Uzumaki Naruto had his hands behind his head, a frivolous smile on his lips, as if he had come specifically to mock Sasuke.
But his eyes kept glancing at Sakura up in the tree. Clearly, he had followed her here.
Now Ryun understood why Naruto had come.
With Sakura leaving the village along with Sasuke, Naruto must have seen them and followed. Otherwise, he might have stayed awake the entire night.
"Dead last, who do you think you're laughing at?"
Sasuke, having been lectured by Ryun, didn't dare to speak up, but he couldn't endure Naruto's mockery.
Sasuke got up, chakra infused into his feet. The next moment, he charged in front of Naruto and threw a punch at his face.
Although Sasuke hadn't finished his tree-walking training, even training halfway had brought him much greater improvement than his previous self-taught efforts.
Sasuke's speed was now nearly twice as fast as before. Naruto, who was already far inferior, naturally couldn't parry this punch.
He screamed and stepped back, tripped over a tree root, and fell flat on his backside.
"Wait, Sasuke!"
Ino's voice only reached them now. She was worried Sasuke would knock Naruto out and send him to the hospital.
The others present didn't know Naruto's identity, but she knew it perfectly well.
Although it seemed the whole village disliked Naruto, he was actually the most closely monitored individual in the entire Konoha, not allowed to suffer even a little injury.
"Hmph, I won't waste my energy teaching a lesson to a dead last like this."
Sasuke withdrew his fist. He hadn't intended to hurt Naruto in the first place, only to scare him off.
During these past few days training under Ryun, although he still harbored a great deal of resentment towards him, he had indeed learned to rein in his temper.
Since one must show respect to the strong, then one should naturally show proper demeanor towards the weak.
Sasuke turned around coolly. In that moment, he seemed to regain a bit of his original aura as the school's heartthrob.
However, this only further provoked Naruto.
Not only had he screamed in fright in front of Sakura, but Sasuke also treated him as weak.
He could silently accept that everyone disliked him, but he absolutely would not allow anyone to look down on him.
"You, stand right there. I want to settle this with you!"
Naruto charged at Sasuke. This time, Sasuke didn't hold back, directly flipping Naruto over and pinning him down on the grass.
This move looked exactly like the posture Ryun used earlier when he flipped Sasuke.
"Dead last, next time I won't hold back."
"Who asked you to hold back? You don't even dare to hit someone, you Uchiha idiot!"
Ino and Sakura also jumped down from the tree and came to Ryun's side.
"What should we do, should we step in and stop them?" Ino was still worried that Naruto getting hurt would bring trouble for the group.
Sakura rolled up her sleeves at this point and said, "Let me handle it. Naruto, this jerk, has no manners at all..."
She was about to say more, but Ryun suddenly put his arm around her shoulder.
Sakura was startled. She was about to ask Ryun what he was doing when she saw him quickly lean down towards her, his mouth almost touching her earlobe.
Sakura instantly froze. Just as her face was about to flush, Ryun's cool voice sounded in her ear, "Sakura, don't casually say someone has no manners, especially when that person is an orphan."
Ryun remembered one of Sakura's biggest flaws. Now that Sakura had become his simulation subject, he wanted to make her image more perfect.
"Not just Naruto, but I, Sasuke, and many others in Konoha are also orphans."
It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over Sakura. She froze on the spot.
She had indeed had that impulsive thought just now. Thinking about it now, if she had accidentally said it out loud, wouldn't she have hurt three people at once?
At this moment, Sakura hated her own mouth intensely, even wanting to slap herself.
But Ino grabbed her hand, stopping her action, and said with a gentle smile, "It's okay, he's not angry either. Otherwise, why would he have stopped you in advance?"
"Mmm..."
Sakura nodded, looking gratefully at Ryun's back. Ryun had saved her again.
The first time he saved her life, this time he saved her character.
Ryun watched Sasuke and Naruto argue, thinking about how to treat Naruto.
Theoretically, he should ignore or even be hostile towards Naruto like the other villagers, otherwise, he would incur the wariness of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo.
However, Ryun considered the future unity of Team 7. He himself didn't need to get along with Naruto, but at least Sasuke should maintain a friendly relationship with Naruto.
What to do then... Ryun looked back at Sakura and beckoned her over.
Sakura, who was immersed in emotion, immediately approached, looking at Ryun with affectionate eyes, and said, "Nojuro-sama, what is it?"
Ryun put his arm around Sakura's shoulder again, pointed at Naruto with a frivolous expression, and said, "Who is this guy who looks like a yellow fox?"
Hearing this, Naruto immediately bristled, "I'm not a yellow fox, I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And who are you, this gray-haired, pale-skinned monster? I've never seen you before! Also, let go of Sakura, you jerk!"
"Sakura and I are friends. Sakura wouldn't dislike this kind of contact, right Sakura?"
Ryun winked at Sakura. Sakura immediately understood.
Although she didn't know why Ryun was provoking Naruto, this kind of thing... she was ashamed to admit, she was quite good at it.
After all, she and Ino had been pulling each other's hair for years, and she had mocked Naruto more than once in the past.
Sakura simply leaned against Ryun, using a higher-pitched voice, and said, "He's the dead last of our class, someone with almost no talent but always boasting."
"Nojuro-sama, let's ignore him. How about you teach us how to walk on water?"
"I don't want him to see me all wet."
"Alright, Sasuke, you send him away. If you can't even handle him, don't train with me anymore."
Ryun waved his hand, turned around, and left with Sakura.
Naruto almost gritted his teeth to pieces. He really couldn't break free from Sasuke's restraint and finally couldn't help but speak, "Sasuke, why are you learning from such an arrogant guy? Can't you see he's bullying Sakura?"
Sasuke curled his lip. If this counted as bullying Sakura, then what about Tenten coming out of Ryun's room every day?
This guy in front of him was still just a kid after all.
Seeing Ryun walk away, he released Naruto and said, "It's simple. Because he's strong. Just like I'm stronger than you, so I can pin you down."
"Uzumaki Naruto, no one cares about the words of the weak. Go back to Konoha and play your pranks."
"Of course, you can also try to challenge me. I happen to need a punching bag right now."
Sasuke stretched his limbs. Seeing Naruto not moving, he shook his head in disappointment.
Then Sasuke returned to the big tree and resumed his tree-walking training.
Naruto was clearly provoked. Anger made him want to throw a punch at Sasuke, but he knew he was no match for Sasuke.
Soon, he was drawn in by Sasuke repeatedly falling from the tree. This time, he no longer dared to mock Sasuke.
Before long, Naruto even found a tree himself and started trying to learn, even though he didn't know why he was doing it.
On the other side, Ryun was just about to take the two girls to the river surface for water-walking when he sensed another fairly strong chakra approaching, heading straight towards him.
Ryun turned his head and saw a pair of white eyes.
Hinata came too?
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