Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!!!
The massive chunk of earth floating in midair suddenly split apart into countless pieces.
Amid a series of twisting, shifting movements, the scattered fragments gradually took on the shape of kunai.
After roughly ten breaths, the enormous block of earth had completely transformed into a dense swarm of kunai.
Feeling the terrifying pressure from above, everyone tensed.
Sakura suppressed the fear rising from the depths of her heart and asked in a trembling voice,
“Iruka-sensei…
what exactly do you mean by body reaction training?”
Iruka sat down on the ground and pointed behind him at the countless kunai floating in the air.
“What are you talking about?
Isn’t it obvious?
Dodging.
Your job is simple: dodge as many of the kunai I throw at you as possible.
And if you can’t dodge them…”
The corners of Iruka’s lips curled into a dangerous smile.
Under everyone’s anxious gazes, he raised a hand and lightly snapped his fingers.
As though responding to his gesture, a glint of light flashed through the dense mass of kunai.
Everyone heard a shriek of something tearing through the air that made their teeth ache.
The next moment, a loud boom came from behind them.
When they turned around, they saw that a small crater about a foot wide had appeared in the previously flat ground.
“It’ll hurt.”
Gulp~
Kiba swallowed with difficulty.
“Y-You’re joking, right?
Something like that…”
“How could it just hurt?
If that hits us, we’ll definitely die!”
“Iruka-sensei, can we really handle this kind of training?”
Seeing the unease on their faces, Iruka felt a little disappointed.
But when he remembered their age, he quickly understood.
They were only six-year-old children, after all.
Even in the shinobi world, that fundamental fact didn’t change.
Am I being too impatient?
With that thought, Iruka shook his head.
“Well, it won’t be that exaggerated.
I’ll control the difficulty to a level you can handle, so don’t worry.”
Everyone relaxed slightly upon hearing his assurance, only for Iruka to continue,
“Now then, everyone take off your training rings and draw lots using the earthen spikes to determine your groups.”
“Huh?
Take off the rings?”
For once, Iruka didn’t sound impatient.
Instead, he patiently explained, “I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that the training rings place a considerable burden on your bodies, making everything you do much more difficult.
At the same time, though, they’re stimulating your physical potential.
In fact, it’s essentially a form of weight training that can increase the strength, toughness, and density of your muscles and bones, as well as their resistance to bending…”
“Iruka-sensei, could you explain it a little more simply?”
Iruka’s eye twitched.
Only then did he remember that the children standing before him were just that—children.
How could they possibly understand all those technical terms?
For a moment, he felt rather helpless.
Explaining things to a group of six-year-olds was truly asking too much of him.
In his previous life, ever since joining the regular military, he had spent his time on bloody battlefields.
When had he ever had the opportunity to interact with innocent, carefree children?
He simply didn’t know how to get along with them.
After all, in his former life, there had only been two kinds of people in his eyes: allies and enemies.
On the battlefield, there was no distinction between men and women, young and old.
But this wasn’t the bloody battlefield of his previous life.
Nor could the children before him possibly be enemies disguising themselves for some ulterior purpose.
Naturally, his old way of dealing with people was no longer appropriate.
Ugh…
what a pain.
Sighing inwardly, Iruka thought for a moment before saying, “Simply put, they let you train all the time.
As you gradually adapt to the training rings, you’ll find that once you take them off, your strength and speed will be far greater than those of other children your age.
Since we’re training your reactions now, there’s no need to keep wearing them.”
“Oh, I see.”
Naruto nodded as though he understood.
Even without mind-reading abilities, Iruka knew Naruto definitely hadn’t understood a word of it.
But he couldn’t be bothered to dwell on it.
Naruto was the only one who hadn’t grasped the explanation, while the thoughtful expressions on everyone else’s faces were quite satisfying to see.
Soon afterward, the eight students other than Sasuke formed their groups according to the markings on the earthen spikes.
As the saying went, enemies were destined to meet.
Whether it was because of that or simply bad luck, Ino and Sakura ended up in the same group.
Both of them had already been unhappy that Sasuke was training alone, leaving them no chance to be grouped with him.
Each had thought that as long as her partner wasn’t Sakura—or Ino—even being paired with Naruto would have been acceptable.
Yet reality had a way of being absurd.
Left with no choice, the two girls glared fiercely at each other, snorted at the same time, and turned away.
Kiba and Shino were paired together, while Shikamaru and Chōji formed another group.
Judging from their expressions, it was obvious that they got along well in their daily lives and were quite pleased with their pairings.
Naruto, on the other hand, was rather disgruntled about being paired with Hinata.
He had been hoping to end up in the same group as Sakura.
“P-Please take care of me, Naruto…”
Hinata’s face flushed as she timidly spoke to him.
Naruto froze slightly at being approached by a girl.
Looking at Hinata’s face as she avoided meeting his eyes, it took him a while to remember the shy classmate Shikamaru had mentioned to him yesterday.
“You’re…
H-Hinata, right?”
“Y-Yes…”
“Hey, can’t you look at me when you’re talking?
I thought you were talking to yourself just now.”
At Naruto’s words, Hinata felt her heartbeat suddenly accelerate.
Her face grew warm, and she tried to summon the courage to meet his gaze.
But the moment that thought surfaced, her mind suddenly became hazy.
Her consciousness drifted, and the scene before her gradually blurred…
“Hey, Hinata, what’s wrong?
Are you feeling sick?”
Noticing that something seemed off with Hinata, Naruto instinctively reached out to touch her forehead.
Before he could do so, however, Iruka suddenly spoke.
“All right.
It’s about time we began.”
The moment he finished speaking, Naruto felt the ground beneath his feet shake violently, as though an earthquake had struck.
By the time he regained his balance, he was startled to discover that two enormous earthen walls had risen on either side of him at some point.
Everyone except Hinata, his assigned partner, had been separated from them.
The earthen walls were spaced five meters apart.
That was more than enough room for one person, but rather cramped for two.
If the pair didn’t work together well enough, it would be impossible to dodge the earthen kunai flying toward them.
From where he stood, Iruka had a clear view of all five groups.
Seeing them gradually calm down after their initial panic, he nodded in satisfaction.
Of course, the one he was most satisfied with was Sasuke, who hadn’t shown the slightest hint of panic from beginning to end.
The one he was least satisfied with was naturally Naruto, who still looked thoroughly shaken.
The two children Iruka held in the highest regard in the entire class were Uchiha Sasuke, who possessed the greatest talent, and Uzumaki Naruto, whose willpower was the strongest.
Iruka was looking forward to seeing just how far they could grow under his guidance.
With that thought in mind, Iruka took a deep breath and swung his right hand sharply.
His ability activated instantly.
The countless earthen kunai floating in midair immediately transformed into a torrent of yellow-brown earth, surging madly toward the earthen walls in the distance.
Seeing the dense swarm of earthen kunai, everyone cried out in alarm.
“Iruka-sensei, how can you do this?!”
“With them packed this tightly, how are we supposed to deal with that?!”
“You didn’t keep your word!
You’re the worst, Iruka-sensei!
The absolute worst!”
“How can you treat a girl like this?!
Iruka-sensei, you deserve to stay single for the rest of your life!”
“…”
A chorus of curses erupted from between the earthen walls.
Sakura and Ino’s particularly vicious condemnation—at least from a man’s perspective—made Iruka’s face darken instantly.
After forcibly suppressing the urge to send even more kunai toward their section, Iruka maintained the chakra controlling the earthen kunai while lying back on the grass.
Don’t disappoint me, brats.