At 9:30 that weekend, Naruto was still sleeping soundly in bed when a figure suddenly appeared beside him.
The figure approached Naruto and abruptly drew a kunai, stabbing it toward him.
Shnk!
The kunai punched a hole through Naruto’s bed, stopping barely 0.1 centimeters from his throat.
Just a tiny bit farther, and it would have pierced straight through his neck.
“He didn’t dodge.”
Kakashi withdrew the kunai and looked at Naruto, who was still fast asleep.
“Lord Third asked me to test Naruto’s abilities. So far, it looks like his sensory abilities are rather poor.”
Kakashi somehow produced a megaphone and aimed it directly at Naruto’s ear.
“WAKE UP!!!!”
Naruto didn’t bolt awake the way Kakashi expected.
Instead, he simply rolled over, pulled the blanket over his head, and continued sleeping!
Kakashi fell silent.
“…”
Left with no other choice, Kakashi grabbed Naruto and carried him toward the door.
“Hey, hey, hey! Kakashi! I’m still wearing my pajamas!”
Naruto finally woke up.
“It doesn’t matter. No one cares what you’re wearing when you’re doing manual labor,” Kakashi replied calmly.
Naruto stared at him.
“…”
“All right, you win! Put me down! I’ll change and go with you!”
Naruto raised his hands in surrender and changed his clothes under Kakashi’s watchful eye.
“Seriously, you’re even staring at me while I change. What, you think I’m going to run away?”
“Your Iruka-sensei told me quite a lot about your bad habits,” Kakashi said.
Naruto silently added another mark against Iruka in his mind.
“So where are we going?”
“Follow me.”
Kakashi vanished with a Body Flicker.
Naruto’s forehead immediately filled with black lines.
He was obviously trying to test him!
Sure enough, that old bastard Third Hokage was up to no good.
Naruto had revealed the Shadow Clone Jutsu that day, so the old man must have become suspicious!
To avoid giving Kakashi anything else to discover, Naruto had no intention of following him.
Instead, he turned around, walked to the refrigerator, took out some milk, and poured himself a glass.
Then he carefully put the rest back.
“Sigh. When is this life of poverty going to end?”
No one in the village was willing to hire him.
If he couldn’t earn money, he would forever be stuck living on the meager allowance the village gave him.
And when he said meager…
He meant really damn meager!!!
“That damned old Third has time to spy on me, but he can’t spare a little more money!”
“Does he seriously think hardship builds character or something?”
Naruto drank his milk while cursing the Third Hokage under his breath.
Just then, Kakashi suddenly reappeared.
He stared at Naruto, who was calmly drinking his milk.
“Why didn’t you follow me?”
Naruto rolled his eyes.
“You ran so fast that you disappeared in an instant. How was I supposed to keep up?”
Kakashi silently made another assessment.
Speed: average.
It wasn’t that Kakashi hadn’t considered the possibility that Naruto was hiding his strength.
However, the Body Flicker he’d just used had been around Chūnin level.
Naruto hadn’t even graduated from the Ninja Academy yet, so being unable to keep up was perfectly normal.
More importantly, Kakashi couldn’t think of any reason Naruto would deliberately hide his abilities.
“Finished drinking?”
Naruto rolled his eyes at Kakashi again before gulping down the rest of the milk.
“Finished.”
“Then let’s go. We’ll walk this time.”
“Your task today is to help this farmer finish planting all of those rice seedlings.”
With that, Kakashi pulled out his adult novel and began reading by himself.
Naruto wanted to complain, but he knew protesting wouldn’t accomplish anything.
With a sigh, he began his day’s labor.
What should have taken an entire day was finished in only one morning thanks to Naruto’s Shadow Clones.
Kakashi silently made another note in his mind.
Excellent physical fitness.
Proficient with the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
“I’m done. I’m going home to sleep.”
Naruto spoke in a completely drained voice.
This time, he wasn’t acting.
As a ninja devoted to taking it easy, laziness was simply part of his nature.
“Wait.”
“What now?”
Naruto turned toward Kakashi with a look of utter despair.
He thought Kakashi was about to give him another job.
Instead, Kakashi took out a small pouch of money and handed it to him.
“This is your payment.”
Naruto’s eyes instantly lit up.
He snatched the money with the enthusiasm of a little miser who had never seen cash before.
“Wasn’t this supposed to be community service? Why am I getting paid?”
“Well, technically, this was a D-rank mission I accepted. Making you work for free didn’t feel quite right.”
Naruto’s eyes darted around.
Then he stared at Kakashi like a hungry wolf spotting a plump little lamb.
“Do I get paid for the rest of my community service too?”
“Uh… yes.”
Even Kakashi was slightly startled by Naruto’s expression.
“That’s amazing!”
Naruto immediately grabbed both of Kakashi’s hands and spoke with absolute sincerity.
“Please take me to do community service every single day!”