Naruto was so frantic that his eyes reddened, and he charged forward without a care.
"Boss!"
Choji and Kiba also pushed themselves to run faster, racing toward the center of the explosion.
Smoke and dust filled the air, and the acrid smell of gunpowder made them cough.
When everyone rushed to the scene in a panic, they all stopped short, stunned by the sight before them.
A massive crater over twenty meters across lay in the middle of the forest. Wisps of smoke still rose from its bottom, and the surrounding trees had been snapped in half by the shock wave. The entire scene was a wreck.
And at the center of this devastation, Son Goten stood completely unharmed.
With his head lowered, he carefully patted the dust off his black training outfit, muttering under his breath nonstop.
"Damn it, who's throwing firecrackers around on my turf?"
"No civic responsibility at all!"
"They got my new clothes dirty! My wife Shizune just bought these for me yesterday. This is a limited edition with her scent on it!"
"If the stains won't wash out, I'm hanging whoever set off those firecrackers from Hokage Rock to dry!"
Seeing that lively little figure, Shikamaru and the others finally felt their hearts settle, only for an absurd sense of helplessness to follow.
An explosion that terrifying hadn't even singed a hair on this guy?
Just then, four figures flashed out of the surrounding woods. They were the Sound Four, drawn by the explosion.
When they got a clear look at that familiar figure in the crater, all three men's expressions turned extremely ugly, with Tayuya the only exception.
The fat Jirobo in particular began trembling through both his thick calves when he saw Goten's harmless, adorably vacant little face and remembered the terror of