"My taijutsu warm-up is over. Next, it's your turn to use ninjutsu, right?"
Naruto Uzumaki's tone was so relaxed it was almost cruel, like an invisible sledgehammer smashing viciously into everyone's chest on the training ground.
Kakashi Hatake leaned against a broken tree, his chest heaving violently. The dead-fish eye exposed outside his mask no longer held shock, but the terror of someone who had seen a ghost!
A warm-up?
That savage assault just now had treated him like a punching bag, battering him through the air until every bone in his body creaked. Even the Sharingan that 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 wailed in agony, while the joints between his bones sent waves of tearing pain through him.
This brat's taijutsu was even more brutal than that green jumpsuit freak, Might Guy, when he opened the Fifth Gate!
No, they weren't even on the same level!
Might Guy's Strong Fist had been honed through training, but Naruto himself was a prehistoric beast wearing human skin!
And he had actually naïvely thought he could test him using only taijutsu?
He might as well have stuck out his face and begged to be slapped!
Deep in the woods, Sasuke Uchiha knelt on one knee, his body trembling slightly from overwhelming shock.
His proud Two-Tomoe Sharingan was bloodshot, its visual power pushed to its absolute limit.
Yet even so, Naruto's movements were still nothing more than a blurry golden streak in his vision!
He couldn't see them!
He simply couldn't see them!
He could only barely make out Kakashi-sensei being blasted back and forth like a broken doll, every dull impact landing like a hammer blow against his pride.
"Th-this... is that really the dead last?!"
Sasuke's lips had gone deathly pale.
The target he had always pursued was that man.
For that, he had carried the glory of the Uchiha and trained desperately, leaving every peer far behind.
He had thought himself a vengeance-bound man of destiny.
But now, reality had slapped him so hard his ears rang!
The "dead last" he had despised and ignored for six whole years was displaying power far beyond his comprehension!
That wasn't Genin strength, nor Chunin strength, not even Jonin strength!
That was... a god, or a demon!
Sasuke could not stop Naruto's icy declaration from yesterday from echoing in his mind. "If you glare at me with that deadpan face again, I'll shove you into a trash can and let you keep Neji Hyuga company."
At the time, he had only considered it the greatest humiliation.
But now, a chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his skull!
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 the Uchiha genius.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Amid the deathly silence, Naruto moved.
He did not charge again. He merely took one slow step back, spreading his feet slightly to shoulder width.
The smile on his face vanished, replaced by an almost sacred solemnity.
"To show proper respect for an elite Jonin like you, I'll be a little... more serious."
Before his voice had even faded, a terrifying aura erupted from within him!
He took a deep breath, his voice ringing across the entire training ground like a great bell!
"Eight Gates: First Gate, Opening Gate, open!"
"Second Gate, Gate of Healing, open!"
"Third Gate, Gate of Life, open!"
Boom—!!!
A visible green chakra aura, like burning jade, burst violently from Naruto's body!
The raging airflow formed a miniature hurricane around him!
The fallen leaves nearby were instantly swept into the sky, only to be torn into their most primitive dust by the violent energy before they even fell!
The solid ground beneath his feet cracked with a series of sharp snaps, splitting into countless spiderweb-like fissures. Naruto himself seemed to become the eye of the storm!
"Thump!"
Kakashi's jaw nearly dislocated and dropped to the ground beneath his mask!
His dead-fish eye opened wider than a bell, his eyeball nearly popping out of its socket!
"O-o-open what?! The Eight Gates?!!"
Kakashi's SAN value plummeted at that moment!
His mind went blank, and his CPU burned out on the spot!
The Eight Gates?!
That ultimate forbidden technique that traded the body for power beyond the Shadow Level?!
This brat was only twelve!
Where had he learned it?!
Could it have been Might Guy?
No!
Impossible!
That thick-browed idiot might get fired up easily, but he would never teach a child a forbidden technique that could take them both down!
And what made Kakashi's scalp crawl the most was...
The vast life force within Naruto showed no sign of weakening after opening three gates. Instead, it only grew more vigorous, like a blazing sun!
How the hell was this a forbidden technique?
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 was not high-speed movement, nor was it 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 cry!
"Where did he go?!"
Sasuke's Sharingan spun frantically, yet it could only capture emptiness!
"Not good!"
Kakashi's battle-honed instincts screamed a warning!
A chill of death poured down from above his head!
He suddenly 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 smashed violently toward Kakashi's head!
Even space seemed to twist and scream beneath that kick!
I'm going to die, die, die!!!
Kakashi's mind was consumed by terror. He did not even have time to form a single hand seal. Relying only on his final instinct, he poured every last trace of chakra into his arms, crossed them over his head, and raised the most pathetic block possible!
Crack—!!!!
A teeth-grinding boom, as though bones and earth had shattered at the same time, exploded through the air!
The instant Kakashi's arms met that force, they let out an overburdened cry!
He felt a terrifying power that did not belong in this world bearing down on him like the entire Mount Sumeru!
His legs could no longer support him. His knees buckled, and the immense force hammered him inch by inch into the ground beneath his feet!
Rumble!!!
Centered on Kakashi, the ground within a ten-meter radius caved in as if struck by a meteorite!
A huge crater formed in an instant, dirt and shattered rocks blasting into the sky!
"Ah—!!!"
In the bushes, Sakura Haruno could no longer hold back. Covering her mouth, she let out a scream of utter terror.
That Copy Ninja said to be capable of anything... that elite Jonin of the Hidden Leaf... that great figure even her father looked up to...
Had actually... actually been kicked by Naruto... and driven alive into the ground like a pile?!
The entire training ground fell into dead silence.
Only the enormous crater, and Naruto standing at its edge with green chakra flames burning around him like a demon god descending into the world, proved that everything that had just happened was not 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.
A long while later.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Weak coughing came from the crater.
A hand caked in dirt trembled as it clawed its way over the edge of the crater.
Kakashi Hatake rolled out in a miserable state, looking as though he had just been dragged out of a mudslide. His silver hair was covered in dirt and grass clippings, while a huge smear of yellow mud covered his mask, shattering every bit of his cool image.
He did not bother catching his breath, nor did he care about the bone-breaking pain in both arms. He only stared fixedly at Naruto with the look of someone facing a prehistoric monster.
I can't... I absolutely can't fight him in taijutsu again!
That was the only thought left 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 almost convulsive speed!
At that moment, he completely abandoned a teacher's restraint and any 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!
A massive water dragon formed from high-density chakra and flowing water rose into the air behind him with a roar. Opening its blood-filled jaws, it lunged toward Naruto with terrifying force capable of shredding steel!
Yet faced with this A-rank ninjutsu that could make any Genin tremble in fear.
Naruto merely stood quietly where he was, a mocking, icy smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
He slowly raised his head, and the eyes burning with green chakra flames changed in an instant!
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