or a cloud that dispersed after his attack.

Now he was certain; he was in an illusion. So, the Hermit Group's Gift could also create very realistic illusions, interesting.

Slowly, he understood why this place allowed one to overcome fear. With each passing hour, the illusion grew stronger; first, you lose the sense of time, become heavily disoriented in everything, hear strange sounds, and see creatures that fill you with fear. Upon leaving this place, either you become mentally ill and fear everything, or you fear nothing because you've experienced the worst in this illusion. All your deepest nightmares, which you wanted to forget, can appear here, and you will be forced to relive them. It's up to you whether you come out of this mentally sound, stronger than ever before.

...

The ghost's hand pierced Naruto's torso; his icy arm protruded on the other side of the teenager's body. Blood splattered on Naruto's clothes, and the monster's loud gurgling reached his ears.

...

Naruto's skin was peeled by invisible fingers, peeled off with a delicacy and tenderness worthy of a mother. Not a single drop of blood emerged; the skin was perfectly separated from the rest of the body, hanging limply like that of a sick and dried-up old man.

Naruto had his eyes open, staring coldly at himself. His eyes were empty; it was just an illusion that didn't affect his mind. Once you understand this, you don't feel pain; it's only you who decides. If you acknowledge the illusion as reality, it becomes one.

...

Everything faded away; the loud howling of monsters fell silent in Naruto's ears, and his eyes lost their ability to see. He was in emptiness; his body seemed to have dispersed into individual atoms that scattered in different directions of the cosmos. He was alone, only him, only his Soul or mind, whatever gave him the ability to think.

Darkness or lightness, it didn't matter what it actually was. Darkness so dark that the eyes saw nothing, or brightness burning the eyeballs with its glow. It was just emptiness and him.

Him and his worst nightmare...

He felt himself slowly dissipating into nothingness; his last shreds of consciousness fading away, but the ability to feel remained. His mind might not exist, but it was capable of feeling.

Even before complete annihilation, Naruto remembered his Master's words.

"If any God exists, or anything else, I'm sure life and death don't concern it because its presence transcends the physical body."

Though he was sure that the illusion would disappear eventually, Naruto forced himself into meditation.

He stopped treating the illusion as an illusion; he accepted it as reality... Then Naruto felt a strange fear within him, motivating him to fight...? Is "fight" the right word to describe this state? He just wanted to escape from nothingness.

And though he couldn't do it before, Naruto now entered deep meditation.

Manifest your presence... everything his Master had told him, Naruto implemented without a word of objection. He did it reflexively, not even considering whether it was good or bad.

Abandon your physical body, forget about it, become smaller than an atom and disappear to manifest a presence that transcends life and death, that will exist amidst nothingness.