[Starting in Naruto with a Daily Login System] Chapter 23 The Hard Way Is the Only Way

It took us another day to get back to the village.

Minato could’ve teleported us, obviously, but he wanted to keep an eye out for any enemy remnants and make sure there were no surprises.

By the time we reached the gates, exhaustion was starting to creep in. The moment the guards saw Minato, they straightened and let us pass without question.

"Finally," Obito groaned. "I just wanna sleep for a week."

"You mean you don’t already?" I deadpanned.

Obito glared at me but was too tired to argue. Small victories.

"Kakashi, Obito, Rin," Minato said as we stopped near the village square. "Go get some rest. I’ll report to the Hokage."

"Got it, Sensei," Rin said with a smile. "Don’t work too hard."

Minato chuckled and ruffled her hair before disappearing in a flash.

Which left the three of us standing there, suddenly aimless.

"So…" Obito stretched. "Breakfast?"

I blinked. "It’s evening."

"Doesn’t change my question."

I shrugged. "Sure."

Rin giggled. "Ramen?"

I placed a hand on my chest, touched. "Rin, you understand me so well."

Obito scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, let’s go before Kakashi starts getting emotional over noodles."

And with that, we made our way to Ichiraku’s, our first meal back as a team.

Alive. Together.

And this time, nothing was falling apart.

Ichiraku’s ramen tasted better than usual.

Maybe it was just because we survived a mission that was supposed to ruin our lives, or maybe I was just appreciating food more after the whole near-death, war-torn battlefield experience. Either way, I was on my third bowl and had no plans to stop.

"You eat like you just got out of starvation training," Obito muttered, watching me inhale another mouthful of noodles.

"And you talk like someone who doesn’t appreciate good food," I shot back, barely pausing. "That’s a real shame, Obito. Maybe that’s why you don’t have a girlfriend."

Obito choked on his ramen. "Excuse me?!"

Rin giggled, hiding her smile behind her sleeve. "Kakashi, be nice."

"I am being nice," I said. "If I wasn’t, I’d point out how Obito is still wearing the same shirt from three missions ago."

"Hey!" Obito slammed his chopsticks on the counter. "That just proves my point! You’ve been watching me! Are you jealous, Kakashi?!"

"Yes, Obito. I lay awake at night wishing I could be as stylish as you in your wrinkled, dirt-covered clothes," I said dryly.

Teuchi snorted behind the counter, and Rin shook her head fondly. "You two never change."

"Except for the fact that Kakashi only has one eye now," Obito pointed out.

"And your eyes have two tomoe now," I added, raising a brow. "You’re evolving. Soon you’ll be able to almost hit your target with a kunai."

Obito grabbed a napkin and threw it at me. It missed.

"Case in point," I muttered, sipping my broth.

The conversation drifted into easier topics after that. Small things. Normal things.

–

Rasengan training was way harder than I expected.

Minato made it look effortless—just a flick of his wrist and boom, swirling death ball. Meanwhile, I’d spent the past two hours staring at a water balloon like it personally insulted my ancestors.

"Alright," I muttered to myself, rolling my shoulders. "Step one: pop the balloon. Easy."

I gathered chakra in my palm, rotating it like Minato had shown me. The water balloon bulged—good sign. Then it started spinning wildly—better sign. Then it exploded all over my face—bad sign.

I sighed, wiping water from my mask. "Okay. Not ideal."

I tried again. And again. And again. Each time, it either burst too soon or didn’t spin properly. Turns out, creating a high-density chakra vortex in my palm wasn’t as simple as my overconfident brain initially thought.

After an hour, I sat back against a tree, glaring at my still intact balloon like it owed me money.

"This is ridiculous," I muttered. "How does Minato-sensei make it look so easy?"

The answer? Because he’s Minato-freaking-Namikaze.

Still, I wasn’t about to let a glorified party trick get the best of me. I took a deep breath, focused my chakra again, and tried one more time.

This time, the balloon spun fast—faster than before. The water inside swirled chaotically, forming a mini vortex. My fingers trembled, struggling to contain the energy—then—

Pop!

The balloon burst, but this time, it didn’t just splash water everywhere. It shredded apart.

I grinned. "Finally."

Step one? Complete.

Now, onto step two.

Destroying water balloons was easy. Creating a swirling sphere of chakra without one? Not so much.

I stood in the training ground, arm extended, trying to form the Rasengan in my palm. The chakra swirled, unstable. It flickered, wobbled—then promptly exploded in my face.

"Damn it." I coughed out a puff of smoke. "I’m getting real tired of this thing blowing up on me."

The Rasengan required three steps:

Rotation—check.

Power—check-ish.

Containment—...Not even close.

I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Maybe I should've just asked Minato-sensei for help."

But no, I wanted to do this myself. Because I was Kakashi Hatake, the genius (debatable) one-eyed prodigy (less debatable), and I was on a mission to surpass my limits.

I took a deep breath, gathering chakra again. Focus.

The sphere started forming. It spun faster—almost stable—almost.

Then it exploded again.

I barely dodged in time, skidding back as the ground in front of me got shredded.

I stared at the crater. Then at my hand.

"...Huh."

That was new.

I was failing, sure, but I was failing upwards.

Encouraged, I adjusted my stance. "Alright, one more time."

And so, the cycle continued—fail, explode, adjust, repeat. Each time, I got closer. Each time, the Rasengan lasted a second longer before breaking apart.

I gritted my teeth. "Come on. Work with me here."

Hours passed. My chakra reserves dipped, but I refused to stop. Just a little more.

Then, finally—

A perfect sphere of chakra formed in my hand.

It didn’t wobble. It didn’t flicker. It hummed with energy.

I took a slow breath, staring at the swirling mass of power in my palm.

"...I did it."

A grin tugged at my lips.

And then, naturally, I had to test it.

I turned, eyeing a poor, unsuspecting tree. With a quick step forward, I slammed the Rasengan into the bark—

BOOM!

The tree didn’t just break—it exploded, splintering apart in a spectacular burst of destruction.

I blinked at the devastation, then at my hand.

"...Yeah. This’ll work."

Now, time to make it even better.

Mastering the Rasengan was one thing. Making it better? Now that was a challenge.

The standard Rasengan was already powerful—it crushed, it exploded, it obliterated. But Minato-sensei didn’t stop there. He evolved it, shaped it, made it deadlier.

And I was going to do the same.

I stood in the training field, my freshly mastered Rasengan spinning in my palm. The dense chakra sphere hummed with energy, perfect and contained. But I wasn’t satisfied.

"Alright," I muttered, rolling my shoulder. "Let’s see if we can make this thing sharper."

Lightning chakra crackled around my fingers as I poured it into the Rasengan.

The result?

A violent, unstable mess of chakra that promptly exploded in my face.

"Gah—damn it!" I stumbled back, shaking off the static shock. "Okay, that didn’t work."

I exhaled. The problem wasn’t power—I had plenty of that. The problem was control. Rasengan was pure chakra rotation. Lightning chakra was volatile, directional. Mixing them wasn’t as simple as dumping one into the other.

It needed balance.

I tried again. This time, I focused on molding the two together gradually. The Rasengan spun, smooth and steady. Then, I carefully layered lightning chakra over it, weaving it in instead of forcing it.

The sphere started vibrating—high-pitched, unstable, but almost there.

And then it exploded.

"Oh, come on!" I groaned, shaking off the numbing sensation in my fingers.

This was going to take a lot of trial and error.

Good thing I had nothing better to do.