Genin Uzumaki Naruto

"Young man, your youth is truly passionate!" the eternally youthful old boy exclaimed, giving Naruto a thumbs-up.

The flashing white teeth made Naruto's eyes ache, but he couldn't say anything.

After running a full 500 laps, he was completely exhausted, lying on the ground, barely able to move a finger.

But why was the eternally youthful old boy still so full of energy?

Could a bowl cut and a green bodysuit really be the secret to eternal youth?

The thought of himself dressed like that... Yuck.

He'd rather refuse.

Still, looking at the old boy who was still bouncing around, Naruto couldn't help but doubt his own eyes.

He glanced at his status panel.

[Muscle Burst: 90 (3/10) → 92 (8/10)]

[Stamina: 90 (1/10) → 92 (2/10)]

His stats were as usual. Even though he hadn't really trained his body much, his SSSSSS Talent had still pushed him to level 90.

In fact, the burst of life he'd just experienced had caused his stats to jump by more than 2 whole points.

These stats weren't low either; they even surpassed most Jonin.

That old boy definitely had something going on.

"Yo? It's my best friend Kakashi! Let's have a youthful showdown!"

Following the old boy's gaze, Naruto saw the perverted… no, his respected Teacher Kakashi.

Kakashi ignored Might Guy and instead stared at Naruto with a complex expression.

He had long heard of Naruto's reputation as a prankster, someone who caused trouble all over the village. Today, he was finally seeing it for himself.

But pranks were usually played on others; he'd never seen someone prank themselves.

Kakashi, in his 25 years of life, was truly seeing something new today.

"Teacher Kakashi, I've completed the mission," Naruto hinted.

Kakashi refused to take the bait. This kid had impersonated him to issue such a mission, so he decided to use this opportunity to teach the prankster a small lesson. "Oh? Was there such a mission?"

"Wasn't this mission issued by you, Teacher Kakashi?"

Sasuke, panting heavily, appeared at some point and asked.

Sasuke's question caused the atmosphere to freeze. Kakashi didn't answer but stared intently at Naruto, waiting to see how he would explain. Naruto's answer would determine his attitude.

The enthusiastic Might Guy also sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

Sakura arrived at some point. Seeing Teacher Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke all stopped, she thought her own assessment mission had failed.

She was on the verge of tears, feeling that Sasuke was already slipping away from her.

"Teacher Kakashi, did my assessment mission fail?"

Kakashi continued to stare at Naruto, while Sasuke also stared at Naruto, confused. Sakura, who had just arrived, had no other thoughts; she just wanted to look at Sasuke one last time.

Seeing this, Naruto decided to activate Plan B.

"Alright, actually, this was all my..."

Before he could finish, Kakashi interrupted him.

"This was indeed the assessment mission I issued."

Seeing that Naruto had voluntarily admitted his mistake, Kakashi didn't intend to press the issue further. What was the real assessment mission? It wasn't important. What mattered was understanding teamwork. However, this answer surprised Naruto a little.

What? You're not going to let me take the fall?

I was already on my second contingency plan, and you pull me back.

Why didn't you say so earlier? Why didn't you speak up sooner?

Kakashi, paying no mind to what Naruto was thinking, glanced at the other two. All three of them, without exception, were acting as individuals and showed no sense of cooperation. He said coldly, "But the result is: all three of you have failed! You shouldn't be ninjas!"

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura: "?"

"What did you think this assessment was testing?"

Without giving the three of them a chance to speak, Kakashi answered his own question: "It was testing teamwork!

If the three of you had run together, supporting each other, even 500 laps would have been difficult, but you could have completed it."

Kakashi glanced at Sakura, who had started crying, and suddenly recalled what the three of them had discussed yesterday afternoon when he had eavesdropped.

His tone remained unchanged. "But all I saw was each of you fighting alone. Do you even know what it means to be a team of three?"

"Teamwork, sharing honor and disgrace!" Sakura shouted.

This question she could answer was her only glimmer of hope.

"That's right, but what about you?"

After speaking, Kakashi fell silent for a long time, perhaps letting them ponder and comprehend.

Sakura sobbed softly.

Sasuke's brow furrowed, but he also scanned Kakashi and Naruto with confusion, as if sensing something was off about the two of them.

Naruto kept staring at Kakashi, feeling like he still had something left unsaid.

Would Kakashi really send them back to the Academy?

No way.

No one would let him, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan fail to graduate and become ninja.

Teacher Kakashi, bring it on.

Kakashi indeed spoke up, "It's not that there isn't a second chance."

Sakura looked up in surprise, Sasuke was even more confused.

Naruto looked as if he'd expected this.

Kakashi noticed this look, and the one visible eye of his narrowed, as if brewing some dark scheme.

"However, there's a condition. Naruto!" Kakashi suddenly called out his name. This king of pranks, undisciplined and even daring to impersonate him to issue fake missions, he was prepared to severely punish Naruto.

"Hm?"

"You really like running on your hands?"

Naruto, suspecting nothing, replied, "It's okay, I actually quite like it."

Noticing Kakashi's threatening gaze, he quickly changed his tune.

"Very well, since you like running on your hands, you will run 500 laps by yourself today. No, 5000 laps. After you finish, I'll give you guys a second chance tomorrow."

Huh?

Naruto realized that Teacher Kakashi was punishing him.

He'd thought Teacher Kakashi, who took the blame for him, was pretty good.

But he never expected this.

You, with your stern-looking face, are actually so devious!

I even thought you were so cool yesterday.

"Start the timer!"

Kakashi pulled out a stopwatch from somewhere.

This expression, this movement, Naruto felt a sense of déjà vu.

It was like he'd seen it somewhere before.

Before he could think further, Kakashi began a cold countdown.

"3... 2... 1. Begin."

"Damn it!"

Naruto roared and immediately began crawling on his hands.

Just consider it a punishment. To buy those two guys a chance. 5000 laps, that's all. It's nothing.

Add more!

Before he'd crawled far, a voice came from behind.

"Don't slack off, I'll be watching you the whole time."

This special reminder finally solved the mystery for Naruto.

Damn Kakashi, he was using the prank he'd created against him now.

Kakashi ranked second in the 'Imitate Kakashi' game!

Watching Naruto crawl away on his hands, Sakura's face was filled with sympathy.

5000 laps, he'd probably be running until tomorrow.

"You two, you can go back now," Kakashi said.

With a whoosh, he leaped away, seemingly to go monitor Naruto.

"Hmph."

Sasuke snorted. He had a general idea of what was going on.

But, for some reason, he thought of 'Kakashi's' gaze again.

Such an oppressive gaze, could it really be Naruto?

He'd had a premonition during the hand-running before.

But now he clearly sensed it. Is the gap really this big?

Sasuke subjectively refused to believe it, but the facts left him no choice.

"Sasuke-kun, let's go eat," Sakura said, her eyes sparkling as she walked up.

Although she didn't understand what had happened today at all, she was glad that the danger had passed and she still had a chance to be with Sasuke.

Moreover, with Naruto not here to be a third wheel, it was completely time for the two of them to be alone.

"I don't have time."

Then, Sakura saw Sasuke start to do a handstand again and run forward on his hands, trying to keep up with Naruto.

At this moment, Sasuke's expression was blank.

Sasuke was doing this simply because he didn't want to lose to Naruto. It wasn't because Naruto was going to handstand-run 5,000 laps to buy him an opportunity, nor was it because of the teamwork Kakashi had just mentioned, and certainly not because of the shared honor and disgrace they had discussed yesterday.

That's right, it was like that.

"Sasuke, Sasuke!" Sakura ran after Sasuke.

After a while.

Naruto, who had run a lap and returned, found the two ahead quite strange.

"What are you guys doing?"

Sasuke's cold snort was his reply.

"Oh, I get it. That's right, we're a team! We share honor and disgrace!"

Seeing that Sasuke didn't object, Sakura seemed to have an epiphany. Naruto suggested again.

"How about we give our group a cool name?"

Sasuke was already too exhausted to answer.

Only the relatively relaxed Naruto was left, occupying the microphone alone.

"It's better to come up with a group name sooner rather than later, so we don't get stuck with some nickname. Sannin? Listen to that, the name has no uniqueness or aesthetic appeal."

"If you ask me, we should call ourselves Hokage Legend! Huh? Kakashi-sensei, why are you waiting for us here?"

Kakashi's eyes curved into crescents, and he smiled, "Congratulations, you all passed!"

Thanks to Youle for the Divine Monthly Ticket support, and thanks to wseldenring, Book Friend 20190701171449905, and Book Friend 20200311234641281 for their two monthly tickets. Thank you.