The entire building was filled with Naruto’s pig-slaughter-like screams.
However, this could not stop Kakashi from taking him away.
“Alright, stop yelling. Even if you scream until your throat breaks, no one will come to save you. You might as well save that energy for when you train. Oh, right, because we didn’t train yesterday, today’s training will be doubled.”
“What! Big Brother Kakashi! What did you say! Do you even have a heart! I spent the whole day at school! Not only are you not grateful that I’m dragging my exhausted body here to train with you, but you’re even doubling it?”
“Ah~~ But you don’t look tired at all right now. Besides, you should have been sleeping all day, right? Don’t think I don’t know.”
Naruto was immediately rendered speechless.
He stopped yelling and struggling, simply staring wide-eyed at Kakashi.
[Damn it, how does he know what happened at school? Could it be that he has actually been watching me from the shadows all along? I let my guard down. I didn’t expect this guy to take things so seriously. Weren’t you supposed to be rather irresponsible? Why did you suddenly start monitoring me?]
Naruto did not say anything aloud, but he was already grumbling inwardly.
Upon hearing Naruto secretly say that he was irresponsible, Kakashi suddenly tightened his grip on Naruto’s hand before throwing him out.
“Alright, walk the rest of the way yourself. Today’s training is tree climbing. Although you’ve already mastered the two Wind Release techniques I taught you before, your chakra control still isn’t precise enough. You still need to train properly.”
“Yes… I understand.”
Naruto answered listlessly after stabilizing himself, but in reality, he was extremely happy.
[Ah! Tree climbing again. Great! When the time comes, I can just find a place with lots of trees and lie down for a while. But how did Kakashi know that I had mastered those two techniques? I don’t think I’ve ever shown them in front of him. Could he have been there at that time too? This bastard! He saw me being bullied and didn’t come out to help me, but instead hid in the shadows!]
After thinking it through, Naruto could not help but curse Kakashi again in his heart.
Kakashi had long since become accustomed to being cursed by Naruto.
During training, he basically had to hear such curses at least twice a day.
The two soon arrived at their usual training ground.
Kakashi skillfully walked toward the waterfall where he usually practiced sword swings and waved his hand at Naruto without turning around.
“Naruto, you better work hard. I want to see results today, so don’t even think about slacking off.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know. Then I’ll go climb the trees.”
Naruto agreed verbally, and his feet did not move slowly either.
He looked as though he was genuinely preparing to train, but inwardly, he was extremely disdainful.
[Work hard? When have I ever worked hard all this time? Train? Train my ass!]
Naruto entered the forest, found a large tree, then lay down against its trunk.
Feeling the slightly cool breeze, he slowly closed his eyes.
[Ah~~ It’s still more comfortable sleeping here. Sleeping in class feels good too, but the desk is just too hard. If I rest my arms on it, they go numb, and I can’t even lie down.]
Naruto was enjoying himself when he suddenly felt what seemed like a drop of water fall onto his face.
When he opened his eyes, he was nearly scared to death.
A large dog was baring its teeth right in front of him.
Drool continuously dripped in strings from between its pale white teeth.
The water that had just fallen onto his face was the big dog’s saliva.
“Holy shit! Wh-what the hell is this!”
Naruto jumped straight up from the ground as though someone had stepped on his tail.
Looking again, he realized that he had already been surrounded by dogs.
Five dogs of different sizes were surrounding him, each one baring its teeth as though it would pounce at any moment.
Moreover, every dog was wearing a Konoha shinobi forehead protector.
There was no doubt that these were all ninja dogs.
“Woof~~ Woof!”
A half-grown dog attacked first, viciously pouncing toward Naruto.
This scene instantly awakened memories from his previous life of being chased and bitten by dogs in the countryside, leaving his mind completely blank with fear.
“Holy shit! Help! Kakashi! You bastard!”
Naruto dashed away in a flash, charging all the way from beneath the tree to the crown of this tree, which was more than fifty meters tall.
He sat on a branch and gasped for breath.
However, before he could completely calm down, Kakashi’s voice had already sounded from beneath the tree:
“Looks like you don’t need to practice tree climbing anymore. You’re pretty fast at climbing, aren’t you? Since that’s the case, let’s move on to the next exercise. Come down and practice walking on water with me.”
“I-I’m not coming down! Isn’t today’s training just tree climbing? I climbed up here, which means I’ve already completed today’s training!”
“But I just told you. Because we didn’t train yesterday, today’s training has to be doubled.”
Kakashi spread his hands with an expression of helplessness.
Naruto was stunned for a moment before angrily cursing him out.
“How can you do this? Each training exercise should take several days!”
“But I think this is how it should be. Alright, hurry up and come down.”
Kakashi was somewhat impatient, but Naruto completely disagreed.
He simply hugged the tree trunk and refused to come down no matter what.
“I’m not coming down!”
“Sigh~~ Why does it have to be like this? Wouldn’t it be better to be a little obedient?”
Kakashi sighed, then slashed his sword into the tree.
The tree, which required three people to wrap their arms around it, was cut down as easily as tofu beneath Kakashi’s blade.
The huge tree toppled over, and Naruto lost his balance.
He leaped, trying to jump onto the adjacent tree, but just as he took off, Kakashi had already grabbed him by the back of his collar.
Naruto immediately turned around when he sensed something behind him.
Kakashi still had that same dead-fish eye expression, but Naruto’s eyes widened in utter shock.
[How is this possible! Is this Kakashi’s speed? How can he be this fast?]
Naruto considered himself to know how strong Kakashi was.
Even though he was already training in swordsmanship, Naruto still felt that Kakashi’s strength was within his expectations.
It was only at this moment that Naruto realized Kakashi’s strength had already exceeded his expectations.
From the moment Kakashi cut down the tree to the moment Naruto jumped, less than two seconds had passed.
Even when Naruto had climbed up while being chased by the dogs, it had taken him four or five seconds.
Yet Kakashi had reached Naruto in an instant.
And he hadn’t climbed up—he had jumped up.
Hearing Naruto’s astonishment in his heart, a trace of pride finally flashed through Kakashi’s eyes.
However, that pride would not make him go easy on Naruto.
After landing, Kakashi simply carried Naruto to the surface of the lake where he usually practiced his sword swings.
The lake shimmered beneath the sunlight, and the water was clear enough to see fish swimming inside.
“Alright, I’ll let go after counting down from three.”
“What! Big Brother Kakashi, you can’t—”
“Three, two, one!”
Kakashi completely ignored Naruto and, after counting down three seconds on his own, released his hand.