“Everyone passes!” Kakashi looked at the three of them and said with a smile.
“Yay!
We don’t have to go back to the academy!” Sakura instantly jumped up in joy.
“Finally, we can eat.” Naruto rubbed his stomach and said.
“Tch, I still don’t feel completely satisfied.” That was Sasuke.
“You three…” Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose in resignation.
Kakashi pulled out two more bento boxes from his backpack, and the four of them enjoyed a pleasant lunch together.
Although Naruto didn’t get full, he really liked this kind of atmosphere.
“We start official missions tomorrow.
Don’t be late,” Kakashi instructed after finishing his meal, and then he left.
“What do you guys think?” Sakura asked, looking at Naruto and Sasuke.
“Training, of course.
We need to make up for yesterday,” Naruto said with a shrug.
“Indeed.
To coordinate with you, I didn’t train at all yesterday,” Sasuke said, looking at Naruto with a trace of resentment.
“Then let’s go, the usual spot.” Naruto waved his hand and led the two of them toward their training ground.
Arriving at the training ground, the three of them first held a brief meeting to review today’s battle and reflect on their shortcomings.
“Honestly, I feel like we didn’t show our full strength this time.
We got defeated before we could even use many of our powerful moves.”
Naruto rubbed his chin.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something strange about this test.
“True.
I get the feeling he was intentionally trying to end it as quickly as possible,” Sasuke added.
“Do you think Kakashi-sensei has detailed intelligence on us?” Sakura glanced at them and whispered.
Hearing Sakura’s words, both Naruto and Sasuke froze.
They exchanged a glance and blurted out in unison, “That’s it!”
“No wonder something felt off.
Except for that last move, he suddenly burst with power against Sakura and me, taking us down in an instant.” Naruto scratched his head in frustration.
If he had known this earlier, he could have prepared for it.
“But where did he get his intelligence from?” Sakura tilted her head in thought.
“The Third Hokage?” Sasuke guessed.
“Probably not.
I specifically talked to the old man, and he wouldn’t lie to me about something like this.” Naruto thought for a moment, and suddenly, someone came to mind.
“Yo, Hayate.” Kakashi, who had come to the Hokage Building to submit his report, happened to spot Gekkō Hayate, who was about to change shifts.
“Kakashi-senpai, how was it?
The intelligence this time.” Gekkō Hayate looked at Kakashi with a sly grin.
“Ah, it was a huge help.
But is it really okay for you to do this?
That kid is technically your disciple, isn’t he?” Kakashi smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
“Hehe, that kid needs to learn a lesson.
Who told him to think intelligence wasn’t important back then?” Gekkō Hayate chuckled mischievously.
“Honestly, that was like six years ago, wasn’t it?
You really hold a grudge,” Kakashi said, facepalming with a sigh.
“It’s for his own good.
His strength can grow, but his attitude can’t get arrogant, or he’ll easily suffer for it.
It’s better to suffer a setback from one of our own than at the hands of an enemy.”
“You really went to great lengths for Naruto’s sake.” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“That kid is like a younger brother to me.
I hope he can go far.
After all, he has the potential.”
Meanwhile, Naruto, who had been the recipient of this “well-meaning care,” was currently clutching his head and rolling around on the ground in a tantrum.
“Ahhhh!
Hayate-sensei, you actually sold me out!
Ahhhh!”
Sakura and Sasuke watched Naruto helplessly, wanting to comfort him but not knowing what to say.
This habit of Naruto’s actually carried over from his past life.
In the Xu family, except for Mother Xu, everyone loved to fool around.
If things went well, it was fine, but if they didn’t, throwing tantrums and rolling on the floor was the least of it.
Because of this, everyone got whipped by Mother Xu more than once.
After quite a while, having thrown enough of a fit, Naruto finally scrambled up from the ground, muttering grumpily that he would definitely get his revenge later.
“Alright, if you’re done fooling around, hurry up and continue the review,” Sasuke said with a sigh.
“Oh.” Naruto reluctantly shuffled over and resumed scribbling and drawing on the paper.
However, while the three were discussing, the fox’s voice suddenly echoed in Naruto’s mind.
“Brat, you are truly too weak.”
“Huh?!” Already angry, Naruto immediately saw red.
“You smelly fox!
What’s that supposed to mean?!
You want to fight?!”
“Hmph, you are not even worthy of being this old man’s opponent.” The fox tilted his chin up, retorting with a look of disdain.
“You, you, you!” Naruto was so angry his words sputtered.
His face flushed bright red, and he began to emit white steam like a steam engine.
“Despite possessing my sensing ability, didn’t you notice that the brat named Kakashi barely had any Chakra left at the time?”
The fox’s words stunned Naruto, and his face, which had looked ready to burst with blood, began to return to normal.
“You mean Kakashi was out of Chakra back then?”
“Why else do you think he wanted to end it quickly?
His control over Chakra is extremely precise—precise enough to know exactly how much Ninjutsu it would take to deal with you while keeping enough in reserve.”
The fox’s words made Naruto steal a few extra glances at him.
After all, the fox rarely praised anyone.
“If he hadn’t miscalculated your physical endurance and ended up getting outplayed by you guys at the end, he should have finished the battle with energy to spare.
After all, he even calculated exactly how long it would take that little girl to break free from his genjutsu.”
Perhaps spending so much time with Naruto had lessened the fox’s hatred for humans, as there was actually a hint of admiration in his eyes when he spoke of Kakashi.
Naruto, however, wasn’t too surprised by this.
After all, with a negative buff that constantly drained his Chakra, Kakashi would have been beaten to death long ago from overconsumption if he hadn’t learned to control it.
“But that’s not right.
When he was right in front of me, I clearly sensed that he still had quite a bit of Chakra left.”
Naruto scratched his head, trying hard to recall the situation at the time, and raised his doubts.
“Hehe, do you remember when he put his hand on your head?” the fox said with a sly laugh.
“I remember.
What about it?”
“This old man helped replenish some of his Chakra at that moment.”
“You!
You!” Naruto couldn’t take it anymore.
He opened his mouth and started rapping a storm of complaints, while the fox simply blocked his own hearing and continued happily devouring his food. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Because Naruto was out of it, Sasuke ended up leading the review.
Afterward, the three began their sparring practice—a three-way, one-on-one-on-one free-for-all.
However, most of the time it was Naruto in a one-versus-two.
Since they hadn’t fought to their hearts’ content in the morning, all kinds of skills were flying everywhere during the afternoon spar, completely plowing up the entire training ground.
After they finished, Naruto and Sasuke became Sakura’s practice targets for healing.
Though it was mostly Sasuke; Naruto’s recovery rate was so terrifyingly fast that it was impossible to tell whether Sakura’s healing was working or if he was just recovering on his own.
Early the next morning, the three arrived at the meeting spot they had agreed upon with Kakashi.
Today, Kakashi was surprisingly not late, arriving right on the dot.
“As Team 7’s first mission…
let’s see, cleaning up trash in the lower reaches of the river.
Hmm, let’s go.
Let’s try to get it done this morning.
We still have to help out at the pasture this afternoon.”
With that, Kakashi put away the mission scroll and turned to leave, leaving the three of them staring at each other in bewilderment.
“I remember this guy usually talks a lot.
How come he’s so quick and straightforward this time?” Naruto scratched his head and followed.
Sasuke and Sakura didn’t say anything, just shrugged and quickly caught up with Kakashi.
The master and his three disciples made their way to the Liusha River—bah, wrong story.
When they arrived at the lower reaches of the river that needed cleaning, they were greeted by all kinds of trash floating on the water, as well as the murky, slightly foul-smelling river.
“How long has it been since this was cleaned?” Sasuke looked at the scene with utter disgust.
“Isn’t this supposed to be running water?
Why does it feel like a stagnant pond?” Naruto looked further downstream, somewhat puzzled.
“Hehe, you’ll find out once you finish cleaning.
There’s a surprise waiting,” Kakashi said, glancing at Naruto and then upstream, his voice tinged with amusement.
“Kakashi’s words instantly put Naruto on high alert.
When this old slacker spoke like that, there was bound to be trouble.
He was definitely up to no good.”
Still, the cleaning had to be done.
Holding long tongs, the three stood on the water’s surface and began clearing the trash.
Kakashi leaned against a tree trunk and read his adult novel.
Since the three already knew how to walk on water, there wasn’t much for him to do, making this much easier than he had expected.
He was comfortable, but Naruto and the others were miserable.
It wasn’t so bad standing on the bank, but once they were in the middle of the river, the stench instantly made their scalps tingle.
Having just finished clearing the trash on the surface, Sakura was already starting to find it unbearable.
“I can’t take it anymore, it’s way too smelly.” Sakura retreated to the bank, taking deep gulps of fresh air.
“Naruto, think of something.” Sasuke also took a few strained breaths.
“Hmm, let me think.” Naruto rubbed his chin, looked at the river water, and then at a certain slacker leisurely reading a book in the tree.
Getting a sudden inspiration, he grinned mischievously.
“I’ve got an idea.”
Immediately after, Naruto summoned dozens of Shadow Clones.
Some ran toward the upstream, while others began forming hand signs, aiming their direction right at Kakashi.
…..
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