“But, Kakashi-sensei… there are only two bells.”
Hinata hesitated, unable to voice the terrible possibility forming in her mind.
“There are three of us…”
Does that mean one of us will definitely be sent back to the Academy?
Naruto and Sasuke were both outstanding shinobi.
In that case—
Am I the one who’ll have to go back?
The more Hinata thought about it, the more discouraged she became.
“Hinata, don’t worry about that yet.”
Naruto placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s take the bells first and think about the rest afterward.”
“Naruto-kun…”
Hinata looked at him, then nodded firmly.
“Right.”
“Exactly.”
Kakashi gathered the bells in one hand and tied them to his waist.
“I’m afraid I only have two.
So one of you will have to return to the Ninja Academy.”
Then he reached up and pushed aside the forehead protector covering his left eye.
“Though it looks like I’ll have to take this seriously from the very beginning.”
Kakashi opened his crimson left eye.
Three black tomoe revolved within it—
The Sharingan.
At that exact moment—
Fwish!
Sasuke became a blur as he charged straight toward Kakashi.
His hand reached behind his waist.
The short sword left its sheath.
Clang—!
Kakashi somehow produced a tantō of his own and stopped Sasuke’s opening strike.
“I haven’t said ‘begin’ yet, Sasuke.”
His voice remained calm.
Kakashi twisted his blade, redirected Sasuke’s sword, then struck him with an open palm.
Sasuke was forced several steps backward.
Hinata nervously assumed a Gentle Fist stance.
Naruto, meanwhile, remained exactly where he was, scratching his cheek awkwardly.
He had probably remembered a certain embarrassing incident from the future.
Kakashi had no idea that Sasuke had unknowingly taken over the role Naruto was originally supposed to play.
Instead, he nodded with satisfaction.
“Good.
It seems all three of you are ready.”
His visible eye sharpened.
“Then—begin!”
Fwish!
Fwish!
Sasuke and Hinata immediately scattered, disappearing into the surrounding forest.
Naruto alone remained in the clearing.
“Oh?”
Kakashi studied him.
“You intend to face me head-on?”
There was little surprise in his voice.
Having Naruto, the strongest combatant, engage him directly while the other two searched for an opening from concealment was a perfectly reasonable strategy.
“Well…”
Naruto grinned, but his eyes remained intensely focused.
“No matter which version of me we’re talking about, I’ve never been very good at fighting like a conventional shinobi.”
We have to work together.
We need to take those bells as a team.
That’s the only way to make sure Hinata passes.
Naruto’s resolve did not waver.
Hidden behind a dense tree, Sasuke silently watched the clearing.
Hinata concealed herself within a nearby thicket.
Both of their gazes remained fixed upon the two bells hanging from Kakashi’s waist.
A gentle breeze passed through the training ground.
The minute hand of the alarm clock moved.
At that instant—
Fwish!
Fwish!
Fwish!
Naruto threw three shuriken.
Razor-sharp Wind Release chakra coated their edges as they spun toward Kakashi in a triangular formation.
Electricity surged across Kakashi’s tantō.
Clang! Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Clang!
Clang!
With three swift movements, he knocked every shuriken aside.
They scattered across the nearby ground.
Fortunately, the blade in Kakashi’s hand was the high-quality tantō once wielded by his father, the White Fang of Konoha.
An ordinary weapon might have cracked from the force behind Naruto’s Wind Release shuriken.
By then, however—
Naruto had already closed the distance.
His fist tore through the air, carrying tremendous force as it flew straight toward Kakashi’s face.
The dynamic vision of a three-tomoe Sharingan was terrifying.
Kakashi calmly tilted his body aside and avoided the punch.
His tantō reversed direction in his hand and slashed toward Naruto.
Naruto drew a kunai and blocked.
Clang!
Bam!
Clang!
Bam!
The two exchanged a rapid series of attacks using polished taijutsu.
But Naruto was still only twelve years old.
His body and physical strength had not yet finished developing.
Kakashi steadily maintained the advantage, suppressing Naruto throughout the exchange.
Then, during the slightest opening—
Kakashi rotated his tantō and thrust it toward Naruto’s abdomen.
Pshk!
The blade pierced straight through him and emerged from his lower back.
Naruto stared at Kakashi with lifeless eyes.
Hidden within the bushes, Hinata covered her mouth in horror.
Sasuke, however, continued watching calmly.
The tip of a kunai suddenly pressed against Kakashi’s lower back.
Poof!
The Naruto impaled upon the tantō vanished into a cloud of white smoke.
Kakashi glanced toward the three shuriken scattered across the ground.
As expected, one of them had disappeared.
“The Wind Release chakra was only meant to interfere with the vision of my Sharingan.”
His gaze shifted slightly toward the Naruto behind him.
“Your real body transformed into one of the shuriken and hid among them from the very beginning, didn’t it?”
Naruto grinned.
“As expected of Kakashi-sen—”
Fsssss…
Naruto lowered his eyes.
Three explosive tags were already burning on the ground beneath their feet.
His expression changed.
When did he—?!
Naruto immediately leaped backward.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The explosive tags detonated beneath Kakashi.
A towering cloud of smoke and dust swallowed his entire figure.
Hidden among the trees, Sasuke watched through his three-tomoe Sharingan.
What happened?
He had not seen Kakashi make any attempt to avoid the explosion.
Suddenly—
A figure burst from the smoke.
Electric arcs danced across his body.
In the blink of an eye, Kakashi appeared directly before Naruto, who had only just landed.
He lowered his body—
And kicked upward.
BAM!
Naruto was launched into the air.
Sasuke’s eyes widened.
That movement…
It immediately reminded him of the combination Naruto had used against him years ago.
High above the ground, Naruto stared down at Kakashi.
Despite standing at the center of the explosion, there was not so much as a scorch mark on his clothes.
Then Naruto remembered what Kakashi had said before the exercise began.
“I recently made a small breakthrough in my training.”
Don’t tell me—!
Kakashi had already appeared behind Naruto in midair.
Is he going to use the Front Lotus?
Before Kakashi could strike— Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
FWOOM—!
Golden flames erupted around Naruto.
A massive arm formed from golden chakra and extended from his back.
With no footing in midair and nowhere to evade, Kakashi could only take the almost shameless punch head-on.
BAM!
Kakashi was sent flying in one direction, while the recoil hurled Naruto in the other.
Now!
Sasuke leaped between the trees and positioned himself beneath Kakashi’s trajectory.
Both hands moved rapidly.
Fwish!
Fwish!
Fwish!
Fwish!
Five or six shuriken traced intersecting arcs through the air as they flew toward Kakashi.
Sasuke pulled his arms in several directions.
Then he yanked sharply.
Snap!
Steel wires attached to the shuriken formed a vast net around Kakashi, who had no way to maneuver in midair.
The wires tightened instantly.
Then—
They fell loose.
Sasuke’s eyes widened.
Impossible.
They caught nothing?
Naruto, who was descending nearby, witnessed it as well.
So that really is what’s happening…
Tap.
The instant Naruto’s feet touched the ground—
BOOM!
He shot forward like a golden cannonball.
A blue sphere of rapidly rotating chakra formed in his right palm.
With his physical abilities greatly enhanced by the golden chakra cloak, Naruto crossed the distance between them in a single breath.
He thrust his right hand forward.
“Rasengan!”
At the same time—
WHOOOOOSH—!
An enormous fireball approached Kakashi from the side.
Sasuke’s Great Fireball Jutsu.
Their six years of fighting together had allowed Sasuke to instantly predict Kakashi’s escape route and seal it off.
And yet—
Both the Rasengan and the Great Fireball struck nothing.
Kakashi had never moved from where he stood.
“Gentle Fist!”
Hinata had seized the same opportunity.
She leaped high into the air and drove her palm down toward Kakashi.
But her hand passed straight through him.
Her strike met only empty air.
Jingle, jingle.
The bells at Kakashi’s waist rang clearly.
Sasuke and Hinata stared at him, their minds filled with confusion.
Those attacks should have landed.
Yet every one of them had passed through him.
It was almost as though—
For those brief moments, Kakashi had not existed at all.
“Is it a genjutsu?”
Hinata remained in her Gentle Fist stance, refusing to lower her guard.
Sasuke activated his three-tomoe Sharingan.
The tomoe spun rapidly as he examined Kakashi from every angle.
It was useless.
“No.”
Sasuke slowly shook his head.
“It isn’t.”
“Of course it isn’t a genjutsu.”
Naruto rose to his feet and turned toward Kakashi.
“Isn’t that right, Kakashi-sensei?”
“Yeah…”
Kakashi turned to face him.
The pattern within his left eye had changed.
The three tomoe were gone.
In their place was a strange, triangular pinwheel pattern—
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
“That’s right.”