"Now what?" Sakura muttered, her voice strained and breathless as she stepped up beside him. She was breathing heavily, her kunai still clutched in white-knuckled fingers. She wasn't as used to the brutal, chaotic reality of a high-stakes mission as he and Sasuke were, but she was holding herself together. Barely. "That freak took up so much time, and we still don't have a second scroll."
"Let's just take one," Sasuke said, rolling his shoulder, his movements smooth and practiced. "There are plenty of teams left. We find them, we fight, we win, we get a scroll." He said it with a chilling simplicity that made the idea seem as easy as breathing.
"How?" Naruto tilted his head, his tone flat. "I don't want to kill someone. Dattebane."
Sakura groaned, rubbing her temples as if to ward off a migraine. "Oh, please," she scoffed. "Says the boy who killed an entire mafia league and almost killed Anko, the proctor. Don't act like you have a problem with it now."
Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "That was different."
Sasuke gave him a flat, unimpressed look. "How?"
"...She threw a kunai at me," Naruto said defensively. "I threw it back."
"Into a rock that shattered like glass and exploded into dust," Sakura deadpanned. "And you didn't just 'throw it back,' you threw it at a hundred times the speed you normally do. You could have killed her."
"Not my problem," Naruto replied with a shrug, though a flicker of genuine guilt crossed his face.
Sakura threw her hands up in exasperation. "Okay, fine! But that still doesn't change the fact that we need another scroll, and I don't see any way of getting one without fighting!"
"We don't necessarily need to kill them," Sasuke suggested, his eyes flickering with cold calculation. "We just need to take them out long enough to steal what we need. It's a matter of strategy, not of bloodlust."
Naruto considered that. It wasn't a bad idea. He had no issue with knocking someone unconscious if it meant avoiding a pointless kill. And if they were smart about it, they could avoid a drawn-out fight altogether, saving their energy for the final stretch of the mission.
His nostrils flared slightly. He sniffed the air, a deep, feral inhalation that picked up on scents that his teammates couldn't.
There.
A team. Not far. The unmistakable scents of three shinobi: two boys, one girl. They carried the lingering aroma of sweat and steel, but beneath it all was the tell-tale sign of weariness. They'd been fighting already.
"That way," he muttered, pointing through the trees.
Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a quick glance, a silent communication passing between them, before nodding. The three of them took off, moving swiftly through the thick underbrush. Naruto took the lead, his movements eerily silent despite the dense terrain. Sasuke was a close second, his chakra-infused steps barely making a sound, and even Sakura had improved—she was lighter on her feet now, more aware of her surroundings, a far cry from the clumsy girl who had first entered the forest.
It didn't take long before they spotted their targets.
Three genin.
One tall boy, his lanky frame a mess of tired muscle and frayed nerves, gripped a long staff, his forehead protector marked with the symbol of Amegakure. The second, shorter and stockier, had kunai strapped to his vest. The third, a girl with long, dark hair and an anxious expression, was tending to a nasty wound on the short one's arm. The girl's posture was defensive, her chakra-infused fingers a blur as she worked to staunch the bleeding. They were injured. Weak. Easy prey.
Naruto stopped on a thick branch above them, watching them carefully. Sasuke crouched beside him, his Sharingan spinning to life in his eyes. "This will be easy," he murmured, his voice a low, confident whisper. "They're tired, and two of them are hurt. We can take them out in minutes."
"Don't underestimate them," Naruto warned, his voice a low rumble. "Cornered things bite. And they're not corners. They're genin who are ready to fight back."
Sakura frowned, her brow furrowed in thought. "So what's the plan? We can't just jump them."
"We go down, attack hard and fast," Sasuke said, his plan simple and brutal. "They won't have time to react if we—"
"No," Naruto interrupted, shaking his head. "That's messy. Loud. There's a better way. A more… precise way."
Sasuke shot him a look that was a mixture of annoyance and curiosity. "Oh? And what do you suggest, Mr. I-don't-want-to-kill-anyone?"
Naruto simply smiled, a flash of white teeth in the dim light.
Moments later, he dropped down from the tree. Alone.
The enemy team snapped to attention, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten. The tall one tightened his grip on his staff, his knuckles white. The kunai-user stepped forward defensively, his posture radiating a mix of pain and defiance. The girl straightened, her hand hovering near her pouch, her eyes darting between Naruto and the trees behind him, searching for a nonexistent ambush.
"Who are you?" the tall one demanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and bravado.
Naruto blinked. "Naruto Uzumaki. Dattebane."
They didn't relax. They knew his name. They knew the reputation of the Leaf Village's genin.
The shorter boy narrowed his eyes, his gaze filled with suspicion. "What do you want?"
Naruto tilted his head slightly, his red hair swinging with the motion. "Your scroll."
The girl scoffed, her fear giving way to a defiant anger. "You think we'll just give it to you?"
"Not really," Naruto said calmly. "I'll take it."
Silence stretched between them, a taut, pregnant pause. And then—
Naruto's clones erupted from the trees. Not in an overwhelming charge, not in a chaotic, disorganized mass. They appeared strategically, methodically. Three appeared directly behind the genin, cutting off their escape. Two dropped down from the branches above, a silent, menacing presence. One more materialized just outside their line of sight, a quiet threat waiting to strike. The moment the enemy team reacted, it was already too late.
A well-placed kunai, thrown by a clone from behind, struck the kunai-user in the wrist with a sharp thud, forcing him to drop his weapon with a pained grunt. A second clone swept in, kicking his leg out from under him, sending him tumbling to the ground. The girl spun, trying to counter the attackers from behind, but another clone tripped her, and she hit the dirt hard. The tall one swung his staff wildly, a desperate, powerful swing that caught one clone in the side, dispelling it in a puff of smoke.
But Naruto was already behind him.
The moment the boy turned, Naruto's fist connected with his stomach. It wasn't a powerful, killing blow, but a precise, focused strike, a single surge of chakra that knocked the wind out of him. The air whooshed out of his lungs in a single, desperate gasp, and he collapsed to his knees, clutching his stomach in agony.
It was over in seconds.
No wasted movement. No drawn-out fight. Just a swift, silent hunt. Naruto crouched down, his movements economical and efficient, and slipped his fingers into the tall boy's pouch. He pulled out a scroll, the faint, intricate markings of the Earth Scroll a welcome sight. That was what they needed.
He stood up. The enemy team groaned on the ground, too dazed and in too much pain to move, their defeat absolute and clean. Sasuke and Sakura dropped down beside him, their expressions a mixture of relief and awe.
"That was fast," Sasuke muttered, his Sharingan fading.
Naruto nodded, flipping the scroll once in his hand before tucking it away.
Sakura hesitated, her voice soft and unsure. "Are we just gonna... leave them?"
Naruto glanced at the fallen genin. His clones had already disappeared, and the three shinobi were still breathing, their chests rising and falling with pained gasps. They were alive. They would recover. "Yes." And with that, he turned, a ghost fading into the trees. Sasuke and Sakura followed, their mission now complete. It had been a clean hunt. No mess. No unnecessary pain. Just a quiet, efficient victory. They had what they needed, and the forest, once again, was silent.