Kakashi drifted down from the tree, looking as suave as if he had just attended a tea party rather than a life-or-death battle.
One hand remained tucked in his pocket while the other still held the orange-covered Icha Icha Paradise. With his signature dead-fish eye, he glanced at the two unlucky fools foaming at the mouth and lying unconscious on the ground, then at the distant tree Naruto had nearly snapped in half with a single kick.
He was a little shocked.
But more than that, he was truly exhausted.
These students were the worst he had ever taught... no, the wildest.
His lone eye suddenly shifted, its blade-sharp gaze locking onto Tazuna, who was slumped on the ground and shaking like a leaf.
"Well..."
Kakashi's voice instantly turned cold, devoid of its usual laziness. The pressure belonging to an elite jonin descended over the area like tangible frost.
"Mr. Tazuna, Chunin from Kirigakure came to assassinate you. These are no mere bandits."
"This has already far exceeded the scope of a C-rank mission."
"Shouldn't you... give us an explanation?"
As he spoke, Kakashi deftly pulled out a length of rope from his ninja tool pouch and swiftly tied up the Demon Brothers like two sturdy rice dumplings before hanging them from a tree.
Startled by that killing intent, Tazuna shuddered, and cold sweat instantly poured down his face.
He looked at Kakashi's icy eye, then at Naruto Uzumaki beside him, whose face plainly read, "You're all so noisy. You're interrupting my contemplation of life." Finally, he gritted his teeth and stomped his foot!
"Thud!"
The bridge-building expert, already past fifty, suddenly went limp in the knees and dropped straight to the ground!
"Waaah—! Ninja-sama, I was wrong! I lied to you!"
With snot and tears streaming down his face, Tazuna launched into his performance with heartbreaking sincerity.
He passionately described how Wave Country had been controlled by the owner of a shipping company named Gato, how Gato had colluded with rogue ninja and monopolized all maritime trade, plunging the entire country into misery. The bridge Tazuna was building was the only hope of breaking that monopoly and saving the nation!
Naruto boredly picked at his ear.
He knew this plot.
In short: a heartless capitalist oppressed the working people, a hero rose up in resistance, but had no money to hire bodyguards and could only resort to deception.
The acting was good, and the emotions were full, but the story was a little cliché.
Seeing that the ninja seemed unmoved, Tazuna hurriedly brought out his trump card.
"If you abandon the mission now, I'm dead for sure... I'm not afraid of death! But my adorable grandson, Inari, will cry his eyes out! He waits for me at home every day! Sob, sob, sob..."
The old man cried so heartbreakingly that all who heard him were moved to sorrow and tears.
Sure enough, Sakura Haruno, the softest-hearted member of the team, immediately cracked.
"Kakashi-sensei... th-this mission is too dangerous! Chunin have already come after us. There will definitely be even stronger enemies later! We're only Genin! We should return to the village first and have the mission rank reassessed!"
Sakura's suggestion was perfectly reasonable and entirely in line with how a normal Genin would think.
However, she had clearly forgotten that Team 7 had two utterly abnormal members.
"How noisy."
Naruto, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke in irritation.
He could not even be bothered to argue with them. He simply raised his right foot and lightly kicked a huge boulder by the roadside, one that stood as high as half a person!
"Whoosh—BOOM!!!"
The boulder, weighing at least several hundred pounds, shot away like a cannonball hurled from a catapult, vanishing from everyone's sight in an instant with a terrifying howl that tore through the air!
The next second, a series of thunderous crashes echoed from deep within the forest as trees snapped and collapsed, startling flocks of birds into flight!
The entire world fell silent.
Sakura stared in shock and swallowed every word she had yet to say.
Sasuke's mouth twitched as he stared at Naruto's foot, still wearing nothing more than an ordinary sandal, feeling his worldview being ground into the dirt once again.
Even Kakashi's dead-fish eye widened for a rare instant.
Naruto, meanwhile, acted as though nothing had happened. He brushed at dust that did not exist on his pants and spoke in a tone of complete justification.
"What are you afraid of? Aren't they just a few blind idiots looking to die?"
An exceptionally nasty grin curled across his lips.
"Send a few, and I'll kill a few. Send a crowd, and I'll bury them all."
"As for that Gato fellow... well, I've been a little short on cash lately."
"Consider it... robbing the rich to help the poor."
Robbing... the rich to help the poor?
This was obviously just one criminal robbing another!
Kakashi let out a long, deeply weary sigh.
What else could he say?
Refuse?
Then let Naruto, a walking nuclear weapon, rampage through Wave Country alone?
Who knew what he would turn that country into.
He looked at Naruto, whose fighting spirit was soaring—or perhaps whose greed had taken over—then at Sasuke beside him, who had completely shut down and begun questioning his life. Finally, Kakashi helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Fine."
Kakashi weakly waved a hand. "The mission continues."
A few days later.
A small flat-bottomed boat silently glided through morning fog so thick it seemed impossible to disperse.
As the boatman rowed, he spoke in a hushed voice about Gato's atrocities and the story of Hope Bridge.
Sakura and Sasuke listened with grave expressions, while Tazuna sighed repeatedly.
Only Naruto leaned against the side of the boat, yawning as his thoughts had long since drifted far away.
He was already calculating how, once they reached Wave Country, he could squeeze enough profit out of Gato, that "mobile treasury."
At last, the small boat passed beneath a massive bridge arch, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.
"We're ashore. Next, we'll need to pass through a forest."
Kakashi took the lead in jumping from the boat, warily surveying the surroundings.
The others followed one after another, entering the damp and silent forest.
Just then—
A brand-new notification tone, carrying a certain sense of authority, sounded in Naruto's mind.
[Ding! As the host has formed deep bonds with multiple high-value targets, the Favorability System has automatically upgraded to Version 2.0!] [New function unlocked—"Fate-Intertwining" Radar!] [Function description: When a "Child of Fate" possessing a special Kekkei Genkai or an overall potential rating of S-rank enters within one kilometer of the host's detection range, the system will automatically issue a warning!]
Naruto abruptly stopped, his brows shooting up.
The system... had upgraded?
Before he could think further, an alarm even sharper and more urgent than the one triggered when Ino's favorability had soared blared wildly in his mind!
"Beep! Beep! Beep—!!!"
[Warning! Warning! An ultra-high-potential female target has been detected ahead!] [Target's overall potential assessment: S-rank! Possesses a top-tier Kekkei Genkai! The host is advised to immediately make contact and pursue the target!] [Target location: Ten o'clock direction, five hundred meters away!]
S-rank potential?
And a top-tier Kekkei Genkai?
Naruto's lips slowly curved into the excited smile of a hunter spotting exceptional prey.
Who cared about the mission? His curiosity came first!
He knew perfectly well that activating the Byakugan consumed a huge amount of chakra. Using it frequently so soon after entering the Blood-Reflux State might also trigger a rejection reaction from his Sage Body.
But so what?
With his current total chakra reserves, that expenditure was no more than a drop in the bucket.
As for that so-called rejection... it was merely a trivial inconvenience.
Absolute strength had brought absolute confidence—or rather, arrogance.
Without hesitation, he silently uttered the command in his mind.
"Pure Byakugan, activate!"
In an instant, his azure eyes turned completely white!
A faint yet distinct sensation of rejection traveled through his optic nerves, while the chakra in his body began to drain at a rate far beyond normal.
However, Naruto paid no attention to that "side effect." His boundless vision pierced through layer upon layer of trees, branches, leaves, and morning fog, extending with incomparable precision toward the direction indicated by the system!
Five hundred meters away, at the other end of the forest.
A slender figure was quietly crouched beneath a large tree, carefully gathering a certain kind of medicinal herb.
Naruto's gaze instantly locked firmly onto that figure!
And his excessively immense chakra fluctuation, like a beacon in the darkness, completely exposed his location within this perilous forest.
Before you continue