Chapter 317: Ugly Little Buns

"What does 'OP' mean?"

Sakura looked at Shishou with a puzzled expression upon hearing his comment. She completely ignored the word that followed "OP."

Without lifting his head, Shishou replied, "Well, how should I put it?"

"Just think of Sasuke and Naruto as the reincarnations of gods."

Considering that Sasuke and Naruto were the reincarnations of the Sage of Six Paths' sons, Asura and Indra, what Shishou said wasn't far from the truth.

"Reincarnations of gods..."

Sakura was bewildered by Shishou's explanation, feeling like she was hearing a fantastical story. Could such things really exist in this world?

And if Sasuke and Naruto were as Shishou said, how did Shishou know about it? Was he also a reincarnation of a god?

With these thoughts in mind, Sakura glanced at Shishou curiously.

It was then that Sakura noticed that without his mask, Shishou's appearance was nearly as handsome as Sasuke's, with even fairer skin.

'No wonder Ino likes Shishou so much,' Sakura thought, staring blankly at Shishou's handsome profile.

After cleaning his mask, Shishou wrung it out and used a small fireball in his right hand to dry it while speaking to Sakura:

"Actually, you don't need to think about all this right now."

"You just need to keep training hard, fully harness your chakra control talent, and master it. Your future achievements will at least be on the level of a Kage."

Seeing Shishou casually use a small fireball without any hand signs, Sakura was shocked. She thought to herself, 'Shishou is already this powerful? He can use jutsu without hand signs... that's incredible...'

Coming out of her shock, Sakura understood what Shishou meant and looked at him in surprise, "Shishou, do you really think I can become as strong as a Kage?"

As his mask dried, Shishou extinguished the fireball and nodded confidently, "Of course."

Seeing Shishou's firm belief in her, Sakura asked, "Why?"

Shishou smiled at Sakura and said, "Because you are Sakura."

As the main female character in the original story, Sakura's talent was indeed high.

Hearing Shishou's sincere words, Sakura felt her heart skip a beat. Looking at his handsome face, her heart started to race uncontrollably.

"Sh-Shishou, I-I should get going..."

Blushing furiously, her face even redder than her pink hair, Sakura stammered before turning and running away.

Watching Sakura run off, Shishou chuckled, put his mask back on, and headed towards the Konoha forest.

...

In the Konoha forest.

Tenten was diligently practicing her shuriken techniques while occasionally glancing around, hoping to see someone.

When she spotted Shishou, she smiled happily and ran up to him.

"Shishou."

Tenten approached Shishou, smiling sweetly, and took out a small package from behind her, offering it to him.

"Look, I bought some soup dumplings. Let's eat them before we start training."

Hearing that Tenten had bought soup dumplings, Shishou looked amusingly at the two buns styled into her hair.

"Let's eat in the tree."

With that, Shishou picked Tenten up and carried her to a tree branch, where they sat side by side, watching the setting sun.

Holding onto the package, Tenten allowed Shishou to carry her, her face turning red. At first, she thought of being carried by Shishou as a necessary part of training, but as her feelings grew, she started to feel shy.

Sitting together on the branch, Tenten opened the package, revealing a neat food box. Inside were several unattractive dumplings.

These were made by her. Embarrassed by their appearance, she had lied and said she bought them.

"Here, Shishou." Tenten handed one of the dumplings to Shishou with her small hand.

Seeing the misshapen dumplings, Shishou immediately guessed what was going on. However, he didn't say anything, taking the dumpling and slowly eating it after removing his mask.

"How does it taste?" Tenten asked expectantly.

"Tastes great. I really like it," Shishou said after finishing the dumpling, giving her a thumbs up.

Despite their appearance, the dumplings Tenten made tasted delicious.

With a smile, he reached for another dumpling.

"I'm glad you like it." Happy to see Shishou enjoying her food, Tenten also took a dumpling and began eating.

Swinging her legs while eating, Tenten looked innocent and pure under the setting sun, exuding a natural charm.

After finishing the dumplings, Shishou asked, "Tenten, how are you doing with the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

The Shadow Clone Jutsu was an invaluable tool for accelerating learning and training. Over the past year, Shishou had taught this technique to Hinata, Ino, and Tenten.

Hearing Shishou's question, Tenten replied with a bit of frustration, "My chakra reserves are too low to create many clones, and I can't maintain them for long. Using them for training and learning is quite difficult."

Understanding her concern, Shishou nodded.

The Shadow Clone Jutsu, while powerful, required a large amount of chakra.

As a civilian-born student without any special bloodline, Tenten naturally had limited chakra reserves.

This was also why, in the original series, only Naruto could use Shadow Clones for training, thanks to his large chakra reserves from both the Uzumaki clan and the Nine-Tails.

Shishou extended his left hand to Tenten, smiling, "Tenten, give me your hand."

Despite feeling shy, Tenten unhesitatingly placed her hand in his.

She trusted Shishou unconditionally.

As soon as their hands touched, Tenten felt a warm energy flow from Shishou's hand into her body, spreading through her limbs and filling her with warmth.

After infusing Tenten with part of the Hashirama bloodline to boost her chakra to a level similar to Naruto's at graduation, Shishou stopped.

Tenten was just a year out of the academy and couldn't conceal her chakra like he could with his parasitic insects.

Increasing her chakra too much would attract unnecessary attention and trouble.

Matching Naruto's chakra level was perfect—enough to create two Shadow Clones for training without drawing too much attention.

Finishing his task, Shishou smiled at Tenten, "Tenten, try using the Shadow Clone Jutsu now."

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This fanfiction is complete on my P@treon. If you want to read it, you can find it at p@treon.com/Betek. change @ to a