Witty Naruto Life

Chapter 113 Sasuke: Who is forcing me to be a light bulb?! (4000 words)
The two held their breath, staring into Sasuke's eyes and watching for any black mist to appear around him.

Sasuke looked at the two of them, wanting to say something but stopping himself, but it seemed that he had too much to say. His breathing became more rapid and his lips were tightly pursed, which made Naruto very anxious.

After a long, long time, he finally managed to utter a few words:
"Could you please step aside for a moment?"

This sentence was beyond the expectations of Naruto and Sakura. Jiraiya was a little surprised, but seeing that Naruto and Sakura did not stop him, he walked out of the room tactfully.

The surroundings seemed to be plunged into dead silence.

Sasuke's eyelids twitched slightly, and it took a long time before he finally concluded the battle:

"Phew...that's too bad."

After hearing this, Naruto's heart sank suddenly and he looked at Sakura, but the latter did not show any nervousness. Instead, she gestured for Naruto to continue listening to Sasuke.

"Naruto, you bear the primary responsibility for the failure of this operation."

"what……?"

Naruto was stunned. He suddenly realized that no black gas was emanating from Sasuke's body, nor did he show any signs of desperate behavior. He only heard Sasuke calmly review the day's battle:
"Although your Tailed Beast Ball is extremely powerful, it is also very lethal and can easily injure teammates. Using it rashly in that situation during the day would obviously do more harm than good, but you still used it."

"We've cooperated so many times before, and the battle locations were basically as narrow as today. So the strategy with the best chance of winning is to continue the previous battle rhythm. We can't change the battle location because of a sudden change of attention. There are too many uncertainties."

"And what's wrong with your people? They're so late today. I remember you were in charge of arranging all of them..."

He chattered incessantly, extremely dissatisfied with all the 'mistakes' Naruto had made today, but if you carefully observed his expression, you would find that his tone was more of a reproach of disappointment, and his self-doubt was almost imperceptible.

"...And Sakura, you're being too accommodating to Naruto. Just because you two are a couple, you can't... Hey?! Why are you hugging me all of a sudden?"

Caught off guard, Sasuke found that Naruto suddenly hugged him, and his arms exerted a little force, making Sasuke feel a little uncomfortable.

"You scared me to death, brother, that's great...that's great..."

Naruto patted Sasuke's back vigorously, his voice trembling. He had imagined countless scenes of Sasuke turning evil, how he had fallen, how he had been completely devoured by his inner demons, but he just didn't dare to imagine a scene where Sasuke got better.

Once upon a time, the thought that [Sasuke would be devoured by his inner demon] had become a source of worry for Naruto. This worry was different from the inner demon of the mastermind behind the scenes. It was more realistic, like the various obstacles that were destined to be encountered in life, making people feel anxious all the time.

But now, Sasuke is not as worried about gains and losses as in the original work. Instead, he gradually gets better under Naruto's series of efforts and transitions to a normal person.

This made Naruto feel that everything he had done before was worth it.

The hard work was not in vain.

As if he understood Naruto's concerns, Sasuke stopped struggling, but still looked towards Sakura awkwardly. After a moment, he chose to push Naruto away, coughed, and said:

"You don't have to blame yourself so much... Don't worry, your Tailed Beast Ball can't kill me. I'm fine now."

"Pfft~"

Sakura on the side couldn't help laughing, but she didn't tell Sasuke that he had misunderstood. She just turned her gaze back to Naruto.

Naruto scratched his head awkwardly and said to Sasuke, "Ah... yes, I did lose my composure a little..."

"But, aren't you really frustrated? Or rather, do you feel that the gap between you and Itachi is quite large..."

He carefully asked for Sasuke's opinion, and the latter took a long breath and said calmly: "I know that there is still a big gap between him and me now."

"Ability, experience, reaction... these aspects are far from enough,"

"But I have changed. I no longer just run away like I did back then, and I no longer live in shame. Most importantly, I have finally done something for my fallen tribesmen, and I will do more of the same in the future."

Naruto was a little dazed. He suddenly felt that the boy in front of him had grown up. He no longer thought about problems like a single-threaded machine, but began to become more complicated and think about problems from multiple angles.

"You've really changed..." Naruto's eyes were full of relief, like an old father watching his child grow up.

Perhaps this marks that Sasuke will no longer be easily manipulated like in the original work.

At this time, Sakura suddenly asked: "What are your plans after that? Are you going to fight against the inner demon Itachi?"

"Yes." Sasuke answered straightforwardly, and Naruto paused and said, "Actually, we also need to use that fragment. I may not be able to give it to you often."

Sasuke was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "Then give it to me when you have time."

The three of them fell silent again. Suddenly, Sasuke broke the silence again and whispered a number: "78 times."

"what?"

"78 times, the number of times we challenged the Heart Demon Weasel in the past two days."

Naruto's eyelids twitched, but he didn't express his opinion, but just looked at Sasuke quietly.

But he took a deep breath and said calmly and firmly: "If this number is not 78 times, but 100 times, 200 times, will I have more changes than before?"

Naruto didn't say anything, but Sakura nodded and said, "That's right, as long as you keep practicing, you will definitely become stronger."

"My parents once told me a phrase: God rewards hard work, which means that as long as you work hard enough, you will definitely receive God's gift. I think this gift is Uchiha Itachi's death."

Sasuke was silent for a long time, and agreed with Sakura's words: "Yes... As long as I increase this number to hundreds or thousands of times, I will definitely be able to defeat Uchiha Itachi!"

He was a little excited and wanted to stand up, but was pushed back down by Naruto beside him.

But Naruto figured out one thing: why did Sasuke change like this?

In addition to the fact that the previous stage of treatment allowed Sasuke to release a lot of negative emotions, what was more important was their persistent sparring over the past two days.

The repeated battles with the inner demon Itachi allowed Sasuke to gradually get rid of the fear remaining in his memory. From a psychological point of view, this process is called "desensitization".

For example, if a person is afraid of puppies, desensitization therapy is to let him repeatedly come into contact with various puppies until he is completely familiar with the creature and realizes that puppies will not cause him any harm.

The inner demon Itachi is Sasuke's 'puppy'. Although he is powerful, as a BOSS that can be defeated repeatedly, it will hardly bring any death penalty to Sasuke after killing him. It is nothing more than the pain of the clone being transmitted to the original body.

If this process is repeated several times, the pain will become numb.

And during the sparring process, Sasuke clearly felt his own progress. This positive feedback was like a player who was repeatedly abused by the soul-wandering BOSS, dying and coming back to life, but his proficiency was getting higher and higher. The player clearly felt his own progress, and thus became more and more motivated.

Until he encountered the real Itachi, and then found: Hey, it seems to be the same as before?

That means it’s a billion points stronger!

As a result, the psychological shadow was naturally alleviated, and at least it would not easily break out before meeting Itachi again.

However, as he watched Sasuke gradually getting better, Naruto began to have doubts in his heart.

The hole dug for him by the mastermind behind the scenes is indeed difficult to fill, but now Sasuke's condition has been greatly alleviated, so what will be his next step?
Tsunade, who was about to meet him? Gaara, who hadn't been in touch with him yet?

Or, release new travelers?
But Naruto quickly put the thought aside. Forget it, I won't think about this topic tonight.

Don't overwork yourself.

outside the room.

Jiraiya, who was waiting in the corridor, paced back and forth, occasionally leaning towards the room where the three people were, trying to absorb some information, but quickly retracted his ears.

"Forget it, instead of worrying about them, I should think about how to collect materials later, hehe~"

He specifically chose a hot spring hotel. Although Naruto and the others were injured and it was not suitable for them to soak in the hot springs, it was fine for him.

The main reason is that the deadline for the new issue of "Intimate Paradise" is approaching, and I am still very dedicated to my work. Unlike some old men, I find all kinds of outrageous reasons to delay or stop updating every day.

"Whoosh!"

As he was thinking, he suddenly noticed a figure in white appear in front of him and kneel on one knee.

"Jiraiya-sama," he greeted Jiraiya politely, indicating that he wanted to speak to Naruto.

"You are from the third generation...?"

"Yes. Now I serve Uzumaki Naruto."

"Oh, that old guy really cares about Naruto..." Jiraiya felt a little emotional, but he did not stop Bai Yi. Instead, he gestured for him to wait at the door and wait for Naruto and the others to finish.

At this time, the temperature in the room was a little low.

Sakura looked at Naruto with a somewhat cold expression, her eyebrows knitted together, and her eyes were full of blame.

"...Why aren't you talking?"

"Uh... Actually, I can tell you about this. It's mainly because someone is next to us and it's not convenient..." Naruto shrugged, indicating that he was a little embarrassed with Sasuke, the light bulb, next to him.

After asking about Sasuke's situation, Naruto, who originally thought that everyone would be happy, was soon questioned by Sakura.

The point of questioning is: Why did you suddenly abandon them and start the four-tail mode without permission? Do you know that I am very worried about you? Seeing you go four-tail mode for no reason is driving people crazy!

Many girls are like this. When something happens with their boyfriend, they may not have time to settle it face to face, but they will definitely take note of it secretly, and then find an opportunity to punch him randomly, making him miserable.

But Sakura also had her reasons. Naruto had never mentioned activating the Four-Tails mode before. Considering the small battle area and the dense crowd, everyone agreed to shorten the battle as much as possible and not use overly powerful techniques.

The result? It still has four tails.

Just because you have a slightly better relationship with Kyuubi, you can mess around, right?
Naruto looked very embarrassed. He felt as if he had forgotten his girlfriend's anniversary after repeated promises, and now she came to blame him, which made him feel uncomfortable.

The key point is that this really has nothing to do with him! Is he also responsible for my actions?
But why does this statement sound so scumbag?
"Actually, this isn't my fault. It's mainly the Nine-Tails' fault. It got itchy hands and couldn't wait for me to kill Itachi when it saw his Sharingan."

Naruto thought about it and realized that it was not convenient to explain the real thing now that Sasuke was present, but if he didn't explain immediately, Sakura would be furious, so it was natural for him to blame the Nine-Tails.

"Is this true?" Sakura didn't believe Naruto's words. "It has no brains, and you have no brains either, right? And if that's the reason, why did you hesitate for so long just now?"

No, why haven't I seen you so clear-headed before... Naruto complained in his heart. He was annoyed by this "sudden" IQ increase of women.

"Because Kyuubi didn't let me say it just now. It knew that what it did was wrong, but it wanted to put the blame on me."

After hearing this, Sasuke also had something to say: "Naruto... I used to think you were quite responsible, why are you speaking so insincerely now?"

"?"

"It's obvious that you can control the power of the Nine-Tails very well. Sakura and I are both very clear about this. If the Nine-Tails is really so impulsive, why didn't it forcibly control you when fighting Danzo? So it's still your problem."

Naruto felt the veins on his head popping out, but he couldn't get angry in front of them. Everyone had just been injured, and Sasuke had just recovered from a serious illness. There was no need to make things unpleasant over such a small matter.

Hey, what do you call this? This is called the helplessness of adults...

Naruto suddenly thought of a few lyrics that fit the situation: It's not a sin for a man to cry, and even the strongest man has the right to lose his tiredness.
Naruto: "Okay, okay, I promise you, I will never act so capriciously again."

Sakura: "Swear."

Naruto: "Huh?"

Sasuke beside him also nodded seriously, which made Naruto's mouth twitch slightly.

Sooner or later, I'll find a chance to give the Pillar a good beating... Naruto raised a hand helplessly and swore reluctantly, "I, Uzumaki Naruto, will never act on impulse and make my good...comrades worry."

He swallowed the words "good teammate" but Sakura still caught it. She immediately sneered, causing Sasuke to look at her sideways.

"Well, that's it. I'm going to find the lecherous immortal..."

Naruto opened the door and saw the lecherous sage and the man in white waiting quietly behind him.

"Looks like you'll be very busy tonight," Jiraiya joked to Naruto, then entered the room and told the people inside to relax tonight and treated them to a nice meal.

Naruto looked in the direction of the room and gestured for Bai Yi to follow him a little further, and the two stopped at the corner.

"That's it..."

"stop."

Unexpectedly, Naruto interrupted Bai Yi directly and asked, "Are you here to report to me, or to tell me something important?"

Bai Yi looked up, confused about Naruto's intentions for a moment, and after a moment's deliberation, he said carefully, "Well... both."

"Can you handle the important things yourself?"

"...It's possible, but..."

"How about this, you report to me tomorrow morning," Naruto pinched his brows, "I want to relax a little tonight, what do you think?"

"Ah...of course, no problem."

Bai Yi suddenly realized that he was too used to reporting various things to Naruto, and had subconsciously regarded him as his former leader, ignoring the fact that Naruto was still young.

"Well, that's it. I'm going back first."

After saying that, Naruto walked back slowly, leaving Bai Yi alone.

But Bai Yi hesitated and murmured softly, "Hey...why don't you just talk to him first?"

(End of this chapter)