In the Waterfall Cave, Naruto did not know that the examiner meeting regarding the Chunin Exams in the Hokage Office had ended. He only knew that it was about time to go back.
He locked his mind onto the Flying Thunder God Kunai in his apartment.
Swish!
The next second, Naruto appeared in the apartment's bathroom.
The Shadow Clone seemed to sense something, then walked into the bathroom in a daze.
After swapping identities, Naruto put the Kunai hidden in the bathroom back into his ninja tool pouch, and then lay down on the bed. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Over the next few days, Naruto went about his normal activities in the village during the day.
At night, he would use the Flying Thunder God Technique to go to the Waterfall Cave and train with forty Shadow Clones.
For an ordinary ninja, five days might not even be enough to master drawing the Flying Thunder God Technique formula. But Naruto had forty Shadow Clones contemplating it simultaneously, which was equivalent to one person spending two hundred full days to master the same jutsu.
The intensive training of forty people made his memory integration before sleep every day feel like a torrent of information.
In five days, he had finally conquered all the most important breakthroughs.
First was the Flying Thunder God Technique Second Stage, completing multiple coordinate switches in mid-air and executing changes in attack direction—he had achieved it.
This improvement was crucial. If the Flying Thunder God Technique First Stage gave him a teleportation tool, them Flying Thunder God Technique Second Stage allowed him to master the fundamentals of dynamic spatial combat.
Now, relying solely on his physical speed combined with the Flying Thunder God Technique, even without using Kurama Chakra Mode, he was capable of creating devastating positional confusion for his opponents in a direct confrontation.
In terms of marking speed, after five days of high-speed touching and marking training tens of thousands of times a day, Naruto could now carve the complete mark onto his opponent in the split second of a taijutsu clash.
Although the precision and stealth had not yet reached the level of Minato, where the mark was permanent upon application and undetectable unless activated, his current marks could still last about one to two weeks. He was on the right track, and the rest was just a matter of grinding, he would catch up sooner or later.
Regarding Kurama Chakra Mode, in five days, he had raised the coordination and stability of his speed, strength, perception, and Chakra Arms by a significant level.
Among them, the application of Chakra Arms showed the most obvious progress. He could already summon large hands from eight to ten different directions simultaneously to perform combo attacks.
During this time, Kurama woke up twice. Once was to criticize his posture for summoning the large hands as not being imposing enough, and the other time was to yawn and say: "Hmph, your use of the Chakra Mode is barely acceptable, you didn't disgrace my Chakra."
On the last night, Naruto stood in the cave for a moment, looking around at the small pile of Kunai used for practice at his feet and the Flying Thunder God marks fixed on the rock walls, then brushed his hand over the sixteen Kunai with Flying Thunder God marks inside his ninja tool pouch, before withdrawing his gaze.
From the time of his transmigration until now, he had finally transformed from a transmigrator relying on plot knowledge and instinct to survive, into someone who truly held a few trump cards.
...
Morning.
Naruto stood in the bathroom of his apartment, examining his new look in the mirror.
His hair was a bit longer than before, just enough for a few strands to naturally hang on both sides of his cheeks.
The deep blue band of his forehead protector was tied very neatly, completely different than his previous crooked tying style.
He had also completely changed his clothes.
It was no longer the orange tracksuit, but a black, high-collared bodysuit. Over it, he wore a white trench coat, unbuttoned.
At the same time, he also changed into a pair of black shoes, the soles of which were more wear-resistant than the previous pair, suitable for high-speed movement.
Originally, Naruto didn't intend to be so flashy, but his strength gave him the confidence.
The Flying Thunder God Technique Second Stage's practical teleportation ability combined with Kurama Chakra Mode.
Besides, he was going to be the Hokage in the future. If he always cowered and hid, he would never be able to uphold the Hokage haori behind him.
True control was never about not being discovered, but about having everyone be forced to accept it.
Naruto walked towards the Ninja Academy, following the route in his memory.
He turned the last corner before the Ninja Academy and saw two familiar figures in the distance.
Sasuke was leaning against a tree at the school entrance with his hands in his pockets, and Sakura was standing beside him.
Naruto walked towards the two of them and raised his right hand in a casual wave. "You two are here early."
Sasuke and Sakura turned their heads at the same time and both of them froze.
Sasuke's pupils constricted slightly when he saw Naruto.
'This loser is actually acting so cocky.' Sasuke evaluated coldly in his heart.
He wasn't quite sure why he felt a bit annoyed. Maybe it was because Naruto's outfit was vaguely starting to surpass him.
Sakura's reaction, however, was in a completely different direction.
The black high-collared shirt accentuated his shoulder line, and the white trench coat fluttered slightly in the morning breeze—it was simply a product of a different dimension compared to that sloppy orange tracksuit from before.
Sakura subconsciously compared him to Sasuke, and then let out a scream in the depths of her heart that only she could hear.
'So Naruto is actually this handsome when he cleans up?'
'No, no, no...'
'Damn it, Sakura, what are you thinking? You like Sasuke! Someone like Naruto can't compare to Sasuke at all!'
'Sasuke will always be the most handsome. Naruto just changed his clothes, he's still that same loser at his core.'
After completing a whole process of self-persuasive debate in her mind, Sakura coughed and resumed her reserved expression.
She shifted her gaze away from Naruto and looked at Sasuke's profile, confirming that her heart did indeed beat faster when looking at Sasuke, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.