Naruto: Reborn as Yagura Karatachi

Early the next morning.

As usual, Kakashi led his students—Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Hyūga Neji—to the bridge under construction in the Land of Waves, where they were assigned as guards.

It had been a month since tensions in the Land of Waves reached a boiling point, and both Tazuna and Gato had sent in their respective requests for help.

Under Team Kakashi's protection, the construction of the bridge had been progressing steadily for over two weeks now. Everything was going smoothly.

The attackers sent by the wealthy merchant Gato were nothing more than hired swords—non-shinobi samurai.

So far, the mission remained at a C-rank difficulty. None of the enemies had been actual shinobi.

Kakashi hadn't even needed to lift a finger. Neji, the Hyūga prodigy, had been more than capable of handling the attackers by himself.

Even Naruto, the so-called dead last, and Sakura, who had perfect scores in theory but barely passed in actual combat, managed to contribute here and there in battle.

"Sigh."

Kakashi let out a soft breath. From an adult's perspective, spending a whole month on a C-rank mission felt like such a waste.

Even if the point was to give his three genin some field experience, this C-rank mission had gone on far too long.

The Chūnin Exams were just around the corner.

Thinking of the schedule he'd drawn up, Kakashi gave his orders: "Sakura, you're on guard duty for Tazuna today. If anything happens, fire the signal flare immediately."

Sakura nodded nervously. "Yes, sir!"

Don't get the wrong idea—Sakura wasn't acting like that because something was off. She was always like this.

Kakashi didn't add anything more. Just a simple reminder before everything went back to routine.

"Neji, Naruto, you two, come with me."

"Alright!" Naruto shouted excitedly, rushing after Kakashi. "Training! Training! Special training!"

Neji, clearly annoyed by Naruto's noise and lack of composure, followed silently but kept pace without falling behind.

Kakashi knew full well how short-staffed Konoha had become in terms of young talent. The upcoming Chūnin Exams were critical. Konoha needed to prove its strength.

This year's crop of genin—the recent graduates—were among the best Konoha had seen in years.

And the team he was leading was one of the village's seed teams. It included Naruto, the jinchūriki, and Neji, the Hyūga genius. (Neji had actually graduated last year but never got a proper team assignment.)

This overly long C-rank mission had thrown off his plan to develop his students with more meaningful training projects.

Still, Kakashi didn't have the luxury of turning down increasingly difficult mission requests on Konoha's behalf.

So, all he could do was squeeze in whatever training he could during missions—better than nothing.

But watching Naruto only recently manage to gather chakra in his feet to walk on water and trees…

"Hahahahaha! Kakashi-sensei!! Look! I finally got it!"

"…Yeah, yeah. Good job."

Kakashi offered praise with a tired expression. The kid had clearly inherited his teacher's genes.

Not that he needed to compare him to genin from other villages. Just remembering what he had been doing at age twelve made the future seem awfully bleak.

Thankfully, there was Neji. The kid was self-motivated, already well-versed in chakra control, and currently off practicing his clan's taijutsu alone.

Who else could he count on? Sakura?

Compared to the loud and hyperactive Naruto, Neji silently completed a set of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Watching Kakashi remain unusually quiet today, Neji stepped closer and whispered his findings using the Byakugan: "Kakashi-sensei… the fog today."

Kakashi lowered his gaze and silently acknowledged Neji's observation.

The fog was much denser than usual—and faintly acidic. Subtle, but noticeable.

Kakashi and Neji immediately layered chakra over their skin to block the corrosive mist. As for Naruto, his strange body constitution offered him some natural resistance.

"Training's over, Naruto."

Kakashi's voice was sharper and heavier than Naruto had ever heard before.

"We have company."

This time, they weren't facing samurai.

They were facing shinobi. From Kirigakure.

"Huh?" Naruto jumped in place and began spinning around, trying to locate the enemy.

"Where?! Where?! Lemme at 'em! I'll knock 'em all down like dominos!"

Still thinking the enemy would be another band of samurai, Neji gritted his teeth and snapped,

"You idiot!"

Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—

The ambush had been spotted—no more point in hiding.

The sound of ninja tools slicing through the air came from somewhere in the thick fog, cutting through the mist and flying straight at Naruto, the one with the weakest defenses.

He might be a dead-last genin, but Naruto wasn't so clueless that he couldn't dodge projectiles he could hear.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Caught off guard by the surprise attack, Naruto didn't have time to physically dodge. Instead, he hastily summoned a shadow clone to take the brunt of the blow.

The clone drew a kunai and managed to deflect several of the incoming projectiles.

But the next wave of shuriken, swift and relentless like a storm of falling petals, shattered the clone.

Still, the brief moment it bought him was enough. Thanks to the distraction, Naruto had time to analyze the attack and react—barely slipping out of harm's way.

That sudden use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu saved his life.

Covered in cold sweat, Naruto realized only after the fact how close he'd come to death. He spun toward the direction the projectiles had come from, pointing and shouting furiously.

So loud. So irritating.

Definitely not the pathetic dead-last he appeared to be. Looks like I'll have to put in a bit more effort.

But that's fine. I chose you as my first target for a reason. It wouldn't be any fun if it were too easy.

For some reason, just seeing Naruto lit a fire in Sasuke's chest. He bared his teeth in a smirk and gave the steel wire attached to his ninja tools a sharp tug.

The high-pitched whip of metal slicing through the air drowned out Naruto's shouting.

A barrage of kunai, shuriken, and all sorts of sharp ninja tools spiraled upward—then came raining down like a violent storm aimed straight at Naruto!

Still riding the high from thinking he'd fended off the ambush, Naruto froze when he saw the next wave. His eyes widened in horror.

Since leaving the village, all their enemies had been nothing more than second-rate samurai...

Sasuke was the first ninja enemy Naruto ever faced— A ninja completely different from this so-called dead-last.

Kakashi didn't act immediately. The opponent's techniques didn't seem especially powerful, and he wanted to use this chance to gauge his student's level.

"Eight Trigrams Palm: Rotation!"

Neji stepped in front of Naruto, who couldn't move, and activated his technique. All of his tenketsu flared to life, releasing chakra as he spun rapidly, forming a solid, swirling 360-degree barrier of blue energy. It repelled every incoming kunai and the steel wires tangled around them with force.

As the Rotation ended, Neji struck forward—

His index and middle fingers pressed together, launching dozens of precise jabs.

Each strike snapped a steel wire in midair.

But a stronger opponent had already emerged.

In one swift exchange, all the wires Sasuke had been manipulating suddenly lost their tension—

But the wires were only one part of his strategy.

With a blink, his eyes shifted—

The two-tomoe Sharingan glowed to life.

He drew in a breath, and with it, chakra was infused into each steel wire. From the frayed ends of dozens of snapped wires, thin streams of chakra snaked out, reconnecting one by one with pinpoint precision.

He restored them all in an instant— A clear sign of both his mastery over chakra control and the powerful visual prowess of his dōjutsu.

Neji couldn't use Rotation again in such quick succession, and his follow-up strikes hadn't managed to sever all the wires in time.

The reinforced wires snapped back like coiled serpents— Wrapping around Neji and binding him tightly against the very tree where Naruto stood immobilized.

Tiger → Dragon → Hare → Ox.

Sasuke grounded his stance and swiftly wove four hand seals.

Clenching his teeth, he bit down on a steel wire, leaving no chance for his target to escape.

He exhaled a scorching line of flame—

"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!"

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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