Naruto Dream Fulfillment Master!

Chapter 18 The Man Hidden in the Dark

The Hokage's office.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, slowly exhaled a smoke ring and removed the pipe from his mouth, placing it aside.

He walked to the table and put his hands together in a mudra.

A crystal ball floated in front of the Third Hokage, clearly projecting the real-time scene of Konoha Village.

In the scene, Class 7 is carrying out a task to catch a cat.

"You wretched cat! Don't run away!"

Naruto, panting, weaved through the forest, reaching out to pounce on a nimble, chubby cat ahead, while grumbling at Kakashi behind him, "Why are we always given these boring missions?! I'm a man destined to become Hokage, what's the point of catching cats all day?!"

Kakashi, wearing a mask, revealed a single eye that curved into a crescent moon: "A D-rank mission is still a mission, Naruto. Every rookie genin has to start from the basics."

"Hmm..." Naruto pouted, muttering resentfully as he continued his relentless pursuit.

He leaped and finally pounced on the chubby orange cat, pinning it firmly in his arms. "Ha! Got you!"

"Meow!!"

Hakimi reluctantly swung his claws, scratching several red marks on Naruto's face, causing Naruto to howl in pain and almost lose his grip.

The Third Hokage, who was watching from a distance, couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

After observing through the crystal ball for a while, he noticed that Naruto seemed to be in a more cheerful mood than before, and he was also working extra hard when carrying out missions.

It seems that the mysterious dream didn't have a negative impact on Naruto; on the contrary, it made the kid more positive?

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slightly, feeling somewhat relieved.

He raised his hand and waved it, and the image on the crystal ball in front of him slowly faded away.

Just as Kakashi reported, Naruto showed no abnormalities for the time being.

However… the Third Hokage turned around and stood with his hands behind his back by the window, gazing at the statue of the Fourth Hokage on the Hokage Rock, a trace of solemnity still lingering between his graying brows.

"An unheard-of secret technique..." Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered to himself, his eyes gleaming. "What is the purpose of the person hiding in the shadows?"

After a long while, he sighed and sat back down in his office chair.

……

As the sun sets, the day's tasks come to an end.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted..."

Naruto dragged his heavy steps on the way home, his head drooping, looking like he had lost his soul.

The seventh shift completed several tasks assigned by the village in the afternoon.

Catching cats, weeding, cleaning riverbeds... without exception, they are all trivial D-level tasks.

After working for most of the day, they hadn't even seen a decent enemy.

For Naruto, this was even more frustrating than failing his training.

"Damn it, another day wasted!" Naruto angrily kicked a pebble away, muttering to himself, "When will I get a tougher mission?! At this rate, becoming Hokage will be a never-ending dream..."

A short while later, he returned to his apartment.

He pushed open the door, and the dimly lit little house was empty; he was already used to this sight.

Naruto casually tossed his headband and coat onto the sofa, walked straight to the bedroom, and pulled out two prepared practice tools.

One is a rubber water balloon filled with water, and the other is a solid rubber ball.

Naruto gripped the water ball tightly, took a deep breath, and began to concentrate his chakra.

soon.

With a soft pop, the water balloon burst open, splashing water everywhere.

"Phew, that went relatively smoothly."

Naruto shook his wet hands and casually tossed the shattered water ball aside.

Next, is the main event.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, placed the undamaged rubber ball in front of him, pressed his hands on both sides of the ball, closed his eyes and recalled the scene of his father demonstrating the second stage last night.

"To concentrate the chakra more effectively and make it rotate at an even higher speed..."

Naruto murmured, trying to adjust the flow of chakra within his body, and slowly exerted force with both hands.

One second, two seconds...

A moment later, I felt a slight vibration in my palm.

A slight indentation appeared on the surface of the rubber ball, and it made a faint "humming" sound.

"That's it!"

Naruto's spirits lifted, and he was about to increase his intensity when he suddenly felt his chakra run wild like a runaway horse, dissipating from his palm with a bang.

Without the support of chakra, the rubber ball instantly bounced back to its original shape and rolled far away from Naruto's hand.

"Damn it!" Naruto slammed his fist on the floor in frustration, gasping in pain. "It didn't seem this hard in the dream!"

He got up, picked up the ball, and covered it with both hands again.

However, several hours of continuous training had already exhausted his energy, and now his chakra was almost depleted, and his muscles were sore.

Despite his best efforts, Naruto still couldn't make the ball break even a fraction of an inch like a water balloon.

"Hoo... Hah..."

He slumped to the ground, panting heavily, large beads of sweat sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor.

No, let's stop here for today...

Naruto's vision blurred, and no matter how unwilling he was, he had no choice but to give up for the time being.

He dragged his heavy body onto the bed, casually pulled the blanket over himself, and collapsed onto it.

The moment he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but secretly hope in his heart.

If I see my dad in my dreams again tonight, I must ask him for the secrets of the second stage...

Exhaustion washed over him like a tide, and before long, Naruto's breathing gradually became long and steady as he fell into a deep sleep.

In the dream theater.

Inside the pitch-black, silent, enormous theater, ripples suddenly appeared in the air.

Immediately afterwards, three blurry figures appeared one after another in the front row of the audience.

Kakashi was the first to adjust to the light and confirm that he had returned to this mysterious space. He showed no signs of nervousness and instead calmly walked to the center seat in the first row and sat down as if he were sitting on his own sofa.

He rested his chin on his hand, gazing leisurely at the dimly lit giant screen before him.

Sure enough, here we go again.

This matter has already been reported to the Third Hokage, and with the Hokage personally investigating, they should soon find clues about the mastermind behind it all...

With that in mind, Kakashi simply waited quietly for the "movie" to begin.