Naruto's cold voice, tinged with impatience, exploded through the silent woods like thunder from a clear sky.
"Come out, you two weaklings."
As soon as he spoke, the shadows beneath the trees trembled.
Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha emerged one after the other, shuffling along like two startled quails.
The expressions on their faces were worthy of being immortalized in a painting.
Sakura's little face had gone deathly pale, her large eyes filled with the bewildered shock of, Who am I? Where am I? What did I just see?
The way she looked at Naruto was like she was staring at a prehistoric beast wearing human skin—filled with fear, reverence, and a trace of obsessive fascination that even she had not noticed.
As for Sasuke Uchiha, even his eternally expressionless face could no longer hold up.
He looked like a staunch materialist who had personally witnessed God dancing in floral boxer shorts.
Shock, confusion, humiliation, bewilderment... countless emotions tangled wildly within his dark pupils before finally becoming one thing—a blue screen crash after CPU overload.
Yeah, what had he seen?
He had seen Hidden Leaf's elite jonin, the genius ninja Kakashi Hatake who had copied thousands of ninjutsu, kneeling on the ground without a shred of dignity over two lousy books, crying like a three-hundred-pound child.
He had also seen the eternal dead-last whom he had always looked down on toy with Kakashi from beginning to end, crush him in taijutsu, confront him head-on in ninjutsu, and finally seize victory without spilling blood through some kind of "adult gameplay" Sasuke could not comprehend at all.
Sasuke felt as though Naruto's combination blow had smashed his worldview, along with the pride of the Uchiha Clan, into dust without leaving even scraps behind.
So... this was absolute strength?
Strength so great that it could ignore the rules and grind a jonin's dignity beneath its feet?
"Ahem!"
Just as the atmosphere reached peak absurdity, Kakashi finally snapped out of the bliss of having regained what he had lost.
He carefully tucked those two "spiritual provisions" back into his clothes, dusted the mud and water from himself, and forcibly resumed that half-dead, dead-fish-eyed look in an attempt to salvage the last scraps of his dignity as a teacher.
"Alright, the farce is over."
He cleared his throat, swept his gaze across the three of them, then finally looked at the two bells Naruto was idly playing with as he posed what he considered his classic ultimate question.
"There are only two bells, but there are three of you."
"That means one person will inevitably be eliminated and return to the Ninja Academy."
Kakashi's voice carried a subtle hint of guidance. "How... will you divide them?"
After saying that, he deliberately glanced at Sasuke and Sakura, eagerly waiting to see them fight over the bells or face a difficult choice.
This was the essence of the survival exercise—testing teamwork!
Yet what he received was a disdainful sneer.
"Heh."
Naruto could not even be bothered to raise his eyelids, as if he had just heard the greatest joke in the world.
The next second, before everyone's stunned eyes, he made a move that nearly caused Kakashi's eyeballs to pop out.
He casually tossed the two bells representing victory onto the ground as if they were garbage.
Then he lifted his foot and, without hesitation—
stomped down!
Crack!
The crisp sound of metal shattering was especially piercing in the deathly silent training ground.
Those two bells that countless Genin teams had fought bloody battles over were effortlessly crushed into two pieces of scrap metal beneath Naruto's foot!
The entire place fell silent!
Sasuke and Sakura's mouths hung wide enough to fit an egg.
Kakashi was petrified on the spot, his mind completely blank. He pointed at the fragments on the ground, his voice changing pitch. "Y-you... what are you doing?!"
Had this kid gone insane?!
Did he know what he was doing?!
"What am I doing?"
Naruto slowly raised his head. His azure eyes, fused with the Byakugan, shone with an overbearing light that seemed to suffocate everyone around him.
He swept his gaze around, from Kakashi's stunned face to Sakura's blank expression, before finally stopping on Sasuke's face, which was filled with humiliation and unwillingness.
"Rules are meant to be broken."
His voice was not loud, yet it struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer!
"The people I lead either pass together!"
"Or we all get the hell out together!"
"My team, Naruto Uzumaki's team, doesn't need these damn bells to prove whether we're qualified!"
Boom!!!
Those words were like a declaration from a ruler overlooking the world—overbearing, arrogant, utterly unreasonable!
Yet they also carried an irresistible sense of absolute responsibility, as though he would shoulder every burden himself!
Sasuke stared fixedly at the two distorted metal fragments on the ground. The ice fortress built from hatred and loneliness deep within his heart was violently cracked open in that instant.
Ever since he was little, he had always been alone.
His clan was gone. His family was gone. Everyone who approached him either coveted the Uchiha name, wanted his face, or pitied him as a "survivor."
Never had anyone used such a crude, arrogant method to tell him—we are a team!
My people are under my protection!
No proof was needed, and no reason was needed!
The feeling of being forcibly included among someone's "own people," of being shielded behind someone without any logic or explanation... made Sasuke's long-frozen heart feel something scorching for the first time.
So this was what a companion was?
So this was... what it felt like to be protected?
"Naruto..."
On the other side, Sakura Haruno had been completely stunned silly.
Her eyes reddened as she gazed blankly at Naruto's back. It was not particularly broad, yet it seemed capable of holding up the sky.
At that moment, Sasuke's handsome looks and a revenge-seeker's coolness were all thrown to the farthest reaches of the world.
She suddenly felt that this man, who was outrageously domineering and arrogantly lawless, was ten thousand times more handsome than every man she had seen over the past decade combined!
[Ding! Detected that bond target 'Sakura Haruno' has surpassed her emotional threshold. Her mental defenses have completely collapsed!] [Current Favorability: 45 (Heart in Complete Turmoil)!]
"Whew..."
After a long silence, Kakashi slowly let out a breath.
As he looked at Naruto, a heartfelt smile mixed with appreciation and relief appeared in his dead-fish eyes for the first time.
He slowly spoke those classic words.
"In the ninja world, those who violate regulations and rules are called trash."
"But..."
"Those who do not know how to cherish their companions are worse than trash!"
Kakashi swept his gaze over the three of them before solemnly announcing:
"Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno—"
"Congratulations. You have all passed!"
"From today onward, you are true ninjas!"
Team 7 had officially been established!
The exercise ended, and sunlight broke through the clouds, falling upon everyone.
Sasuke stood there silently, clenching and loosening his fists, then loosening and clenching them again.
Sasuke silently walked over to Naruto. His lips moved, but in the end, he only managed to squeeze out a "Hmph" before turning his head away.
Naruto saw through his awkwardness and patted his shoulder. "Say whatever you want to say. Holding it in isn't good for your health." Sasuke gritted his teeth and said, "Don't misunderstand. I just think that... I owe you one."
"Pfft."
Naruto nearly laughed out loud.
Well, well. This little tsundere was finally willing to lower his head?
He did not stand on ceremony. Stretching out his hand, he gave Sasuke's shoulder a heavy slap with a loud smack, speaking in the tone of a big brother looking after his underling.
"It was nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Follow me from now on, and I'll make sure you eat and drink well. You'll have meat every day!"
At that slap, Sasuke the Cold suddenly stiffened, but surprisingly, he did not resist.
Beside them, Sakura Haruno nodded hard like a well-behaved little wife. Her bright eyes sparkled as she looked at Naruto, her entire face declaring, "Big Brother is right."
Looking at the two little brats he had completely brought under control, Naruto curled his lips in satisfaction.
Alright, this slapdash "team" in the beginner village was finally set up.
So next...
It was time to check on the progress of his other "quest lines."
Before you continue