The journey through the Land of Fire was deceptively peaceful. For days, the only sounds were the rustle of leaves and Naruto's endless chatter. The first sign of trouble was a puddle on a sun-scorched road. Deva sensed the two hostile chakra signatures coiled within it like vipers, but before he could formulate a warning, they struck.
The fight was over almost before it began. A blur of motion, the flash of a chain, and the shocking image of Kakashi being torn to shreds—a substitution, Deva's senses correctly told him, but the shock was real for the others.
The aftermath was a brutal exposure of their faults. Naruto froze, paralyzed by the apparent death of his sensei. Sakura screamed, her mind blank with terror, useless as a combatant. Sasuke, driven by an arrogant belief in his own prodigy status, charged a Chunin head-on and was rewarded with a poisoned claw to the leg for his recklessness.
Deva tried to act with efficiency, protecting Naruto and deflecting a lethal blow. But his actions were purely reactive. In the actual moment, he overthought and lost precious time.
Kakashi reappeared and dispatched the two Demon Brothers with contemptuous ease. The silence that followed was heavy with failure. He gathered his team, his lazy eye now hard as steel.
"Let's review," he said, his voice cutting. "Naruto, you froze. A shinobi who freezes is a corpse. Sakura, you panicked. A shinobi who panics is a liability. Sasuke, you were arrogant. You underestimated a veteran opponent and were taken out of the fight. A shinobi who misjudges the enemy dies."
His gaze then fell on Deva, his voice still cold. "And you. You aren't as good as you think you are. You analyzed their every move, good. But you were actually hesitant to do anything. You acted like a sensor, shinobi. You think too much. That's your greatest fault."
The criticism was a physical blow. For the first time, Deva felt a flicker of something uncomfortable. His logic had been exposed as a flaw.
The truth of the mission came out soon after. Tazuna, cornered, confessed everything about Gato and the bridge. Kakashi laid out the choice: continue a B-rank mission that could easily become A-rank, or return to Konoha. Fueled by shame and determination, they all voted to continue.
The rest of the journey was silent and tense. They arrived in the Land of Waves, a place shrouded in a mist that felt as much like despair as it did water vapor. The town was impoverished, the people's faces etched with fear and hopelessness. Tazuna led them to his small wooden house, where they were greeted by his daughter, Tsunami, and his young grandson, Inari, whose eyes were filled with a deep, chilling anger. There was no joy in their homecoming, only a grim sense of temporary relief.
That evening, after a sparse meal, Kakashi looked at his genin. "You are all glaringly unprepared for the enemies that are likely coming," he stated bluntly. "Your teamwork is non-existent, and your individual skills are unrefined. Tomorrow, we begin real training."
The next morning, he led them to a secluded forest clearing. "The fight with the Demon Brothers showed me your greatest weakness: poor chakra control. We're going to fix that. The task is simple. You will focus chakra to the soles of your feet and climb these trees without using your hands."
He demonstrated, walking effortlessly up a massive tree trunk. Naruto and Sasuke, their rivalry reignited, immediately charged at their own trees and were blasted backwards. Sakura, more cautious, made it a few steps before falling.
Kakashi looked at Deva. "Well? Are you going to observe, or are you going to participate?"
Deva met his gaze. He walked to the base of the largest tree. He closed his silver eyes, feeling the vast ocean of chakra within him. His hyper-sensitivity made the task an exercise in pure feeling. He could sense the texture of the bark, the precise amount of energy needed to adhere, the constant, subtle adjustments required to maintain his grip. He focused, channeled, and then he walked.
One step after another, he ascended the trunk as if it were a staircase, not stopping until he was standing upside-down on a branch high above, looking down at his stunned teammates.
Kakashi let out a low whistle. A prodigy's control, just as he'd suspected. "Alright, genius," he called up, a challenge in his voice. "Since that was clearly beneath you, let's move on to the next level. Let's see how you handle an unstable surface."
He led Deva to the edge of a large, placid lake. "The principle is the same, but the output of chakra must be in constant flux to match the shifting surface of the water. Push out too little, you sink. Too much, and you'll blast yourself away. It's ten times harder than the tree."
Deva stepped to the water's edge. He took a breath, his mental filter expanding to sense the lake itself. He could feel the gentle surface tension, the subtle currents beneath, the way the water shifted with the breeze. His chakra system, guided by his senses, responded instantly.
He placed one foot on the water. It held. He put his full weight down. It held.
He took another step, and then another, calmly walking out onto the lake's surface until he was standing in the very center, the water rippling gently around his feet.
He had completed the task in a heartbeat.
Kakashi stood on the shore, utterly speechless for a moment. This wasn't just prodigy-level talent. This was monstrous.
Back in the clearing, Sasuke, who was clinging precariously to the side of his tree, looked over and saw Deva standing serenely on the water. His face, already etched with frustration, twisted into a mask of pure, burning determination. The bar had just been raised to an impossible height.