He Was a Born Demon and Murderer

The hospital room fell silent.

Outside the window, Kakashi's lazy gaze sharpened.

Haruno Sakura had been there back then, but she'd been too caught up admiring Sasuke's looks to think much of it. She'd thought he was cool. Now that she thought back on it, her heart tightened.

Sasuke's expression twisted with conflict. "Why are you asking?"

"Because I wanted to."

Naruto had already decided: if Sasuke answered, he'd treat him. If he didn't, Naruto would leave him to recover on his own.

He wasn't a psychiatrist, either. His past experience had taught him that only you could help yourself.

Even the likes of Hai Hu, Ao Jia, and Tian Dao were all a bunch of psychologically troubled people.

Sasuke fell silent.

His family history was no secret in Konoha. The village elders and higher-ups had known about it for years.

So he'd never gone out of his way to hide it.

"You really want to know?"

"Don't ask. The answer's no." Naruto pursed his lips. "If we weren't on the same team, I wouldn't even bother asking."

Haruno Sakura looked from one to the other. They were both so handsome.

Sasuke thought, What a hypocrite. Then, with magnanimous resolve, he gritted his teeth and said, "That man is my biological older brother, Itachi Uchiha."

As he spoke the name, he almost paused after every syllable. His hatred was so thick it seemed to writhe around him like tentacles.

Naruto looked confused. "Why do you want to kill your brother?"

Sasuke had already sunk into his memories. His eyes turned fierce, and he shouted in a trembling voice, "He's a born demon and murderer! To prove his own capacity, he killed our parents with his own hands and wiped out the entire Uchiha clan!"

Haruno Sakura covered her mouth in horror. "That's awful. How could anyone do something like that..."

Naruto knew at once: another promising candidate for the Heavenly Martial Killing Path. Given his age, he might already have attained the Path. "Then how did you survive?"

"He thought I'd never be able to beat him!" Sasuke trembled all over. "He left me alive on purpose, just to humiliate me! He wanted to play with me like prey, to trample me!"

Naruto immediately understood. It was a way of nurturing hatred, saving it until he reached his limit—letting it mature before brutally, mercilessly slaughtering the target and proving his conviction.

The one left alive was often the one most beloved.

The Shinobi World really couldn't be underestimated. It seemed they had cultivation methods like this, too.

Itachi Uchiha was undoubtedly a powerhouse who stood at the pinnacle of the Shinobi World!

Naruto looked at Sasuke with pity. He wasn't fierce or powerful enough. He really couldn't compare to his brother.

"Want me to help?"

Sasuke shook his head hard. "No! I'll get revenge with my own hands!"

Naruto wasn't convinced. "All right, all right. I understand your ambition. Tone it down. I'll treat your injuries now."

"Treat them?" Sasuke's eyes widened. "You've learned Medical Ninjutsu, too?"

Naruto nodded and grabbed Sasuke by the ankle. Powerful Chakra surged from his palm, entering the injured muscle tissue as he examined it.

For ordinary treatment, a fracture was a serious injury. But in terms of total cell count, not many had actually been damaged.

Naruto's Chakra was like his eyes now, letting him clearly observe the injury. The cuts Yakushi Kabuto had made with his Chakra Scalpel were extremely narrow.

All he had to do was reinforce the fragile new connections at the tears in the muscle fibers, strengthening the cells one by one.

Watching Naruto work with such concentration, Haruno Sakura felt like she was dreaming. If Naruto had been like this from the start of school and then confessed to her, she might never have had the chance to fall for Sasuke.

Sasuke was sweating profusely. Naruto's hand was scorching hot, making his leg feel as if it were melting, as though his metabolism had sped up a hundredfold.

But gradually, solid strength returned to his legs.

Kakashi, peeking in from outside, muttered, "First the Rasengan, and now he can even use Lord Tsunade's Mystical Palm Technique?"

Before long, Naruto withdrew his hand and took two long, deep breaths through his nose.

At his current level of ten thousand horses, Cellular Reorganization was still somewhat taxing. Last time, he'd healed Haku by absorbing the life force of flowers and plants.

This time, he'd used only his own Chakra to treat Sasuke.

"Get down and take a few steps."

Sasuke carefully got out of bed and planted his feet on the floor twice. Then he sprang up and touched the ceiling, his eyes wide with shock.

He still vividly remembered how difficult and painful it had been when he'd stubbornly tried to walk earlier.

After Naruto used his Medical Ninjutsu, he could move freely at once. He couldn't even feel where he'd been injured.

And he'd already received treatment from a doctor before being admitted. Didn't that mean Naruto's professional skills had surpassed the doctor's?

Seeing Sasuke jump around, Haruno Sakura was happy at first, then dejected.

Her original plan had been to study Genjutsu and medical techniques so she could support the two of them. Now Naruto had already mastered them so well that one path was clearly closed to her.

She thought, Looks like I can only focus on Genjutsu from now on!

After visiting, Naruto got up to leave the hospital room.

But the instant he moved, two frigid killing intents swept in from the far end of the corridor outside.

Unlike Orochimaru's evil aura, these killing intents were cold and vicious, raising prickles on his skin.

Naruto grabbed Haruno Sakura with one hand and Sasuke with the other, then tossed them out the window, one after the other. He leaped out after them and shouted, "Kakashi-sensei! The enemies came in through the front entrance!"

Bang!

The three had barely escaped when a massive, white-bandage-wrapped club smashed through the hospital room door.

Wood chips scattered across the floor, revealing a tall, strange man with a completely gray face and gill-like slits on his cheeks.

"Kid, you've got sharp senses."

Beside the strange man stood someone who looked almost exactly like Sasuke, the only difference being the two tear-trough lines slanting beneath his eyes. His expression was cold.

They wore the same clothes: black trench coats with red cloud patterns and standing collars. The cracks across the centers of their Forehead Protectors marked them as rogue ninja.

Naruto's sense of danger was overwhelmingly intense—more intense than ever before. His instincts even stopped him from looking back, urging him to run, to get to Jiraiya as fast as he could.

Damn it, Konoha's security really was terrible. Anyone who wanted to could just walk right in.

"Sasuke! Run! They're probably here to capture you for Orochimaru!"

Naruto turned, drew the Kubikiribōchō from his back, and stood alongside Kakashi.

But Sasuke didn't run. He stared at the man who looked just like him, his eyes bulging with rage.

Naruto was furious. He kicked Sasuke away. "Run, you idiot!"

"Orochimaru? You mean that bad guy who defected from our organization?" The gill-faced man laughed arrogantly. "Did you steal that Kubikiribōchō from Zabuza?"

Naruto ignored him completely. "Sakura! Go to the roof of the tallest building south of the women's bathhouse on Hot Springs Street and find Jiraiya. Tell him to come help!"

"Got it!" Haruno Sakura obeyed at once.

"You rude little brat. You won't even answer when spoken to?" The gill-faced man charged forward, smashing through the window and wall together as he brought his bandaged club down on Naruto's head.

Boom!

Naruto blocked it with his sword, and the floor tiles around them shattered instantly.

The strange man looked surprised, then grinned savagely. "You've got some strength."

He immediately flipped backward like a fish, dodging the Kunai with an Explosive Tag that Kakashi had thrown at his temple.

Naruto's brows drew together. He'd noticed something terrifying. The instant their weapons collided, his Chakra had suddenly decreased, as if something had bitten off a piece of it.

The club didn't feel like metal, either. It was resilient and pliable, like rubber.

Kakashi's Three-Tomoe Sharingan was already active.

"Kisame Hoshigaki, rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist. Itachi Uchiha, rogue ninja from Konoha. This is the center of Konoha, and a support unit will arrive soon. I advise you to leave at once."

Naruto had only just heard of these two, and now he was seeing them in person. There was no way he'd mistake them—their names suited them both.

He looked at the cold-faced man, whose expression barely changed. "Sasuke's older brother?"

"Yeah. The older brother of that weakling and good-for-nothing."

"Ughhhh! Itachi Uchiha! I'll kill you!" Sasuke still hadn't run. He screamed in rage and grief as he charged back, lightning flashing from the Chidori in his right palm.