Time passed quickly. Before they knew it, the afternoon had settled in.
Sasuke was still training with his eyes closed, using the system.
But just as he was about to make a breakthrough in his understanding,
Naruto's call suddenly woke him.
"Ah... There really are a lot of unexpected factors when we're out here, huh?..."
He sighed inwardly and slowly opened his eyes, only to see Naruto waving a fish he'd grilled at some point, rushing toward him with excitement.
Naruto and Tazuna had been getting along so well that the afternoon had crept up on them before they knew it.
He'd gotten lucky and caught a few small fish in the river nearby.
After grilling them and handing some to Kakashi and Tazuna, Naruto couldn't help looking toward Sakura, who still seemed distracted.
"Should I go over or not?..."
Naruto thought it over for a long while, then hesitated on the spot for quite some time, but in the end, he still couldn't make up his mind.
Sakura had looked really angry about what happened yesterday. He didn't dare risk making things worse now.
So,
he handed the grilled fish to Tazuna and asked him to pass it along to Sakura. Then Naruto finally turned his attention to Sasuke, who was training with his eyes lowered.
"Ah... I really didn't expect us to be alike..."
After a pause, remembering what he'd heard about Sasuke's past yesterday, Naruto took a deep breath and walked over to him.
"Sasuke, here. Grilled fish."
He said only a few simple words, but wore a kind smile.
It was as if he, Naruto, hadn't been jealous of Sasuke all this time.
Grilled fish?...
Sasuke glanced at the river, then at Sakura, who was still washing her feet upstream in the distance. The corner of his mouth twitched...
Is Naruto a foot fetishist or something?
How can he enjoy eating that so much?...
After only a few seconds of staring blankly, Sasuke came back to his senses. Then, with an awkward cough, he smiled and replied:
"I... I'm not hungry. I don't have much of an appetite. You should eat it..."
"No appetite?..."
Naruto sniffed the fragrant grilled fish in his hand and frowned, asking again to make sure:
"It smells so good. Are you sure you don't want any?..."
Sasuke smiled and nodded.
"No, thanks, Naruto..."
His expression was rather strange.
It was the first time Sasuke had ever been so definite with him, and Naruto's mood instantly lifted. He laughed and began devouring the fish with loud, enthusiastic chomps.
Sasuke frowned as he watched. At that moment, he was even more certain that Naruto was doing this on purpose, not by accident...
"Grrr..."
As soon as Naruto walked away, Sasuke's stomach protested.
He had no choice. He didn't want to eat foot-scented grilled fish, so he turned away from Naruto and secretly stuffed a few Military Ration Pills into his mouth.
Military Ration Pills were similar to compressed biscuits from his previous life.
They didn't taste very good, but at least they were small and filling. More importantly, they could replenish a ninja's chakra to some extent, making them just right for Sasuke at the moment.
As soon as he swallowed the pills, Sasuke immediately felt much better.
But just as he was about to find another comfortable spot to sit cross-legged and train,
several sharp sounds of something cutting through the air suddenly rang out.
Sasuke instantly went on alert. But when he turned toward the sounds,
he saw Kakashi surrounded by several masked ninjas.
Several figures landed. Now Sasuke could make out the newcomers: four ninjas.
They were positioned with precision. The instant they appeared, they formed a square around Kakashi, surrounding him from the front, back, and both sides.
They were clearly a team of well-trained assassin ninjas!
Sasuke had no time to keep observing. In the blink of an eye, several iron chains shot from the four ninjas' sleeves!
Like the bars of a cage, they bound Kakashi tightly in an instant.
Seeing Kakashi restrained, the four flicked their wrists. Barbs suddenly emerged along the chains wrapped around him.
They gleamed coldly, razor-sharp!
In an instant, all four pulled hard. With a spurt, blood sprayed everywhere, a red mist filled the air, and Kakashi abruptly turned into a cloud of blood!
"This..."
Tazuna was stunned.
He knew exactly how important the man who had just been killed in an instant was to Konoha.
He was an elite Jonin, practically the strongest person below the Hokage, and yet now...
Naruto and Sakura cried out in shock, frozen in place and unsure what to do, as if they'd been caught in a Tsukuyomi.
Unlike the three of them, Sasuke was the first to react:
"Not good! Someone hired assassins specifically for this!..."
Nearby, the four ninjas saw that Kakashi, the strongest among them, had been taken out first and sneered.
Then,
they turned to look at the four behind them and muttered:
"Is that all Gekko Hayate can do?"
"They say Konoha's Jonin are famous throughout the world, but they're nothing special after all..."
"Heh heh heh..."
With that, they exchanged glances, then turned toward Team 7 and Tazuna.
But just then,
a fireball suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swept toward the four.
Its force was immense, like a blazing sun.
"This chakra... Could there be a high-level Chunin hiding among them?..."
The four were from the same squad. They didn't need to discuss it. Their figures shifted, and in an instant they stood in a line. At the same time, their hand seals changed in unison, and they shouted:
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Their chests swelled. In an instant, four streams of water joined together, forming a water dragon dozens of meters long. With terrifying force, it charged straight at the fireball.
Boom!
The two sides collided, sending water spraying in every direction. Then a vast cloud of steam hissed into the air. The fireball shrank and shrank until the water dragon swallowed it and it vanished without a trace!
But that wasn't the end of it. The fireball disappeared, but the water dragon's momentum didn't let up.
Like a beast breaking free from its cage, it barreled straight toward Sasuke!
Boom!
Completely unprepared, Sasuke hadn't expected the four to work together so seamlessly—or to have a combined ninjutsu.
Caught off guard, he was struck head-on by the charging water dragon and sent flying like a broken sack, tumbling uncontrollably into a distant patch of grass. No one knew if he was alive or dead.
"Sasuke!..."
Sakura and Naruto were horrified!
They'd known Sasuke might not be a match for the four opponents.
But they hadn't expected him to lose so quickly.
They both looked furious and decided to fight to the death as the four men approached them.
"Don't be rash..."
Just then, Tazuna grabbed Naruto and Sakura as they were about to rush forward and fight.
Then, as if his face had changed in an instant, he stepped forward and greeted them politely:
"Everyone, as ninjas, you're doing this for money."
"Here's the deal: I'm willing to pay you three times what the person who hired you offered."
"Just spare the three of us today. What do you say?..."
His tone was gentle and his manner humble, but this was clearly a typical businessman's way of thinking.
How could that possibly work in the chaotic Shinobi World?...
Before you continue