Thank You, You've Worked Hard

The deathly silence in the forest was broken by the soft crack of a bone being reset.

Expressionless, Naruto set Sasuke's dislocated left arm back into place. Then he let go, allowing him to collapse limply onto the ground, gasping for breath. Naruto rose to his feet and planted one foot on Sasuke's back. The force was not great, yet it was like an immovable mountain, pinning all of Sasuke's resistance and dignity into the rotting leaves.

"A soldier's desire to become a general is a commendable quality."

Naruto looked down at the "soldier" beneath his foot, his tone as flat as if he were reading a report that had nothing to do with him.

"But a rebellion launched with borrowed, unstable power is not ambition. It is merely the venting of cowardice. You still have a long way to go."

Every word felt like a red-hot brand searing itself into the deepest part of Sasuke's mind. He lay sprawled on the ground, his cheek pressed against the cold, damp soil. The frenzied hostility faded from his scarlet eyes, leaving behind only boundless gloom and humiliation.

Naruto ignored him and turned to the other side. Having exhausted herself from excessive tension and concentration after sealing the final acupoint, Sakura had collapsed onto the ground, her eyes vacant.

"Medic," Naruto ordered.

Sakura shuddered and raised her head blankly.

"If the soldier displays any risky behavior that may endanger himself before the mission is complete," Naruto said without looking at her, making a chopping motion toward his neck, "administer physical sedation immediately."

Sakura's face instantly turned pale. Of course she understood what that meant, but hearing Naruto call it "physical sedation" sent another chill through her.

She gave an awkward smile. "That's quite an interesting way to put it."

Naruto said nothing more. He walked over to the Amegakure shinobi whose limbs had been crippled and turned them over as though inspecting merchandise. He found an Earth Scroll in one of their robes and casually stuffed it into his pocket. He did not kill them. Instead, he grabbed the collar of the Amegakure shinobi who was still conscious.

"Who is in charge of Amegakure now?"

The Amegakure shinobi trembled from head to toe, his teeth chattering. "It... it's Lord Hanzo..."

"But judging from Amegakure's current state, Hanzo of the Salamander should already be dead... or at least stripped of his authority," Naruto interrupted. "Answer my question."

The Amegakure shinobi's pupils suddenly constricted. Looking into Naruto's utterly emotionless blue eyes, he was seized by a terror deeper than death itself.

"It... it's Lord Pain..."

The Amegakure shinobi's voice was so faint it was almost inaudible, but the name was like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, stirring waves in Naruto's heart.

Pain.

Naruto did not immediately throw the Amegakure shinobi aside. Instead, he released his collar and let him fall back to the ground. Thinking he had been spared, the shinobi had just begun struggling backward when a foot lightly stepped on his wrist.

The pressure was not great, but his bones were already groaning under the strain.

"Ah—!"

"Don't rush," Naruto said, crouching down until he was level with that face twisted by fear. His tone was as gentle as if he were comforting a frightened child. "I like working with smart people. Let's play a little question-and-answer game."

He tilted his head toward Sakura, whose face had gone pale in the distance.

"Answer correctly, and I'll let you go. Answer wrong, or lie to me..." Naruto paused, then changed direction. "My medic has recently been studying a new treatment specifically for the nervous system. They say it can let someone with all four limbs crippled still vividly feel the hallucination of ants eating every inch of their skin. Would you like to be the first clinical volunteer?"

Sakura's stomach churned. She barely managed to keep herself from vomiting. She had never studied anything like that!

The Amegakure shinobi began shaking like a sieve.

"I... I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

"Very good. First question." Naruto withdrew his foot and leisurely brushed the dirt from his pant leg. "Who is Pain? What does he look like?"

"He is a god! Lord Pain is a god!" the Amegakure shinobi cried incoherently. "He punished Lord Hanzo and ended Amegakure's civil war! No one has ever seen his true face!"

"Even a god needs messengers to walk among mortals," Naruto cut in. "What I'm asking is, how many of his 'messengers' are there?"

The question was like a precise scalpel, cutting through the Amegakure shinobi's muddled thoughts. He froze, his eyes filled with horror.

How could he know to ask that?

Naruto did not urge him. He merely waited in silence, and that invisible pressure was more crushing than any torture.

"How many are there?" the Amegakure shinobi muttered hesitantly to himself.

"If your memory is still this poor in five seconds, I'll help you remember."

Naruto's tone was calm, but the Amegakure shinobi immediately wailed in terror. "I really don't know how many! Maybe four, maybe five. Anyway, there's more than one! Usually, it's Lady Angel who handles affairs in the Land of Rain. I'm only a Genin! This is really all I know!"

"Angel?" Naruto realized that Amegakure's situation was a massive hidden danger. The structure of an entire country had been overturned without a sound, which meant the revolutionaries' strength was utterly terrifying.

After questioning him further, Naruto found that there was no more useful information to extract and left the Amegakure shinobi lying on the ground.

The team set off again.

Sakura gritted her teeth as she supported Sasuke. Sasuke did not say a word the entire way. He kept his head lowered, his bangs hiding his face so that no one could see his expression. Yet his uninjured hand was clenched tightly, his nails digging deeply into his palm.

Naruto's words echoed through his mind like a curse.

"Venting cowardice..."

He had never felt such humiliation before, nor had he ever understood so clearly that the gap between himself and Naruto had grown to a nearly despairing extent.

When Team 7 appeared before the gates of the tower at the finish line, time seemed to stop.

Inside were several teams that had passed the exam ahead of them. Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kiba, Shino, and shinobi from other villages. Some were sitting, some standing, all looking relaxed as they waited for the next stage to begin.

When the gates slowly opened, all laughter and conversation came to an abrupt halt.

In the light and shadow at the entrance stood a Team 7 they had never seen before.

At the front, Naruto carried the grotesquely shaped Chainsword on his shoulder, its blade stained with dirt and dark red blood. His orange jacket was torn to shreds, and his entire body radiated a cold, battle-hardened aura that warned strangers to stay away.

Pale-faced and tight-lipped, Sakura supported someone who was nearly unconscious.

It was Sasuke. His face was white as paper, his eyes tightly shut, looking almost dead.

Everyone froze.

Kiba's mouth fell open, and even Akamaru atop his head let out an uneasy whine.

Ino covered her mouth, unable to believe that Sasuke, who always seemed capable of handling anything, had been reduced to this state.

"What a troublesome guy..." Shikamaru frowned, slipping his hands into his pockets as he muttered, "He's become even more troublesome."

Naruto ignored everyone's stares and walked directly to Ibiki, who was in charge of registration. He calmly placed the Heaven Scroll and Earth Scroll on the table.

"Report. Team 7 has completed the mission." He paused, then added, "We encountered an attack by Konoha's S-rank rogue ninja, Orochimaru, along the way."

Ibiki and the examiners present changed expression drastically.

Naruto offered no further explanation. He did not mention the Curse Mark on Sasuke's neck at all. He had no intention of handing one of his soldiers over to be scrutinized by people he considered weak and incompetent.

At that moment, a figure stepped out from the crowd.

It was Hinata.

While everyone else had been intimidated by the murderous aura surrounding Naruto and did not dare approach, this girl, always timid and shy, lowered her head and walked toward him step by step.

Her fingers were nervously pressed together. She did not dare look up at him as she asked in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, yet remarkably clear:

"N-Naruto... are... are you hurt?"

The entire tower was so quiet that a pin dropping could have been heard.

For the first time, Naruto's face, as cold as carved ice, showed a faint crack. He turned his head and looked at the girl before him, who seemed ready to curl herself into a ball.

He could feel no fear from her, only pure concern without a trace of impurity.

Naruto was silent for a moment.

"I'm fine."

His answer remained brief, but some of the cold distance that kept everyone else at bay had melted away.

As though greatly encouraged, Hinata raised her head. Naruto's reflection was mirrored in her pale eyes. She took a small jar of ointment from her pocket and offered it to him with both hands.

"This... I made this medicine myself... It's... it's very effective for scrapes..."

Naruto looked at the ointment but did not take it immediately.

"Thank you. You've worked hard."

During the break before the preliminary matches began, Naruto called Haku to an empty corner.

"From now on, you will operate in the shadows." Naruto stood with his back to him, looking out the window. "Infiltrate Konoha Hospital as a medical ninja. I need an intelligence and logistics point independent of Root. Build it."

"Yes, Commissar." Haku's figure flashed and vanished into the shadows of the corner.

Using Root's secret channels, Naruto contacted Zero and issued a similar order.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried out in delight.

Kakashi had finally arrived. He still wore that lazy expression, but when he saw Sasuke being supported by Sakura, his dull dead-fish eye instantly sharpened.

In a single step, he flashed to Sasuke's side, pulled open his collar, and saw the ominous black Curse Mark. He reached out to examine it, and his brow furrowed even more deeply.

The Curse Mark's power was extremely sinister, yet it had been temporarily sealed and suppressed by another, purer chakra, leaving it in an eerie state of stability.

Kakashi looked up at Naruto, who was wiping down the Chainsword nearby.

"You're the only one who can keep him in line." Kakashi sighed, his voice full of helplessness and a trace of relief he himself had not noticed.

"All candidates, gather in the center!"

The preliminary matches for the third exam were about to begin. The chief examiner had been replaced by Gekko Hayate, a sickly man who coughed constantly and looked as though he might drop dead at any moment.

Names began scrolling rapidly across the massive electronic screen.

At last, two names stopped.

[Sasuke Uchiha vs Akato Yoroi]

Hearing his name, Sasuke, who had been leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

He swayed to his feet and pushed away Sakura's supporting hand.

He did not look at anyone. He only stared fixedly at the center of the arena. The humiliation Naruto had inflicted upon him, the brutality he had forcibly suppressed, now had an outlet.

He wanted to fight.

Step by step, Sasuke walked toward the arena. His figure staggered, yet his resolve was absolute.