Late at night, deep in Konoha's forest.
Moonlight filtered through the patchwork of leaves and spilled onto the ground, illuminating two figures.
Naruto carried a huge scroll on his back. He was panting, but his face shone with excitement. "Goten, this has Ninjutsu that can make me stronger! I've already learned one!"
Son Goten sat on a thick tree trunk nearby, holding an apple he had "picked up" from a convenience store along the way. He took a bite with a crunch.
"Really? Let me have a look at that scroll, too."
He had no interest in the principles behind so-called Ninjutsu, but he was curious about this application of energy that could create solid objects out of thin air. Although Saiyan Ki was powerful, it was mostly used for destruction and strengthening the body. In terms of utility, it lacked chakra's variety.
"By the way, Naruto, why did you steal this scroll? Wouldn't stealing some food be better? You can't even eat it!"
Naruto looked aggrieved again. "Goten, all of you passed the exam. I was the only one who failed. Teacher Mizuki told me I could learn the Ninjutsu on this scroll and pass the exam!"
Goten raised an eyebrow. "That Teacher Mizuki doesn't exactly look like a good guy!"
Before he had even finished speaking-
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several kunai flashed with a cold gleam as they shot straight toward Naruto's back.
Naruto had no time to react and stood rooted to the spot.
"Seriously, can't a guy even enjoy a late-night snack in peace?"
Son Goten sighed.
Without any discernible movement, his figure on the tree trunk suddenly blurred.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Several crisp metallic clashes rang out.
Naruto snapped out of his daze and discovered, to his shock, that Son Goten was casually holding those lethal kunai in his hand.
"Who's there?!" Naruto looked into the darkness in terror.
Mizuki stepped out from behind a tree, his expression grim, with two enormous Fūma Shuriken strapped to his back.
"Hmph, I didn't expect you to be here, too." Mizuki stared hard at Son Goten, no longer concealing the killing intent in his eyes. "Since you saw it, I'll send you both to your deaths!"
"Teacher Mizuki?" Naruto could hardly believe it. "Why..."
"Idiot! I did it for that scroll!" Mizuki pulled a Fūma Shuriken off his back with a vicious grin. "Naruto, you're a monster! Everyone in the village hates you! Death is the only place you belong!"
Those words stabbed into Naruto's heart like knives.
But Son Goten interrupted the emotional scene.
"Hey, you without eyebrows."
Son Goten casually crushed the kunai in his hand into a lump of mangled iron and tossed it onto the ground like trash. "Did you just scare me into dropping my apple?"
"What?" Mizuki froze.
"That was my dessert." Son Goten jumped off the tree trunk and slowly approached Mizuki, the lazy air about him disappearing.
It was the murderous aura of a Saiyan, a member of a warrior race.
Although he was only ten years old, although he had not transformed.
The brutality that seeped from his very bones still made Mizuki, a Chunin, feel his heart seize.
"Quit putting on an act! Die!"
Mizuki roared and hurled the rapidly spinning Fūma Shuriken in his hand straight at Son Goten, its shrill whistle slicing through the air!
That strike was powerful enough to sever a tree that took three people to encircle!
Naruto shouted in terror, "Goten! Get out of the way!"
Against an attack of this level, dodging had never been in Son Goten's vocabulary.
He simply raised his right hand calmly and extended his index finger.
CLANG!!!
A deafening crash shook the forest.
The instant the rapidly spinning Fūma Shuriken touched the tip of Son Goten's index finger, it stopped dead!
Its tremendous momentum whipped up a gale, sending the surrounding leaves into a frenzy.
But Son Goten did not budge.
With just one finger, he held that enormous blade in place.
"This... this is impossible!!!" Mizuki's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Even Iwagakure's Hardening Technique could not achieve that degree of hardness! Was this brat made of steel?
"Too weak. Too slow."
Son Goten gave a bored yawn and flicked his fingertip.
Crack!
The Fūma Shuriken, forged from refined steel, shattered into fragments that filled the air.
The next instant.
Mizuki felt his vision blur, and a young yet cold face was already right beneath his nose.
"Do you want to dance, too?"
Son Goten murmured softly, then lightly pressed his small fist into Mizuki's abdomen.
Boom!
Time seemed to stand still for a second.
Then the back of Mizuki's shirt burst apart in an instant. As though struck by a speeding train, his eyes bulged, and he violently spewed blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs!
"Bleurgh-!!!"
Before Mizuki could even scream, his body became a cannonball, smashing through more than a dozen towering trees behind him before finally slamming into a rock, his fate unknown.
Meanwhile.
In the Hokage's office.
The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi held a pipe between his teeth, staring fixedly at the crystal ball before him.
The embers in his pipe flickered, illuminating the old man's face, which was filled with shock and gravity.
"No hand seals... no chakra fluctuations... pure physical strength..."
"Just one punch..."
The Third Hokage drew a deep breath, and his mind involuntarily conjured up the bare-bottomed child Teuchi had brought back from the forest five years ago.
When the Anbu went to investigate, that stretch of forest looked as though a Kage Level battle had taken place there. Even then, Sarutobi had harbored some suspicions about the child's identity.
Later, when questioned, he had only said his name was Son Goten and that he remembered nothing else!
"It seems Konoha really has raised an extraordinary monster."
"Only..."
In the crystal ball, the little monster who had just instantly defeated a Chunin was now sidling up to the newly arrived Iruka. While playing innocent, he casually felt around the ninja tool pouch on Iruka's vest, seemingly checking whether there were any snacks.
Sarutobi could not help twitching.
"With that personality... who knows whether he'll be a blessing or a curse!"
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