"Exactly the same excuse?"
Hearing this, Kakashi's gaze swept back and forth between the three of them, his eyes finally settling on Naruto.
"You're the infamous for being late in Konoha, aren't you, Sensei?" Naruto quipped, a cheeky grin on his face.
Kakashi sighed internally. 'My worst fear has come true.'
It wasn't that Naruto knew about his chronic lateness, the problem was that he hadn't bothered to share that information with Sakura.
Yesterday, Kakashi had met with the Third Hokage, who informed him that Danzo had personally tutored Naruto for a time. That detail explained a great deal. Kakashi himself had once been in Root, his time within it being painful memory, one that had nearly pulled him into darkness. When it came to Danzo and his organization, few knew the truth better than he did.
'It's over...' Sakura thought, feeling a profound sense of disappointment. 'My image of him is completely shattered. Sasuke-kun must be disappointed in me.'
What she didn't realize was that Sasuke couldn't have cared less.
"I have two bells here," Kakashi said, pulling an alarm clock from his pouch. "Your mission is to take them from me before noon. Anyone who fails to get a bell by then won't get any lunch. Instead, you'll be tied to one of these posts." He gestured toward them. "Since there are only two bells, one of you is guaranteed to fail. In other words, one of you will be eliminated and sent back to Academy."
Kakashi tried to build the atmosphere, but aside from a startled Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke remained completely unfazed.
'The bell test,' a voice echoed in Naruto's mind. It was Minato, who rarely spoke. He had been away handling other matters and had only just returned, though he wouldn't be staying long. 'Brings back memories. Last time, it was Obito who ended up tied to the post. It feels like only yesterday.' A faint sense of nostalgia colored his thoughts.
Kakashi continued, his visible eye crinkling into a smile. "You can use shuriken, kunai, whatever you like. In fact, you won't stand a chance of getting these bells unless you come at me with the intent to kill."
Hearing this, Naruto shot him a sideways glance. 'Is he serious? If he can take one serious punch from me and not die, I would admit defeat.'
Unfortunately, Kakashi couldn't read minds. "Ready?" he asked, pressing the switch on the alarm clock. "Begin!"
As the word left his lips, Sakura immediately vanished, diving into the nearby forest to find cover.
Naruto and Sasuke, however, didn't move an inch.
'They seem pretty confident in their strength,' Kakashi observed, his gaze flickering between them. He lazily pulled a familiar orange book Icha Icha Paradise, from his waist pouch and began to flip through it. 'Still, I am a jonin. I might as well play along with them.'
Though he appeared nonchalant, his attention was fixed squarely on Naruto. 'If I'm not careful, I could actually die.' Hokage's warning echoed in his mind. Hokage's Anbu may have been a sieve when it came to Danzo's secrets, but Danzo's Root was just as transparent to Hokage. Danzo might have thought he could hide the fact that Naruto was capable of using the Nine-Tails chakra, but the old man knew everything.
'So,' Kakashi wondered, 'what kind of surprise will my sensei's son have for me?'
"You might want to be careful, Kakashi-sensei."
Naruto's voice was remained polite. Kakashi glanced up just in time to see him begin to form hand seals. Kakashi, Konoha's famed "Copy Ninja," could perform four hand seals a second. Itachi's speed was even more astounding at six per second, allowing him to cast most ninjutsu almost instantly. Naruto's current speed was... one hand seal every two seconds. At least it was an improvement over his academy days which were reported to be eight seconds per seal.
'Those seals...' Having copied thousands of techniques, Kakashi recognized the jutsu instantly. 'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.'
'A C-Rank ninjutsu,' Kakashi thought. 'Exhale a burst of wind, blow away opponents, create an opening. Basic. Not much destructive power.' It was also one of the few ninjutsu Naruto could perform, even after training with Danzo for so long. Naruto was a slow learner, with little natural talent for ninjutsu and a dislike for the troublesome hand seals. But even he wasn't a complete failure, he could manage a few basic techniques. 'Great Breakthrough ranked among the weakest Wind Release ninjutsu, its main feature being its wide range. It shouldn't be a problem with a bit of caution.'
'He must be planning to use it as a distraction and then attack,' Kakashi reasoned. 'I'll just need to watch his movements afterward. I hear his taijutsu is quite good.'
No sooner had the thought formed than Kakashi regretted it.
The Great Breakthrough jutsu had one crucial characteristic: the strength of the wind was directly linked to the user's chakra reserves. And Naruto's chakra reserves were... well, monstrous.
A fierce hurricane erupted from Naruto's mouth. Sand and stone were instantly whipped into the air, and the roar of the wind was deafening. The gale intensified, punctuated by the sharp *crack* of breaking branches. Soon, stone pillars as tall as a man began to shudder and slide across the ground before being lifted into the air.
Kakashi's eye widened in disbelief. He pushed off the ground, chakra flaring from his feet as he used the Body Flicker Jutsu to try and escape Naruto's jutsu range. But it was no use-the sheer scale of the attack was too vast to dodge.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Kakashi's hands flew through the seals, and he slammed his palms on the ground. A solid wall of rock erupted before him, so hastily formed that it lacked his signature dog-head carvings. It didn't matter. The wall held for less than ten seconds before it disintegrated under the relentless assault.
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!" Kakashi's reaction was swift. He blurred through hand seals again. This time, instead of an Earth-Style Wall, he chose Moving Earth Core, a jutsu that could alter the terrain. The ground beneath his feet rapidly sank, forming a pit, and Kakashi dove inside it.
A full minute passed before the jutsu finally subsided.
When Kakashi climbed out of the hole, he could only stare at the devastation. Trees thick enough that Akimichi ninja's would have difficulty wrapping arms around it, had been completely uprooted. Huge boulders were scattered across the landscape like pebbles. The entire surface of Training Ground 44 had been churned and overturned.
'How was that Wind Release: Great Breakthrough?' Kakashi thought, stunned. 'That was a Typhoon Breakthrough!'
A C-rank ninjutsu had been unleashed with the force of an A-rank, if not higher. Hokage's parting words resurfaced in his mind with chilling clarity.
'If I'm not careful, I could actually die. As expected of you, Hokage-sama.'
Hidden in the trees, Sakura was utterly bewildered. 'Who am I? Where am I? What am I even supposed to do? Is that really my teammate?'
"Naruto," Sasuke said, standing beside him with a look of mild annoyance. "We agreed I would go first. What if you'd killed him?"
"My bad, Sasuke," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I got a little carried away. I just mastered that ninjutsu and wanted to try it out. Besides, Kakashi-sensei isn't hurt. The rest of the time is all yours, Sasu-Sasu!"
"Don't call me that."
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