Iruka felt his throat go dry and scratchy, and the hand holding the roster shook as if he had Parkinson's disease.
Looking at the classroom's drawn-sword atmosphere, especially Naruto Uzumaki standing arrogantly on a desk and Sasuke Uchiha across from him, looking ready to explode on the spot, he felt like his ninja career might end alongside Sakura's youth.
He wiped the cold sweat continuously beading on his forehead, gathered every ounce of strength he had, and forced himself to read out the final—and most fatal—name:
"Team 7's final member is... Sasuke Uchiha!"
Boom!
The instant his words fell, an icy, bone-piercing killing intent swept through the entire classroom like a Siberian cold front!
Sasuke Uchiha shot to his feet!
His movement was not dramatic, but the violent aura surrounding him made the students nearby shudder in unison. Instinctively, they shuffled away to either side, leaving a wide empty space around him.
"Dead last..."
Sasuke's voice was hoarse like sandpaper scraping together. In his black eyes, the two scarlet tomoe that had been etched deep into his bloodline on the Night of the Massacre were reignited by this unbearable humiliation, spinning madly and boiling over!
The Sharingan!
He had actually gotten so angry that he activated the Sharingan!
"Don't think that pulling some cheap little trick means you can act so high and mighty in front of me!"
Sasuke stared Naruto down, every word squeezed out through clenched teeth.
The entire class was terrified stiff. No one dared make a sound, barely even daring to breathe.
Holy shit!
They were fighting! They were really fighting!
One was a mysterious tyrannosaurus who had kicked the Hyuga Clan genius into a trash can, while the other was the last Uchiha, who had activated his eyes after being humiliated in public!
Was this really Genin team assignment?
This was practically a duel at Mount Hua!
Yet Naruto merely casually picked at his ear, without so much as a spare expression on his face. Sasuke's killing intent, enough to scare an ordinary Genin to tears, was no more than cold air from an air conditioner to him.
"Oh?"
He glanced down at Sasuke, a playful curve lifting the corner of his mouth. His tone was light, but it carried absolute contempt.
"You want to get beaten up right now?"
"Good thing I know my way around the Medical Department. I wouldn't mind sending you to the trash can to keep that coward Neji Hyuga company."
"You—!"
Sasuke's lungs nearly exploded from rage!
The trash can!
Again with the trash can!
That bastard had turned Neji Hyuga's greatest humiliation into a unit of measurement he could casually throw around!
An unprecedented sense of humiliation, mixed with the fury of being utterly ignored, surged toward the top of his head like magma.
His hands clenched tight, his nails digging deep into the soft flesh of his palms. Blood seeped out, but he did not even notice.
Revenge!
Strength!
Kill that man!
That was the entire meaning of Sasuke Uchiha's life!
For that goal, he had abandoned everything and borne everything!
He was the chosen one. He was the avenger who should stand above everyone else!
But now, the dead last he had always regarded as dust and a joke, a worthless failure who could not even use the Clone Technique properly, had suddenly transformed into a colossal monster that made even him feel afraid!
One kick had sent Neji flying!
He had fired chakra bullets without hand seals!
And now, he was looking at him as though he were trash!
The humiliation of being caught up to—and even surpassed—by someone who had once been an ant was like ten thousand venomous snakes savagely gnawing at his heart and pride!
Unacceptable!
He absolutely could not accept this!
Right here, in front of everyone, he had to beat this arrogant dead last back into his original shape!
He had to make him understand that the glory of the Uchiha could not be challenged!
"I will..."
Sasuke was just about to roar, chakra already surging wildly through his body. A world-shaking battle was on the verge of breaking out in the classroom.
But at that very moment, with swords drawn and the air almost frozen solid—
"My, my. Looks like this year's rookies are quite energetic."
A lazy, listless voice, as though its owner had not yet woken up, suddenly drifted in from the classroom door.
Everyone froze, then turned toward the doorway in unison.
There stood an odd ninja with a mop of messy silver hair, a black cloth mask over his face, and a crooked forehead protector covering his left eye, leaving only one dead-fish eye exposed. He leaned languidly against the doorframe.
In his hand, he held an orange paperback with an exceptionally eye-catching cover and an even more heavyweight title—Icha Icha Paradise.
Kakashi Hatake!
In the original story, Naruto should have welcomed him with a carefully prepared chalkboard eraser prank wedged in the doorframe.
But now, nothing happened.
Naruto could not even be bothered to get down from the desk. He simply turned his head with interest and carefully looked Kakashi up and down with an extremely dangerous gaze, like a hungry wolf locking onto prey.
It did not look like a student's gaze toward a teacher. It looked more like a butcher estimating how much meat a pig could yield.
"Hm?"
Kakashi's dead-fish eye twitched almost imperceptibly.
On the surface, he still looked like a lazy, washed-up slacker, but a level-ten alarm instantly went off in his heart!
What's with this brat...
What's with that look in his eyes?!
Waves crashed through Kakashi's heart.
That was absolutely not the gaze a twelve-year-old boy should have!
It was full of undisguised aggression, scrutiny, and even a trace of... amusement?
As though he were not a Jonin renowned throughout the Shinobi World, but a toy that Naruto was about to tear apart and devour!
Was it an illusion?
No!
Absolutely not!
This kid was completely different from the idiot prankster described in the intelligence reports!
Kakashi instantly labeled Naruto as "extremely dangerous" in his mind, but his expression remained unchanged.
He slowly closed Icha Icha Paradise, swept his dead-fish eye over the three people in the classroom, then spoke in an exceptionally punchable, languid tone:
"My first impression of you lot..."
"—I really hate you."
"Meet me on the roof."
The instant he finished speaking, Kakashi vanished from the spot in a puff of white smoke with a poof.
The classroom fell silent for half a second, then erupted again.
"Wow! What a cool Body Flicker Technique!"
"So that's our Jonin instructor? He's so cool!"
Naruto, however, merely curled his lip and gave a disdainful snort through his nose.
"Making a big show of it."
With that, he finally leisurely hopped down from the desk, shoved both hands into his pockets, and could not even be bothered to look at Sasuke again as he took the lead toward the door.
"N-Naruto, wait for me!"
Sakura's legs seemed to be pulled by invisible strings as she followed Naruto uncontrollably.
Her mind was still a mess, her heart pounding as if it were about to burst.
She did not know why she was following him—no, she did know.
It was not love. It was a kind of... instinctive, almost pitiful... submission after her pride had been crushed by absolute strength.
This dramatic scene was like a red-hot branding iron searing itself into Sasuke's eyes.
He watched Naruto leave with effortless swagger. He watched Sakura Haruno, who had once only had eyes for him, follow behind that "dead last" without hesitation.
He, Sasuke Uchiha, had been isolated!
"NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!"
Sasuke stood where he was, shaking with rage, his teeth grinding together. Fire nearly burst from those scarlet Sharingan eyes.
He would settle this debt with Naruto on the roof!
Before you continue