In the rarely visited Training Ground Three, Naruto's feet shifted in small, calculated steps. Every muscle in his body was tensed like a young leopard ready to pounce. He stared intently at the massive tree before him, its trunk so wide it would take dozens of people linking hands to fully embrace it.
Lately, aside from showing his face around the village when necessary, Naruto had spent nearly all his time in this vast and silent forest… or more precisely, on this colossal tree—the tallest one he'd found after exploring the area.
'This time, I'm beating my record! Ha!'
With the full confidence of a child, he let out a spirited cheer, stomping the ground hard enough to leave a small palm-shaped imprint three inches deep in the dirt. Then, like an arrow loosed from a bow, he shot straight toward the towering tree.
'Nice! This starting burst feels good! I can do this!'
Grinning, Naruto's feet began to shimmer with a faint blue energy. As he neared the tree without any sign of hesitation, he lifted his right leg and stepped firmly onto the wide trunk. At once, he bent backward, aligning his body perpendicular to the ground, and began sprinting up the tree in clear defiance of gravity!
Focusing chakra to the soles of one's feet to run up trees was a fundamental technique that most ninja in the world of Naruto could perform. Mastering this would greatly improve Naruto's control over his chakra.
He hadn't chosen to practice the Flying Thunder God Technique, because after multiple attempts, he realized that trying to leap straight to such a high-level space-time jutsu—an S-rank technique—was nothing short of delusional. What he truly needed now was a solid foundation… and the training method Kakashi had taught Team 7 in his past life memory happened to be one of the best options available!
'Too much… too little… now! Aha! Just right!'
As Naruto steadily climbed upward, the blue glow at his feet fluctuated—sometimes brighter, sometimes dimmer—while he adjusted his chakra output. After several attempts, he seemed to finally grasp the trick, and let out an excited shout. But in doing so, he forgot a crucial truth passed down by the ancients: joy invites disaster.
'Ugh—wait! No, not now! I was so close… Just hold on a little longer!'
The moment he felt his grip on the trunk weakening, Naruto's excited smile froze. His face twitched as he instinctively tried to increase his chakra output to compensate, only to realize he had already burned through his reserves during his earlier adjustments.
'Tch… Damn it! I was this close!'
As he began to tilt backward, the pull of gravity taking over, Naruto caught one last glimpse of the tree's upper canopy—so close he could almost make out its shape.
He desperately wanted to make one final push and reach the top, but his rational side kept warning him: forcing it now would only end with his body flattened into a bloody pancake on the training ground.
'...Ugh, no helping it. I'll have to try again next time!'
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Naruto channeled the last of his chakra into his feet, pushing off the trunk to launch himself into a backward flip. As he adjusted his landing point midair, he reached into his palm and pulled out a sharp stone he'd grabbed earlier. With a quick slash at the bark where he'd last stood, he left behind a shallow white scratch—just one step higher than his previous record.
With that done, Naruto's stamina and chakra were completely drained. He plummeted face-down from the sky, the world rushing toward him. He spread his limbs wide, trying to absorb the impact as best he could.
'Hah?! Again?! Hey! You little brat, are you done yet?!'
'…Huh?! Who just said—AAAHHHHHH!'
…
'Owwwww… No way! I even doubled the amount of leaves this time, and it still hurts just as bad as before?!'
'So much for the "Leap of Faith" thing. Those Assassin's Creed protagonists must all be freakish monsters who can tank falls with their faces!'
Even with a thick leaf pile and dozens of crash landings under his belt, Naruto still ended up dizzy, seeing stars. Holding his stomach and massaging it pitifully, he groaned and muttered complaints. After a brief pause, he gave himself a shake to shed the leaves, rolled over, and collapsed like a starfish into the heap, gasping for breath.
'Now that I think about it… that voice earlier. Heh… just as I thought. This connection through the seal—it really does make us one and the same…'
A small smile crept across his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of small, crushed wild berries—dark purple, nearly black, and oozing juice. He had found them by chance while foraging in the training grounds. They didn't taste great, but they were rich in nutrients and supposedly one of the ingredients in ration pills. Without hesitation, he tossed them into his mouth and began chewing, ignoring the bitterness spreading through his mouth as he swallowed them to quickly replenish lost fluids and energy.
'Now that I've figured out the optimal chakra output for climbing… I won't waste so much during testing next time. Which means… I should be able to succeed in one go now!'
As he made mental calculations, Naruto shifted slightly to rest more comfortably—only to spot the many marks he'd left behind on the tree trunk.
From the base of the tree up to about three meters, the bark was scarred with countless deep footprints—clear evidence of how often he had failed early on, crashing down before he could even maintain balance. That portion of the trunk barely had any intact bark left.
From three to ten meters, footprints were still visible, but their spacing grew wider the higher they went. It showed that Naruto had started to understand how to regulate his chakra, though he still sometimes ended up eating dirt.
From ten meters onward, the footprints vanished entirely—replaced by pale, ascending scratch marks. They were cleaner, more deliberate—proof that Naruto had begun to master the technique and was finally pushing toward the summit.
Three stages. Three types of marks. Each one a testament to Naruto's hard-earned progress over the past days!
'Whew… alright. Break's over.'
With his chakra control steadily improving and answers obtained through countless trials, Naruto was now full of motivation. His natural recovery rate and the nutrient-rich wild berries gave him just enough of a boost to shake off his fatigue. Springing upright from the leaf pile like a carp leaping from water, his body tensed again, ready to explode forward in his next attempt.
'Heh… I, the great Naruto Uzumaki, am going to change the world! There's no way I'll lose to a tiny challenge like this at the very start of my path to power!'
'This time, I'm definitely going to reach the top of that tree—BELIEVE IT!'