"We still have to get back in time for dinner."
As Sen spoke, he picked a small piece of apple peel out from between his teeth.
Naruto jumped down from the tree, stepped on a bloodstained bone fragment, and nearly slipped.
He looked at the pile of ashes on the ground, swallowed, and hurried over to the battered wooden barrel.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto reached out and slapped the barrel's lid, the sweat on his palm leaving a dark handprint on the wood.
Bang!
Before he could slap it a second time.
The barrel suddenly exploded from within.
Shattered planks flew in every direction. One grazed Naruto's cheek, slicing it open.
A wave of purplish-black chakra burst out of the broken barrel.
Sasuke stood amid the splintered wood, his head lowered as he panted heavily.
The Cursed Seal on his neck seemed to come alive, spewing black markings that crawled across half his face.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out in delight.
Sasuke ignored him.
He slowly raised his head. In his eyes, three tomoe spun as fast as windmills.
His gaze was filled with an uncontrollable, feverish hunger for power.
"So this is... the power Orochimaru gave me?"
Sasuke clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking.
He felt explosive chakra filling his body.
He looked neither at Naruto nor at Sen, who stood nearby yawning.
He turned and stamped hard against the muddy ground.
Then he became a black blur, racing toward the Land of Fire's border without looking back.
"Hey! You stuck-up bastard! Where are you going, Sasuke?!"
Naruto panicked and shouted at the top of his lungs.
Ignoring the cut on his face, he took off in pursuit.
Sen stayed where he was, watching the two idiots disappear into the distance, one behind the other.
He sighed and pulled a half-finished bag