I just returned to Konoha and found that all my clan members were gone.

A month was almost over, and Sakura was practicing in the training ground as usual. She could now cover any part of her body with the hardening technique within one second. Just when she closed her eyes to rest, Naruto came to the training ground and found her.

"Sakura, are you practicing?" Naruto scratched his head and walked towards Sakura embarrassedly.

"Naruto, aren't you doing special training?" Sakura hadn't seen Sasuke and Naruto for a long time. Knowing that both of them were undergoing special training, she felt a little strange that Naruto found her at this moment.

"Ah, I've been undergoing special training. The teacher who trained me is quite amazing! I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"What's the matter?" Sakura asked.

"That...this...is..." Naruto kept rotating two fingers in front of his chest but didn't say anything.

Seeing Naruto's hesitant and sticky appearance, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. She knew that she still had important training tasks to complete, so she impatiently urged him: "What do you want to say? Hurry up and say it!" However, Naruto was still hesitant, and he stammered: "It's just... it's just..." The words were already on the tip of his tongue, but he still couldn't express them smoothly.

Sakura couldn't stand Naruto's slow pace, so she turned around and prepared to continue practicing ninjutsu. At this moment, Naruto hurriedly shouted, "Wait... Sakura!" He hurriedly tried to catch up, but didn't pay attention to the road conditions under his feet. As a result, Naruto accidentally tripped and fell to the ground, and his body involuntarily fell towards Sakura.

Huh? In fact, if Naruto wanted to, he could quickly stabilize his body with his strength. But at this moment, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind - maybe this would help him achieve his goal of hugging Sakura! So, he simply leaned over to Sakura.

Sakura instantly realized Naruto's intention, her face changed, and she shouted angrily: "What do you want to do?" Then, she raised her fist without hesitation and hit Naruto's face hard. Although she did not use the hardening technique, after a month of hard physical training, her speed and strength have been significantly improved.

Naruto felt his eyes blurry, and then he flew backwards like a kite with its string cut. After spinning several times in the air, he landed on the ground in a mess.

Naruto fell to the ground and felt dizzy. In front of his eyes, a group of small stars flashing with golden light seemed to appear, circling constantly. He didn't understand why Sakura became so powerful that she could knock him away with just one punch.

The girl Naruto likes is so violent, she really has the style of Tsunade in her past... Jiraiya, who was hiding and peeping, couldn't help but think.

It seems that this month's training has been very effective. Xiaoying was very satisfied with the power of this punch and turned around and walked towards the direction where Ye Lan was training.

When she saw Ye Lan and wanted to say hello, she found that the lake in front of Ye Lan seemed to be boiling.

Water escape, water dragon bite

The lake formed a huge vortex, and then the water flowing upwards continued to condense and finally turned into a huge water dragon. The water dragon seemed to roar in the air and then rushed to the center of the vortex. With a loud bang, water splashed everywhere, and the fish in the lake were frightened and fled everywhere. Ye Lan retracted his gesture, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly. He was quite satisfied with this technique.

Xiaoying had never seen such an exaggerated water jutsu before and it took her a while to come back to her senses. Then she ran to Ye Lan excitedly, "Brother Ye Lan, the water jutsu just now was amazing!"

"It's okay. My mastery of this technique is not perfect yet and I need further practice." Ye Lan said casually.

"No need for physical training tomorrow. Come directly to the training ground. I have something to tell you."

Xiaoying nodded. She was a little curious about what Ye Lan wanted to say to him.

The next day, Sakura went directly to the training ground as Ye Lan said.

"Sakura, you and I will have actual combat training today. I will use a Chunin shadow clone to practice with you. You don't have to hold back. I want to see how far you can go." Ye Lan said directly after seeing Sakura coming.

"Yes." Sakura became a little excited when she heard that today was a practical training. She was already prepared. Although it was just a shadow clone, Sakura did not take it lightly after seeing Ye Lan's water escape yesterday.

"Take the weight off your legs and don't wear it unless you are doing physical training. Wearing this thing for a long time will affect your physical development. You are still at the age of growing taller." Ye Lan still gave instructions before training.

After Sakura removed the weight, the actual combat training officially began. Sakura wanted to get close to Ye Lan right away. Her strength was her fists. She believed that if she hit him with one punch, Ye Lan's shadow clone would be defeated.

Ye Lan, the shadow clone, did not give her this opportunity. He kept using his speed to keep the distance between him and Sakura, and used shuriken with one hand to harass Sakura's progress. Sakura dodged left and right. Although her strength and speed had increased a lot after a month of training, she still could not keep up with the speed of the shadow clone and could only passively take the beating.

Xiaoying knew that she couldn't go on like this, so she turned around and quickly hid behind a huge rock. She remembered that Ye Lan had said that this was a real combat training, but he didn't make it clear that she couldn't hide. In this case, if the shadow clone wanted to launch an attack, it would have to take the initiative to get close to her, and that would be the perfect time for her to counterattack.

Ye Lan looked at Xiaoying's actions, and the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a smile. He immediately ordered the shadow clone to go directly to the direction where Xiaoying was hiding. The shadow clone slowly approached Xiaoying's hiding place, but when he arrived behind the boulder, he was surprised to find that Xiaoying had disappeared without a trace.

At this moment, the shadow clone heard some subtle movements above, and he began to dodge to the side alertly. At the same time, a cloud of smoke spread out, and an arm suddenly stretched out from the smoke and tightly grasped one of the shadow clones. It turned out that after hiding, Sakura cleverly used the transformation technique to disguise herself as a pile of rubble next to the rock. The Sakura that appeared above was just one of her clones.

"I caught you, Brother Ye Lan." Xiaoying shouted excitedly. Then, she gathered her strength and threw a punch, hitting the captured shadow clone solidly, instantly turning it into a ball of smoke and dissipating in the air.

Ye Lan saw everything and couldn't help but applaud. He walked up to Xiaoying and said, "Well done."

Sakura smiled sheepishly at the compliment.

"But Xiaoying, have you discovered your shortcomings?" Ye Lan asked.

"Isn't it still fast enough?" Sakura felt that if she was faster, she would be able to end the battle faster.

"That's true, but you have to know that there are many ninjas who are faster than you when performing missions. No matter how much you train, you can't reach the extreme speed. There will always be ninjas who are faster than you."

"Your current weakness is that you don't have any means of long-range attack, and sometimes you don't need to take the initiative to approach the opponent." Ye Lan said, "What do you think you would think if you were a ninja and met one?"

Seeing Xiaoying Yelan thinking, she pointed out directly, "Medical ninja or some ordinary female genin or something like that. Anyway, they definitely wouldn't expect that your strong point is fists."

Xiaoying suddenly realized something when she heard Ye Lan's words. "Does that mean the other party will take the initiative to approach me?"

"In this case, the enemy is not a particularly powerful person, and you still need to confuse the enemy." Ye Lan took out a scroll and handed it to Xiaoying.

"There are three ninjutsu here, they are Earth Style, Rock Pillar Spear, Earth Style, Rock Fist and an illusion, Fox Heart Jutsu." Ye Lan said as he formed hand seals and began to demonstrate to Sakura.

First, a spike suddenly condensed in an open space in the distance and directly penetrated a tree. Then, Ye Lan's fist was seen covered with rock, and the entire fist became two times larger.

"The Rock Pillar Spear is a long-range attack technique. In some cases, it can strike the opponent unexpectedly, and the Rock Fist can make your fist more powerful." Ye Lan released the Rock Fist. "As for illusions, I won't hide it. The effect of illusions is mostly to make the enemy fall into an illusion so that you can attack better. I said this to tell you that when you are fighting with the enemy, you can use the Rock Pillar Spear and illusions to attack first, so that the enemy will feel that you are a ninja who focuses on ninjutsu and want to attack you at close range. In this way, your fists can come into play."

"So that's how it is..." Sakura took the scroll and looked thoughtful, as if she had found a new way of fighting.

"The competition will begin in a few days, and my training of you will end here. The rest depends on you. I have also fulfilled the trust Kakashi entrusted to me." Ye Lan said.

"Is it over?" Sakura suddenly felt reluctant. She could feel that this month was the month in which she had made the fastest progress in strength since she was a child. She didn't expect it to end so soon.

"It's over. I'm not suitable to be your teacher. I have taught you everything I can teach you. Our fighting styles are different. You will meet a teacher who is more suitable than me in the future. You will need to walk the rest of the way on your own." Ye Lan touched Xiaoying's head. Xiaoying did not refuse, but her face was a little red.

"There is one more thing." Seeing Sakura's appearance, Ye Lan couldn't help but think of Sasuke.

"You like Sasuke, right?"

"Ah? This..." Sakura, who was already blushing, felt even more embarrassed. Moreover, Ye Lan was Sasuke's cousin, and being asked this question suddenly made her feel like meeting his parents.

"How much do you know about the Uchiha clan?" Ye Lan had already confirmed Sakura's thoughts and asked directly.

"About the Uchiha clan?"

Looking at Sakura who was somewhat puzzled, Ye Lan understood that most of the civilians in the village and the Genin with no background were not very clear about what happened to the Uchiha clan.

"Five years ago, not long after I left the village, an inhumane thing happened to the Uchiha clan." Ye Lan said slowly, "I only found out after returning to the village that one night five years ago, Uchiha Itachi teamed up with an unknown master to massacre the Uchiha clan."

This was the first time Sakura knew about this.

"This man named Uchiha Itachi is Sasuke's biological brother. He personally killed his biological parents and everyone in the Uchiha clan. After that day, Sasuke and I were the only ones left in the entire Uchiha clan."

Killing his own parents? How could such a thing happen? No wonder Sasuke looked so cold. Sakura remembered that five years ago, Sasuke suddenly missed a few days of class. That was when the incident happened.

"Sasuke and I have only one goal, which is to find Uchiha Itachi and kill him. This is not only for ourselves but also for those Uchiha clan members who were killed by him." Ye Lan recounted the tragic story of the Uchiha clan. "I tell you this to tell you that I won't discipline you if you like Sasuke, but Sasuke probably has no intention of falling in love right now. I just hope that you can bury this love in your heart first, and it won't be too late to express your feelings after everything has settled down. After all, you are still young."

After listening to this, Sakura nodded silently and stopped talking. It seemed that what happened to the Uchiha clan had shocked her greatly.

"Don't think too much. Just get along with Sasuke the same as before. I'm just telling you what Sasuke has experienced so that you can understand him better." Ye Lan then took out a gift box and said, "Finally, I'll give you something as a gift for successfully completing your training with me."

"No, no, no, this is not nice. Training me already brings you trouble." Sakura said with some panic on her face, trying to refuse.

"Take it. I just happened to think it suits you so I bought it." Ye Lan handed it directly to Xiaoying.

Sakura didn't refuse again but opened the box out of curiosity, only to see a pair of dark gloves inside.

"Although you are already proficient in using the hardening technique, you still have to protect your fists. They will be your most important weapons in the future. This pair of gloves can not only protect your fists but also help you to circulate chakra better. I saw it when I was looking for a ninja sword. I bought it because it seemed suitable for you."

Sakura tried to put on the gloves and circulated her chakra to try it out. Just as Ye Lan said, she fell in love with the gloves at once.

"Thank you so much." Sakura realized that this gift was indeed suitable for her.

"Well, I'll leave after the training is over." Ye Lan waved his hand and turned to leave. Xiaoying looked at his receding back quietly, and a deep feeling of gratitude welled up in her heart. She knew that Ye Lan had been with her for the past month, guiding her training and helping her overcome difficulties. Without Ye Lan's patient teaching and encouragement, she would not have made such great progress. At this moment, she wanted to express her deep gratitude to Ye Lan, but she felt that no words could fully express this emotion.

So, Xiaoying bowed deeply and saluted towards Ye Lan's back to express her most sincere gratitude.