"I... am I still half asleep?"
Sakura bit into her apple and mumbled around it, her eyes filled with confusion.
Naruto walked over and patted her shoulder, wearing an expression that said, "You're too naive."
"No, Sakura, you're not half asleep."
"Everything that just happened... was real."
"My big bro... he's a god!"
Naruto pointed at Sen, who was directing everyone to gather the fruit. The look in his bright blue eyes had gone far beyond admiration.
He looked as though he were gazing at a living god walking among mortals.
Sasuke said nothing.
He simply picked up the scattered Spirit Fruits one by one and put them into his ninja tool pouch.
As he watched that figure reclining in the Pavilion, legs lazily crossed, words could no longer describe the shock in his heart.
He had sent one of the legendary Sannin flying with a single slap.
He had strangled a summoned beast from Ryūchi Cave with a single Wood Dragon.
Forget a Genin-even their team leader, Kakashi Hatake, probably couldn't achieve that level of combat power, could he?
"So this is the kind of monster I've been trying to catch up to all along..."
Sasuke gave a bitter laugh, feeling his pitiful little pride crushed to dust before absolute strength.
With the threat of Orochimaru gone, peace returned to the clearing.
Aside from the wreckage strewn everywhere, it was as though that earth-shaking battle had never happened.
But the way Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sen had changed completely.
It was the reverence mortals felt when looking up at a god.
"All right, all right. Stop standing around."
Sen sat up in his lounge chair and brushed the fruit juice off his hands.
"What are you spacing out for? If you're full, let's go."
"The sooner we're done,