The Clamor Amid the Celebration

Darui's eyes narrowed slightly.

For once, the Cloud Ninja's fighting spirit, buried deep in his bones, stirred to life. It wasn't that Darui was arrogant or thought he could defeat Naruto or anything like that. He had simply seen someone so young, yet so obviously powerful, and felt an urge to test himself against him. Deep down, Darui knew he probably wasn't a match for this First Snow Shadow. He would most likely be crushed, and there was even a good chance he'd be killed in a one-on-one fight—if the First Snow Shadow really could control the Nine-Tails Chakra perfectly, as the intelligence reports had suggested, just like their own Killer Bee.

On top of that, Naruto had his own considerable strength.

And there was the Flying Thunder God Technique, which the intelligence reports had yet to confirm with absolute certainty.

The truth was, Darui and Naruto were on completely different levels.

But that didn't stop the fighting spirit deep within Darui from stirring. Darui wasn't like the average battle-hungry Cloud Ninja. His fighting spirit was particular; unless someone caught his interest, he couldn't be bothered to summon the energy for a fight. Naruto, standing before him now, was certainly worthy of that interest.

But that was just a thought.

Never mind that this wasn't the right place or the right time.

Even if the place and time were right,

Darui still felt he had plenty of life left to live.

He wasn't about to go looking for a way to get himself killed.

If he wanted to challenge himself or hone his skills, there was no need to choose such a "brain-dead" approach.

Those thoughts only flickered through his mind once. What mattered most was something else—and unlike the "usual way of thinking" among the representatives of the various