superior naruto

Kakashi finally handed over Naruto's scroll. As it unrolled, twenty-seven detonation tags spilled out, causing Kakashi and Sasuke's faces to twitch involuntarily. The realization hit them—they had been walking alongside a walking bomb.

Naruto immediately protested, "Hey! You can't take all my detonation tags! That's my hard-earned money! This is straight-up theft!"

Kakashi calmly rolled the tags back up. "If you're so concerned about money, maybe you shouldn't be carrying around enough explosives to level a small village."

Naruto glared but said nothing.

Of the twenty-seven tags, twenty had been purchased under Naruto's own quota at the ninja shop, five under the Konoha Quarry quota, and two were leftovers from a previous test. Naruto didn't mention that he'd also used Hinata's quota to buy an additional twenty. He also had two more that Sasuke had given him. Kakashi, for his part, had quietly allowed Naruto to keep the last two.

Hinata, of course, knew exactly how many tags Naruto had, which made her uneasy. Naruto shot her a quick glance, silently urging her to keep it a secret.

Kakashi appeared to be gazing off into the distance, but Sasuke noticed the faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. Without a word, Sasuke subtly stepped away from Naruto.

The group continued down a tree-lined path under the blazing sun. Suddenly, a large pool of water appeared on the road ahead. Naruto's instincts kicked in—the enemy was here.

If his guess was correct, the two ninjas hiding in the water were the Demon Brothers from Kirigakure. He glanced at Sasuke, who was also eyeing the suspicious puddle. Their eyes met briefly, and Naruto gave a slight nod.

Hinata, however, seemed oblivious. Naruto decided against warning her directly, as it might alert the enemy.

Just then, Kakashi moved to the rear of the group—a tactical mistake, as the enemy would likely target the strongest member first.

And they did.

As the group passed the pool and moved about five or six meters away, two figures burst from the water. One leaped high into the air while the other stayed low. Chains, a signature weapon of Kirigakure ninjas, extended from their hands, tipped with sharp steel claws.

The airborne ninja landed in front of Kakashi, and the chains wrapped around him. With a sharp tug, Kakashi's body was torn apart.

The Demon Brothers sneered. "One down!"

Dazna, the bridge builder, turned around in shock. "They're ninjas!"

With the strongest member seemingly eliminated, the Demon Brothers turned their attention to the rest of the team. Dazna shouted, "Be careful!"

The Demon Brothers lunged at Naruto, their chains whipping through the air. "Number two... coming through!"

They appeared behind Naruto, their chains ready to strike. But before they could act, Naruto split into two clones. Each clone delivered a swift kick to the groin of their respective target.

It wasn't part of any grand plan—Naruto simply thought it was the most effective angle.

The sound of impact was sickening, though no one actually heard it. The men in the group, however, winced in sympathy. Despite the pain, the Demon Brothers didn't go down immediately. Their eyes burned with fury.

The Naruto clones leaped into the air, pushing off each other to gain momentum, and delivered a series of rapid kicks to the same vulnerable area. Five kicks in total. This time, the damage was irreversible.

The two ninjas collapsed, writhing in agony.

Naruto had taken down two mid-level ninjas with just a shadow clone and five well-placed kicks. Even he was surprised.

Looking down at the groaning ninjas, Naruto taunted, "Hey, are you guys really this weak?"

One of the ninjas struggled, and in a desperate move, a kunai flew toward Naruto's throat. But one of the clones intercepted it and drove the blade into the attacker's throat instead. The ninja fell dead.

The other Naruto clone exclaimed, "What the hell? You killed one?"

The first clone shrugged. "He struggled. I had no choice."

Naruto: "..."

Arguing with his own clone was pointless. Clones only followed basic commands, but what happened next was even more shocking. The second clone drove a kunai into the throat of the other ninja. "Guess I'll kill this one too."

The scene was surreal.

Kakashi reappeared, silently observing the chaos. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing him unharmed. Where his body had been torn apart, only a crushed log remained—a substitution technique.

Kakashi looked at the two Naruto clones. "Both of you are clones?"

Before they could answer, they vanished in a puff of smoke. The real Naruto emerged from the trees, looking pale and nauseous.

Naruto groaned, "Sorry... my clones are a bit... unpredictable."

He couldn't finish his sentence as the sensation of the kills overwhelmed him. The visceral feedback from the shadow clones—feeling the flesh and blood as if he'd been thrust into a pile of rotting fish—made him gag.

Kakashi said calmly, "That's another drawback of the shadow clone technique. But it's manageable. Just be careful not to kill anyone important by mistake."

Naruto walked over to the two ninjas, whose bodies still twitched as their lives ebbed away. He realized that the instant kills he'd seen in movies were far from reality. Cutting someone's throat didn't always result in immediate death.

This was the harsh reality of killing in this world.

Naruto flipped the bodies face down, unable to bear the sight of their dying eyes. It reminded him of how he'd always cover the eyes of fish when preparing them for cooking.

Suddenly, the Nine-Tails' voice echoed in his mind. "Well? What did you bring these two for?"

Naruto blinked, and the scene shifted. He was now inside the massive cage that housed the Nine-Tails. But something was different—the two dead ninjas were there with him.

Naruto stared in confusion. "These two... didn't I just kill them?"

The scene reminded him of his first encounter with the Nine-Tails. Back then, he'd been lying down. What would happen if he touched them now? Would they be absorbed into his soul, like he had been? Would he gain their water-nature chakra? Or would his chakra reserves decrease?

Naruto hesitated. "Nine-Tails... what should I do?"

The Nine-Tails, aware of Naruto's dilemma, replied, "Try absorbing one. This is a good opportunity to test your theory."

Naruto hesitated for a moment before reaching out to one of the bodies. If he didn't try, he'd never know.

Naruto muttered, "I've already memorized the forbidden jutsu from the scroll. Even if I lose some mental energy, it's worth the risk."

With that, he pressed his hand against one of the bodies.