If such absolute power, capable of crushing everything and ignoring all rules... could belong to me too... what price would I have to pay to cross this insurmountable gulf and kill that man with my own hands?!
The ultimate temptation of power and the despairing gap in strength turned into countless invisible venomous snakes, tightly coiling around Sasuke's heart. Within his lowered, scarlet Sharingan, a crack leading into the abyss quietly opened.
The air still reeked of blood and stone dust shredded by Wind Release. A cold wind swept through the hall, making the tattered cheering banners atop the tower flap violently.
Naruto crouched on one knee amid the rubble, Yang Release's blazing, tyrannical life force continuously pouring from his palm into Tenten's wounds. The girl still lay limp and trembling in his arms. The forceful pressure of his lips from earlier seemed branded onto her like a hot iron, leaving her mind completely blank.
He could clearly feel Tenten's stiffness and smell the scent of rust, sweat, and battlefield smoke on her. Naruto was not some softhearted saint. It was simply that when he saw this foolish girl stubbornly using a broken blade to withstand an S-rank ninjutsu, the hot-blooded fury in him could no longer be held back.
He acted on instinct. If he wanted to protect someone, he would protect her to the end. To hell with the rules of the exam hall.
In his arms, Tenten's breathing gradually became hurried and aggrieved.
Fourteen years. In the tiny courtyard behind the ninja tool shop, where even sunlight could not penetrate, she had swung her blade tens of thousands of times. The skin between her thumb and forefinger split, healed, and split again, while her palms became covered in thick yellowish-brown calluses. In this village filled with Kekkei