Don't Be So Insolent

The Land of Fire's border.

A caravan rumbled along a road paved with yellow earth, breaking the tranquility of the border.

It was a caravan that had just returned from completing a trade in the Land of Wind. The caravan master was happily chatting with the others, while the goods piled onto the carts showed that they were quite satisfied with the gains from this trip.

Three ninjas walked alongside the caravan, spread out around the caravan members and guarding their advance.

On one of the carts piled high with supplies, a boy of about ten was chewing on a stalk of foxtail grass. He lay on the roof, bored out of his mind as he basked in the sunlight.

The boy was Narak!

Suddenly, Narak's eyes shifted. He calmly said to everyone below, "Stay alert. There are a few flies."

The ninjas advancing ahead hurriedly assumed battle stances.

"Bang..."

Five figures suddenly drilled out of the previously flat ground.

"Tch... We've been discovered? We were originally planning to launch a sneak attack."

"What? So they're members of the Hyuga Clan. The Byakugan is such a troublesome ability."

"But it's nothing serious. They're just a few Genin and a brat. We can take care of them easily."

The ninjas wore Sunagakure forehead protectors, but each protector had a horizontal slash through the center. They were clearly rogue ninjas from Sunagakure.

At that moment, the three Genin below and the caravan members were extremely tense. Their opponents were two Chunin and three Genin, which was beyond what they could handle.

The rogue ninjas from the various villages lost their sources of income as soon as they abandoned their villages. To survive, they could only rob villages and caravans. Clearly, they had set their sights on this caravan.

Narak slowly rose and glanced at the rogue ninjas blocking the road. "I'll give you a chance. You'd better leave now, and I won't kill you. I advise you to think carefully about this offer. Don't be so insolent!"

Hearing Narak's words, the rogue ninjas burst into laughter. "What? You little brat, are you joking?"

Narak glanced at the rogue ninjas with disdain and did not answer. He merely drew the long blade in his hand and attacked them.

A minute later, the battle was over.

The caravan continued toward Konoha, leaving behind five mutilated corpses for the circling vultures to eat for dinner.

Five years had passed since the kidnapping incident.

Five years ago, after Narak killed a Cloud ninja Jonin, he had entered the view of Konoha's higher-ups. After all, a five-year-old boy had single-handedly killed a Chunin and a Jonin. Although it was later confirmed that the Jonin was only a Special Jonin, it was still an astonishing achievement.

A few days later, Narak was summoned by the Third Hokage. The Third Hokage had no doubts about Narak killing the Cloud ninjas. After all, Narak was a bona fide member of the Hyuga Clan, so there was no possibility of fraud.

Moreover, Hyuga Hiashi had already told the Third Hokage that Narak possessed extraordinary cultivation talent. Narak had also explained that his strength had only recently broken through to the Chunin level. During the battle with the Cloud ninja, his opponent had simply underestimated him and had been killed as a result.

When Narak said that he had already reached the Chunin level, both the Third Hokage and Hyuga Hiashi were delighted. After all, a five-year-old Chunin would be considered a genius anywhere.

Before this, the only genius ninja had been Kakashi, and even he had only passed the examination and become a Chunin at the age of six.

Although Narak had only reached the required level of strength and had not officially passed the Chunin examination, he merely lacked the corresponding experience. With his current strength, it would not be a problem for him to become a Chunin after gaining some field experience.

Thus, after leaving the Hokage's office, Narak became a Genin. The very next day, he began carrying out missions with Konoha's Jonin.

The Third Hokage was determined to nurture Narak, so naturally, he did not have him perform trivial missions such as "finding a pet cat for the rich widow in the eastern village" or "buying a wheelchair for the crippled Wang in the western village."

At first, the Jonin squad leader took him on several C-rank escort missions, allowing Narak to familiarize himself with the mission format and integrate into the team.

Afterward, he began taking Narak on B-rank missions that required them to fight ninjas.

At the beginning, Narak was quite miserable. Although the enemies on B-rank missions were basically all Genin, they possessed a certain amount of combat experience. Their unpredictable attacks caught Narak off guard.

The squad leader had clearly received a private order from the Third Hokage to test Narak, so he never took the initiative to help. As a result, Narak suffered some minor setbacks at first.

Fortunately, with the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan granting him keen insight, along with his Chunin-level combat strength, Narak was not about to be sunk by a surprise attack.

After several missions, Narak drew lessons from his battles and learned and improved at an astonishing speed. After that, he became completely at ease whenever he encountered enemies. Those Genin cannon fodder could no longer threaten him.

Then, during an operation half a year later, the squad was ambushed by a Jonin and three Chunin from an enemy country. The squad leader was held back by the enemy Jonin, while the other two teammates were seriously injured. Under those circumstances, Narak erupted with astonishing combat power.

On the battlefield, Narak used Flash Step to dart back and forth like a ghost. Combined with the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga Clan, he killed the three Chunin within mere minutes. Immediately afterward, Narak helped his squad leader kill the enemy Jonin as well. This left the squad leader—and the Third Hokage, who learned of the matter afterward—stunned.

They were all ninjas, so why was he so ridiculously impressive...

Thus, Narak was arranged to participate in the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Then, in the year Narak turned six, he became another genius ninja of Konoha. Like Hatake Kakashi before him, he became a Chunin at the age of six.

After becoming a Chunin, Narak began leading teams out on missions alone.

As the caravan traveled on, the gates of Konoha gradually came into view. The caravan members, who had been somewhat tense, visibly relaxed.

The caravan master glanced at the accompanying ninja guards. "Ah, well, we owe this trip's safety to all of you. Once we return to the village, I'll submit a favorable evaluation of your mission to the village's higher-ups. I hope we can work together again next time."

One of the Genin walking at the very front heard the caravan master and said, "Yoshi, boss, you've got a good eye. You made the right choice coming to us for a mission. We guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Hearing this, another female ninja traveling with them curled her lips. "Enough with the bragging. It was all thanks to the squad leader anyway. You should know that ever since the squad leader started leading missions, we've never failed even once, and we've received perfect evaluations every time. With your mediocre skills, you'd have died countless times already if the squad leader hadn't kept protecting you."

The ninja flushed when the female ninja retorted. He stammered, "Well... We're on the same team as the squad leader... If the squad leader is impressive, doesn't that mean we're impressive too...? Honestly, you're so nagging..."

Listening to the two people below bicker, Narak lay on the cart roof with no change in his emotions. Clearly, he had long since grown accustomed to the relationships between his teammates.