Chapter 3: New Names, Old Habits
The days following the Mizuki incident passed slowly, but not quietly. Word of Mizuki's betrayal spread through the village like fire. For the most part, the details were kept from the public, but whispers trickled down to the Academy students.
Gun didn't care for whispers. He cared for eyes.
And the eyes had changed.
Before, he was just the odd one — the kid who moved too fast, too precise, who didn't bother with chakra techniques. But after Mizuki was carried off on a stretcher and Gun returned with bruised knuckles and broken sunglasses, the other students stared at him differently.
Some with awe. Some with fear. None with comfort.
Gun ignored them. He always had.
Konoha was not Seoul. He had to remind himself of that every morning.
The air was cleaner here, sharp with the scent of pine and fresh earth. The streets bustled with merchants, shinobi, children — but no cars, no neon, no hum of electricity. Lanterns glowed at night, not streetlights. The clang of steel from blacksmith shops replaced the static hum of city traffic.
Gun spent his mornings walking the village before class, memorizing its layout. Habits from his old life carried over without thought: he mapped escape routes, noted blind alleys, measured the distance between rooftops. Konoha was vibrant and colorful, but beneath it Gun saw the same truth as Seoul.
Every city was a cage. And every cage had weak points.
At the Academy, Naruto buzzed with more energy than ever. Gun noticed the change immediately. The boy carried himself differently after their talk in the forest. Less desperate for attention, more determined to chase it on his own terms.
Sasuke remained Sasuke — silent, brooding, glaring at anyone who looked his way.
Gun stayed out of both their orbits, though his presence seemed to draw them in anyway. Naruto was eager to sit beside him, to ask questions Gun never answered. Sasuke studied him with quiet suspicion, as if trying to dissect a puzzle he didn't understand.
Iruka, for his part, seemed wary. The teacher didn't mention Gun's failure at the exam, nor the fact that technically, he shouldn't have advanced. But Gun suspected Iruka knew better than to try and push him back into the Academy's loop.
Gun had passed by surviving, and Iruka knew it.
Team assignment day arrived in a storm of anticipation.
The classroom was buzzing when Iruka began reading names off the list. Gun leaned back in his chair, arms folded, eyes half-lidded, letting the noise wash over him.
"Team 8," Iruka announced, "Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame."
Gun recognized none of the names beyond faint echoes of Goo's rants. Naruto had been the centerpiece of every story, Sasuke the rival, Sakura the crush. The rest had been background chatter to Gun back then.
Still, the way the pale-eyed girl turned crimson at the sound of her name — the way the boy with the dog on his head grinned — Gun noted it all. People revealed themselves in details.
"Team 10," Iruka continued, "Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi."
The classroom erupted in mixed reactions. The loud girl pouted, the lazy boy groaned, the big one reached into his snack bag with a smile.
"Team 7," Iruka said at last, his voice pausing ever so slightly, "Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha…"
The girls in the room leaned forward in anticipation, waiting for the name they expected.
"…and Gun Park."
The reaction was instant. Shock. Gasps.
Naruto's jaw dropped before he broke into a wide grin. "Ha! I get to be on the same team as Gun!"
Sasuke's glare could have cut stone. He said nothing, but his jaw tightened.
Gun remained expressionless, though inwardly, he acknowledged the shift. Sakura had been part of this team in Goo's version of the story. But here she wasn't. Here it was him.
That meant the future was already diverging.
And Gun didn't like unknowns.
They were told to wait for their new jōnin instructor in the classroom. minutes crawled by. One by one, the other teams were collected by their leaders.
Naruto was practically vibrating with energy. "I can't wait to meet our sensei! He's gotta be amazing, right? Maybe he'll teach me a super strong jutsu!"
Sasuke ignored him, staring out the window, arms folded.
Gun sat with his feet propped on his desk, sunglasses back in place despite the cloudy sky outside.
Hours later when the door finally creaked open, the man who stepped inside was… unimpressive.
Tall, lean, silver hair spiking upward, a mask covering half his face. One eye drooped with boredom, the other obscured by his forehead protector.
He looked at the three of them and sighed. "…My first impression? I hate you."
Naruto squawked in outrage. Sasuke scowled. Gun didn't move.
The man straightened, hands in his pockets. "Meet me on the roof."
Introductions came first.
Naruto went loud, as expected. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki! I like instant ramen, especially the kind at Ichiraku! I'm gonna be Hokage someday, believe it!"
Sasuke followed, his voice cool. "Sasuke Uchiha. I hate many things, but I have no particularly strong likes. My dream is to kill a certain man."
The masked jōnin nodded, turning his gaze to Gun. "And you?"
Gun adjusted his sunglasses. "Gun Park. I like quiet. I hate people who hide behind titles. My dream? None worth sharing."
Naruto frowned. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Kakashi tilted his head, studying him for a long moment.
"…Interesting," Kakashi said finally.
Gun said nothing.
Kakashi explained the next step with casual indifference. "Tomorrow morning, training ground three. Don't eat breakfast — you'll throw up. We're doing a survival test."
Naruto tilted his head. "Survival test?"
Kakashi's visible eye curved in a smile. "Bring your best. You'll need it."
And with that, he vanished in a puff of smoke.
Naruto nearly fell backward. "He disappeared! That's so cool!"
Sasuke exhaled through his nose, unimpressed.
Gun stayed silent, but his instincts prickled. This wasn't going to be a game.
The next morning, the air was crisp, the training ground empty except for three posts jutting from the earth. Gun arrived first, as he always did. His sunglasses shaded his eyes as he leaned against a post, waiting.
Next Sasuke arrived silently, eyes sharp while Naruto crashed through the brush minutes later, yawning, stomach grumbling..
And then Kakashi appeared again multiple hours later, book in hand, as if he'd been there all along.
"your late!" yelled an irate Naruto with Sasuke glaring at Kakashi.
Kakashi awkwardly laughs it off saying "sorry team i was helping a grandmother with her groceries then after that i ran into a black cat and to avoid bad luck i took the long way around" while scratching his head.
"anyways" He pulled two small bells from his pouch, letting them jingle in the morning air.
"The three of you," Kakashi said, voice lazy but sharp underneath, "will attempt to take these bells from me by noon. Anyone who fails… goes back to the Academy."
Naruto's jaw dropped. "What?! But there's only two bells!"
"Exactly." Kakashi's eye gleamed. "At least one of you is going back."
Gun adjusted his stance. So that was the game. Not just strength. Not just speed. But something else.
Kakashi tied the bells to his belt and set the alarm clock on a stump. "Begin."
Gun's muscles coiled. He didn't wait for Naruto to yell or Sasuke to plan. He moved.
And the bell test began.