The next morning, Akira arrived at the training ground—and he paused.
Everyone… was already there.
Naruto bouncing like a pinball.
Sakura glaring daggers at Naruto.
Sasuke leaning against a post, pretending not to care.
And Kakashi… unbelievably… present on time.
Akira blinked.
This really is like the simulation… everyone is early? Even Kakashi?
But he didn't comment and simply stepped inside the training ground.
Kakashi closed his book, eye curving into a lazy smile.
"Hello everyone. I'm Kakashi Hatake."
He paused.
"My likes…"
Silence.
"My dislikes…"
Silence.
Even Naruto sweat-dropped. He didn't say a single thing!
Kakashi gestured. "Well—introduce yourselves."
Akira stepped forward first.
"My name is Akira Uchiha, as most of you already know. I'm from the Uchiha clan. I have already awakened the three-tomoe Magatama Sharingan."
Naruto's jaw dropped. Sakura gasped.
Sasuke's eyes sharpened like knives.
"As for my likes and dislikes," Akira finished with a shrug, "you don't need to know."
Naruto shot his hand up next.
"Aaaalright! My turn! I'm Uzumaki Naruto—the next Hokage! Believe it!"
He suddenly turned red, glancing at Sakura with a goofy grin.
"And my likes are—"
Sakura raised her fist.
Naruto instantly changed direction. "—RAmen! I like ramen! Hehehe!"
"As for my dislikes—IT'S THIS ANNOYING GUY, SASUKE!"
Sasuke clicked his tongue.
But when it was his turn, he stepped forward with cold confidence.
"I am Uchiha Sasuke. I've opened one-tomoe Sharingan."
His eyes shot toward Akira again—full of complex fire.
Akira felt it clearly: betrayal, frustration… envy.
Sasuke continued.
"My goal… is to become a great ninja like my brother."
The admiration in his voice was raw. Pure.
Akira and Kakashi exchanged a brief glance.
But they said nothing.
Sasuke finished with a bored tone, "And my dislikes? Weaklings."
He shot Naruto a side-eye so sharp it might as well have been a kunai.
"WHAAAT—?!" Naruto lunged—
—and Sakura immediately punched him into the dirt.
Then she stepped forward, smiling sweetly.
"My name is Haruno Sakura! My likes…" She looked dreamily at Sasuke.
Sakura gave him the same expression Naruto had given Sakura.
Sasuke pretended not to notice.
Akira sighed internally.
Kakashi closed his book again.
"And my dislikes…"
Her eyes locked onto Naruto like a missile.
Naruto gulped.
Kakashi watched the three of them—Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke—and then looked at Akira.
This team… is going to be trouble.
He clapped his hands.
"Well. That was… enlightening."
---
Kakashi slipped his hands into his pockets, eye curving into that too-relaxed smile that somehow made everyone more nervous, not less.
"Well… I have to convey some bad news to all of you."
Naruto froze.
Sakura blinked.
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.
Kakashi continued, voice suddenly serious:
"The situation in the ninja world is tense. Very tense."
Even the breeze quieted.
"It's been nearly a decade since the Third Great Ninja War. And—if things continue as they are—the Fourth Great Ninja War may not be too far."
Naruto swallowed loudly.
Sakura's hands tightened.
Sasuke's eyes sharpened.
Kakashi looked at each of them slowly.
"In such a world… strength is not optional."
"It is survival."
He clapped his hands once.
"Which brings us to today's test."
Naruto grinned. "Is it the Bell Test?"
Kakashi shook his head.
"No. Today's test will be slightly… different."
Sakura leaned forward. "Different how?"
Kakashi pointed at Akira.
"Today, the three of you—Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura—will fight Akira."
The world fell silent.
Naruto blinked. "Uh… what?"
Sasuke frowned deeply.
Akira remained calm.
"You don't need to defeat him," Kakashi clarified.
"You only need to survive for five minutes."
Naruto nearly fell over.
Naruto pointed straight at Akira, eyes blazing with stubborn fire.
"Don't get too arrogant, Akira! I'll defeat you alone—then I'll become Hokage! BELIEVE IT!"
Akira only smiled, faint and unhurried.
Kakashi raised his hand.
"Begin."
The moment the word left his mouth—
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all lunged, forming a perfect three-point encirclement.
A smart tactic.
Don't let Akira isolate them.
Don't give him space to hunt one at a time.
But—
Akira was faster.
Much faster.
"Water Style: Water Shock Wave!"
A roaring column of water exploded outward from Akira, lifting into a spiraling wave that swallowed the entire training ground.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were launched backward instantly, their formation shattered like glass.
Sasuke just barely managed to stabilize himself on water using chakra on his feet.
Naruto created a dozen shadow clones, having them grab and fling him upward to regain balance.
Sakura attempted to land properly—
But Akira was already moving.
"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."
A perfect sphere of swirling water materialized around her, trapping her completely.
Her hands froze. Her body locked. Only a tiny pocket of air remained near her mouth.
And before she could even struggle—
"Water Style: Water Binding Chains!"
Multiple serpentine chains of water burst from the sphere, wrapping Sakura's arms, waist, and legs tightly.
She couldn't move.
Couldn't escape.
Could only blink in shock as she realized—
She was already eliminated.
Naruto and Sasuke didn't have time to react.
Because they were already launching their own counterattack.
"TAKE THIS! Wind Style: Air Bullets!"
A rapid burst of compressed wind shot toward Akira like a machine gun.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Sasuke's flames rained down in scattered, swirling arcs.
Both jutsu collided on the same target—
Akira didn't move.
"N-No—Akira! MOVE!" Naruto yelled in panic.
The combined wind and flame hit Akira full-on.
A direct explosion.
A huge cloud of steam.
Naruto's breath caught.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
But when the smoke cleared—
Akira's body burst apart into a splash.
"A… water clone?" Naruto gasped.
The real Akira rose silently from the lake behind them.
They didn't even sense him.
Akira lifted his hand.
"Fire Style… Majestic Blaze."
From his mouth, a massive plume of fire erupted—towering, violent, scorching—the temperature spiking so abruptly that the water surface hissed and split apart.
The flame surged downward like a divine hammer.
At the same time—
Akira flicked his wrist.
"Fire style: Fire Rose Burst!"
A ring of spiraling flame petals erupted from his position, sweeping across the field and swallowing both Naruto and Sasuke in a blooming inferno of crimson fire.
"NOT YET!" Naruto roared.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
A massive gust of wind blasted forward.
"Water style: Raging whirlpool Sphere Jutsu!"
A sphere of water surrounded Sasuke and Naruto to prevent the fire from reaching them.
Except…
They misunderstood Akira completely.
The moment the two jutsu collided—
a massive explosion erupted.
The shockwave tore through the entire training ground.
The artificial lake created by Akira's water technique was instantly evaporated, leaving only steaming earth.
Naruto and Sasuke were flung backward, rolling across the ground, smoke rising off their scorched clothes.
Burns marked their arms, legs, shoulders—
Not lethal.
But painful.
Akira descended gently from the sky, landing without so much as a scratch.
He looked down at them calmly.
One minutes has passed.
They still had four minutes left.
Sasuke gritted his teeth.
Naruto forced himself back up.
And Kakashi, watching from the shade of a tree, let out a long… long sigh.
"…this might have been too much."
---
Even burned, bruised, and barely standing, Naruto and Sasuke still pulled themselves up, staggering into fighting stances.
Akira watched them quietly.
"…They're still coming?"
A small smile tugged at his lips.
"Alright then."
He slammed his palm onto the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow River."
The earth beneath Naruto and Sasuke liquefied, turning into churning, unstable mud.
Both boys immediately lost balance, feet sliding out from beneath them.
Before they could recover—
"Earth Style: Mud Dragon Bullet!"
A serpentine dragon of hardened mud rose behind Akira, roaring as it launched dozens of mud projectiles toward the falling duo.
Sasuke reacted first.
He inhaled sharply—
"Lightning Style: Illumination Field!"
A line of crackling lightning shot across the ground and sky, detonating the incoming mud bullets mid-air in bursts of steam and shattered earth.
Naruto followed instantly.
He formed a handblade, wind chakra swirling violently—
"Wind Style: Wind Blade Technique!"
A slicing white arc of compressed air ripped toward Akira.
Akira crouched slightly—
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
The ground surged upward, forming a thick stone barrier that absorbed the strike with a heavy BOOM.
The wall cracked.
Dust rose.
Naruto and Sasuke were still standing.
Akira exhaled.
"Not bad. But let's end this."
He clasped his hands.
"Earth Style: Landslide Wave."
The ground behind him erupted—
A massive avalanche of stone, mud, and boulders crashed forward like a raging titan.
Naruto's eyes went wide.
Sasuke's jaw clenched.
"We… we can't counter that!" Naruto yelled.
"Move!" Sasuke snapped.
They both sprinted away with everything they had—
But the wave was too fast.
A tremendous CRASH echoed through the forest as the avalanche slammed over them, shaking the entire training ground.
Dust clouds rose.
Broken stone littered the field.
Silence fell.
Akira blinked.
"…Oops."
He hurried forward, leaping over debris, landing beside the crater the attack had caused.
Naruto was unconscious, bruised everywhere, face swollen from impacts.
Sasuke was awake but pale, breathing heavily, one arm bent at an awkward angle.
Akira scratched his cheek, embarrassed.
"…I got excited."
Kakashi walked up, hands in pockets, eye twitching behind his mask.
"Akira," he sighed, "Naruto's covered in burns and bruises, and Sasuke has—at minimum—three broken bones."
Akira coughed lightly.
"Ah… Kakashi-sensei? Should I take them to the hospital?"
Kakashi shook his head.
"No. Let's call Tsunade-sama."
His visible eye sharpened.
"And besides… you and I haven't fought in a long time."
Akira froze.
Then brightened.
"…You want to fight me?"
Kakashi stretched his neck.
"It's been ages since I've had a proper warm-up. And you seem in the mood."
Akira grinned, excitement rising again.
He turned to Sakura—who had just escaped the water prison earlier and was catching her breath.
"Sakura," Akira said, "go call Tsunade-sama. Tell her Naruto and Sasuke are injured,
Kakashi and Akira are going to start fighting—so we need a referee."
Sakura blinked.
"That's… the message?"
"Yes."
She nodded rapidly, not questioning a thing.
She glanced at the destroyed ground…
The evaporated lake…
The still-smoking rocks…
Naruto and Sasuke half-dead on the ground…
And she shuddered.
Thank goodness I was eliminated early.
Otherwise she would have been—
Burned.
Then blasted.
Then crushed.
She took a deep breath and sprinted straight toward the Hokage building.
---