The crowd fell into a strange kind of silence—not from a lack of excitement, but the kind of anticipation that makes even children forget to breathe. The training field, which moments earlier had been full of noise, bets, and shouting, turned into a stage where everyone wanted to see just how far two eight-year-old classmates could go… against a jounin.
Naruto and Sasuke stared at Kakashi as if he were a wall far too tall to climb in a single leap. Kakashi, on the other hand, maintained his usual relaxed posture, as if this were just another exercise in the middle of the day—and that alone was irritating.
Naruto took a deep breath.
*Focus.*
Sasuke didn't look back. He stood rigid and alert, wrapped in that natural arrogance he used as armor. Naruto had already drilled the basics into his head beforehand: coordination, or humiliation. Now it was time to prove it.
Iruka stepped forward, and his voice cut through the silence.
"Begin."
Sasuke moved first.
His hand darted to his weapons pouch, pulling out a dozen shuriken as if he had counted each one before touching them. In a clean motion, he threw them in a fan—not to kill, but to close angles, force a reaction, to test.
Naruto already had his hand seals ready.
"Fuuton: Reppuushou."
The gust burst forward with sharp force, pushing the air like an invisible hand. The sound of the shuriken changed instantly—sharper, more dangerous—and the blades seemed to gain a second engine mid-flight, accelerating toward Kakashi.
For a moment, some of the students' eyes widened. That level of coordination didn't feel like "kid stuff."
Kakashi moved at the same instant—not rushed, not desperate. Just… efficient.
His hands formed seals with an almost insulting naturalness, as if his body already knew the path on its own.
"Doton: Doryuuheki."
The ground in front of him rose as if awakening. The wall formed heavy and solid, compacted into thick layers—and the detail that always stood out appeared once again: the markings, the dog-shaped images molded into the earth, as if the jutsu carried its own signature.
The shuriken struck the wall with dry cracks, one after another; some buried their tips deep, but none came close to breaking through. The thickness absorbed everything.
And then Kakashi did what a jounin does when he decides to remind everyone of the difference between levels.
He leapt over the wall and advanced with a kunai already in hand.
The movement was light, almost silent, but the psychological impact was massive—it was as if he had crossed the field's defense itself and stepped directly into their space.
Sasuke didn't hesitate. He drew his own kunai and charged to meet him.
Metal met metal.
The first clash echoed across the field—a sharp *clink* that sent chills through several students.
Sasuke was fast, precise, and his strikes carried real training. He tried to take initiative, cut lines, force Kakashi to retreat.
But Kakashi didn't retreat.
He didn't need to.
With every strike Sasuke threw, Kakashi answered with the bare minimum. A slight turn of the wrist. A deflection by centimeters. A short step to the side. And yet, Sasuke still felt as though he was being pushed back—without Kakashi ever applying real "force."
*He's measuring me…* Sasuke wouldn't say it out loud, but his body betrayed him. Tense shoulders. A locked jaw. A gaze growing more aggressive by the second.
Naruto watched like someone reading a map.
*Sasuke's at a disadvantage. If this keeps up, he'll go down before we can do anything.*
Without hesitation, Naruto formed a shadow clone. The second Naruto appeared beside him, and both began forming seals almost simultaneously—an practiced rhythm, as if coordination had been forced into them by sheer repetition.
Sasuke tried to exploit an opening, slamming his kunai against Kakashi's again—except this time, Kakashi didn't "give."
He returned the impact.
Sasuke was thrown backward by the force of the clash, his feet dragging through the dirt, his body regaining balance by instinct—but the space he lost was exactly the space Naruto needed.
Naruto stepped forward, finishing the seals.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu."
The air seemed to heat up before the fire even appeared. From his chest and throat, Naruto expelled an enormous fireball—far larger than anyone expected from a child. The flames surged forward like an orange tide, roaring through the air.
At the same time, the clone completed:
"Fuuton: Daitoppa."
The gust of wind slammed into the flames like a hand shoving a wildfire. The fire was propelled, widened, stretched in reach—it wasn't just stronger, it was harder to escape, because it filled more space and devoured the path of retreat.
Kakashi tried to evade.
And for an instant, it looked like he might succeed—a short movement, light body, the kind of step that makes someone seem to vanish.
But the fire's reach was too great.
The flames touched him. And for a split second, his skin appeared to burn.
The entire field held its breath.
Some students stared with mouths open. Others raised hands to their faces. A few stepped forward instinctively, as if wanting a better view. It was hard to accept the image: two classmates… landing a hit on a jounin.
But in the middle of that disbelief… the "victory" was short-lived.
The Kakashi engulfed in flames exploded into a cloud of smoke.
Substitution.
In the same instant—almost simultaneous, too fast for ordinary eyes to follow—Kakashi emerged from the ground beside Sasuke, as if the earth itself were just a door.
And before Sasuke could even turn his head, Kakashi struck the back of his neck.
Clean. Precise.
Sasuke went unconscious immediately, his body collapsing as if someone had cut the strings.
Iruka reacted quickly, but even so, his voice carried that controlled shock of a teacher who had to keep everything under control.
"Sasuke is out."
He moved to catch the unconscious student, and several children around them shifted uneasily, as if only now remembering that this could actually hurt.
Naruto stood still for a second.
It wasn't long—but inside, his mind moved like a blade.
*He used Doton: Dochuu Eigyo no Jutsu after creating the earth wall… and made a clone to act as a distraction.*
*No wonder he's considered a high-level fighter.*
The problem wasn't just the technique.
It was the timing.
Kakashi let Naruto and Sasuke believe they had landed the hit. Let the fire look decisive. Let the entire field buy into it for half a second… and in that half second, he was already somewhere else, executing the finish.
Naruto clenched his teeth.
He knew that kind of gap couldn't be closed with anger. It was closed with resolve.
That was when a voice cut through his thoughts, as if someone were enjoying the scene far too much.
"I think that's enough, Naruto. You've done all you can."
Hiruzen spoke as if consoling him… but his expression was pure amusement.
A vein throbbed on Naruto's forehead.
By reflex.
By instinct.
That mix of *old man interfering* and *underestimating me* always lit something inside him.
But he breathed in and calmed himself quickly.
*Not now.*
Naruto looked at Kakashi and, without breaking focus, dispelled the clone. The smoke faded, and silence returned for a moment—the kind of pause that comes before a bad decision… or a brave one.
Naruto raised his hand.
And chakra began to spin.
The Rasengan formed, dense and loud in the ear, as if the air itself were being twisted. The bluish sphere grew to the size of a volleyball, spinning violently yet controlled in the small palm of a child—and still, with terrifying stability.
At that same instant, a glint passed through Kakashi's eyes when he saw the jutsu. It wasn't fear—it was recognition. The kind of reaction a specialist has when seeing something that shouldn't be there.
But Kakashi didn't let it affect him.
He moved first, charging toward Naruto while forming a Rasengan of the same size in his own hand.
The entire crowd was caught between *this is beautiful* and *this is absurd*.
Two Rasengans.
A jounin and a child.
Naruto advanced as well.
The ground seemed smaller. The entire field felt like it was holding its breath. Iruka tensed without realizing it, ready to intervene—but with no idea *how* to intervene against something like that.
Naruto felt the world narrow.
There was only Kakashi ahead of him.
Only the spinning chakra in his hand.
And for a single second, a question sparked through his mind:
*Can I really tie with him?*
The answer came with the collision.
When the Rasengans clashed, an explosion erupted, and dust surged upward like a curtain ripped from the ground.
The sound was a heavy *boom*—not of fire, but of pressure—as if the air itself had been compressed and released all at once. Some students instinctively stepped back. Others raised their arms to shield their faces.
Dust covered everything.
And for several seconds, no one could see a thing.
When the cloud began to settle, the first figure to appear was Kakashi.
Standing.
Still.
With an unreadable expression.
The second body appeared shortly after.
Naruto lay on the ground, arms spread, staring at the sky as if gravity itself had simply dropped him there.
Iruka swallowed before announcing, loud enough for everyone to hear:
"Naruto is out. Kakashi is the winner."
And then the field erupted in excitement. Shouting, shock, comments piling over one another. Seeing a fight that spectacular was something they almost never got the chance to witness.
Naruto remained there, lying on the ground, staring at the sky, feeling his body heavy, his chest rising and falling with effort, and the dust still drifting down slowly—as if the world itself were ending the scene calmly.
Amid all that noise, there was only one thought in his mind—long, stubborn, dragging itself forward… almost as if he were trying not to pass out from sheer irritation:
*That old man is the one paying for the barbecue.*
(Early access chapters: see the bio.)