Sora was now six years old. Over the past year, although he had focused on developing his portable space, he hadn't neglected his physical and mental training.
Both his speed and strength had improved tremendously.
[Host: Sora]
[Strength: 108]
[Speed: 123]
[Constitution: 119]
[Spirit: 106]
[Chakra: 2048]
[Talent: Spatial Talent LV3]
[Taijutsu: Basic Shuriken Technique LV10 (Max), Basic Taijutsu LV10 (Max), Konoha Whirlwind LV4, Portable Space LV1]
[Ninjutsu: Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu LV6, Earth Style: Earth Wall LV5, Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet LV5, Substitution Jutsu LV10 (Max)]
Looking at his now rather impressive stat panel, a twisted smile crept onto Sora's face.
Even without chakra, his physical strength alone was enough to go toe-to-toe with weaker Chūnin—about on par with Rock Lee during the Chūnin Exams.
Shuriken and basic taijutsu were practiced daily at the Ninja Academy, and once mastered, they hit max level automatically.
Even the rest of his ninjutsu had leveled up over the year. The effects were noticeable: faster hand signs, more power, and less chakra cost.
"I think I could beat a weaker Jōnin now!" Sora clenched his fists, feeling the surging strength within his body.
Having made up his mind, he immediately left home and headed to Konoha's largest ninja tool shop—also known as Tenten's family shop, though she was only one year old at the moment.
"I'll take ten thousand explosive tags and a thousand shuriken."
"Coming right up! Just a moment!"
Hearing the order, the shop owner's face lit up like fireworks, eyes gleaming with stars.
Each explosive tag cost 500 ryō, and ten thousand tags came to 5 million. Adding the shuriken brought the total to 7 million ryō! Even for the largest shop in Konoha, this was a massive order.
"Um, we only have 8,000 explosive tags left in stock—will that do?"
While Sora was browsing the shelves, the owner rubbed his hands nervously and walked over.
"No problem," Sora replied understandingly. "Just give me everything you have."
"Right away! Please wait a moment!"
In just a few minutes, the owner handed over two storage scrolls to Sora.
After acquiring all the ninja tools he needed, Sora went to the Akimichi clan's BBQ shop and packed 1 million ryō worth of grilled meat—sealing it all inside his portable space.
The interior of the space had already been fully vacuumed, so it could perfectly preserve the meat without spoilage.
He had already used his identity as the Fourth Hokage's younger brother to take a leave of absence from school the day before. Now all that remained was to slip out of Konoha.
Over the past few days, Sora had confirmed that Kakashi and Rin were scheduled to depart for the Land of Water on a mission. Since Minato had verified this himself, it had to be accurate.
It was this mission that would eventually lead to Rin's death and Obito's descent into darkness. Sora was determined to stop that.
Even putting Obito aside, the card drop from the Three-Tails alone made the trip worthwhile.
Now that everything was ready, he simply waited for the opportunity.
Before long, using a loophole he had learned from Minato, Sora quietly slipped out of Konoha and strolled down the road to the Land of Water, humming to himself.
Meanwhile, back in Konoha, Kushina had gone to Sora's room after calling him repeatedly for dinner. The moment she entered, she found a letter placed neatly on his desk.
"Kushina, I've left the village for something important. If I run into danger, just channel chakra into the Flying Thunder God kunai, and big brother Minato will come help me. Don't worry. I'll be back in ten days at most. No need to come looking."
Rustle, rustle…
Reading the note word by word, Kushina's scarlet hair flared without wind. She grit her teeth and growled, "That little brat! Running away from home? Has he got a death wish?!"
She threw herself onto the couch, slapped the letter down on the table with a loud smack, and waited for Minato to return.
Though furious, she wasn't particularly worried—she knew how strong Sora had become.
Still, the anger had to go somewhere, and Minato was going to take the full brunt of it.
Not long after Sora left, Kakashi and Rin appeared at the village gate. Their mission destination: the Land of Water.
…
"Where's Black Zetsu right now?" After seeing the scenery of the Land of Fire for too long, Sora was getting bored.
Suddenly, a gleam of cunning flashed in his eyes, and a faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Interesting. Let's play a little."
Without changing expression, he casually walked beneath a thick, tall tree, lowering his head as if lost in thought.
Whoosh—BOOM!
From the dense treetops, a shuriken wrapped in an explosive tag shot down toward Sora.
"Heh, couldn't hold back, huh?"
With a swift leap back, Sora opened his portable space and drew a shuriken of his own—also wrapped with an explosive tag—and hurled it in return.
"No way—?!"
BOOM!!
With max-level shuriken technique, Sora's throw not only intercepted the enemy's attack—it carried the enemy's shuriken right back with it.
Two explosive-tagged shuriken struck in unison. The enemy barely had time to scream before being swallowed by the explosion.
"So beautiful," Sora murmured, watching the tree burn in a fierce blaze, a trace of dazed satisfaction flickering in his eyes.
Without a backward glance, he turned and left the scene.
With two explosive tags, a mere Genin had no chance. Death was the only outcome.
He had seen enough of these cases while browsing through the Hokage's mission reports. He was very familiar with them.
These so-called "rogue shinobi" weren't even real ninjas—just thugs who'd learned a jutsu or two and ran around robbing villages in the Land of Fire.
There were so many of them that they couldn't all be dealt with.
"La-la-la~ Life is good for the common folk~" Sora walked with a spring in his step, humming a tune nobody else could recognize.
And this was just the power of a maxed-out basic shuriken technique. Once his other jutsu reached max level, how incredible would that be?
"Alright, guess I'll find a hot spring inn for the night. No need to rush—Kakashi and Rin left after me."
Not far ahead, a town came into view, and Sora's eyes lit up.
He'd been in the world of Naruto for over a year now and had yet to experience a proper hot spring inn.