Naruto: Reborn as Yagura Karatachi

The flames raced along the wires, surging toward Neji and Naruto.

Clang!

In the nick of time, chakra burst from every tenketsu in Neji's body.

"Gentle Fist Technique: Body Blow!"

He hadn't quite mastered this Gentle Fist technique yet, but thankfully, he managed to pull it off. Right before the fire reached them, his chakra ripped through the steel wires, tearing them apart.

He grabbed Naruto by the shoulder and leapt to safety.

"Sorry, Naruto!"

The Gentle Fist Technique: Body Blow was an all-directional attack. While it shredded the wires, it also hit Naruto—who was practically in Neji's arms—with considerable force.

Naruto coughed up a mouthful of saliva and nearly vomited his breakfast.

His back ached sharply, but he knew that if Neji hadn't acted when he did, he'd have been in much worse shape.

"You're a tough bandage, Neji!"

Once they landed back on solid ground, Neji had to set Naruto down and focus on the threat before them—Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sharingan..."

Neji spotted the eyes.

Raised with a solid education, Neji recognized those eyes—the same dojutsu as his own Byakugan, both passed down through bloodline limits in Konoha.

"You're from the Uchiha clan?"

Not just Neji—even Kakashi, watching from a distance, had his eyes locked on Sasuke. Naruto, of course, had no clue what was going on.

Sasuke's brow furrowed slightly.

He knew the story of his clan's fall. But the branch of the Uchiha that had settled in Kirigakure—growing roots and expanding—weren't exactly shackled by the past.

Growing up in that environment, Sasuke had no interest in getting entangled with Konoha's baggage. Especially not with Yagura watching from the sidelines.

No way I'm letting some political baggage ruin my military clearance for Kirigakure!

He lifted his forehead protector with a flick of his thumb, clearly drawing a line.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke of Kirigakure."

Kakashi's expression turned complicated.

His own eye had come from an Uchiha friend, and he'd taken a special interest in the secrets behind the clan's massacre.

The Uchiha had brought destruction upon themselves by trying to stage a coup.

Yet now, the same Uchiha who once represented a pillar of Konoha's strength… had been embraced by the rising powerhouse that was Kirigakure.

As Kakashi's thoughts spiraled...

—Sasuke launched forward, striking head-on and closing the distance with Neji.

Two prodigies from rival villages—both wielding powerful dojutsu bloodlines—locked eyes and engaged. Their observation and insight far surpassed that of ordinary ninja.

In terms of close-quarters taijutsu, Sasuke was evenly matched with Neji.

Aware of what the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist could do, Sasuke used his Sharingan to read and dodge every palm strike and fingertip jab.

Neji was surprised. Among his peers in Konoha, he had always stood at the top—he'd never had a true rival.

Sasuke sprang forward and kicked downward at Neji.

Neji blocked every blow.

Sasuke didn't give Neji a chance to mold chakra. Using the block as leverage, Sasuke stomped hard, pushing off into a spinning whip-kick!

Bam!

A heavy strike landed on Neji, who absorbed it with a grunt and grabbed Sasuke's calf in return.

The flexibility of ninja bodies was on full display as Sasuke's other leg arced around from above, descending toward Neji in a high-speed counter.

Neji's Byakugan caught it all—including Sasuke completing a hand seal mid-movement.

A flurry of close-range strikes drove Neji back toward the edge of the bridge, near one of the massive support columns.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

For the second time recently—first during his bell fight with Kakashi—Neji found himself igniting with true fighting spirit.

"Gentle Fist!"

Two precise strikes hit the chakra points in Sasuke's left leg.

Neji's reverse palm sent Sasuke flying off the bridge, and he himself leapt backward as well.

Skimming dangerously close to the edge of the fireball, Neji narrowly avoided getting scorched as he plummeted from the bridge.

Time was too tight—he saw something important but couldn't destroy it in time.

Rip—!

A taut wire wrapped around a stone buttress at the bridge's edge snapped taut, scraping across the top.

In midair, Neji twisted to stabilize his descent.

Sasuke grabbed another steel wire, using the stone column as a pivot to swing himself underneath the bridge, leveling out with Neji.

One in blue, one in white—two prodigies of the same age faced each other across the void.

Sasuke's left leg—struck just moments ago—could no longer circulate chakra.

Having tasted the Hyuga's Gentle Fist firsthand, Sasuke wisely chose to keep a mid-range distance this time.

This exposed one of the Gentle Fist's core weaknesses—it was deadly up close, but lacked any solid mid- or long-range techniques.

Neji hung upside down from one of the bridge's support pillars. His neatly tied long hair floated upward, stubbornly unaffected by gravity.

Even Newton would throw up his hands and say,

"Anime physics? Not my department."

"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!"

Several small fireballs shot up toward Neji, who slapped them away using chakra-infused palm strikes.

Using the propulsion from the fireballs, Sasuke also flung himself upward, coming to rest beneath the bridge alongside Neji.

Though his left leg's chakra points were sealed, he had no trouble using his right leg to pull off a basic hanging maneuver. Ninja-level bat flip: complete.

"—Neji! Hang in there! I'm coming!"

The unique resilience of a jinchūriki was starting to show.

Naruto had only been down for a short while after taking a flesh wound from Neji, but true to form, he bounced right back with energy to spare.

He leapt to his feet and shouted out his over-the-top declaration of support—likely thinking it would lift Neji's spirits.

Jumping down from the top of the bridge, Naruto landed solidly behind Sasuke, standing on the lower half of the structure.

"You idiot..." Neji groaned and covered his face, pained. For a moment, he felt like he understood how Sasuke from another timeline must have felt. "If you're gonna help, do it quietly. What's with the whole dramatic entrance?"

Though to be fair, just looking at Naruto now was enough for Sasuke to feel secondhand embarrassment on Neji's behalf.

Sasuke barely spared Naruto a glance before turning away, clearly not taking him seriously. His eyes returned to Neji with something resembling pity.

Meanwhile, Naruto stood tall and proud, completely unaware that he'd disrupted the tone of the entire battlefield. In his mind, he'd just pulled off the coolest hero entrance in the world.

He hadn't yet experienced his first real beatdown—the kind that leaves you disillusioned with the world. (In the original timeline, Zabuza and his two mid-level lackeys were responsible for that harsh dose of reality.)

Right now, the "prince" was still pure and blissfully foolish.

"I don't even know where you came from," Naruto declared at Sasuke, "but it doesn't matter! All I have to do is beat you, right?"

He pointed downward with exaggerated flair.

"Now you're surrounded!"

With his confident smirk practically climbing into the sky, he grinned from ear to ear.

"It's two against one! Game over for you!"

Neji kept his usual stoic expression, but deep down, maybe—just maybe—he was quietly touched by Naruto coming to his aid like this. Probably even moved to tears.

If Naruto's nose could stretch when he was proud, it would've launched into space alongside the rocket-sized ego in his smile.

Kakashi-sensei was their teacher, sure. But if they could handle it themselves, then they didn't need him, right?

This opponent was their age. Sure, Sasuke was stronger than Naruto—by a bit—but not so much that he should be impossible to fight.

Sasuke, calm and aloof as ever, hadn't planned on acknowledging Naruto's taunt at all. But something primal in his Uchiha DNA couldn't let it go.

"You?" Sasuke scoffed. "Surround me?"

"Yep! That's right! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

Angered by the contempt in Sasuke's eyes, Naruto shouted, "Let's go!" and formed a cross seal with his hands.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Hundreds—no, thousands—of Narutos exploded into existence beneath the bridge, completely surrounding Sasuke.

Each clone drew a kunai and rushed toward the center, charging Sasuke from all directions.

Neji got pushed to the back in the flood of clones, but he didn't mind. In fact, he was more than happy to let Naruto exhaust Sasuke's chakra and stamina—and maybe even get some intel on his abilities.

Unfortunately, Neji was expecting too much.

Shadow clones were only as strong as the original. And since the original was a dead-last dunce... the clones were just a fragile, chaotic mob of dead-last dunces.

From behind the lens of the Sharingan, fighting Naruto was like swatting at snails. Sasuke didn't even need ninjutsu—he just wiped out dozens of clones with pure taijutsu in a single exchange.

Calling them snails might actually be too generous. It was more like a raptor in a herd of sheep.

"Troublesome," Sasuke muttered, visibly annoyed. Using Fire Style on this wasn't even worth the chakra.

He withdrew the chakra anchoring him to the bridge and dropped vertically through the chaos of yellow.

Amid the storm of clones, the blue-clad genin slipped through like a fish through water, descending toward the sea.

Before Naruto or his clones even realized what had happened, a barrage of ninja tools shot up from below like a rainstorm in reverse.

Steel projectiles tore through the army of clones, bursting them into plumes of white smoke.

Even Neji and Naruto's original body had to back off from the onslaught, retreating to avoid getting skewered.

The sharpened weapons embedded themselves in the underside of the bridge. Using the steel wires attached to them, Sasuke swung himself back up like it was nothing.

He landed in front of Naruto.

Now face to face with an enemy his age, Naruto swung a punch.

Sasuke caught it effortlessly—like an adult catching a child's clumsy swing.

He glanced at Naruto, eyes and actions both dripping with disdain.

Then, without another word, Sasuke walked past him—toward Neji.

You're not a threat. You're not worth finishing off.

...

"Damn it! DAMN IT! He's looking down on me—!"

But then Naruto froze. The words died in his throat.

Because what he saw next chilled him to the core.

Sasuke, still holding back, revealed even more of his strength. With a short sword and a perfectly-timed Fire Style jutsu, his flaming blade struck Neji dead-on.

Neji was engulfed in fire, his body plunging into the sea.

"Don't believe it! Naruto!"

Naruto's collar was yanked hard, dragging him backward.

Pain stabbed through his mind—and suddenly, everything shattered.

It had all been an illusion.

"Genjutsu... it was a genjutsu!"

Neji had made it in time, breaking the illusion and pulling Naruto out of it.

Just one glance from Sasuke had been enough to trap Naruto in an illusion—despite genjutsu not even being Sasuke's specialty.

Naruto hadn't even had time to figure out what technique it was.

Then he caught sight of Neji's arm—a blade had pierced through the muscle, blood dripping freely.

As Neji moved, the blood soaked into his clothes, staining them red.

To Naruto, Neji was a genius. A prodigy.

Even if Sasuke was strong, there was no way he could've injured Neji so badly in one move—especially without taking a hit himself.

And then Naruto realized.

Neji had taken the blow for him.

To save Naruto while he was frozen in that genjutsu, Neji had thrown himself in front of the blade.

Back on the bridge, Neji yanked the short sword from his own arm.

The blood-soaked blade clattered to the ground in front of Naruto.

"I'm fine. It's just a scratch," Neji lied, forcing a casual tone.

Naruto gave a smile uglier than tears.

No apology could change what happened.

In the end, it was just because he wasn't strong enough.

...

From a distance, Kakashi had been watching the entire fight between his two students and the Hidden Mist's Sasuke.

He hadn't stepped in.

To him, this was a trial—challenging, yes, but not deadly.

Naruto's performance had been exactly as expected.

Fed too much feel-good propaganda from the Hokage, raised under the laissez-faire "let him grow" policy, Naruto had grown up dreaming of becoming Hokage without ever being taught how to actually be a shinobi.

It was tragic—but understandable.

Neji, on the other hand, was excellent. A prodigy even among the Hyuga clan, respected in the Academy and beyond. He had the skills to become a Chunin already.

Only Naruto was underperforming here. Neji wasn't weak—their opponent was just too strong.

Kakashi wasn't surprised.

In recent years, Mist shinobi had been outperforming their peers across the board. At one point, Konoha and Kumogakure had been rivals in terms of elite individual strength.

But with Konoha's steady decline over the past decade, Kumogakure was starting to claim that crown uncontested.

Then three years ago, during the Five Village joint Chunin Exams, a team from the Hidden Mist swept the top three spots—booting the Cloud out of first place.

...

As Neji jumped back onto the bridge with Naruto, Sasuke stopped his pursuit. He squared off with Kakashi.

Kakashi stepped protectively in front of Neji and Naruto, casually greeting him as if they were chatting at a tea house.

"Yo. You're Uchiha Sasuke, right?"

"I am," Sasuke said.

He tapped the seal on his bracer and summoned another short sword. His eyes gleamed with excitement.

"So, seeing your students get taken apart finally made you jump in, huh, Hatake Kakashi?"

Kakashi's eyes barely flickered.

Sasuke took half a step forward—only to freeze, immediately realizing his genjutsu had failed.

Kakashi had seen through it in a flash.

Truth be told, what Sasuke had shown so far proved he was a highly capable Uchiha, well-versed in the clan's signature techniques.

But still...

"This level of genjutsu doesn't work on me," Kakashi said flatly.

Sasuke clicked his tongue.

Just as Sasuke had completely dismissed Naruto, Kakashi was doing the same to him.

To Kakashi, the real threat was whoever hadn't shown themselves yet.

"Tell me, Uchiha... where are your teammates and your sensei?"

Sasuke looked about the same age as Naruto and Neji—probably just a fresh genin. He should've had a full squad and a jonin team leader.

According to the intel, the Mist's mission included Kakashi as the target. That made it an S-rank mission.

And yet they sent a genin team?

Had the employer misclassified it as a C-rank mission to save money? And the Mist just took the bait?

Crazy... but not impossible. That's capitalism for you.

"Menma and Kagura-sensei are still watching from the sidelines," Sasuke said cheerfully.

He didn't sound annoyed. If anything, he was eager—excited to take on Kakashi one-on-one.

"Hidden Mist... huh."

...

Apparently, Kakashi and Sasuke weren't the only ones talking about someone.

A sharp scream echoed from deep within the mist.

"Aaaaahhhh!!!" came the cry—Haruno Sakura's voice.

Whoosh!

A signal flare shot into the sky from the center of the bridge.

"Achoo!"

Sakura sneezed as she emerged from the fog.

One step, two steps, three—she hopped up onto the bridge and came to stand beside Sasuke.

While Sakura had been discovering the body, Shinobu had already made her way to join the others.

She tilted her head, smiling with a mix of innocence, malice, and madness.

"The target of our mission? I already killed him."

Their enemy had received reinforcements.

Kakashi, Neji, and Naruto froze.

Because the enemy's success meant only one thing—

Their failure.

Shinobu wore lightweight black armor that left much of her skin exposed.

That was probably why the blood hadn't been immediately obvious on her clothing.

But on her skin—splattered across her arms and legs—was the proof.

The blood of their target.

And a disturbing amount of it.

----------------

Pls Drop some Power Stones

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