SPLAT!
The sound was sharp and utterly unexpected.
Kakashi-sensei, who just a second ago had been perfectly fine, was torn to shreds, mixing with the mud from the exploded puddle. A few droplets splattered onto Sakura's face.
A second of deafening silence followed.
For Sakura, the world narrowed down to this single, horrifying frame. The Jonin. Their teacher and commander. Their unshakeable, omnipotent protection. He had just been... ripped apart.
Her mind refused to accept it. It couldn't be true. This wasn't the Bell Test. This wasn't genjutsu. She saw the chain wrap around him. She saw the enemies pull. She saw him...
"Ah... ah-h..."
Her lungs constricted. Air wouldn't flow. The scream stuck in her throat, paralyzed by primal terror. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe.
"Sensei!"
The wail was almost soundless, filled with despair. Right now, she wasn't a shinobi. She was just a twelve-year-old girl who had just watched her teacher die.
Sasuke hesitated too, but for a different reason. It wasn't fear that paralyzed him. It was shock.
A Jonin... dead?
His brain worked at feverish speed, trying to process what happened. How? They caught him? Just like that? Was it... Substitution? No, the chain... they caught him for real. He is dead.
He was completely caught off guard. This was his first real battle, and the speed at which everything happened was beyond his perception. His hand was already reaching for his kunai pouch, his instincts screaming "act!", but his mind couldn't keep up with the sudden changes. Everything was happening too fast.
The Demon Brothers ignored the wavering Sasuke and the screaming Sakura. They were professionals. They had seen genin panic hundreds of times. It was predictable.
Their goal was clear.
They saw the calmly standing Naruto and the shaking Tazuna behind his back.
"The second one!" barked one of them—Gozu.
They surged forward, poisoned claws glinting in the sun. They moved with a speed Sasuke and Sakura had never seen before. They barreled toward Naruto to kill him and get to the client.
But Naruto showed no trace of panic.
Unlike his teammates, he was ready. Qi Sensory gave him the advantage. He felt Kakashi's aura vanish from the chains a split second before the brothers yanked them. He knew it was a Substitution Technique.
He also felt Kakashi's real aura, hiding his chakra, but to Naruto's sensory perception, he shone like a signal fire against the grey forest background. Now he was watching them with lazy curiosity from a high tree branch.
And this is still a test, Naruto realized. Kakashi wanted to see what they would do. He decided to "die" first to observe their reaction.
And Naruto wasn't about to disappoint him.
The closest chunin, Gozu, was already four meters away, raising his massive clawed gauntlet for a strike aimed straight at Naruto's throat.
They're agile, he thought, his gaze focusing on the attacker. But... not enough.
The world changed for him.
Time didn't "slow down." His perception accelerated.
Sakura's scream turned into a drawn-out, low drone. Sasuke's movement, finally drawing a kunai, seemed slow and clumsy. He heard the whistle of poisoned claws slicing the air. He heard Gozu's raspy breathing from beneath the mask. He heard the beating of his own heart—steady, powerful, calm.
He didn't reach for the chaotic blue Chakra or form seals for Kage Bunshin.
He reached inward.
In that instant, he activated the Qi of the Late Stage Body Tempering.
It wasn't like the agonizing breakthrough in the Sanctuary. It was an instantaneous, clean action. Cold, dense Qi flooded his meridians. He felt his newly strengthened organs vibrate with the influx of power, felt it fill his muscles, tendons, and bones, making his body simultaneously light as a feather and dense as steel.
To Sakura and Sasuke, who had barely managed to take a step forward, Naruto simply vanished.
He left behind no blur, no pop, no smoke. He was simply there, in front of Tazuna, and in the next instant, he was gone.
He dashed to meet the chunin's attack.
Gozu snarled, his poisoned claws never landing on the spot where the blonde boy had stood a second ago.
He didn't even have time to blink.
Naruto was already under his arm, in his blind spot. He used that same precise, silent, Qi-enhanced strike—the very same one he used against Mizuki. He hit the chunin's unprotected solar plexus dead center.
Thud.
The sound was dull, barely audible. Like someone hitting a tightly packed sandbag.
Naruto felt his knuckles, tempered to the density of iron, meet the soft resistance of the flak jacket, and then strike flesh. His blow reached the enemy's core.
Gozu froze mid-step.
It was as if an invisible battering ram had passed through his vest, muscles, and ribs, slamming directly into his internal organs, causing the fabric of his clothes on his back to snap taut and burst.
The internal shock from the Qi strike instantly shut down his nervous system.
Gozu's eyes beneath the mask widened in mute shock. He didn't fly backward. His attack simply froze. He stood there, his clawed hand still raised for the strike.
And then, slowly, like a marionette with all its strings cut, he collapsed face-down onto the dusty road.
He moved no more.