Chapter 32
"Hey… Boss Hibachi."
One of the chubby followers behind tugged nervously at the sleeve of the leading boy.
"Is it really okay for us to just skip class like this? If Iruka-sensei finds out, we'll definitely have to call our parents…"
Hibachi—the boy in front wearing a white cap and an arrogant, defiant expression—chewed on a randomly picked foxtail grass stem and waved his hand dismissively.
"What are you scared of? You're such a coward."
He lowered his voice, putting on a mysterious tone: "My dad's in the Konoha Military Police. Yesterday he said there was a ninja battle in the back mountain! The Police Force took out a foreign spy right here!"
"There's definitely gotta be something left behind, right? Like special ninja tools, dropped scrolls, powerful weapons…"
Greed flickered in his eyes: "If we can pick up some awesome loot and bring it back to class, everyone's gonna be blown away! Even that show-off Sasuke won't have anything on us in this department."
Hibachi turned back to look at his two lackeys.
"Anyway, no matter how hard we try in class, we can't get anywhere. Look at Uchiha Sasuke—and that Uzumaki Naruto."
Mentioning those two names made him spit the grass stem out in disgust.
"Those two are straight-up monsters! Every single test, first and second place are always theirs."
"No matter how hard we train, they steal all the spotlight."
"If we can't surpass them no matter how much we try, then what's the point of trying at all?"
This was the classic powerlessness of being hopelessly outclassed.
Under the pressure of the two towering figures—Naruto and Sasuke—no matter how hard they had once worked, the gap only grew.
Since they couldn't compete in studies, they might as well chase other thrills.
"But… is this place really safe?" the glasses-wearing lackey asked, trembling slightly.
"Fortune favors the bold—don't you get it?"
Hibachi spat again, a little regretfully.
"Tch. Too bad that Uzumaki Naruto didn't take the bait."
The chubby one looked confused. "Boss, why'd you even invite that demon—that Uzumaki Naruto? Don't you hate him the most?"
"Idiot!"
Hibachi smacked the chubby boy on the head. "I wanted him to be the scout! I heard that guy goes running around in the forest all the time."
"If there were any traps or wild beasts, he'd know exactly where they are. Let him scout for us, and we wouldn't have to worry about danger at all."
"Didn't expect the guy to refuse so bluntly. I was planning to find some good loot and drag him along to brag in front of Uchiha Sasuke… pfft. Coward's a coward."
After some searching, they finally found the site of the battle.
Hibachi led his two followers through a patch of tall grass. The scene that appeared made them instinctively shrink back.
Trees snapped in half. Scattered kunai, shuriken, and broken short blades lay everywhere.
Black scorch marks from explosive tags dotted the ground. In many places, already-congealed bloodstains silently told the story of the brutal fight.
"This is… a real battlefield?" The thought struck all three at once.
"Wow… so many weapons!"
The chubby one was scared, but seeing weapons all over the ground still made his eyes light up.
"Stop dawdling! Start looking!"
Hibachi swallowed hard, forced down the fear in his heart, and waved his hand with fake confidence: "We're looking for something that looks obviously powerful and special at first glance! Only that kind of thing is worth bringing back to class to show off."
The three spread out, rummaging through the wreckage like treasure hunters in a junkyard.
But after a long search, they found nothing noteworthy.
Helpless, they regrouped to discuss.
"Boss, no good."
The glasses lackey held up a mostly intact kunai: "This is basically the same as the training ones the school gives us. They're everywhere—no uniqueness at all."
"Same here. Found nothing." The chubby one kicked a pebble dejectedly.
Hibachi's face darkened.
If they went back with only this scrap metal, forget showing off in front of Sasuke—they'd probably get laughed at by the whole class for scavenging junk.
"Damn it! That stupid spy!"
The more he thought, the angrier he got. The frustration of coming all this way for nothing turned into humiliated rage.
He hurled the junk to the ground and started kicking a nearby large tree in a fit of anger.
"You're already dead! Why didn't you leave something good behind!"
Bang! Bang!
He kicked hard. The tree shook violently; leaves rained down.
At that moment—
Whoosh—Thud!
A glint of cold light slid from a bird's nest on a branch, falling straight toward Hibachi's forehead below.
"Watch out!" The glasses lackey caught the flash from the corner of his eye and shouted.
Hibachi instinctively ducked.
The cold light grazed the tip of his nose and embedded deeply into the dirt at his feet.
"Scared me to death…" Hibachi collapsed onto his butt, cold sweat pouring.
But the next second, his gaze locked onto the thing in the ground.
It was a kunai of extremely unusual design. The handle was standard—wrapped in anti-slip cloth like normal.
But the tip wasn't a regular point—it split into a perfect Y-shape.
No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't standard Konoha equipment.
"Ah! This! This is it!"
Fear vanished instantly, replaced by wild joy.
Hibachi yanked the special kunai out and raised it overhead.
Facing the sunlight filtering through the canopy, he shouted excitedly: "This is the special loot we came for!"
"Wow! Boss is so awesome!"
"This design is so cool! Tomorrow we bring it to class—Sasuke's gonna be so jealous!"
The three kids huddled together, excitedly passing the deadly weapon around.
They completely forgot how close they had just come to getting their heads split open. They had no idea what this weapon was truly meant for.
In their eyes, it was just a badge proving their "bravery"—a prop to make them stand out in class.
Hibachi proudly tucked the Y-shaped kunai into his belt.
He dusted off his hands: "Let's go! No need to stay in this damn place anymore—back to school!"
The satisfied trio turned to leave this dangerous area.
By now they had completely forgotten this was still an uncleared battlefield.
Just as Hibachi stepped over a patch of grass—
Buzz~
His toe seemed to catch on an extremely thin steel wire—almost invisible unless you were looking closely.
The faint sound made all three boys freeze at the same time.
"Hm? What was that sound?" Hibachi blinked and looked down.
Before he could even process what was happening, a rustling "shasha" came from the canopy above.
A steel-wire-bound explosive tag was pulled by a hidden mechanism and launched upward from beneath the leaves—stopping right in front of the three of them.
On the tag, the pitch-black character (explode) ignited. As the paper burned, it made a sizzling sound.
The three boys' pupils shrank instantly. The knowledge Iruka had taught them in class naturally surfaced in their minds.
The fear of death poured over them like ice water, extinguishing all previous excitement.
They wanted to run—but their legs suddenly turned to jelly.
At that moment.
A hysterical roar exploded from a nearby treetop:
"—IDIOTS! RUN!!"
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