Konoha's gates cast long shadows beneath the morning sun.
Tazuna's hangover-ridden face still bore the dazed look of someone who had survived after being scared pissless by Naruto's killing intent yesterday.
He trembled as he followed behind Team 7 like a prisoner under escort, occasionally sneaking a glance at the blond kid at the back of the group, his eyes full of awe and fear.
After returning yesterday, he had thought about it all night. How was this a C-rank mission?
This was fucking clearly a hell-level reality show called "How to Survive Under the Hands of an S-Rank Humanoid Tailed Beast"!
"Stay sharp!"
Kakashi walked lazily at the front with his trademark dead-fish eyes, holding an orange little book with an unspeakable cover in his hands.
"Even if this is only a C-rank mission, leaving the village as ninja means we could lose our lives at any time. From now on, we're in wartime status!"
Kakashi's voice had no energy whatsoever. He sounded like a manager mechanically reading a soulless pep talk before a company team-building event.
Naruto walked at the very back, hands in his pockets, and yawned boredly.
Wartime status?
For this?
With this team composition, it was basically Neon Genesis Evangelion escorting two human cannons and a mobile ATM machine on a spring outing.
He swept his gaze around from the corner of his eye.
Sakura was like a peacock in full display, chirping all the way, "Sasuke-kun, are you thirsty?"
"Sasuke-kun, do you want some snacks?"
"Sasuke-kun, don't you think that cloud looks like your handsome face?"
Naruto got goosebumps all over.
He seriously suspected that if Sasuke did not have that ice-cold face that screamed, "Strangers keep away. Get any closer and I'll call the cops," Sakura would have clung to him on the spot.
...And what about their Sasuke-kun?
He wore a solemn expression, his gaze blazing as he stared straight ahead... at Naruto's back.
Throughout the journey, Sasuke's eyes were like radar, locked firmly onto Naruto. Yet beneath that calm exterior, his heart was anything but peaceful.
There had once been a time when he had looked down on this dead last who was always at the bottom of the class, believing Naruto was nothing more than an idiot who grandstood for attention.
But ever since the graduation exam, this dead last had overturned Sasuke's understanding time and time again.
The shock of those thousands of Shadow Clones, the combat instincts and terrifying taijutsu he had displayed during the drill that far exceeded Genin standards... and especially that day, when Sasuke had nearly been instantly defeated by Kakashi, while Naruto had turned around and toyed with that long-famous Jonin instructor in the palm of his hand.
More importantly... when Kakashi had trapped him with Earth Release, leaving him unable to move and utterly humiliated, Naruto had been the one to help him.
The words, "My teammate isn't yours to discipline," were like a scorching pebble cast into the lake of his heart, frozen over for years, sending ripples spreading across its surface that even he had never anticipated.
He craved power. He craved revenge against that man.
And this former dead last before him now possessed a shortcut to strength that Sasuke could not comprehend.
That overwhelming disparity in strength, coupled with his extreme thirst for power, eventually forced him to painfully suppress the pride innate to the Uchiha Clan.
He held it in for a long time, but in the end, he could not resist. He slowed his steps and walked beside Naruto.
The air around them instantly turned awkward.
When Sakura saw Sasuke take the initiative to approach Naruto, the smile on her face froze on the spot. Her sweet call of "Sa-su-ke-kun" caught in her throat, unable to rise or fall.
Sasuke's handsome face was tightly drawn, but the tips of his ears carried a suspicious flush.
After fidgeting for a long time, he finally squeezed out a few words through clenched teeth.
"Naruto-kun..."
"Pfft!"
Naruto nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
Fuck!
Don't be like this!
You were the last tsundere Uchiha, the man I was going to grind into the ground someday. Could you at least have some backbone?!
"Ahem." Naruto cleared his throat and put on the air of a big brother listening. "Speak."
Sasuke took a deep breath, as if he had made an enormous decision. With a thirst for knowledge shining in his eyes, he humbly asked:
"That move you used that day... the one at the training ground, where you smashed Kakashi-sensei into the ground like a nail... how exactly did you generate that force?"
He asked with utmost seriousness, every word revealing his longing for power.
Naruto froze for three seconds.
Which move?
Oh, right. Wasn't that just an ordinary punch in the Eight Gates state?
Looking at Sasuke's eyes, which were clearly screaming, "Teach me! I want to learn!"
his Sharingan, Naruto's eyes rolled, and mischief immediately welled up inside him.
He deliberately stopped walking, clasped his hands behind his back, raised his head toward the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, and slowly spoke in the tone of someone weathered by countless years.
"Sasuke, you're still too young. You don't understand."
"The true essence of power has never lain in muscles, but in... philosophy."
Sasuke: "?"
Sakura: "??"
Kakashi, pretending to read while his ears stood up like antennas: "???"
Naruto raised a finger and mysteriously said, "What are you thinking when you throw a punch? Revenge? Becoming stronger? Too shallow! Do you think power is merely the swing of an arm? No! That is a craftsman's brute force, not a ninja's art!"
"True power must connect with the earth! You must feel the power rise from the soles of your feet, surge up along your spine like an awakening dragon, and finally gather at the edge of your fist! And what drives that 'dragon' is not chakra, nor muscle, but your 'way'! Your philosophical contemplation! You need to think: What lies at the end of the universe? What is the meaning of life? When you integrate this punch into your grand contemplation of the entire world and all living things, only then can you deliver that punch with its... divine spirit."
Naruto spouted nonsense with a straight face, to the point that he was nearly convincing himself.
Yet after hearing him, Sasuke was stunned at first.
The universe?
Philosophy?
What did any of that even mean?
But one sentence from Naruto's speech struck his mind like lightning—"Power is transmitted from the soles of your feet, along the spine, and gathers at the edge of your fist!"
A scene from the training ground instantly flashed through his mind.
When Naruto had struck Kakashi with that punch, his stance had indeed been as steady as a mountain, as if his entire body were rooted in the earth. It had been completely different from Sasuke, who only knew how to exert force with his upper body!
Could it be... that all those grand thoughts about the universe and life were meant to enter that special state of "connecting with the earth"?
To drive that dragon-like power rising from the soles of his feet?
So that was it!
So that was how it worked!
He had been wrong all along!
He had only seen the surface of power—those flashy ninjutsu and hand seals—yet he had never touched the profound realm Naruto-kun had reached, where philosophy and the core of taijutsu became one!
No wonder he could not defeat Naruto!
His perspective was too narrow!
"I understand now... Big Brother!"
Sasuke-the-Enlightened suddenly raised his head, his eyes shining as though his meridians had all been opened. Even his words came out in a jumbled rush.
As if he had found a priceless treasure, he immediately ran to a large tree by the roadside, planted his feet firmly, assumed a punching stance, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.
"The soles of my feet... connect to the earth... what is the universe... who am I... where am I going to punch..."
Sakura stared blankly from the side.
She was completely confused.
Sasuke-kun... what was wrong with him?
Had Naruto that big idiot talked him stupid?
Why was Sasuke-kun looking at Naruto with that worshipful gaze?
Why did Sasuke-kun become so fired up just because Naruto casually made up a few things?
What... had happened to this world?!
Three black lines slid down Kakashi's forehead.
Exhausting.
Leading this batch of brats was really going to shorten his life.
Leading this batch of brats was really going to shorten his life.
The group continued onward, and the atmosphere became even stranger.
Sasuke was so absorbed in his philosophical world that he could not pull himself out, while Sakura had fallen into deep self-doubt.
Watching the scene, Naruto had to fight harder than an AK to suppress the corners of his mouth.
Tsk. Training a tsundere really was one of life's greatest pleasures.
Just then, the group reached an open stretch of forest.
The sun shone brightly, and there was not a cloud in the sky.
Yet right in the middle of the road, a puddle had suddenly appeared.
Konoha had enjoyed clear weather for several days straight, without even the slightest sign of rain. This puddle... looked as though someone had deliberately taken a piss here.
Kakashi's eyes instantly sharpened, but he pretended not to notice anything. Still holding his little book, he strutted straight past with the swagger of someone who recognized no family ties.
His acting deserved full marks.
Naruto walked at the back, utterly unfazed. If anything, he felt like laughing.
Here it came, the classic hiding-in-a-puddle scene!
He could not even be bothered to activate his Byakugan. He could guess with his toes that two little nobodies were crouching inside—the Demon Brothers, rogue ninja from Kirigakure.
They were weak as hell, yet loved pulling cringey stunts.
Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna passed through the puddle one after another.
Then, just as Tazuna, whose legs were the least nimble, slowly passed the puddle at the rear—
"Splash!!!"
The puddle exploded as if a bomb had been thrown into it!
Amid the scattering water, two savage figures burst out!
A chain gleaming with cold light linked their hands. It was covered in poisoned barbs, like two venomous snakes poised to strike, shooting toward Kakashi at the front with lightning speed!
"Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The chain tore through the air with a sharp howl!
Kakashi did not even turn his head before the chain precisely wrapped around his body, loop after loop, instantly binding him into a tightly trussed dumpling!
"First one!"
One of the Demon Brothers let out a triumphant, vicious laugh.
Bloodthirsty light flashed in their eyes as the muscles in their arms bulged. At the same time, they yanked the chain in their hands outward with all their strength!
A massive force instantly acted upon Kakashi's body!
There was a muffled "Squish!"
Before everyone's horrified eyes, Kakashi Hatake—the famed number-one technician of Konoha—was tightly bound by the chain, and his body, like that of a fragile rag doll, was instantly shredded into countless bloody fragments!
Blood and mangled flesh flew through the air!
A thick, nauseating stench of blood instantly filled the air!
"Aah—!!!"
Sakura's mind went blank. She watched helplessly as her respected teacher was brutally dismembered before her eyes. The horrifying scene, like the worst nightmare imaginable, instantly shattered every one of her mental defenses!
A piercing scream, sharp enough to nearly tear apart eardrums, echoed through the silent forest!
"Kakashi-sensei!!!"
Tazuna's legs went weak, his eyes rolled back, and he was so terrified that his soul nearly left his body. He almost collapsed into shock on the spot!
Dead... dead?!
That Jonin who seemed lazy but had given everyone such a strong sense of security along the way had just... died?!
Before you continue