#21 - Chapter 21: Elementalization and Light Transformation? Searching for the Lost Tiger
Sasuke, seemingly wanting Naruto to take their fight seriously, was much more generous than Kakashi, directly treating them both to barbecue!
The barbecue meal lasted from six to eight o'clock, a full two hours, costing six thousand ryo!
Comparable to Naruto's entire savings!
But Sasuke didn't even blink when he paid the bill!
This extravagant behavior really made Naruto envious.
After they were full and satisfied, the three returned to the training grounds.
Sakura was the referee, and Naruto and Sasuke faced off.
"You can attack first."
He who eats another's food is short of mouth, he who takes another's gift is soft of hand.
Considering Sasuke's barbecue, Naruto decided to hold back and spar with him for a while.
Sasuke also knew the difference in strength between himself and Naruto, so he didn't stand on ceremony and attacked first.
Sasuke quickly moved around, throwing out two shurikens as a probe.
The two shurikens drew a beautiful arc as they flew towards Naruto!
But Naruto didn't dodge at all, allowing the shurikens to pass through his body!
This situation startled both Sasuke and Sakura.
Sakura even anxiously called out Naruto's name!
"Naruto!"
"Huh? What's up?"
Naruto looked at Sakura in confusion, not looking injured at all.
"You... are you okay?"
Sakura and Sasuke's expressions were both surprised and uncertain.
"Elementalization."
Naruto turned his hand into golden light and said to the two, "You can also understand it as a Light Transformation Technique. In this state, I am completely immune to physical attacks."
"Phew!"
Sakura and Sasuke both breathed a sigh of relief, but they were quickly surprised by Naruto's ability.
"What an amazing ninjutsu! If you're immune to physical attacks, doesn't that mean no one can hurt you?" Sakura said enviously.
Naruto smiled but didn't answer.
Even if they were teammates, he wouldn't casually tell them his weaknesses.
Sasuke stared at Naruto, thought for a moment, then quickly closed the distance between them and rapidly formed hand seals.
If physical attacks are ineffective, what about fire?
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
A sizable fireball was spat out from Sasuke's mouth, flying towards Naruto!
But Naruto still didn't dodge this time!
He took the scorching heat of the fireball head-on, and then stood there unharmed.
"How could fire burn light?" Naruto said playfully, looking at Sasuke.
Physical attacks were useless, and Fire Style was useless.
Sasuke suddenly felt a little powerless.
What was the point of fighting?
Sasuke gave up his attack stance, turned around and left without a word.
He wouldn't challenge Naruto again until he found a way to deal with him.
Sakura wanted to chase after him, but Sasuke refused again.
Naruto shook his head as he watched the simp Sakura, and also turned and left.
Being a simp doesn't end well.
......
In the following days, Team 7 continued to carry out tasks together.
From weeding, picking up trash, finding people, picking corn, delivering love letters... all sorts of miscellaneous tasks, up to today's task of helping the Fire Country Daimyo's wife, Lady Shizumi, find her missing little tiger!
Naruto remembered that after completing this task, Tazuna from the Land of Waves would come to Konoha to post a mission.
The current Naruto wouldn't go to Hiruzen Sarutobi to act like a brat and fight for the mission, and he didn't know if Team 7 would still receive this mission!
"Here, one for each of you!"
Kakashi handed a communicator earpiece to Naruto and the others, "This mission is quite difficult and may require searching throughout Konoha. With this, you can quickly relay information to others."
Naruto put the earpiece on his left ear, listening to the voices of others coming from inside, and was somewhat impressed by the technology of this world!
They clearly have televisions, transceivers, cameras, video cameras, and Orochimaru even developed cloning technology... but travel is still by horse-drawn carriage, and messages are mostly sent by manpower or summoning beasts.
If telephones could be popularized, maybe Jiraiya wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself.
"Okay, one street each, let's go find the kitten Tiger!"
"Yes!!"
The three shouted in agreement, then headed towards a street each.
Tiger is a brown cat wearing a bow, with obvious characteristics, but finding a cat in the entire Konoha wasn't an easy task.
Naruto and the others searched all morning, going through every street in Konoha, comparing hundreds of cats, but they just couldn't find it!
At noon,
While everyone was eating lunch, Sakura couldn't help but complain, "Kakashi-sensei, why isn't it Tiger blocking your way today?"
Kakashi: "......"
"Let's go look in the forest this afternoon. It seems that the cat isn't in the village," Kakashi changed the subject.
"It seems that's the only way~"
Sakura looked dejected, completely unable to muster any energy!
"If only we could talk to these animals, maybe they've seen that cat," Naruto said intentionally or unintentionally, glancing at Kakashi.
Kakashi noticed Naruto's gaze,
Knowing that he was hinting at him.
But... how did Naruto know that he had a way to talk to animals?
He always felt that he had no secrets in front of Naruto, maybe it was just his imagination!
"But how can people talk to animals? Animals don't speak human language, and if animals really did speak human language, that would be too scary, right?" Sakura joked, thinking that Naruto was joking.
"Animals may not speak, but it's not strange for summoning beasts to speak," Naruto said.
"Summoning beasts?"
Sakura, Sasuke, and the others' impression of summoning beasts was still stuck on Kiba Inuzuka's Akamaru.
That was a dog that couldn't speak.
"Ah, you really leave me no choice. In that case, I'll find you a helper."
Kakashi scratched his head, looking somewhat helpless.
He had never helped Naruto and the others during this period of missions.
On the one hand, it was to give them more experience and train their ability to do missions on their own.
On the other hand, it was because the missions were too simple, and he was too lazy to help.
However, the task of finding the cat was indeed a bit troublesome.
If they couldn't complete it today, it would delay Team 7's mission progress.
Kakashi originally planned to lead Team 7 to complete one D-rank mission a day, and then start taking C-rank missions on the eleventh day.
In order to ensure the smooth progress of the plan, Kakashi decided to help as Naruto wished!
"Summoning Jutsu!!"
Boom!
A cloud of smoke exploded and dissipated.
A uniquely shaped pug appeared out of thin air.
"Summoning Jutsu?"
"A dog?"
Sasuke and Sakura's focus was completely different, but they both looked at Pakkun in surprise!
But suddenly, Pakkun extended his paw to Kakashi and said, "Yo, Kakashi, long time no see!"
"The dog is talking!!!!?"
