Naruto: Returns From Roger's Ship

In the clearing, the four people gathered together again.

Among them, Sasuke was glaring resentfully at Kakashi, while Kakashi himself had a solemn expression as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto stood there, casually tossing the two bells up and down in his hand. Beside him, Sakura, who had been completely out of the loop the entire time, looked utterly confused.

'What happened?'

'How had Naruto managed to get both bells?'

When Sakura saw that both bells were in Naruto's hands, her first thought was how he had pulled it off.

But soon, another realization struck her.

'If Naruto grabbed two bells by himself, wouldn't that mean I...'

As if sensing her thoughts, Naruto grinned and swept his gaze over the three of them.

Just as Sakura's heart sank lower and lower, a crisp jingling sound suddenly rang through the air.

She instinctively stretched out her hand to block in front of her, and a small silver bell landed in her palm. At the same time, another one was caught by Sasuke.

"This should do it, right?"

"Then, I'll head back first."

Naruto smiled at Kakashi and turned to leave.

"Hey! Don't you dare walk away!"

Once again, it was Sasuke who spoke up first.

He couldn't accept that the guy he had always seen as a loser was now stronger than him. And to make matters worse, Naruto's final act of what felt like pity had trampled all over his already fragile pride.

Sasuke threw the bell to the ground. When he saw that Naruto had actually stopped, he turned to Kakashi.

"I didn't get a bell. Send me back to the Academy."

After saying this, he turned back to glare at Naruto.

"What you did was completely unnecessary!"

Beside him, Sakura bit her lower lip as she watched Sasuke's outburst, her eyes darting between him and Naruto.

In the end, she followed Sasuke's lead and threw her bell to the ground as well.

"I... I feel the same. Kakashi-sensei, please don't make Naruto go back to the Academy alone. If we're talking about failing, then I think I should also..."

"Hey, hey… you two."

Seeing his two teammates suddenly do such a youthful and impetuous thing, even Naruto, who originally had other plans, couldn't help but stop in his tracks, scratching his head helplessly.

But it was also at this moment that he truly took a proper look at his two teammates.

Even if their experience might not even amount to a tenth of his, and their strength was far from comparable, he didn't dislike this kind of personality in them.

"All three of you… pass."

At that moment, Kakashi suddenly spoke up.

When they heard his words, Sakura and Sasuke both looked shocked, while Naruto didn't react much.

He turned his gaze to Kakashi, as if waiting for an explanation.

"Cough, those who doesn't value their comrades… isn't worthy of my recognition."

"To put it bluntly, this test is actually to see if you all had that quality."

"From what I've seen, all three of you have undoubtedly passed."

With that, Kakashi nodded.

"Uh, I'd like to say something..."

At this point, Naruto suddenly raised his hand and wanted to say something.

However, Kakashi seemed to realize that letting this kid continue would ruin the moment, 'Hadn't he noticed how Sakura and Sasuke now wore expressions of sudden understanding and admiration?'

"Alright! The test is officially over. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin our missions properly. Everyone, dismissed."

With those words, he vanished using the Body Flicker Technique, leaving the three Genin staring at each other in bewilderment.

When their eyes met again, Sakura and Sasuke both awkwardly looked away.

Perhaps the sudden emotional outburst just now overdrafted their shamelessness, as they silently gathered their things and left in the directions they had come from.

Only after Sasuke and Sakura had left did Naruto click his tongue, his expression turning deep and contemplative once more.

'It seems what happened last night should have nothing to do with Kakashi-sensei and the Third Hokage.'

…

Time rewinds, returning to the depths of last night.

Naruto, who was sleeping on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes. He glanced toward the window in several directions before silently changing his clothes and leaping out.

His speed wasn't fast. In fact, he seemed to be deliberately slowing down.

Only when he reached the depths of the deserted forest did he finally stop.

"You've followed me this far. Why keep hiding?"

The moment his words fell, three figures emerged from the shadows.

Each of them wore an animal mask, concealing their faces completely.

Through careful probing and personal investigation, Naruto had already learned that people dressed like this belonged to the village's special forces… the so-called Anbu.

They were the same ones he had knocked out when he first returned.

'But why were they coming for me in the middle of the night?'

"The Hokage has ordered a summons for Uzumaki Naruto. Please come with us."

The leader's tone was utterly perfunctory, not even bothering to explain the reason for the Hokage's summons.

"Is that so? I'll go see old man Third myself, then. No need to trouble you."

They didn't seem to care about Naruto's response at all. Without hesitation, they closed in from both sides, clearly intending to take him by force.

Seeing their actions, Naruto immediately realized-

There's something wrong with these guys.

His instincts told him that these were the 'big fish' he had been waiting for.

When he first learned that the ones surveilling him were likely Hiruzen's men, he had been somewhat displeased.

But now that this group had appeared, Naruto understood that there were more eyes on him than he thought.

Unlike the innocent Anbu he had knocked out before, the malice radiating from these people was practically overflowing.

'And more importantly-'

Naruto turned his head to the other side, his gaze piercing through the darkness as if seeing past all obstacles.

This thick, greedy, murderous intent… in Naruto's Observation Haki perception, felt like a pile of rotting sludge dredged from the deepest trenches, constantly polluting his vision.

Before Naruto could even react, the Anbu imposters around him struck first.

The one closest to him moved first.

In his eyes, even if Naruto is a Jinchuriki, he was ultimately just a Genin who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, so he didn't take him seriously at all.

So much so that he didn't even bother using Ninjutsu, simply drawing kunai to subdue him.

But the moment he pulled out his weapons, his consciousness instantly cut off.

'Genjutsu!?'

The other two watched as their comrade collapsed to the ground, unconscious. They immediately scattered like a frightened bird and began to quickly form hand seals.

Naruto did not show any attacking gesture. He simply stood there, letting them complete their hand seals.

However, secretly, he had been silently memorizing the hand seals of these guys, and also used his Observation Haki to track the flow of Chakra in their bodies.

"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld."

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique."

In an instant, razor-sharp wind blades shot toward him.

At the same time, the ground beneath Naruto's feet turned into a bog.

But to their shock, Naruto simply stepped on the air and rose into the sky.

'Tch. The Marines' Rokushiki really is handy.'

After exclaiming in his heart, Naruto unleashed his Conqueror's Haki, instantly knocking out the remaining two ninja.

He had already memorized all the Ninjutsu he could learn. As for secret techniques like the [Parasitic Insects], he had no interest in them.

He formed a hand seal casually, and a vast amount of Chakra gushed out along his Chakra Pathway.

A wind blade several times larger than before slashed forward, instantly cleaving through the dense trees.

'This power… isn't much weaker than an average swordsman's flying slash.'

In mid-air, Naruto looked at his hand in amazement.

'And such attacks can be used continuously, even though the amount of Chakra in my body has 'shrunk' a lot.'

'If I had known this technique back when I was sailing the seas, Mary Geoise would've been destroyed long ago.'

As the wind blade split the earth, in Naruto's perception, the source of the deepest malice was moving away at an extremely fast speed.

He wanted to give chase, but the moment he had attacked, the enemy had already decisively fled. Even with his speed, catching up now would be difficult.

However, Naruto wasn't about to let them escape so easily.

Grabbing a nearby tree branch, he coated it in pitch-black Armament Haki, then pulled his body taut like a drawn bowstring.

Whoosh!

The tree branch instantly shot through the air like a bullet.

After throwing out the tree branch, Naruto landed back on the ground.

"Let's take a good look at you…"

He murmured softly and reached out to remove one of the unconscious men's masks, but was surprised to find that the other party's mouth and nose were bleeding.

They were already dead.

Unwilling to give up, Naruto took off the masks of the other two again and found that every single one of them had died.

Clearly, they had some kind of suicide mechanism implanted in their bodies.

Turning his gaze toward the direction the enemy had fled, Naruto's eyes became as deep as the sea.

'Fine. Run all you want.'

'I can afford to fail countless times.'

'But you… you only get one more mistake.'