I Punch the Tailed Beast Ball

”Huff, huff.”

In the early morning, Naruto was jogging. During his morning run, he recalled the Breathing Style from the book that Nagasawa gave him and adjusted his breathing rhythm accordingly.

He was doing the ”homework” that Nagasawa assigned. Nagasawa said that he was already two years old and could start some basic exercises to lay the foundation for the future.

Every morning, after getting up and washing up, Naruto would jog for ten minutes and did the special breathing technique Nagasawa had taught him.

At first, Naruto found it quite challenging. Jogging itself was not a problem, but maintaining the breathing technique while jogging proved to be a challenge.

At first, Naruto either completed the ten-minute jog with inconsistent breathing or had to stop midway due to having difficulty running while maintaining the breathing technique.

After a while, Naruto eventually managed to maintain the breathing technique while completing the ten-minute run.

And perhaps partly because Naruto had gotten the hang of it, Naruto felt that ten minutes was no longer challenging.

After finishing his run, Naruto casually walked around the village for a while before returning home for breakfast.

Because Nagasawa said that resting immediately after running was not good, Naruto didn’t question it and followed the advice.

”I’m home,” Naruto said when he got home.

”Breakfast is ready, so help yourself. I’ll take you out later,” Kushina quickly said, then took off her apron and returned to her room.

”Where are we going? Are we going to see Uncle Nagasawa?” Naruto asked with anticipation before eating.

He really wanted to hear the continuation of the story about Madara and Hashirama.

He had asked his father, but all he told him was Hashirama was the First Hokage and a skilled Shinobi, and Uchiha Madara was a powerful Shinobi, but that was it.

When he asked his mom, she said she didn’t know much about Hashirama, but she did know a lot about Hashirama’s wife.

Naruto was disappointed. Who cared about Hashirama’s wife? He just wanted to hear stories about Hashirama and Madara.

So Naruto expressed his lack of interest in those matters. But that apparently didn’t sit well with Kushina, and Naruto was forced to endure hearing a bunch of things he found very boring.

Naruto even asked a kind-looking old man who loved smoking tobacco, and the old man seemed to know a lot more about Hashirama than his mom and dad, but Naruto still wasn’t satisfied because the story from the old man didn’t include Madara or Hashirama and Madara’s friendship. All the old man told him was Hashirama’s contributions to Konoha and so on.

He still preferred Nagasawa’s story.

In Nagasawa’s stories, while Hashirama did not sound as great and omnipotent as his dad and the old man described, he was a very free-spirited and carefree person, who could laugh out loud even when his friend embarrassed him. Naruto felt that the Hashirama from Nagasawa’s story was the easiest to relate for him.

”Nagasawa? Definitely not. At this time, he and your dad should be working at the Hokage Building,” Kushina’s voice came from the room.

”Oh, I see,” Naruto said, somewhat disappointed.

Nagasawa seemed busy lately. It had been a while since Naruto last saw him.

”Today, I’ll take you to Sasuke’s house today.” Kushina said as he walked out of the room after changing her clothes.

”You shouldn’t have forgotten Sasuke, right? You’ve seen him several times already,” Kushina casually asked.

Because Naruto and Sasuke were close in age, whenever Mikoto Uchiha came to Kushina’s house, she usually brought Sasuke along.

”That guy? Of course, I haven’t forgotten him.” Naruto nodded, indicating that he hadn’t forgotten Sasuke.

”Our match isn’t settled yet.”

He had competed with Sasuke twice. The first time, Naruto had the upper hand thanks to his previous practice. The second time, Sasuke’s puzzle-solving skills suddenly improved for some reason, and being careless, Naruto was a step too slow, losing the match by a hair’s breadth.

But next time, Naruto was confident he would win.

Taking the lesson from the last defeat, he wouldn’t be careless again, coupled with more experience, he was sure to win.

After Naruto finished eating, Kushina took him to Sasuke’s house.

In Sasuke’s home, only Sasuke and Mikoto Uchiha were around.

Itachi had joined the Special Combat Division and was practicing Breathing Styles, while Fugaku had been busy lately. He basically left very early and came home late.

With the alteration to Konoha Military Police Force was no longer solely under Uchiha Clan’s control.

Various issues in the Military Police Force, the protests from the Clan members, and a series of other things had kept Fugaku busy.

”Mikoto, I’ve come to visit.” Kushina smiled and waved to Mikoto in the courtyard.

”Hello, Aunt Mikoto,” Naruto politely said.

Mikoto Uchiha smiled gently, nodded, and then said to Sasuke beside her, ”Naruto is here; go and play with him.”

”Okay,” Sasuke nodded. He had already greeted Kushina earlier.

While Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha chatted in the courtyard, Sasuke took Naruto to his room.

Naruto sat on the tatami mat, curiously observing Sasuke’s room.

Sasuke brought out two unopened jigsaw puzzles and placed them in front of Naruto, , ”Let’s go, this will be third time. Whoever wins this time is the strongest.”

A smug appeared on Naruto’s face as he said, ”I was careless last time. This time, victory will definitely be mine!”

Sasuke snorted, ”You only won our first match because I’m not used to puzzle. As a proof, you lost our second match, and this will be no different!”

Both of them refused to admit defeat, and they quickly tore open the puzzle to start the duel.

These were not the simple puzzles with a dozen or so large pieces; instead, they were complex puzzles with a total of five hundred pieces.

Both were eager to defeat the other, carefully observing the picture while swiftly moving their hands.

When both reached ninety percent completion, feeling confident in their victory, they glanced at each other and realized their opponent’s progress was the same, which shocked them both, so they picked up the pace.

In this race against time, the door was suddenly opened.

Mikoto Uchiha and Kushina stood in front of the door.

”Naruto, get up quickly. Come with me and Aunt Mikoto for a shopping trip.”

”Sasuke, do you want to go shopping with Mom?”

Both mothers asked their respective children.

As the decisive moment was approaching, Naruto naturally didn’t want to give up halfway, especially since he didn’t like shopping.

Naruto didn’t understand the significance of shopping. Walking aimlessly on the street seemed pointless to him.

If you wanted to buy something, you could select the stores in advance, go straight there, make the purchase, and leave. Wouldn’t that be more efficient?

”No, I want to finish the puzzle first,” Naruto said without looking back.

”Mom, sorry, please wait a moment. I want to finish the puzzle,” Sasuke also said without looking back, swiftly rearranging the puzzle pieces.

Kushina raised an eyebrow; these two little brats were quite bold, daring to ignore her.

Kushina grabbed Naruto from behind and lifted him up, ”Sitting for too long is not good for your health. Come, take a walk with Mom.”

Watching the puzzle gradually getting farther away from him while Sasuke was still working on the puzzle, Naruto’s eyes widened, and he shouted, ”No!”

In the end, the worst-case scenario Naruto imagined didn’t happen as Sasuke also couldn’t escape Kushina’s clutches and failed to complete the puzzle.

Both of them followed their respective mothers to Konoha’s shopping district.

”This one doesn’t count. We’ll decide the winner next time!” Naruto declared.

”Sure, even though I should be the winner, I don’t mind giving you another chance,” Sasuke said arrogantly.

”What do you mean you won?” Naruto protested.

”Because in the end, my progress was ahead of yours,” Sasuke said confidently.

”That’s because my mom lift me up and you’re still working on it. It doesn’t count!” Naruto insisted.

”Well, it’s a fact that I’m ahead of you,” Sasuke held his ground.

What could have been an epic battle unfortunately didn’t happen because two terrifying figures were around.

”Hey, there’s a new children’s clothing store here. I’ve never been there. Let’s check it out,” Kushina noticed the new store.

”Okay,” Mikoto Uchiha nodded.

The Indra and Asura reincarnations were forced to cease their battle and were dragged into the children’s clothing store.

Seeing the variety of children’s clothes inside, Kushina’s eyes lit up, and she enthusiastically forced Naruto to try on various outfits.

Mikoto Uchiha also found it interesting, so she took Sasuke to pick out clothes.

Walking around the store and constantly having to try on and taking off various clothes, Naruto felt exhausted both physically and mentally.

When Kushina finally stopped, Naruto thought he was going to be free. There was a moment of relief until he followed Kushina’s gaze and saw a row of girls’ clothing.

’Could it be... No way...’ A terrifying thought of what might happen crossed Naruto’s mind.

He didn’t want to wear girls’ clothes!

To his relief, Kushina brought Mikoto Uchiha to the girls’ clothing’s aisle.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Indeed, even if it was his mom, she wouldn’t go that far.

But Kushina’s next words made Naruto realize that he had underestimated his mom.

”Mikoto, this section is pretty nice. We can take some photos as mementos. I think Sasuke’s facial features resemble yours. Maybe he’ll look good in girls’ clothes. What do you think if we...” Kushina suggested some ideas to Mikoto Uchiha.

’Thank god it’s not me.’ Naruto offered his condolences to Sasuke.

Although they were rivals, he deserved some respect.

”I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Despite what Mikoto Uchiha said, she seemed slightly interested.

”It’s okay. We can have Naruto join in too. It should be fine if they do it together,” Kushina kept encouraging Mikoto.

”This is one of the ways to add their childhood memories. These photos might become precious things in the future.”

Mikoto Uchiha thought about it and admitted what Kushina said did make sense.

Naruto: ???

Naruto didn’t know what to say for a moment.

In the end, Naruto and Sasuke put on pink dresses albeit reluctantly, and each now had two photos of themselves in girls’ clothes.

Afterward, they continued to stroll for a while, and Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha then took Naruto and Sasuke to the park to rest.

They weren’t tired at all; one was Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and the other was a Konoha Jonin. They could stroll all day, and they wouldn’t even get tired.

However, Naruto and Sasuke were just two-year-old kids, so they came to the park to let them rest.

After sitting for a while, Kushina spotted something interesting and dragged Mikoto Uchiha to see it. She told Naruto and Sasuke not to run around and just rest nearby.

They might be tired from shopping, but the two no longer argued with each other. Instead, they sat quietly, taking a break.

Once they had rested enough, Naruto felt bored. He noticed a white-haired girl playing with sand nearby.

Curious, Naruto walked over and asked, ”Hello! Your castle looks great. How did you do that?”

Yurika heard someone talking to her, so she turned her head at Naruto and casually replied, ”It’s like this, put it there, and it’s done.”

Naruto fell into a silence. The girl’s demonstration and explanation was beyond him.

Naruto tried it himself, but the castle he built looked bizarre. No, it couldn’t even be called a castle.

”Hahaha...” Sasuke couldn’t help but laugh when he saw Naruto’s castle.

”Naruto, are you building a house that got destroyed by an explosion?” Yurika looked at Naruto’s sandcastle, which was so ugly, and fell into a silence.

This guy must’ve done it on purpose, right? Otherwise, how did it turn out that bad?

This was her second time playing with sand. Her father went out for work, and her mother had something to do, so she came to the park out of boredom.

”Are you doing it on purpose? Trying to build something different?” Yurika asked.

Naruto didn’t know how to answer for a moment. This question from Yurika dealt a greater blow than Sasuke’s laughter.

”No, I’m just not good at this.” Naruto said somewhat embarrassed.

”Oh, that’s normal. Except for my father, I haven’t seen anyone who can do everything. Everyone has things they’re not good at,” Yurika could see the logic behind Naruto’s response.

She also had things she wasn’t good at, like the evil green peppers.

”Well, my dad is amazing. There’s nothing he can’t do,” hearing Yurika praise her father, Naruto immediately mentioned Minato.

”Hmph, my father is the head of the Clan. He’s the one who’s truly unstoppable,” Sasuke also joined the discussion.

Then the topic gradually shifted from whose father was truly unstoppable to whose father was more powerful.

The three argued passionately, each believing that their father was the strongest.

They argued until Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha arrived, but they couldn’t reach a conclusion.