Four Twos with Two Jokers

"Awesome! So awesome!"

Naruto ran off to the side and stared blankly at Hinata and Kakashi's beam clash. To him, it was practically world-ending, completely overturning everything he thought he knew.

Fortunately, Hinata's Mountain Breaker had been fired upward. Otherwise, the trees in the Seventh Training Ground would have suffered.

Trees in the Ninja World were always plagued by disasters. It was best to protect them whenever possible!

Protecting the environment was everyone's responsibility.

Naruto and Sasuke split up. Sasuke could clearly see that Kakashi had gotten serious. Jonin-level strength was beyond anything he could handle, so he hid again.

Sasuke actually took this survival exercise more seriously than Naruto and Hinata did.

Hinata only saw the survival exercise as combat training, while Naruto was doing it for his Hokage Position.

But for Sasuke, if he could not even pass the Genin Exam, revenge against Itachi Uchiha would be out of the question.

Sasuke did not care whether he was a Genin or not. He only wanted to prove his strength.

Yet everything that had happened today was a devastating blow to him.

Hinata, a little girl his own age, possessed strength far beyond his reach.

As he ran through the forest with his fists clenched tight, Sasuke kept questioning what he had been doing all this time and why the gap between him and Hinata had grown so vast.

And Naruto—when had he learned such an advanced ninjutsu as the Shadow Clone?

As the beam clash ended, Naruto stared blankly at Hinata and asked, "Hinata, what do we do now?"

Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the surroundings before saying, "Follow me!"

Kakashi actually wanted to take Sasuke out first?

How could she allow that?

Hinata's idea of teamwork was—her companions had to be rescued.

Hinata silently gave herself a perfect score. Wasn't this Kakashi's lifelong philosophy?

I've already passed!

As for Naruto, Hinata glanced at him. As long as he followed her in rescuing someone, Kakashi would surely judge him to have passed as well.

That only left Sasuke.

She needed to find a way to make Sasuke understand that.

Hinata had a bit of a headache. She really had worried herself sick over these two idiots.

Motherly love!

In the forest, Sasuke lay prone on the ground, intending to check who had won between Kakashi and Hinata, only to find that the clearing in the Seventh Training Ground was completely empty.

"Sasuke! Watch behind you!"

At the sound of the voice, Sasuke instantly broke out in a cold sweat. He turned around and, sure enough, saw Kakashi crouching behind him.

"!!!"

Kakashi was just about to use Genjutsu to take Sasuke down when he heard a faint sound from the woods. Turning his head, he saw Hinata leaping into the air with Chakra Fists gathered in both hands.

"Sasuke, don't move!"

Hinata shouted, then threw both fists forward.

Using Chakra Fists formed through Twenty Gods Vacuum Attack to launch Air Palms, Hinata's current level of control allowed her to fire ten Air Palms at once.

It was practically artillery bombardment.

Boom! Boom! Boom!...

Even the ground trembled. Sand and dust billowed everywhere. Hinata landed, found Sasuke with her Byakugan, and led him away from the area.

Kakashi had still been hit.

Hinata's Air Palms had struck the ground, causing it to shake violently. Under those conditions, it was impossible to escape with Earth Release.

Though Hinata had deliberately avoided Sasuke's position, Kakashi had been caught in an eightfold, blanket-style Air Palm attack.

Even with Kakashi's incredible speed, an Air Palm still struck his body.

"Cough, cough!"

Kakashi sat propped against a large tree, a bitter smile on his lips beneath his mask. I'm really making a mess of things today!

He had thought this would be an easy test he could finish while reading his book, yet he had unexpectedly run into someone with cheat-level abilities.

Hinata's strength really was rather strange.

In gaming terms, Hinata had trained her skills to Diamond rank by fighting easy AI opponents. As long as she fought Diamond-ranked players of the same level a few times, she could easily reach King rank.

To improve your skills, you had to fight other players. He had never heard of anyone reaching Diamond-level skill by fighting AI.

So even though Naruto and Sasuke were already twelve, they currently only had Silver-level strength and Bronze-level awareness.

However, Naruto and Sasuke possessed Silver- or even Gold-level theoretical foundations. With just a little training, their strength would rapidly improve.

Kakashi had to admit that if he wanted to defeat Hinata, he would have to use his Sharingan.

Without the Sharingan, Kakashi's perception and judgment could no longer keep up with his own strength.

Elsewhere in the forest, Hinata and Sasuke met up with Naruto. Naruto clamored, "Hinata, you're amazing! What was that move just now called?"

Hinata was using her Byakugan to search for Kakashi and had no time to deal with Naruto. She casually replied, "Four Twos with Two Jokers!"

Actually, if she used Air Palm together with Twenty Gods Vacuum Attack, it should have been Four Aces with Two Jokers.

"Found him! Let's go!"

Hinata quickly located Kakashi and called out to Naruto and Sasuke before running over.

Sasuke was deeply unwilling to accept this. He had actually already figured out the truth behind the survival exercise, because every time Hinata fought Kakashi, she always called out to Naruto and Sasuke.

So it was about teamwork?

But teamwork required everyone to contribute equally!

Once Hinata engaged Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke had no room to interfere at all.

"You won't even give me time to catch my breath!"

Kakashi complained, though he knew perfectly well that as long as Hinata was around, she would find him no matter where he hid unless he left the training ground.

"Just how did she train? Might Guy never mentioned anything unusual about Neji from their class."

Kakashi shook his head. Once Hinata and the other two appeared, he lifted his forehead protector, revealing the Sharingan beneath it.

"Girls these days are really something. Looks like I have no choice but to get serious."

Hinata revealed a sweet, harmless smile, looking slightly pleased with herself. "I can tell, Teacher Kakashi! Your left eye is rapidly draining your chakra. In that state, you won't be able to last long at all!"

The current Kakashi was not yet the Kakashi who had sensed a crisis and trained hard for three years.

Ever since Obito had died, Kakashi had not seriously trained for a long time.

Moreover, the ninja world had been at peace for so long that Kakashi had unknowingly grown somewhat lax.

Kakashi scratched his head and said with a hint of helplessness, "Kids these days really aren't cute at all!"

Compared with Hinata's prior knowledge and Naruto's ignorance, Sasuke's shock when Kakashi revealed his Sharingan was beyond description.

It was like a mountain-shattering tsunami.

That was the Sharingan?

Sasuke stared fixedly at Kakashi's left eye. That was the Sharingan of the Uchiha Family.