A few days later.
"How was it today?" Minato looked at Naruto in front of him, who had been practicing the hand signs to focus chakra for a few days.
After repeated failures, Naruto finally managed to memorize those signs.
"No problem," Naruto said, puffing out his chest slightly, but from the lack of confidence in his tone, Minato could tell he was still uncertain.
This was indeed not something Naruto was good at.
"Come on! Let your sister see the results of your practice these days," Kushina encouraged, holding Chiharu in her arms.
Chiharu smiled at Naruto.
"Alright!" Naruto was immediately filled with energy. He raised his hands and brought them together.
He began making the hand signs. His speed wasn't fast, but the accuracy of the signs was quite high.
This showed how much effort he had put into mastering these seemingly simple signs over the past few days.
After finishing the last sign, Naruto's expression became very solemn.
"Hnngh!" he grunted, trying to focus his chakra.
Minato and Kushina exchanged glances. There was no chakra fluctuation in Naruto's body.
In other words, his attempt at focusing chakra had failed.
"I don't feel anything," Naruto said, looking confused as he relaxed his hands and stared at them.
"Of course. Although you've learned the hand signs, it doesn't mean you can master the skill of focusing chakra immediately," Minato explained. At his side, Kushina's eyes showed slight concern.
Hearing this, Naruto nodded vigorously. Looking at his parents and sister, he declared with determination, "Mom, Dad, Chiharu, just watch! I'll focus my chakra soon!"
"Yeah!" Minato responded supportively.
Then, Naruto immediately ran back to his room to continue practicing.
In the living room, Kushina looked at Minato and said in a deep voice, "Because of that incident, it's much more difficult for Naruto to focus chakra than others."
"Ah." Minato nodded. Generally speaking, as long as one's physical condition met the requirements and they mastered the hand signs, chakra could be focused quickly.
Naruto had inherited the physique of the Uzumaki clan, and his physical abilities far surpassed those of his peers.
Sasuke, who was about the same age as Naruto, had already learned to focus chakra.
But Naruto was different from ordinary people. Minato had used the Eight Trigrams Seal to seal the Nine-Tails into his body. Through the seal, the Nine-Tails' chakra would leak out little by little.
This leaking Nine-Tails chakra disrupted Naruto's own chakra control.
In fact, Naruto's talent for ninja arts wasn't bad at all. He had inherited the bloodlines of both Minato and Kushina. It was just that because of the Nine-Tails sealed within him, Naruto faced much greater difficulties than others on his path to becoming a ninja.
From Naruto's room, the sound of a boy's determined efforts could be heard from time to time.
From the moment Minato sealed the Nine-Tails into Naruto, his training path was destined to be full of thorns.
But Minato and his wife believed that Naruto could definitely overcome these obstacles.
After nearly half a month, Naruto finally felt the chakra flowing in his body.
The energy that flowed through him, filling him with warmth, made Naruto feel comfortable both physically and mentally.
"I did it! I did it!" Naruto cheered in ecstasy.
Kushina, who was preparing food in the kitchen, heard the sound and looked over. She extended her perception and confirmed that Naruto's body did indeed have traces of chakra fluctuation.
"Chiharu, your brother finally did it!" Naruto ran excitedly to the cradle, holding onto its edge as he spoke to the baby girl inside.
"Brother." At that moment, Chiharu in the cradle smiled at Naruto and seemed to call him brother.
Naruto froze when he heard it, and then his face lit up with joy even greater than when he'd succeeded in his training.
"Mom, did you hear that? Chiharu just called me brother!"
With her keen hearing, it wasn't difficult for Kushina to hear it from that distance. She immediately ran to the cradle with a look of surprise in her eyes.
"Mom," Chiharu turned her eyes toward Kushina, saying the word indistinctly.
"Mom, Chiharu just called you too!" Naruto said happily.
"Yeah!" Kushina nodded, emotion welling up in her beautiful eyes.
Chiharu was only five months old now, and she had already started to speak!
In the evening, Minato returned home, and the excited Naruto and Kushina told him that Chiharu had started speaking.
Minato was also amazed.
As usual, he went to the cradle and gently stroked Chiharu's face.
Chiharu smiled softly and murmured, "Dad."
Minato's eyes widened in surprise.
"Also, today I finally succeeded in focusing my chakra!" Naruto reported his training progress to Minato.
"That's great," Minato nodded in acknowledgment.
For an ordinary person, reaching Naruto's current level would take a week at most to focus chakra.
It was only because of the Nine-Tails' chakra that the difficulty of Naruto's training increased almost exponentially.
Even considering his Uzumaki clan physique, which was naturally stronger than ordinary people at chakra control, it had still taken half a month to achieve this step.
In Minato's eyes, Naruto was undoubtedly a genius.
"Brother, you're finally back!" At Fugaku's house, Sasuke ran excitedly toward Itachi who had just appeared at the door.
Upon seeing Sasuke, Itachi suppressed the fatigue in his eyes and smiled at him.
"I've almost mastered what you taught me," Sasuke said eagerly. "Brother, can you continue to guide my practice later?"
At that moment, Itachi stretched out his right hand and poked Sasuke's forehead lightly with his finger.
"Forgive me, Sasuke. Brother is very tired today. Next time."
Before Sasuke could react, Itachi hurried into the inner room.
In Fugaku and Mikoto's room, Fugaku stood with folded arms, looking solemnly at Itachi.
"Why that expression? As a ninja, you will have to face these things sooner or later."
Itachi's eyes were filled with sadness.
In an instant, a smile appeared on Fugaku's stern face.
"You are worthy of being my son. You awakened the Sharingan so early, no worse than Shisui." His voice softened slightly. "Be a real man and raise your head!"
"Yes!"
Itachi raised his eyes, and at that moment his dark pupils suddenly turned scarlet, with a tomoe slowly rotating in them.
At the same time, two lines of clear tears fell from the corners of his eyes.
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