Nindō 0038: Officiating

"You're avoiding meeting me, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, standing up from his desk. He silently cast his ramen-making jutsu and waited for the noodles to cook while turning to the new entrant. "It's already been three days since the chunin exams. I understand if it was one day, but why so long?"

"I-I'm not avoiding you, Seventh-sama …" Sarada's voice seemed to especially sting as she addressed Naruto by his official title. She walked in with her head bowed down.

"What happened to addressing me as your master?" Naruto asked jokingly. "Already over it?"

"I-I didn't get promoted to chunin …" She said weakly, unable to meet Naruto's eyes while clenching her fists at her sides.

"What does that matter?" He ripped open the seal of his ramen cup and blew on it to cool it down.

"I-I can't be your disciple since I didn't become chunin …" She felt that Naruto was being especially cruel by making her state everything clearly.

The man in question, on the other hand, was merely interested in his ramen. He raised a questioning brow, "What are you talking about?"

"That's what you said," Sarada said. "I can only become your disciple if I become a chunin."

"No I didn't," Naruto said with a weird expression as he ate a bite and hummed pleasedly, making Sarada feel even worse. She felt tears gathering in her eyes. "Really think about my words, Sarada. Recall our conversation."

"I can only become your disciple if I pass the third round of the chunin exams …" She choked out as a lone tear fell from her eye.

"You should really listen more clearly, my disciple," Naruto sighed, reluctantly putting his ramen cup on the side table and approaching his crying disciple. He knelt in front of her, matching her eye level, and wiped her eyes with his sleeves before looking into them. "I said if you reach the third round, then I will take you as my disciple. And based on your performance, I would have given you a gift."

A ray of hope seemed to appear in Sarada's teary eyes, "T-that means …"

"Yes," Naruto smiled, gently wiping her eyes once again. Sarada took a second to process his agreement, but the moment she did, she threw her arms around his neck.

"Thank you!" She squealed, tightly hugging him. "You're the best, thank you so much!" Her voice choked as she seemed to be crying for a while different reason now.

Naruto shushed her, rubbing her back gently, "You can address me as master from now on, okay?"

"Master~" She chirped in a slightly nasal voice, unable to stop her joyful tears, "Master, master …" With each address, she excitedly jumped repeatedly, still tightly hugging Naruto.

"All right," He patted her head, "Calm down now. You're my official disciple from today on."

"Yay!" She exclaimed happily, finally pulling back from hugging Naruto. "Master~" She chirped, a wide smile on her face as she looked at Naruto with happy eyes."

"Your face is all teary," He shook his head, grabbing a napkin and slightly damping it with chakra-transformed water. He then wiped her face with it, making her feel a cool sensation all over her face and over her eyelids as Naruto patted them. "Now sit with me, we'll share some ramen and you can tell me about all that you did today and yesterday."

"Okay~," She said happily. Once Naruto stood up, she followed him and sat on the couch.

"Here, this one's yours," Naruto handed Sarada her ramen cup that was already cooked in the time he coaxed her. She didn't take it, expectantly looking at him. "What? Do you want me to feed you every time?"

"O-of course not," She shook her head embarrassedly, "just today. It's a special occasion and all … If you mind it then I can, of course, eat by myself."

"Here," Naruto extended his chopsticks close to her as she ate the bite happily.

"It's very tasty," She said happily.

Naruto shook his head, "What have you been learning recently? Sasuke is staying in Konoha until the end of the week if I remember correctly."

"I'm learning how to use my Sharingan's genjutsu abilities effectively. I can put my opponents into a trance in the middle of the battle as long as they look directly into my eyes."

"Oh?" Naruto raised a brow, "Show me."

Sarada nodded and quickly activated her Sharingan. Naruto noticed that she now had two tomoe in each pupil. Just as he noticed it, he felt a pulling force on his eyes, attempting to force him to view a different scene.

"Impressive," Naruto said, casually shrugging off the ability like it was nothing.

"Nothing?" She showed an expression of disbelief at Naruto's resistance, "Dad told me that it would be difficult to put someone of a higher skill level in a trance, but I thought that you would at least need to resist for a moment."

Naruto smiled, "Don't be discouraged," He said, patting her head and feeding her the last bite from his cup. He then opened the second cup of ramen, "I've had years of practice against genjutsu. That's not even mentioning that I'm a jinchūriki, which makes it notoriously difficult to put me under a simple genjutsu trance."

"A jinchūriki …" Sarada recalled something. "Most of that day is a blur to me, but I distinctly recall that floating guy saying that he had already collected the other eight … Was he referring to the other tailed beasts?"

"You had your Sharingan activated through the entire time that Momoshiki was in the arena with us, didn't you? You should remember all of the details perfectly." Naruto said with a knowing expression, making Sarada blush.

"I-I did have it active …" She said, looking down as if she'd been caught.

"Look up, you didn't do anything wrong. If anything, it's good to be observant and informed about everything around you," Naruto said, feeding her another bite and wiping her chin with his thumb. "As for your question," He licked the soup off of his thumb, "Yes, Momoshiki converted all of the tailed beasts into chakra pills. The only one who currently remains is Kurama, inside me."

"So, they're all gone," She asked as the light of an idea seemed to die in her eyes.

"Only temporarily," Naruto smiled knowingly. "I know what your little head is planning."

"I-I don't …" She blushed at being caught.

"Stop worrying so much," Naruto distracted her with another bite. "You aren't thinking anything wrong. And even if you are having wrong thoughts, you should still tell them to me, okay? At least then, I'll be able to guide you to the correct path."

Sarada couldn't help but gulp as she looked into her master's imploring eyes. She nodded hesitantly, "I will, Master."

"Good, as for your thoughts of becoming a jinchūriki, there's still a possibility. In time, the beasts will return eventually, and once they do, you will have your opportunity to become the jinchūriki for one of them," Naruto said, making Sarada's eyes light up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but first, you will need to increase your chakra capacity massively. Orders of magnitude of what you currently have." Naruto said. "I will give you a set of activities that you must perform daily, without fail."

"Why though?" She asked. "I feel that it would be better to refine my chakra control further instead."

"Not for ninjutsu, Sarada," Naruto said. "If you wish to become a jinchūriki, you need a massive amount of chakra — Something that the Uchiha clan innately lacks. You have quality, very high quality, but that comes at the cost of quantity. A tailed beast will instantly overwhelm your physical and spiritual aspects if you aren't strong enough to seal them within yourself, instantly killing you."

"But what about you? Weren't you just born when the Kyūbi was sealed within you?" She asked, confused.

"Yes," Naruto nodded. "But you see, the seal that held Kurama within me was made in such a way that it would only allow minuscule amounts of his chakra into my body. I spent my entire childhood being nourished by Kurama's chakra before I could barely utilize his strength. Early on, even that left me bedridden and hurt."

"So if I wish to utilize the benefits of being a jinchūriki, I need to increase my chakra capacity and physical prowess," Sarada said with a serious expression, making her seem like a focused and driven individual. An image that was instantly destroyed as she demurely opened her mouth to let Naruto feed her the next bite. He even swiped his thumb across her lower lip and chin after that, making her feel like a little child. She blushed.

"Don't think so deeply," Naruto said. "That's my job. Your job is to follow along with the training regime that I give you to the smallest details. Understood?"

"Yes," She nodded, "Will you give it to me today or tomorrow?"

"End of the week. Once Sasuke leaves to track down … better I don't tell you the details," Naruto said.

"Why not?" Sarada said, aggrieved that she was being kept out of the loop.

"It involves confidential secrets of the village, Sarada," Naruto said with a hint of sternness in his tone. "You may be my disciple, but I want to ease you into these things. You are still young and will need time to develop your mentality to look at the bigger picture."

Sarada's initial instinct was to lash out but she played Naruto's words in her head once again and understood what he meant. "Fine …" She said while looking away.

"Don't act so glum," Naruto said, feeding her the final bite, "Instead, spend time with your father as much as you can. He'll probably be gone for a long while this time."

***

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