Too weak

Naruto woke up early in the morning, around 6 o'clock, but he promptly rolled out of bed, complaining about sleepiness and everything else. He removed the sleeping cap he wore and tossed it onto the bed, then walked over to the fridge to grab a carton of milk and some cereal, placing them on the table.

For Naruto, today was a day he had been looking forward to; it was Saturday, and there would be no classes at the academy. He quickly ate his cereal with milk and hurried to change clothes, putting on his usual attire. He grabbed the goggles-bandana he always wore and placed them on his head, looking at himself in the mirror while letting out a low laugh.

"Today's the day I'm supposed to train with Ryo! I'm going to train with him to fight like him and Sae!" In fact, after the academy test, Naruto had been eager to talk to Ryo, but he was warned not to bother his friend while he recovered. However, as soon as he returned to the academy, Naruto didn't let this chance slip away and immediately asked Ryo if he could train him, to which Ryo agreed.

On the other side of the city, in one of the training forests, two children were doing some light exercises to warm up their bodies for the upcoming training sessions, with a few minutes left until 6 in the morning. Ryo and Sae were already there.

"Naruto asked to train with me, and Sae overheard, well, everyone overheard the way he shouts. And she ended up coming along in the end. Not that I mind; I like training with her. But sometimes I don't understand what goes through her mind."

Looking at Sae, who had the stoic expression typical of Uchihas, showing no emotion, the Uchiha's standard, Ryo knew they weren't good at dealing with emotions, not at such a young age.

-- Did you get permission from Kenji to come today? I thought he wouldn't let you skip his training sessions. --

That was something Ryo was curious about too, since Kenji was so strict with the students he taught, yet he had allowed her to skip her schedule again. Soon, Sae looked at him, turning her face slightly to the side as if she hadn't understood what he had asked.

- No, he wouldn't allow it. I snuck out. I wanted to train with you and see how Naruto does. For some reason, the elders always say not to get close to Naruto, but I don't understand why. You and he are quite close, and you're still alive. -

She said this with a calmness and naturalness that left Ryo distracted. She had basically defied the clan to come to Ryo's training with Naruto. He chuckled internally as a few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, picturing Kenji finding them and him receiving that kick again. Putting that aside, he soon noticed Naruto appearing at the scene.

-- Alright, we're all here then. Naruto, I hope you didn't eat too much, -- Naruto looked at Ryo with a puzzled expression. --Because if you ate too much, you might vomit during training! But don't worry. --

Ryo walked over to Naruto, giving his shoulder two taps. He said something that made the protagonist's eyes sparkle.

-- Today, lunch is on me! So focus on the training. --

Observing this dynamic, Sae found it amusing how Ryo used a reward to make Naruto train harder than he had already planned. They trained all morning; Naruto already had a good foundation in physical combat, but nobody had ever taken the time to train with him, except for Ryo, but that was before he improved so much in taijutsu.

The the rest of the month were much the same;

Naruto and Ryo would train together, and occasionally, when Sae managed to escape from the clan, she would join them for training. The three of them had a good dynamic: Naruto spoke, Sae listened, and Ryo guided Naruto. As the days went by, Sae started talking more with Ryo about the state of the clan, while Naruto trained with shurikens and the movement jutsu in a spot farther away from them. Sae sighed.

- Hey Ryo, I'm not sure if I'll be able to come for training anymore.- She looked down, sighing heavily. - Lately, the clan has been on high alert all the time. Last time I disappeared, I almost caused a big problem between the village and the clan. Today, I got actual permission to come, but I won't stay long. -

Hearing this, Ryo wondered what all of this meant. "Is the tension between the Uchihas and Konoha reaching its limit? After the Fourth Hokage died from a bijuu controlled by the Sharingan, and the Uchihas are already strong enough to pose a threat to Konoha, really..."

- All the elders of the clan are always tense and alert, as if we were going to be attacked at any moment, even among themselves. I don't even know if I'll be able to go back to the academy. -

Hearing this, Ryo felt a tightness in his chest. He remembered that Itachi would kill them all in less than a year since they were almost halfway through the current one. He looked away, his face expressing a complex emotion. He didn't know how to save everyone, let alone Sae.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! If I had come a few years earlier, I might have been able to do something! Why, why!"

Seeing that something was happening to Ryo, she soon asked with a tone of doubt,

- Ryo? Are you okay? -

Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to put on a slight smile, he spoke, "Don't worry, Sae. If anything happens, I'll help you. We're friends after all."

In these last few months that he had spent with Uchiha Sae, he had come to see his classmate as a little sister to him, and the thought of her dying wasn't easy to handle. But even so, Ryo said that, perhaps to lie to himself, or simply as if saying it would make something change. He wanted things to change.

Sae opened a small, almost imperceptible smile and then stood up, walking away, saying, "I'll be counting on you, then, Ryo." And then she disappeared into the air, leaving Ryo alone while Naruto trained a few good meters away.

Clasping his hands with his fingers intertwined in front of his face, Ryo had a darkened expression, the golden coin pulsating in his pocket as if sensing that something was about to happen soon, something that would drastically affect the village.

The day ended in this apathetic atmosphere; Ryo concluded the training with Naruto, telling him he had to do a few more things, and with that, Naruto left for somewhere. But Ryo was still serious.

He used the movement technique to go further away from the center of Konoha. Ryo could cover 100 meters with a dash of the movement technique, and after several dashes, he arrived in a more remote area where few people frequented, and there was a training forest there too.

Clutching his fists, he entered the forest, and after 5 minutes of jumping rapidly, he reached the middle of it. Ryo reached into his pocket, retrieving the golden coin. As he looked at it, he could feel the vibrations of the liquid metal moving inside the small coin-shaped container.

With a swift motion, he tossed the golden coin into the air, and it began to spin and spin, rapidly increasing in size to nearly ten times its original size, forming a large shuriken with only four blades, each measuring 40 centimeters in length, extending in all four directions. The golden shuriken started spinning more and more, while Ryo took a deep breath before launching it forward.

A streak of yellow light slashed through the air as the large shuriken shot forward at high speed, cutting through trees and rocks as if they were paper. This was something Ryo had discovered he could do; the small coin contained much more liquid metal than it appeared, approximately 3 kilograms of metal inside it.

Once Ryo made the shuriken return, it slowly shrank back to its original size. As it reached his hand, he dropped to one knee, breathing heavily. The chakra exhaustion was significant.

"I can launch it with enough force to destroy everything in its path for 10 meters and still bring it back to me. But if I were to shape it into a normal shuriken, the possible distance would be almost double, and with the shape of a needle, even more."

He stood up, then punched the tree next to him, causing it to shake and shed some leaves, along with drops of blood from his fist. Ryo knew that even with this, even with his chakra reserves having doubled in the past month, he still couldn't do anything; he was still too weak, too inexperienced, still very incapable. 

He had to train more and he would. He needs it more than anyone else. He knew what would happen in every situation from now on in the main story, but without his power he couldn't even save himself.