“Yo, good morning!”
From six in the morning until the sun was blazing overhead at eleven, Kakashi finally appeared with a cheerful smile.
“You’re late!”
Sakura, who had waited until she was starving, immediately lost her temper and shouted at him.
“All right, I’ve set the deadline for noon.”
Kakashi spoke calmly.
“I have two bells here. Your task is to take them from me before twelve.”
Sakura immediately glanced at Naruto and Sasuke.
Just like Naruto and Sasuke analyzed.
“Anyone who fails to get a bell within the time limit doesn’t get lunch.”
Kakashi smiled and pointed toward the three wooden posts nearby.
“And you’ll be tied over there and forced to watch me eat.”
“Damn it! So that’s why he told us not to eat breakfast!”
Sakura was filled with regret.
If she had known, she would never have looked down on Naruto’s near-expiry food.
Just as expected.
This unreliable Jōnin was already late yesterday when the teams were assigned.
I thought he might restrain himself today, but he actually became even worse.
Sasuke glanced toward Naruto.
If not for Naruto…
But Naruto was prepared far too thoroughly.
Don’t tell me he even predicted this?
This guy can’t possibly be the dead last.
He absolutely hid his ability throughout the Ninja Academy.
A trace of vigilance appeared in Sasuke’s heart.
“You only need one bell.”
Kakashi continued in a deliberately threatening tone, piling more psychological pressure onto the three.
“But there are only two bells in total.”
“So one person is definitely going to end up tied to a post.”
“And that person will fail and be sent back to the Ninja Academy for retraining.”
Naruto remained completely calm and unconcerned.
Sakura, however, looked stunned.
They were right again!
Naruto and Sasuke really saw through it!
Sasuke merely stared coldly at Kakashi, sneering inwardly.
I already saw through your little trick.
“You can use shuriken if you want.”
Kakashi watched their reactions and spoke even more casually.
“If you don’t come at me with the resolve to kill me, you won’t be able to take the bells.”
Yet that very calmness only increased the pressure.
After all, Kakashi was outright allowing them to use blades against him.
That meant he was confident that even if they attacked with lethal weapons, they still could not do anything to him.
That kind of restrained confidence was often the most frightening.
“But that’s too dangerous!” Sakura exclaimed.
She was not only worried about Kakashi.
She was worried about themselves as well.
Once weapons were drawn, things could genuinely become dangerous.
“Relax.”
Kakashi looked at them with his usual dead-fish eye and delivered the most arrogant line possible.
“For you three, there’s no danger at all.”
“Can we begin?”
Sasuke had no intention of being polite and asked coldly.
“Very good. Looks like Sasuke has already prepared himself.”
Kakashi smiled faintly, then looked toward Naruto and Sakura.
“Naruto, Sakura, are you ready?”
Naruto smiled faintly as threads of killing intent began leaking from him.
“I actually acknowledge you quite a bit as our teacher.”
“Oh?”
Seeing Naruto’s smile blend with the killing intent radiating from his body, Kakashi finally showed a trace of interest.
“You acknowledge me enough to want to kill me?”
“Why, Kakashi-sensei, that was your own request.”
Naruto continued smiling.
“My request, huh?”
Kakashi chuckled.
“I’m starting to like you three already.”
“Then get ready…”
His voice suddenly turned cold.
“Begin!”
In an instant, four figures shot away like arrows and vanished from the field.
Tap.
Although Kakashi had left his original position, he ultimately landed in the middle of the open ground.
Looking around at the three students who had already concealed themselves, he nodded in satisfaction.
“Not bad.”
“For a ninja, hiding your presence and concealing yourself are the most basic fundamentals.”
At that moment, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were hidden within the undergrowth, communicating and arranging their tactics through shinobi wire using Morse code.
That was right.
Morse code.
The Morse code of this world had also been invented by someone named Morse.
And yes, the wireless communication technology of this world was already no worse than what had existed during World War II, perhaps even reaching the level of the 1970s or 1980s.
Otherwise, how could Naruto, who had been nothing more than a modern wage worker accustomed to using a smartphone, possibly know Morse code?
He had learned all of it at the Ninja Academy.
Thinking about it that way…
Perhaps the Ninja Academy really had been somewhat useful after all.
Before long, the three finished formulating their plan.
Immediately, Sakura, dressed entirely in pink, burst from her hiding place.
“There!”
The instant Sakura moved, Kakashi discovered her position.
He immediately charged toward her.
Now!
At that exact moment, Kakashi entered Sasuke’s attack range.
Sasuke instantly rose and swept both hands forward.
Several shuriken and kunai shot through the air toward Kakashi with terrifying speed.
Kakashi widened his dead-fish eye and looked toward Sasuke in surprise.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The shuriken and kunai all struck Kakashi’s body.
Kakashi fell to the ground with an expression of disbelief.
But after their earlier discussion, Sasuke naturally knew there was no possibility that an attack like this could kill a Jōnin.
He immediately leaped from hiding and grabbed Sakura.
“What are you standing around for? Move! That’s a Substitution Technique!”
Sure enough—
Poof!
The fallen Kakashi transformed into a wooden log.
“Hehe. Since you’ve already revealed yourselves, where exactly do you plan to go, Sasuke?”
The instant Sasuke turned around, Kakashi was already standing there, leaning casually against a tree trunk.
“Damn it!”
Sasuke gritted his teeth.
“Looks like you won’t be escaping.”
Kakashi smiled faintly.
“Who said we were trying to escape?”
There was no trace of the frustration he had shown moments earlier.
Kakashi froze for an instant.
A hand had already silently reached toward the bells hanging from his waist.
“Go, Naruto!”
Sakura immediately cheered.
“What?!”
Kakashi was stunned.
He had never expected someone to sneak all the way to his side without him noticing.
He instantly leaped upward and landed on a tree branch.
But the moment his feet touched it—
Snap!
A hand had already grabbed the bells.
Naruto’s calm voice rang out.
“Kakashi-sensei, we’ll be taking these bells.”
Rip!
The cord holding the bells was forcibly torn apart.
Naruto immediately leaped backward.
“What?!”
Kakashi had never expected the real Naruto to have been lying in ambush above the tree.
Then the one below…
Kakashi immediately looked down.
The Naruto who had previously been beside him suddenly turned translucent and disappeared.
“A Clone Technique?!”
Kakashi was genuinely surprised.
At the same time, Naruto landed in front of Sasuke and Sakura.
Kakashi was straightforward enough to accept the result.
He jumped down from the tree.
“You win.”
“However…”
Kakashi looked at the three of them curiously.
“How did you make sure I would jump onto that particular tree?”
“We couldn’t.”
Naruto held the bells and answered calmly.
“But after calculating the possibilities, there was a sixty-percent chance that you would land on this tree.”
“And sixty percent is already a very high probability.”
“It was worth trying.”
“Oh?”
Kakashi became even more curious.
“How exactly did you calculate that?”
“Simple. Naruto said—”
“Wait.”
Kakashi suddenly stared at the Naruto holding the bells.
“You’re not Naruto?”
“I’m Naruto.”
The person standing behind him—who had looked like Sasuke—spoke.
Poof!
Poof!
The two transformed back into their original appearances at the same time.
“You actually transformed into each other?”
Kakashi stared at them in surprise.
“Because after calculating the possibilities, we determined that swapping identities would give us a higher success rate,” Sasuke replied calmly.
“Go on.”
Kakashi looked increasingly interested.
“How did you calculate everything?”
He had not expected even the identity swap to be part of their calculations.
Perhaps he had not lost unfairly after all.
But that only made him even more curious.