Three Gates Opened at Once! Kakashi's SAN Plummeted!

"My taijutsu warm-up is over. Next, it's your turn to use ninjutsu, right?"

Naruto Uzumaki's casual, almost cruel tone was like an invisible sledgehammer smashing into everyone's chest on the training ground.

Kakashi Hatake leaned against a broken tree, his chest heaving violently. The dead-fish eye exposed above his mask no longer held shock, but the terror of someone who had seen a ghost!

A warm-up?

That savage assault had treated him like a punching bag, battering him through the air until every bone in his body creaked. Even his Sharingan, which had copied over a thousand ninjutsu, had been rendered useless...

And he called that a warm-up?!

He felt as though both his arms had gone completely numb, as if they no longer belonged to him.

Every muscle fiber screamed in agony, while tearing pain pulsed through every joint in his skeleton.

This brat's taijutsu was even more brutal than Might Guy's when that green-spandex freak opened the Fifth Gate!

No, this wasn't even on the same level!

Guy's Strong Fist had been forged through training, but Naruto himself was a prehistoric beast wearing human skin!

And he had naively thought of testing him with taijutsu just now?

That was basically offering up his face to be slapped!

Deep in the woods, Sasuke Uchiha knelt on one knee, his body trembling slightly from overwhelming shock.

His prized Two-Tomoe Sharingan were bloodshot, their visual power pushed to its limit.

Yet even so, Naruto's movements were still nothing but a blurry golden streak in his vision!

He couldn't see him!

He simply couldn't see him at all!

He could only barely make out Kakashi-sensei being blasted around like a broken doll. Every dull impact sounded like a sledgehammer smashing against his pride.

"Th-this... is that really the dead last?!"

Sasuke's lips had gone pale.

The target he had always pursued was that man.

For that sake, he had carried the glory of the Uchiha clan, trained desperately, and left all his peers far behind.

He had believed himself to be a vengeance-seeker chosen by fate.

But now, reality had dealt him such a resounding slap that his ears rang!

The "dead last" he had despised and ignored for six whole years was now displaying power far beyond his comprehension!

That wasn't Genin, not Chūnin, not even Jōnin!

That was... a god, or a devil!

Naruto's icy declaration from yesterday echoed uncontrollably through Sasuke's mind: "If you glare at me with that deadpan face again, I'll stuff you into a trash can to keep Neji Hyuga company."

At the time, he had only felt utterly humiliated.

But now, an icy chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head!

So it hadn't been a threat.

It had merely been... a statement of fact, something Naruto could do whenever he wanted!

For the first time, an emotion called "despair" took root in the heart of this Uchiha genius.

"Kakashi-sensei."

Amid that deathly silence, Naruto moved.

He did not charge again. He merely took a slow step back, spreading his feet slightly until they were shoulder-width apart.

The smile vanished from his face, replaced by an almost sacred solemnity.

"To show my respect for an elite Jōnin like you, I'll be a little... more serious."

Before his words had faded, a terrifying aura erupted from within him!

He drew a deep breath, his voice booming like a great bell across the entire training ground!

"Eight Gates: Opening Gate, open!"

"Second Gate of Healing, open!"

"Third Gate of Life, open!"

Boom—!!!

A visible green chakra aura, like burning emerald flames, suddenly burst from Naruto's body!

The violent airflow formed a miniature hurricane around him!

The fallen leaves around him were instantly swept into the sky, only to be shredded into their most primitive powder by the raging energy before they could even fall!

The solid ground beneath his feet cracked with sharp snaps, web-like fissures spreading everywhere as he became the eye of the storm!

"Thump!"

Kakashi's jaw nearly dislocated and dropped beneath his mask!

His dead-fish eye widened larger than a bronze bell, his eyeball nearly popping out of its socket!

"W-what kind of joke is this?! The Eight Gates?!!"

Kakashi's SAN plummeted wildly at that moment!

His mind went blank, his CPU instantly fried!

The Eight Gates?!

That ultimate forbidden technique which traded one's body for power beyond Shadow Level?!

This brat was only twelve!

Where had he learned it?!

Could it have been Guy?

No!

Impossible!

That thick-browed fool might get carried away by passion, but he would never teach a child a forbidden technique meant for mutual destruction!

And what horrified him most was...

After opening three gates, Naruto's immense life force showed no sign of weakening. Instead, it grew even more vigorous, like a blazing sun!

What the hell kind of forbidden technique was this?

It was easier for him than eating and drinking!

This wasn't scientific!

This wasn't Naruto at all!

In the fraction of a second while Kakashi's worldview collapsed and he questioned his entire life.

Whoosh!

Naruto, going all out, vanished.

It wasn't high-speed movement. It wasn't the Body Flicker Technique.

He had truly evaporated from where he stood!

He was so fast that not even an afterimage remained!

So fast that even the air had no time to let out a wail!

"Where is he?!"

Sasuke's Sharingan spun frantically, but it could only capture empty space!

"Not good!"

Kakashi's battle-honed instincts screamed a warning!

An icy sensation of death poured down from above!

He abruptly looked up!

The golden figure wrapped in green chakra flames had somehow appeared directly above him like a ghost!

Like a grim reaper descending from the heavens!

"Reverse Lotus!"

With a furious roar, Naruto's right leg, carrying the combined power of the Opening Gate, Gate of Healing, and Gate of Life, transformed into a green battle-axe that tore through the sky as it violently cleaved down at Kakashi's head!

Space itself seemed to twist and wail beneath that kick!

I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!!!

Kakashi's mind was filled with terror. He did not even have time to form a single hand sign. Relying only on his final instinct, he poured every last bit of chakra into both arms, crossed them over his head, and made the most pathetic block possible!

Crack—!!!!

A deafening sound exploded, making teeth ache, as though bone and earth had shattered at the same time!

The instant Kakashi's arms came into contact with that power, they let out a groan of unbearable strain!

He felt as if a horrifying force not meant for this world had come crashing down on him like the entirety of Mount Sumeru!

His legs could no longer support him. His knees buckled, and that overwhelming force smashed him inch by inch into the ground beneath his feet!

Rumble!!!

Centered on Kakashi, the ground within a ten-meter radius collapsed downward as though it had been struck by a meteor!

A massive crater formed instantly, dirt and shattered rock blasting into the sky!

"Ah—!!!"

In the bushes, Sakura Haruno could no longer hold back. Covering her mouth, she let out a scream of absolute terror.

That legendary Copy Ninja who could do anything... that elite Jōnin of the Hidden Leaf... that great figure even her father looked up to...

Had actually... actually been driven into the ground alive by Naruto with one kick, like a piling hammer?!

The entire training ground fell into deathly silence.

Only the massive crater and Naruto standing at its edge, green chakra flames burning around his body like a demon god descended upon the world, proved that everything just now had not been an illusion.

Sasuke stared blankly at the scene, opening his mouth but unable to make a sound.

His pride, his dignity, his worldview...

At that moment, Naruto's kick crushed them all to pieces.

After a long while.

"Cough... cough cough..."

Weak coughing came from inside the crater.

A hand covered in dirt trembled as it gripped the edge of the crater.

Kakashi Hatake rolled out in a miserable state, looking as though he had just been pulled from a mudslide. His silver hair was covered in dirt and grass, and a huge smear of yellow mud coated his mask, utterly destroying his cool image.

He ignored his need to catch his breath and the bone-splitting pain in both arms. He simply stared fixedly at Naruto with the gaze one would use on a prehistoric monster.

I can't... I absolutely can't fight him in taijutsu again!

Only that thought remained in Kakashi's mind.

*If this continues, I'll die!

I'll really die!*

He struggled to his feet, his hands forming seals rapidly with spasmodic speed!

At that moment, he completely abandoned the restraint expected of a teacher and all so-called "testing"!

He would treat the brat before him as the most dangerous enemy he had ever faced in his life!

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

With Kakashi's roar, the moisture in the surrounding air rapidly gathered!

An enormous water dragon formed from high-density chakra and rushing water soared up behind him with a roar. Opening its massive maw, it lunged at Naruto with terrifying force capable of tearing steel apart!

Yet faced with this A-rank ninjutsu, enough to make any Genin tremble in fear.

Naruto merely stood quietly where he was, a mocking sneer curling across his lips.

He slowly raised his head, and the eyes burning with green chakra flames suddenly changed!