Chapter 50: Strange—Why Is There a Weird Smell?
Sasuke was completely dumbfounded.
Naruto was just too strong?!
He had instantly one-shotted two chunin who weren't weak at all!
Seeing Naruto's strength skyrocket these past few days,
Sasuke felt a massive gap in his heart—so he went begging Kakashi
to teach him a stronger ninjutsu!
Namely—Chidori.
But Kakashi's self-created technique wasn't something easy to learn either.
It would take more than a day or two of grinding.
If your aptitude wasn't good enough, you could easily ruin yourself midway.
That was completely normal.
But Sasuke still had his trump cards—shuriken techniques, Fire Style: Great Fireball, etc.
Though only a genin, some of his moves were no weaker than a chunin's.
Plus the Sharingan kekkei genkai.
Against the Demon Brothers, he might not kill them,
but he could definitely protect himself!
Yet Naruto?
Naruto had straight-up executed two chunin on the spot!
Was this the gap between him and a true powerhouse?
The enormous sense of disparity made Sasuke's heart extremely unbalanced.
He smashed his fist hard into the nearby tree trunk.
"Damn it! Is this still the Naruto I used to know? How many more trump cards is this guy hiding?!"
"What level has his strength reached now?!"
Sakura's lips kept trembling as she looked at Naruto.
At this moment, Naruto seemed to have become the pillar in her heart—the backbone she could rely on!
Though she refused to admit it out loud, deep down she had already accepted Naruto's place in her heart.
Seeing blood for the first time, Sakura's voice carried a hint of crying:
"N-Naruto-kun… didn't you go a bit too far?"
Naruto looked at Sakura like she was an idiot.
What a saint.
Do women's brains always work in such strange ways?
Someone tries to kill you—and you still care about the enemy's life?
Naruto didn't bother answering Sakura—the question was simply too stupid.
He genuinely didn't understand what was in her head.
Though Naruto didn't reply,
Kakashi—who had just jumped down from the treetop—did answer her.
"Naruto did the right thing. Once you leave the village and face professional killer ninjas, you can't afford mercy."
"Because it's either them or you. Only one side survives."
"Sakura—you should learn more from Naruto in this regard."
Naruto wasn't surprised to see Kakashi.
The "corpse" over there
had turned into a substitution log at some point.
The one "killed" earlier was just Kakashi's substitute.
Come on.
If a Konoha elite jonin died to two trash-tier cannon-fodder rogue ninjas,
the author might as well drop the pen and stop drawing.
Sasuke had probably expected it too—seeing Kakashi walk over unharmed,
he only showed a brief flash of surprise
before quickly returning to normal.
Sakura—still sitting on the ground—widened her eyes, her pretty face full of shock and confusion.
"Kakashi-sensei—you're okay?!"
After a pause, tears welled up as she sobbed with joy:
"Wuwuwu… I thought you were dead…"
Kakashi subconsciously rubbed his nose.
He had slipped away earlier to observe from the shadows,
wanting to see how the three of them would react
when facing sudden life-or-death danger.
After all—in moments of true life-and-death crisis,
people reveal things they would never do normally!
Like abandoning teammates to flee alone.
Or staying to fight side by side.
Or even worse—betraying teammates mid-battle.
Fortunately, all three had decent dispositions.
Kakashi was quite relieved.
At the same time, he also wanted to gauge the team's actual combat level.
But who could've predicted—
the moment Naruto acted, he instantly killed two solid chunin!
Good grief!
He had the same style as Kakashi back in his ANBU days!
Kakashi smiled, walked to Sakura's side, and gently ruffled her hair.
"My fault for worrying you—sorry!"
Look how scared the kid was.
Kakashi didn't say "you all."
Because did Naruto or Sasuke look scared at all?
Not even a little!
As for danger—Kakashi had been watching from the shadows, ready to kill the Demon Brothers at any moment.
Ensuring Team 7's safety.
In the end—it was all bark and no bite.
Kakashi quickly pulled his hand back, gave a dry cough to ease the awkwardness.
At that moment, Naruto suddenly frowned.
"Strange… why is there a weird smell?"
His five senses were now countless times sharper than his peers'!
Even some elite jonin who relied on smell
couldn't match Naruto.
"Hm? Is there?"
Kakashi—wearing his mask—hadn't smelled anything.
Sasuke and Tazuna definitely couldn't.
Tazuna reeked of alcohol.
Sasuke's sense of smell wasn't as sharp as Naruto's.
Sakura's face flushed instantly. Her legs clamped together tightly.
The tears stopped.
She froze on the spot!
Fortunately, only Naruto noticed something off about her.
The others didn't realize.
Otherwise she definitely couldn't live it down.
Kakashi glanced at Naruto, a thought bubbling up in his mind.
"As expected of Sensei's son—calm in battle, and able to release two Rasengans at once."
"Most ninjas his age wouldn't have nearly that much chakra. Is it because of the Nine-Tails?"
As for Naruto's situation—it wasn't the priority right now.
The real question was:
why would rogue ninjas from the Hidden Mist appear
on a low-level C-rank escort mission?
The headbands on the corpses were from Kirigakure!
Tazuna definitely had issues.
He must have hidden something when they accepted the mission.
Kakashi walked up to him.
With his visible eye, he stared coldly at Tazuna, voice icy:
"Your mission request has problems. I don't need to say more—you know it yourself."
"If you don't tell us the truth from here on, we can refuse the mission midway. You can go back to the Land of Waves alone."
Tazuna sobered up halfway. Seeing Kakashi's scrutinizing gaze,
he knew that continuing to hide it
would make this man follow through on his threat!
So Tazuna took a deep breath.
"Here's what really happened…"
He didn't dare conceal anything anymore.
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