"Naruto!"
Behind a tree trunk, Minato Namikaze felt a flash of alarm. But before he could act, the scene unfolding in the arena rooted him to the spot.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
At almost the same instant, several kunai and shuriken flew from the stands, crossing a considerable distance.
Though thrown later, they arrived first.
They closed in on the kunai bearing the Explosive Tag, which was flying toward Naruto.
At the same time...
Naruto had not simply frozen and waited to die. In an instant, he gathered chakra and instinctively formed a fist-sized sphere in his hand.
He hurled it—and then, before everyone's eyes...
It vanished!
Vanished...
It had vanished?!
Minato felt a pang of disappointment, but it quickly turned to guilt. As Naruto's father, he had never been able to teach his son his own ninjutsu...
Clang!
Three kunai and two shuriken collided with the Explosive Tag kunai, knocking it off course.
Under Minato's gaze and that of every spectator, the vanished Rasengan...
Reappeared!
Boom!
The exploding Rasengan instantly shredded the Explosive Tag hanging from the kunai. Cracks spread across the kunai itself before it struck the ground and broke into pieces.
"..."
"..."
For a moment, the entire arena fell silent.
Akabane Kenta stared blankly at what had happened before him.
Then, suddenly...
He burst out laughing.
Tears streamed from his eyes as he laughed. "Everyone! Everyone's worried about this fox demon! Everyone's trying to save his life! Hahaha! And that ninjutsu of yours—Lord Shinji taught you that too, didn't he? Hahaha! What a joke! This village is a joke! All of it is!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
"Akabane Kenta! You broke the rules during your End-of-Term Test match. Your result is void. And attacking a classmate with a kunai and an Explosive Tag is a crime!"
"You're coming