Konoha's Training Ground 7, the atmosphere at this moment was comparable to any execution ground.
"Your left arm was raised three centimeters too high, causing seven percent of your punch's power to dissipate. Ineffective attack."
"The step back was unnecessary, wasting 0.5 seconds, enough time for an enemy to slit your throat. Inefficient movement."
"Is the Uchiha Clan's Taijutsu just this kind of flashy, impractical dance?"
Three of Naruto's Shadow Clones expressionlessly surrounded Sasuke, like three tireless combat robots. Every one of Sasuke's attacks was countered by one of the clones in an identical, yet more concise and lethal manner, making him wonder if he was truly weak.
Before meeting the drastically changed Naruto, he had always thought his Taijutsu was not bad.
"Shut up!" Sasuke roared, sweeping a powerful whip kick towards the neck of one of the clones.
The next second, the other two clones moved simultaneously. One dodged the whip kick by a hair's breadth, its other hand already forming a hand blade, precisely striking the outside of Sasuke's supporting leg's knee joint; the other clone directly closed in, executing a standard over-the-shoulder throw, slamming the unbalanced Sasuke hard onto the ground.
Bang!
Dust flew.
"Emotional loss of control, leading to Chakra flow disorder and a thirty percent decrease in judgment. A typical failure case." The three Shadow Clones, looking down from above, delivered their summary report in the same tone.
Sasuke lay on the ground, feeling all the air squeezed from his lungs, gazing at the sky, lost in helpless confusion.
"How can I win?" This question echoed repeatedly in Sasuke's mind.
This wasn't a sparring match; it was a one-sided crushing. He felt as useless as a discarded soda can by the roadside.
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's collar with one hand and lifted him up.
"Every second you spend doubting yourself and standing still is another second your enemy gets to breathe. I don't want to instruct weak-willed softies."
Sasuke felt as if he had been struck by a hammer in his chest. The image of Uchiha Itachi wielding a butcher's knife flashed in his mind, and his eyes immediately turned fierce. He gritted his teeth and let out a low growl from his throat:
"Again!"
On the other side, Sakura's situation was not much better.
"Huff... Puff... Five hundred... Done..." Sakura collapsed to the ground, feeling like her arms were no longer her own.
Naruto himself stood before her, checking his watch: "Time taken: forty-five minutes, fifteen minutes slower than the standard. Severe lack of physical stamina. Now, take a three-minute break, then go climb that cliff."
Sakura looked in the direction he pointed, her face turning pale. It was a smooth stone wall at the edge of the training ground, almost ninety degrees vertical. Forget handholds, there wasn't even a speck of moss to be seen.
"Nar-Naruto... that... my Chakra is already..."
"I know," Naruto replied calmly. "The goal is for you to learn how to mobilize the last bit of energy in your body and how to compensate for physical deficiencies with mental strength when you are extremely fatigued and your Chakra is depleted. Or, would you prefer to spar with me?"
As soon as she heard the words "sparring match," Sakura flinched, instantly springing up from the ground and scrambling towards the cliff. Are you kidding? Sparring with Naruto, who had beaten Sasuke into such a state? She was afraid she'd be torn into pieces.
From a distant tree, Kakashi held his *Icha Icha Paradise*, but his eyelids twitched intermittently.
"Is this kid a devil? Yes, this kid is a devil." He muttered, "This isn't training teammates; this is clearly performance testing and stress quality inspection of products on an assembly line. If he squeezes any more, I feel like Sasuke's Mangekyo will be forced out."
He saw clearly that every move Naruto made, every command he gave, was precisely timed at the brink of Sasuke and Sakura's collapse. A little more, and they'd be broken; a little less, and the "ultimate optimization" effect wouldn't be achieved. This precise control over "human resources" sent an inexplicable chill down the spine of even him, a Jonin who had seen countless deaths.
His original beautiful script, where "Team 7 would be united and friendly, running in the sunset, shedding youthful sweat," was torn to shreds by Naruto, then thrown into a shredder, and finally burned to ashes.
"Oh well, oh well, it's good for young people to have their own ideas," Kakashi consoled himself, covering his face with the book. "What I, as a teacher, should be thinking about is where to take the students for a meal afterward."
...Night fell.
In Naruto's apartment, a lone lamp flickered faintly.
He hadn't lit a lamp, instead using the moonlight to examine the intelligence scroll sent through secret channels from Zero. The scroll contained detailed information on the Genin from various villages participating in the Chunin Exams.
His gaze quickly locked onto a file from Hidden Sand Village.
"Name: Gaara"
"Identity: Son of the Fourth Kazekage, Ichibi Jinchuriki"
"Record: One hundred percent mission completion rate, all missions completed without injury. Observations indicate that his body is constantly covered by an automatic defensive sand armor, preventing any attack from reaching his main body."
"Psychological Assessment: Extremely unstable mental state, severe violent tendencies and homicidal urges, minimal communication with teammates Temari and Kankuro, suspected personality disorder."
Naruto's fingers tapped lightly on the table.
"Automatic defensive shield... uncontrollable killing impulses... unstable psychic field..." He murmured softly, not a Tailed Beast coming to mind, but a more familiar and terrifying term.
"A wild psyker corrupted by an Aetheric Daemon."
In his view, the so-called Ichibi Shukaku was merely a chaotic and evil Aetheric entity trapped within a human shell. And Gaara was the unfortunate host driven mad by daemonic whispers. The danger level of such an existence was far beyond that of a purely physical assassin like Zabuza.
Countering with Ninjutsu?
A thought flashed through Naruto's mind, then he immediately dismissed it. Ordinary Ninjutsu wouldn't penetrate the sand's defense.
To deal with heretics, one must use more direct, more efficient, and more "convincing" methods.
He pulled open a drawer and took out a blank drawing paper and a charcoal pencil.
Under the moonlight, the pen moved swiftly across the paper, outlining not some ninja tool or rune, but a brutal yet sacred silhouette filled with violent aesthetics.
A heavy sword hilt with exhaust pipes, connected to a wide sword blade covered in jagged fangs. The size of every component, the meshing of every gear, was depicted with an almost obsessive precision.
Chainsword.
The most loyal evangelist of Imperial Truth, the most efficient tool of judgment for purifying heretics.
Naruto stopped writing, scrutinizing the killing machine on the drawing. He had even begun to conceptualize the materials: the main body of the blade could be a special alloy infused with wind-attribute Chakra, ensuring cutting efficiency. The serrated part must be made of high-density metal capable of carrying electrical energy, generating high-frequency vibrations and electric arcs during high-speed rotation, to physically tear apart all "heretical" flesh, along with the vile entities behind it, into fragments.
He gently brushed his finger over the ferocious serrations on the drawing, as if he could hear its future roar.
"It seems the Chunin Exams require a little 'faith education'."
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