My Techniques are a bit off

This guy, despite being full of hatred and a bit cold, is actually quite well-behaved.

In fact, considering everything he went through, losing his childhood liveliness is completely normal. The fact that he's still a relatively stable and normal teenager shows how resilient his personality is.

Link chuckled to himself before continuing softly, "I'm Link. Why do you want to challenge me?"

"Because… you're strong," Uchiha Sasuke replied, his expression serious.

"So that's all it takes to accept your challenge?" Link asked.

Sasuke fell silent.

Other than being consumed by hatred and unwilling to express his true feelings, he was surprisingly normal. According to the manga, when he first fought Naruto at the Valley of the End, Sasuke had admitted that he once wanted to share a peaceful future with his comrades.

In the end, he wasn't as obsessed with vengeance as it seemed. With time and the support of his comrades, his heart was still human, capable of healing. It was only after witnessing Naruto's rapid growth and being thrown into another trauma loop by his older brother Itachi that Sasuke spiraled into extremism.

Challenging Link was just a momentary impulse. When faced with Link's probing question, Sasuke didn't want to force an answer, so he froze.

"Changing the future starts here…" Link thought as he looked into Sasuke's eyes.

"Do you want to defeat me to prove you're stronger, or is it that… you want to become stronger yourself?"

"..."

When Sasuke didn't respond, Link added, "If you can't answer that yet, why don't you start by defeating Iris, who has been trained by me?"

Sasuke said nothing, turning on his heel and walking away.

"I hope he doesn't take it too hard…"

Link smirked slightly. Iris and Ami were now much stronger than they used to be. Thanks to Delicate Illness Extraction, combined with a more rigorous physical training regimen, their physical abilities were on par with Rock Lee's natural state.

Though their taijutsu wasn't as refined, and they couldn't open the Eight Gates, their raw physical strength alone would be enough to overwhelm someone like Sasuke at this stage.

"To lose to a former classmate who used to be so much weaker… I wonder what path you'll choose, Sasuke?"

Link mused, intrigued by the possibilities. If he was going to deal with Orochimaru, there was no need to hand Sasuke over to him.

Even if Orochimaru survived the Konoha Crush plan, Link intended to make his life miserable.

As for whether Sasuke would grow more slowly without Orochimaru… Tsunade had noted in the manga that Sasuke's abnormal growth might be due to forbidden jutsu or drugs during his training.

But what forbidden jutsu or drugs could compare to the benefits of Delicate Illness Extraction?

As for learning and developing jutsu, Link didn't think someone with access to Kakashi Hatake, who had mastered a thousand techniques, or the Third Hokage, who was a master of all five elements, would be at a disadvantage compared to Orochimaru.

"If I'm going to rewrite the story, then it should follow my script."

Link clenched his hand into a fist, a pleased smile spreading across his face.

…

"Poof!" White smoke erupted.

Sexy Jutsu training had failed—but also succeeded.

Sitting cross-legged on a rock, Link frowned in thought.

He had just learned Sexy Jutsu from Naruto. It was essentially a transformation technique using the same seals and chakra flow, combined with the idea of turning into a naked woman.

The failure was that the chakra didn't transform into a mutated jutsu. The success was that…

It didn't turn into a regular transformation either. Instead, it released smoke.

This suggested that Sexy Jutsu was a potential jutsu that could be trained further. It also meant that the criteria for jutsu mutation were stranger than he had thought.

The same seals and chakra flow were being identified as a completely different technique.

In other words, for his ability, the seals and chakra flow didn't matter. What mattered was belief—believing it was a new technique, believing he could master and use it. That belief then generated a mutation based on the name.

It sounded simple, but it was actually difficult to execute. It was hard to deceive oneself.

Especially for Link, whose ability operated like a black box: he only knew the input and output but not the underlying principles. This made actively creating new mutations extremely challenging.

Oh, and as for why Sexy Jutsu failed?

The reason was simple—he couldn't transform into a perfectly proportioned, beautiful woman like Naruto could. He simply didn't have the detailed understanding of female anatomy required, just like how a lack of medical knowledge had once barred him from using medical ninjutsu.

"Well, I'll revisit this when I have time."

"Boss, you really gave me trouble this time!"

Iris approached, looking a little worse for wear. His hair was slightly singed, and part of his right sleeve was missing.

"Don't tell me you lost," Link said casually.

If Iris, after all this training, still lost to Sasuke—who only knew a bit of Fire Release and hadn't yet mastered his Sharingan—Link would be very disappointed.

His gaze grew a little colder.

Iris shuddered, feeling a sudden chill. He quickly grinned and said, "That guy's a genius for a reason! Even with a weaker body, he managed to fight me for so long. And his Fire Release… uh…"

"Ahem!" Ami, returning from her own training, gave a warning cough.

"…is so much better than mine! Truly worthy of the Uchiha clan's specialty," Iris amended hastily, his survival instincts kicking in. "But I won in the end."

Link withdrew his gaze and stood. "Good job. Rest up, then let's resume training."

If the two were going to compete in this year's Chūnin Exams, they needed to grow even stronger. This time, it wasn't just an ordinary exam; they'd be up against Sunagakure's scheming team, Otogakure's elites, and several other talented candidates from Konoha.

It wouldn't be easy to pass this year's exam.

After a few rounds of taijutsu practice, Iris and Ami collapsed, exhausted. Link, however, began his own ninjutsu training.

"Summoning random people with the Summoning Technique really isn't efficient…"

Months of practice had yielded little progress. Other than the initial appearance of Nawaki, he hadn't summoned any more Konoha ninja. It felt completely random.

Clearly, he needed to find a medium to connect with the dead.

"If it's the First Hokage… perhaps Tsunade's necklace could serve as a link…"

~~~

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