Chapter 48: Sakura Aspires to Bring Talent into Medical Ninjutsu
Early morning, by the riverbank.
“Isn’t that enough?” Sakura urged from the side.
“Almost, almost, it’s about to come up,” Naruto replied.
The two were fishing.
Sakura wanted to learn medical ninjutsu and needed live fish as teaching aids.
Naruto, a master angler, had volunteered to fish.
One had to admit, the Land of Waves, being a coastal country, was rich in marine resources.
Looking at the catch beside them—
From fish nearly as tall as Naruto himself, about 1.5 meters, to terrifying 10-meter giants—
They had it all.
But—
There was no fish small enough for Sakura’s needs.
“You’re really making this hard for me, Fat Tiger.jpg,” Naruto thought to himself.
If only he hadn’t taken on too much.
“Sakura, why did you choose to become a medical ninja?” Naruto asked curiously during a pause.
According to Master Leopard’s plan, Sakura was supposed to major in brute taijutsu, focusing on raw power and rage.
By the time she reached the advanced stage, she’d be on par with Naruto now—one punch knocking out a kid.
No, one punch knocking out a Tailed Beast.
The destructive power was simply overwhelming.
Yet after talking with Kakashi-sensei yesterday, Sakura was unexpectedly considering abandoning taijutsu in favor of focusing on medical ninjutsu.
She wanted to channel her talent and energy into healing arts.
That was quite a shift—from frontline attacker to support.
“Nothing special,” Sakura said, sticking out her cute tongue. “I just suddenly found medical ninjutsu really interesting.”
“Oh.” Naruto nodded, not thinking much of it.
Maybe girls didn’t want to be too violent and preferred to be healers who save lives.
Sakura, meanwhile, stared at Naruto’s focused profile as he fished, lost in thought.
When they first split into classes, Sakura didn’t like Naruto at all.
During their school days, Naruto was at the bottom of the class.
His academic scores were poor, and in practical exercises, he often surrendered, earning him the nickname “Master of Surrender” among classmates.
Some even maliciously speculated that Naruto would quickly give up and betray information when facing enemies in the future.
Sakura recalled that she had once joined in mocking him.
Besides that,
Naruto loved playing pranks, which other kids found funny, but to her, he seemed excessively lively and unlikable.
That was until class reassignment.
The three-person team Sakura hoped would be as strong as possible gained Sasuke, which delighted her, but the other teammate was Naruto.
At that time, Sakura even thought Naruto was less useful to the team than herself.
She might not be as strong in combat, but her knowledge was far more abundant and would benefit the team more.
However, everything changed that afternoon.
Naruto’s self-introduction and subsequent analysis shattered Sakura’s stereotypes.
Then came the mission test the next day.
Sakura was surprised to find Naruto’s stamina even surpassed Sasuke’s.
Next was the bell-snatching exercise.
For the first time, Sakura saw Naruto anew—the confident, flamboyant one who skillfully wielded powerful ninjutsu.
His strength was beyond anything she had imagined.
Could it really be Naruto?
She thought she’d misjudged him all along.
In short, that day she truly and deeply recognized Naruto for who he was.
A strong and trustworthy teammate.
And then came the experiences that followed.
Sakura felt she was the weakest link in the team, even weaker than Naruto, whom they once considered the bottom of the class—his shadow clones alone could take on ten of her.
And Sasuke?
Hailed as a genius, his growth was terrifying.
She wanted to catch up to them, to be useful to the team.
That was why she chose the path of a medical ninja.
Although the healing pill was useful, it had limitations.
It could only treat external wounds and restore health but couldn’t cure poisons or other ailments—those would be her battlefield.
“Sakura? Sakura? Sakura-chan!”
A growing voice pulled Sakura out of her reverie.
“Huh?” Sakura finally snapped back to reality.
Naruto looked her over carefully. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“No, maybe I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Naruto handed her a small fish. “Here, finally caught one. Didn’t expect catching a small fish to be this hard.”
Glancing at the dozen or so enormous fish nearby, Sakura wiped her sweat in exasperation.
“Extra! The great villain Kado has been killed!”
“Extra! The great villain Kado has been killed!”
Suddenly, a shout came from the main road behind them.
Naruto turned and saw a newsboy running up, carrying a large stack of newspapers.
Looking closely, it was Inari, Dazna’s grandson.
“Hey, Inari, where have you been?” Naruto stopped him and asked.
“Ah, it’s Naruto-nii!” Inari, who had been won over by Naruto’s charm, was very happy to see him.
Looking beside him, Inari gaped in astonishment.
“Wow… such a huge fish.”
“Is there really such a big fish? Is this the monster fish grandpa always talks about that eats children? So scary!”
“Mom!”
With a startled cry, Inari fled in fright.
Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances: -_-||
Looking at Sakura, Naruto suggested, “Shall we head back?”
“Alright.”
Naruto chose the largest fish to drag home.
No other reason than it was the biggest.
This time, Naruto didn’t get lost.
Back at Dazna’s house, Inari had just finished some psychological counseling.
There was no such thing as a giant monster fish; it wouldn’t eat children.
“You’re already a little man now. You want to be a hero, so be brave…”
After some coaxing, Inari barely returned to normal.
But as soon as the door opened, he saw the terrifying giant fish with its huge mouth right before him.
The gaping abyssal maw was black and bottomless.
That dreadful mouth could swallow ten of him in one bite and still not be full.
Inari: Gah~
“Huh? What’s wrong here?”
Raising the giant fish and tossing it aside, Naruto saw Inari fainted at the door.
...
After some commotion, Team Seven regrouped. Kakashi held new newspapers and analyzed the situation.
Inari had been selling three papers: The Land of Waves Observer, The Ninja World Daily, and The Land of Waves Times.
On the surface, these three newspapers belonged to three different companies.
As for the content,
Each paper had a different slant.
The Land of Waves Observer lavishly praised “The Land of Waves Hero, Zabuza,” lauding this hero born in the Land of Waves.
The Ninja World Daily reported the incident neutrally, referring to Zabuza as “The Land of Waves Hero,” as if it were a settled verdict.
The Land of Waves Times focused on Kado’s evil and cruelty, while also praising the greatness of “The Land of Waves Hero, Zabuza.”
The full-color, ultra-high-definition photo Naruto had taken using the game features was undoubtedly the front-page headline in all three papers!
Kado was indeed dead!
However,
At this moment, except for Naruto, everyone in Team Seven looked strangely at the three newspapers.
Was this Zabuza’s doing?
Wasn’t he hired to assassinate Dazna, destroy the bridge, and ruin the Land of Waves?
How did he become the hero of the Land of Waves?
Finally, Kakashi summed up with a complicated expression:
“Zabuza’s ambitions are vast indeed!”