Blood splattered like watermelon juice bursting open in the height of summer, showering everything in its path.
Mixed with chunks of flesh and bone fragments, it reflected an eerie, nauseating beauty beneath the brilliant sunlight.
"Ahhh—!!!"
The string called "reason" in Sakura's mind snapped the moment she witnessed Kakashi being dismembered in an instant!
A scream sharp enough to tear through eardrums echoed across the dead-silent forest!
Her eyes rolled back, her mind went blank, and only that horrifyingly bloody scene replayed over and over.
Sensei... Kakashi-sensei... that man who was always lazy yet somehow made everyone feel safe... had just been... torn apart like a rag doll!
With a thud, Tazuna's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.
He shook like a sieve, and a familiar warmth spread uncontrollably through his crotch once again.
It was over... It was all over!
Even an elite Hidden Leaf Jōnin had been dismembered in a single exchange. An old man helpless as he was was definitely going to die here today!
One of the Demon Brothers wore a cruel grin as he shook the flesh from his chain and rasped mockingly, "An elite Hidden Leaf Jōnin? Nothing special! What trash!"
Before his words had even faded, the two figures flashed like hunting falcons and vanished from where they stood!
The next second, they appeared like ghosts behind the petrified Tazuna!
"Second one!"
Poisoned claws gleaming with a ghostly blue light tore through the air toward Tazuna's vulnerable neck!
This was a true battle to the death!
The overpowering stench of blood and icy killing intent jolted Sasuke Uchiha out of his daze, instantly snapping him awake!
At that moment, his pupils shrank to dangerous pinpoints!
He saw it!
He clearly saw those poisonous claws about to claim a life. He saw every hair on Tazuna's neck standing on end in terror. He could even smell death in the air!
Move!
Move already!
Sasuke roared frantically inside his mind. He wanted to rush forward, draw his kunai, and use the Philosophical Iron Fist he had just grasped to protect the client!
But his body felt as if it had been filled with lead, so heavy he could barely breathe!
His mind could keep up with their speed, but his body... his body had betrayed him!
They were too fast!
The Body Flicker Technique of Chunin, along with the murderous aura forged through countless battles, pressed him into place like an invisible mountain, leaving him unable to move!
For the first time, he faced the brutality and bloodshed of the ninja world with such clarity!
This was not a drill. This was not a spar!
People could die!
Just as Sasuke's consciousness was about to be swallowed by the abyss of fear, as he watched helplessly while the poisonous claws were about to touch Tazuna's skin—
An orange afterimage came from behind and overtook them like a thunderbolt tearing through the night!
That figure was so fast that it did not even stir the wind. It ignored the distance through space and abruptly appeared at the Demon Brothers' side!
Bang!!!
A heavy, teeth-rattling impact rang out, like a battering ram slamming into a leather war drum!
No one's eyes could keep up with that orange blur!
They only saw one of the arrogant Demon Brothers, his vicious grin still frozen on his face, suddenly arch backward like a boiled shrimp!
His eyeballs bulged, his mouth fell wide open, and a mouthful of blood mixed with shattered organs erupted from him like a fountain!
Boom! Crack! Thud!
The Chunin did not even have time to scream before his body shot away like a cannonball, smashing through three massive trees before embedding himself in the trunk of the fourth with a splat. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out on the spot!
The entire world seemed to have been muted at that instant.
The smug cruelty on the other Demon Brother's face was instantly replaced by boundless horror!
Without a second thought, he abandoned Tazuna, spun around, and wildly slashed his other poisoned claw at the orange figure in desperation!
"You're courting death!"
But what met him was a hand that was unbelievably fast, yet incomparably steady.
Naruto could not even be bothered to raise his eyelids. His face was full of impatience.
Without even looking at the poisoned claw coming for him, he casually raised a hand and accurately seized the wrist covered in venomous spikes.
Then he squeezed lightly.
Crack!!!
A bone-crunching sound, crisper and more scalp-numbing than anything before it, rang out!
Naruto twisted the Demon Brother's wrist into a knot!
"Urghhh—!"
The agonizing pain made the Demon Brother shriek like a slaughtered pig.
"You're too loud."
Naruto frowned and casually chopped downward with his other hand.
Thud!
His hand struck the back of the man's neck with perfect accuracy.
The Demon Brother's scream stopped abruptly. His body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground like a puddle of mud.
From the moment Naruto attacked to the moment the two Hidden Mist Chunin were completely incapacitated—
The entire process had been smooth, violent, and utterly overwhelming.
It had not even taken three seconds.
Sasuke still had his right hand at his kunai pouch, frozen in place like a weathered stone statue.
So this was... Big Brother's true strength?
No... this was not even a matter of strength. This was absolute suppression on the level of life itself!
Like a human crushing an ant, there was no need for thought or tactics. All it took was lifting a foot, then bringing it down.
Sasuke-the-Enlightened had once again become Sasuke-the-Withdrawn.
He looked at Naruto's back, not even breathing hard, then at his own trembling hand, which had not even managed to fully draw a kunai. An emotion called despair flooded his heart like freezing seawater.
Damn it, he could not even see Naruto's taillights!
Just then, leaves rustled.
A familiar figure lazily jumped down from a nearby tree, an orange little book still in one hand.
It was Kakashi Hatake, returned from the dead.
Seeing Sakura and Sasuke looking completely terrified, as though their souls had nearly fled their bodies, his uncovered eye curved helplessly.
"Well, it seems this classroom lesson was a little too realistic."
Kakashi patted nonexistent dust from his hands and explained in a relaxed tone, "That was the Substitution Technique. The Substitution Technique. To let you brats experience the consequences of failing a mission firsthand, I added a little genjutsu to the wooden substitute to simulate some bloody effects. Judging by your reactions, it worked pretty well, right?"
Sakura and Sasuke: "..."
Pretty well? This was practically psychological trauma!
After explaining, Kakashi finally turned his gaze toward Naruto, the two unconscious unlucky bastards on the ground, and the distant tree that had nearly been snapped in half.
There was no hint of emotion in his voice, but his eyes held unconcealed shock and... exhaustion.
"Nice work, Naruto. Your reaction speed and strength have already surpassed those of an average Special Jōnin. It seems my worries were unnecessary."
He had originally planned to wait until Sasuke and Sakura were driven into a desperate corner before stepping in, putting on a hero-rescues-the-beauty act and teaching these brats a proper lesson.
But instead—
Before class had even officially begun, before the teacher's "corpse" had even gone cold, the proctor, Naruto, had torn up the test and beaten the question setters, the Demon Brothers, into pig heads while he was at it.
This batch of students was really hard to teach.
Kakashi sighed deeply. Then his single eye abruptly shifted, and his blade-sharp gaze locked onto Tazuna, who sat on the ground trembling in fear.
The atmosphere instantly shifted from post-lesson ease to an icy interrogation.
"So..."
Kakashi's voice no longer carried even a trace of laziness.
"Mr. Tazuna, Hidden Mist Chunin came to assassinate you. These are no ordinary bandits."
"This has already gone far beyond the scope of a C-rank mission."
"Shouldn't you... give us an explanation?"
Before you continue