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It is often said that time flies when one is training, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
Throughout this month, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had trained with Goku every single day.
Although the training was gruelling, they all persevered, and not a single one of them considered giving up, not even Sakura, who had initially joined only for Sasuke's sake.
It is worth noting that when Sakura and Sasuke were learning to sense and guide out the ki within their bodies, the former succeeded in just one hour, while the latter took about two hours.
This left Sasuke feeling rather numb. He had lost to her in the tree-climbing exercise, and now he had lost to her in ki training as well!
However, he was not the one who felt the worst about it. The one who suffered the most was Naruto, who had witnessed the entire thing.
This was because it had taken him three hours to succeed, the same amount of time as Sasuke and Sakura combined.
Fortunately, Naruto had always been a carefree person and quickly forgot about the matter, resuming his training.
Afterwards, once Sasuke and Sakura became proficient at controlling their ki, they joined Naruto in practising how to sense the ki of others.
This stage, however, proved to be more difficult. After a month of arduous training, even the most skilled among them could only roughly sense ki within a fifteen-meter radius.
Anything beyond that distance was undetectable.
Furthermore, even within that range, their perception was only approximate, meaning they could only determine the general direction of the ki, not pinpoint its exact location.
Despite this, Goku still praised them for their talent. After all, it had taken him three years of hard training at Kami's Lookout to become proficient at sensing external ki.
For them to have reached this level in just one month was already an incredible achievement.
Thud, thud, thud!!
Smack, smack, smack!!
In a clearing, two figures were currently engaged in a fierce exchange. A closer look revealed them to be none other than Naruto and Sasuke.
BOOM!!
Two fists collided with the force of a hammer striking an anvil, sending out a small shockwave of air.
"Sasuke, your strength isn't half bad!" Naruto grinned upon feeling the force transmitted from the opposing fist.
"Hmph, you're not so bad yourself, Naruto!" Sasuke retorted with a smirk of his own.
He then suddenly raised his knee and snapped his leg out in a vicious roundhouse kick aimed at Naruto's head!
"Nice one!" Seeing the fierce attack, Naruto showed no fear. He raised his arm and solidly blocked the blow.
Then, in the spirit of returning the favour, he took advantage of the moment while Sasuke's leg was still extended and his balance was unstable, and launched a powerful upward kick of his own!
Swoosh!!
But it was as if Sasuke had anticipated it. Without even retracting his extended leg, he pushed off with his standing foot and executed several backflips, perfectly evading Naruto's attack.
Not only that, but while flipping through the air, Sasuke rapidly formed a series of hand seals.
The moment his feet touched the ground, a massive fireball erupted from his mouth and shot straight toward Naruto.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Faced with this attack, Naruto dodged to the side without a second thought and immediately formed his own hand seal. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In an instant, dozens of Narutos appeared on the field.
"Tch, this move again!" Sasuke cursed under his breath. For him, at his current level, the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu was an almost unbeatable technique.
He couldn't tell which one was the real Naruto, even with his Sharingan activated.
While ki could theoretically help him distinguish between them—as the original's ki would be slightly stronger than the clones'—Naruto created too many clones.
With his current half-baked sensing ability, he couldn't accurately lock onto the real one. And if he couldn't find the real Naruto, he couldn't break the jutsu.
Which meant there was only one option left!
"Haaah—!" A low roar escaped his lips as he clenched his fists. A brilliant white aura of ki burst forth from his body, completely enveloping him.
He then pushed off with his right foot and charged straight into the crowd of Naruto, seemingly unfazed by the prospect of being surrounded.
The army of Naruto, however, was collectively stunned by the sight of his flaring aura.
By the time they snapped out of it, Sasuke had already obliterated several of the clones at the front.
They yelped and scattered in all directions. But their speed was no match for Sasuke's pursuit.
Sasuke moved like a phantom, appearing behind each Naruto one after another and blowing the shadow clones apart as if he were chopping vegetables.
The scene was like a devastating storm, a wolf let loose in a flock of sheep. The sheer brutality of it was enough to make any observer shake their head in awe.
A short while later, the last Naruto on the field—the real one—was sent flying by a kick from Sasuke.
"Waaah! Stupid Sasuke! When did you learn how to power up?" Naruto yelled, scrambling up from the ground and staring at Sasuke with a look of pure frustration.
"Powering up," or flaring one's aura, was a technique that involved releasing the ki within one's body at a rate far exceeding the normal output.
It was a method that could temporarily boost one's all-around abilities. The more ki a user flares, the greater the increase in their power.
However, the more ki they flared, the faster it was consumed.
Once the ki in their body was nearly depleted, they wouldn't even be able to power up, and their life could even be in danger.
Therefore, when powering up, users had to control their ki output based on their total reserves carefully.
A while ago, Goku had taught them how to do this, but none of the three had been able to master it.
Naruto couldn't believe that Sasuke had just used it, and he was filled with a mix of frustration and confusion.
Seeing Naruto's expression, a smirk played on Sasuke's lips. "Hmph. I just mastered it last night."
After Naruto's taijutsu had rapidly improved to a level close to his own, he found that he could no longer beat him.
Whenever Naruto used the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, he would be hopelessly outnumbered.
Even if he used a Substitution Jutsu, it would only be a temporary escape.
Unless he were willing to run forever, he would eventually be overwhelmed, which was tantamount to admitting defeat.
But now that he had mastered the ability to power up, he could temporarily boost his strength to a level far beyond Naruto's.
With this, it didn't matter how many shadow clones Naruto created; he could crush them all with absolute power. If one appeared, he would destroy one.
If a hundred appeared, he would destroy them all!
"Aaargh, I'm so mad! Why did you have to master it before me?" Hearing Sasuke's answer, Naruto stomped his feet in anger.
He was the one who had started ki training first, so why did that stupid Sasuke get to master powering up before him?
What he failed to realise was that although he had started ki training a few days earlier, they had both started practising how to power up at the same time.
It meant that, in this particular area, Sasuke's talent was greater than his.
Just then, Goku and Sakura, who had been watching from the sidelines, walked over.
"Wow! Sasuke, you actually mastered powering up!" Sakura praised him. To make her praise seem more special, she neglected to mention that she had, in fact, also mastered the technique.
"You were both very impressive!" Goku said with a grin, his hands on his hips. He then dropped his smile.
"However, you both still have some issues in your fighting."
He then proceeded to point out their mistakes one by one, and both Naruto and Sasuke listened with rapt attention.
After every spar, Goku would critique their performance and offer suggestions for improvement.
It was precisely because of this that their combat abilities had improved significantly over the past month.
A little while later, Goku finished his explanation, and Naruto and Sasuke fell into thought, contemplating their mistakes.
As they were thinking, a boy with thick eyebrows and a bowl cut, dressed in a green jumpsuit, suddenly leapt out from nearby.
The boy quickly approached them, his eyes fixed on Sasuke with a fiery fighting spirit. He pointed a thumb at himself and declared, "My name is Rock Lee! I challenge you to a duel!"
(T/N: Please give me some power stone, I hope it can at least reach the top 100)
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