Chapter 46
"Who?!"
Mizuki's furious shout shattered the silence of the night.
BOOM——!
The wooden table inside the warehouse flew out wrapped in fierce wind, smashing straight toward where the two were hiding.
The already unstable roof instantly exploded.
Naruto and Sasuke reacted extremely quickly. Before the attack could reach them,
the two leaped to opposite sides with perfect coordination, landing steadily on the open ground in front of the warehouse entrance.
Dust settled. Mizuki leaped out from the hole in the roof.
"Ah… so it's you two."
Mizuki looked at the two students before him. Dangerous light glinted in his eyes: "I was planning to come find you in a couple of days. I didn't expect you to deliver yourselves."
As he spoke, a sickly excitement spread across his face—the satisfaction of a long-cherished wish about to come true.
"Since you discovered my secret, don't blame your teacher for being ruthless."
The gentle persona Mizuki usually wore was completely torn away: "Bad children with too much curiosity can end up losing their lives."
"So this is your true face, Mizuki-sensei?"
Naruto stood on the open ground. He showed none of the fear a child should feel, not even the tension of facing a powerful enemy.
He was as calm as he usually was during regular academy classes.
"Going to any lengths for power—even willing to harm your own students?"
Naruto shook his head. A trace of pity appeared in his clear blue eyes: "Does Iruka-sensei know you're this kind of person?"
"He always spoke so highly of you in front of us—treated you like his best friend."
That calm tone invisibly stabbed at Mizuki.
He couldn't understand why these two brats weren't afraid.
They should be terrified, despairing, kneeling and begging for mercy!
"Shut up! What would a demon fox know?!"
Mizuki reacted as though his tail had been stepped on—his face instantly twisted: "Friend? Don't disgust me!"
"Back then, Iruka's parents died fighting the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox—the monster inside you."
"But after losing his parents, he became the child of heroes. Everyone pitied him, took care of him!"
Hearing this, Xuanming—who had been following along—showed a slight change in expression.
Hearing a scumbag talk about the bad things he himself had once done felt rather peculiar.
Mizuki had no idea.
He had already affected the mood of the third-party observer present.
His voice continued, thick with resentment and jealousy: "I was jealous that he could casually become the center of attention among classmates!"
"I was jealous that even the Third Hokage personally went to comfort him!"
"I was jealous that when we took the teacher qualification exam, that useless guy passed before me—even though my strength was clearly superior."
"And the reason they rejected me? Just a tiny blemish in my mission record."
"Everything I did was to complete the village's missions better."
Years of suppressed jealousy now turned into tangible rage.
"You know what? From the very beginning, I approached Iruka just to watch his pain and loneliness up close."
"That naive idiot actually believed I was really his friend?"
Mizuki grinned: "He was fooled like a fool."
"Watching someone like him suffer—it genuinely excites me deep down…"
"Enough."
Naruto's voice turned cold.
Just as Mizuki was about to continue spewing malice, chakra exploded in Naruto's legs.
Whoosh!
Naruto's small figure moved like a phantom. A simple, unadorned flying kick.
A size-30 shoe slammed hard into Mizuki's size-40 face.
Pfft!
Mizuki's laughter cut off abruptly. His whole body flew backward and crashed heavily to the ground.
Naruto withdrew his stance. His gaze was icy as he looked at Mizuki: "You should feel ashamed—because you're not even worthy of being Iruka-sensei's friend."
Even with years of heart cultivation, facing someone who trampled on another's genuine feelings, Naruto couldn't suppress the anger rising in his chest.
… At the same time, deep in the forest some unknown distance away.
A small white snake coiled around a tree branch flicked its tongue, transmitting the scene back.
A young man wearing round glasses lowered his sealed hands.
He turned helplessly toward the figure beside him: "Lord Orochimaru, that guy exposed himself so quickly—and ran into the Nine-Tails jinchūriki. Should we have him withdraw immediately?"
Beside him stood a man with pale skin and a chilling aura. A snake-like long tongue flicked from his mouth as he revealed a playful smile.
"Since he's exposed, abandon him."
He replied in that signature hoarse voice: "No need to bother with him. Once we collect the reaction data from the curse seal potion, we'll leave too."
"If Konoha ninja discover us now, it'll be a bit troublesome to deal with."
Hearing this, Kabuto pushed up his glasses and stopped mentioning Mizuki's fate.
He reconnected to the white snake's vision and watched the impending battle like a spectator.
Clearly, in his eyes, a pawn like Mizuki didn't even qualify to follow them.
As for Mizuki's delusion of successfully kidnapping the two and claiming credit?
Laughable. Pure fantasy.
They weren't unaware of the intelligence already revealed about the Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
…
"Cough cough… damn brats!"
Mizuki struggled back to his feet, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. Killing intent surged in his eyes.
"You don't understand anything! As long as I have great power, everything I do is absolutely right!"
"Go to hell!"
Mizuki roared. His right hand had already drawn the large shuriken from his back. He swung it in a surprise attack toward Uzumaki Naruto.
Whoosh——!
The massive shuriken tore through the air with a whistling roar, spinning at high speed toward Naruto.
If an ordinary academy student faced this strike, they likely wouldn't even have time to dodge before being cut in half.
But the two present were long past being ordinary students.
"I'll handle it."
Sasuke had already seen through the move.
Ding——ding——ding!
Sasuke drew a row of shuriken from his pouch and fired them. They struck with perfect precision against the same side of the large shuriken.
Though Sasuke's current equipment couldn't match Mizuki's mastery of large shuriken,
the continuous impacts cleverly altered its trajectory.
The originally lethal weapon grazed past Naruto's clothing and embedded deeply into a tree trunk behind him.
"Not bad."
Mizuki sneered. Ignoring the lost weapon, he charged at high speed toward Naruto ahead.
"Without weapons, my strength is still beyond what you can handle!"
"This is power I forged through countless life-and-death missions!"
A whip-like kick carrying sharp wind roared straight toward Naruto's body.
An adult like Mizuki attacking a seven- or eight-year-old child this way—
if this scene could be seen by outsiders, it would surely make worried spectators fear for Naruto's fate.
Yet facing this powerful strike, Naruto did not meet it head-on.
He simply shifted slightly to the side. His left hand drew a circle—his back of the hand seemingly lightly touching Mizuki's calf.
He gently redirected along the direction of Mizuki's force.
Taiji taijutsu secret—using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds!
"What?"
Mizuki felt his strength sink into cotton. Then a strange pulling force came.
His vaunted power became a burden, dragging his body uncontrollably forward and off-balance to the side.
He forcibly twisted mid-air, changing the attack toward Naruto.
But Naruto's small hands continued to effortlessly neutralize it.
After several exchanges, Naruto seized an opening and struck a palm into Mizuki's body.
"Hah!"
Soft power turned hard. Mizuki took the full palm and staggered back several steps.
Just as Mizuki lost balance—
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
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