["Then... what was that just now?"
Naruto lay on the ground, turning his head to look. At the spot where Kakashi had just been standing, the flesh and blood had turned into wood; clearly, Kakashi had used the Substitution Jutsu.
"Naruto, sorry I couldn't come to save you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt."
Kakashi stood over the defeated Demon Brothers, looking completely unharmed. He glanced at the shallow cut on Naruto's hand, a flicker of guilt crossing his visible eye. "I honestly didn't expect you to freeze up like that."
He turned to the others.
"Anyway, Sasuke, great job. Sakura, you too."
Kakashi walked over to the group, offering them his praise.
Sakura beamed at the praise, relief washing over her. Sasuke remained expressionless, though his chest puffed out slightly.
"I... I did nothing," Naruto thought, his heart sinking.
He looked at Sasuke. "But Sasuke... even though it was his first real battle, he wasn't afraid at all?"
A massive chasm opened in Naruto's heart. They were both rookies. They both faced death for the first time. Yet Sasuke moved like a warrior, while Naruto stood there like a coward.
The admiration he felt for Sasuke was mixed with a bitter disappointment in himself.
"Are you hurt... scaredy-cat?"
Sasuke looked down at Naruto with a smirk, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto scrambled to his feet, humiliated and ready to argue.
"Naruto! Don't move!" Kakashi barked. "There's poison on their claws. You need to keep your heart rate down or the poison will spread faster. We need to open the wound to bleed it out."
Kakashi tied the Demon Brothers to a tree and turned to the trembling bridge builder.
"Mr. Tazuna," Kakashi said coldly. "We need to talk."
After a brief interrogation, the truth came out. The Demon Brothers were Mist Chunin. They weren't after Konoha Ninjas; their target was the bridge builder.
"A C-rank mission involves protection against bandits or thieves, not ninja assassins," Kakashi stated. "Since ninjas have appeared, this is now a B-rank mission at minimum. We are not equipped for this."
"Naruto needs medical attention. We are returning to the village."
Pfft!
The sound of metal piercing flesh shocked everyone into silence.
Naruto stood there, trembling, having driven a kunai deep into the back of his own hand. Blood, dark and poisoned, welled up instantly.
"Why is the difference so big?" Naruto gritted his teeth, tears of frustration in his eyes. "Why am I always the one holding everyone back? Dammit!"
Unwillingness and a certain resolve flickered in Naruto's eyes.
"Naruto! What are you doing?!" Sakura screamed, rushing forward.
"I should have become stronger... I practiced so hard..."
Naruto looked at his shaking hand. Images of his lonely training sessions flashed through his mind.
He looked up, his blue eyes burning with a new fire.
"I won't let anyone save me again! I won't suffer setbacks or run away! And I won't lose to Sasuke!"
He glared at the stunned group.
"With the pain in my left hand as my oath, I will protect the old man! The mission continues!"
His voice was firm, carrying a resolve that allowed no turning back.
The forest was silent for a moment.
"Naruto," Kakashi said slowly, walking over to inspect the bleeding arm. "It's very brave of you to bleed out the poison... but if you lose much more blood, you're going to die."
Naruto froze. His face turned pale.
"No... no, no! How can I die from something like this?!"
The solemn atmosphere shattered instantly. Naruto began running in circles, waving his injured hand like a panicked crab. "I don't want to die! Help me!"
"Show me your hand," Kakashi sighed, grabbing the flailing limb.
As he wiped away the blood, his eye widened.
The wound is already closing.
Thanks to the Nine-Tails chakra, the laceration was healing before his very eyes.]
[Is this really Naruto's first time leaving the village?]
[Supervision of a Jinchuriki was originally very strict. Back in Kushina's time, her range of activity was restricted. Naruto being able to move freely in the village is already an exception.]
[Looking at it this way, Jinchuriki are truly miserable.]
[Don't talk nonsense. It's not just Jinchuriki; other Ninjas don't really leave the village much when they don't have missions, right?]
[That's right, the Ninja World isn't safe. These little Ninjas don't have the ability to leave the village yet.]
[They ran into a big deal on their first time out. With a mission involving Zabuza, there's no way it could be C-rank.]
[Naruto at this time really looks unreliable. Wanting to become Hokage seems like a pipe dream.]
[But he really did become Hokage in the end. Don't look down on people, you old geezer!]
[The Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, reporting for duty!]
[Not just any Hokage, but the strongest Hokage.]
[Only the strongest for now. Future Hokage will get stronger with each generation. If Uchiha Sarada becomes Hokage, Naruto might not still be the strongest.]
[Hahaha, Naruto and Sakura are so cute.]
[What synchronized head-shaking. Looking at it this way, Naruto and Sakura are actually quite a good match.]
[Shouldn't the male lead and female lead have ended up together? I don't know why it suddenly changed.]
[Probably because Sasuke's popularity was so high.]
[Could Sasuke's popularity really be higher than Naruto's?]
[Cool characters like that usually have very high popularity.]
[Who says they aren't the male and female lead? Isn't Sasuke the one holding the female lead's script?]
[That's enough. This matter was settled long ago, why keep arguing about it?]
[No Ninja duel? Fooled you!]
[He could even use a substitution while being grabbed? Isn't that too sneaky?]
[Kakashi, you're way too shameless!]
[Hahaha, Kakashi is too much of a prankster!]
[Judging from their performance here, Naruto is indeed inferior to Sasuke.]
[Naruto's reactions on the battlefield are too slow.]
[After all, Naruto hasn't experienced anything yet.]
[Sasuke has seen much more cruel things.]
[He's already seen the Night of the Massacre; this is complete child's play.]
[666, he really managed to show off.]
[Sasuke's moves here are basically me!]
[Flashing to protect his wife!]
[After the whole fight, Sasuke's clothes are barely dirty.]
[In the end, didn't Kakashi have to come out and clean up the mess?]
[What else? Did you want Sasuke to take care of both of them?]
[Why not? At this age, Kakashi was already a Jonin, right?]
[This is called building a foundation and accumulating depth, you know? Look at those who reached the position of the strongest; how many of them showed all their brilliance early on? Isn't it just slow at first and fast later? That's called depth, understand?]
[That's because he ran into that whole business with Obito. If that hadn't happened, Kakashi would definitely be even stronger now with normal development.]
[No matter how strong he gets, so what? Even with an epic buff, can he surpass the First Hokage? If he can't surpass the First, how can he even be compared to narusasu?]
[Nonsense, those two are the protagonists. How can anyone surpass them while they're the main characters?]
[Hahaha, was Kakashi unable to make it in time, or did he just not want to save him?]
[Did Kakashi just go off to read icha icha paradise?]
[That would be very true to life.]
[Stabbing himself like that, Naruto is pretty ruthless.]
[My heart goes out to baby Naruto.]
[It looks painful; that was too brutal.]