"Young man, your youth truly burns with passion!" The youthful old man gave Naruto a thumbs-up in praise.
Those gleaming white teeth made Naruto's eyes hurt, but he had nothing to say.
After running a full 500 laps, he was completely exhausted. He lay on the ground, unable to move even a finger.
But why was that youthful old man still so energetic?
Could watermelon hair and a green jumpsuit really be the secret to eternal youth?
The thought of dressing like that himself... ew.
Ugly. Hard pass.
Still, seeing the old man bouncing around so energetically, Naruto began to doubt his own eyes.
He glanced at the panel.
[Muscle Burst: 90 (3/10) → 92 (8/10)] [Endurance: 90 (1/10) → 92 (2/10)]
His attributes were as ridiculous as ever. Even though he had barely trained his body, his SSSSSS Talent had still allowed him to grow to 90.
And because of that explosive surge of life force just now, his attributes had shot up by more than two full points.
Those attributes were not low at all. They even surpassed most Jonin.
There was definitely something off about that old man.
"Oh? It's my eternal rival, Kakashi! Let us have a battle of youth!"
Following the old man's gaze, Naruto saw that pervert. No, his respected teacher Kakashi.
Kakashi ignored Might Guy and stared at Naruto with a complicated expression.
He had long heard of Naruto's title as the King of Pranks. Normally, Naruto committed every kind of mischief in the village, and today Kakashi had finally witnessed it for himself.
But pranks were usually played on others. He had never seen someone prank himself.
Kakashi had lived for twenty-five years, and today had truly broadened his horizons.
"Kakashi-sensei, I've completed the mission." Naruto hinted.
Kakashi refused to take the bait. Since this kid had impersonated him and issued such a mission, this was the perfect chance to lightly punish the King of Pranks. "Have you? Was there such a mission?"
"Wasn't this mission assigned by Kakashi-sensei?"
Sasuke, panting for breath, had appeared at some point and asked the question.
Sasuke's question made the scene suddenly fall silent. Kakashi did not answer. He merely stared fixedly at Naruto, waiting to see how Naruto explained himself. Naruto's answer would determine his attitude.
Even the high-spirited Might Guy sensed that something was wrong.
Sakura had walked over at some point. Seeing Kakashi-sensei and Naruto and Sasuke, who had both stopped, she thought her assessment mission had failed.
She was practically about to cry. She felt as though Sasuke had already drifted away from her.
"Kakashi-sensei, did I fail my assessment mission?"
Kakashi continued staring at Naruto, while Sasuke also looked at Naruto in confusion. Sakura, who had just arrived, had no other thoughts. She only wanted to look at Sasuke a little longer.
Seeing this, Naruto chose to activate Plan B.
"Fine, actually, all of this was my—"
Before he could finish, Kakashi cut him off.
"This really was the assessment mission I assigned."
Seeing Naruto voluntarily admit his mistake, Kakashi had not intended to keep pressing him. What the real assessment mission was did not actually matter. What mattered was understanding teamwork. Still, that answer surprised Naruto.
Seriously, bro?
I'd already moved on to the second plan, and you pulled me back again.
You should've said something earlier. Why didn't you say so earlier?
Without paying attention to what Naruto thought, Kakashi swept his gaze over the other two. Every one of these three fought alone, with no awareness of cooperation. He said coldly, "But the result is this: all three of you fail! You should give up on becoming ninja!"
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura: ?
"What do 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 and supported one another, even if 500 laps would have been difficult, you could still have completed it."
Kakashi glanced at Sakura, who had already begun crying, and suddenly remembered what he had overheard the three of them discussing yesterday afternoon.
His tone did not change. "But all I saw was each of you fighting on your own. Do you even understand what it means to be a three-person team?"
"Teamwork, sharing honor and disgrace!" Sakura shouted.
That question she could answer was her only ray of light.
"That's right. But what about you?"
After speaking, Kakashi fell silent for a long time, perhaps giving them time to reflect and understand.
Sakura sobbed quietly.
Sasuke frowned deeply, but he also looked between Kakashi and Naruto in confusion, as though he had noticed something strange about them.
Naruto kept staring at Kakashi, feeling that he had more to say.
Would Kakashi really send them back to the Academy?
No way.
No one would allow him, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, or the last remaining Uchiha, to fail graduation and become unable to be ninja.
Kakashi-sensei, hurry up and serve it.
Kakashi indeed spoke again. "It's not as though there isn't a second chance."
Sakura looked up in delight, while Sasuke grew even more puzzled.
Naruto wore an expression that said, Just as I thought.
Kakashi noticed that expression. His one exposed eye narrowed slightly, as though something sinister was brewing.
"However, there is a condition. Naruto!" Kakashi suddenly called his name. This King of Pranks was undisciplined and unorganized, and had even dared impersonate Kakashi to issue a fake mission. Kakashi intended to punish Naruto severely.
"Hm?"
"You really like running on your hands?"
Naruto did not suspect a thing. "It's all right. Actually, I kind of like it."
Noticing the heavy threat in Kakashi's gaze, he decisively changed his answer.
"Very good. Since you like running on your hands, then today you'll run another 500 laps by yourself. No, 5,000 laps. Once you finish, I'll give you a second chance tomorrow."
Huh?
Naruto finally realized that Kakashi-sensei was punishing him.
He had thought Kakashi-sensei was pretty decent for taking the blame for him.
Who would have thought?
You thick-browed guy were actually this scheming!
And here I was thinking you were pretty cool yesterday.
"Starting the timer now!"
Kakashi pulled a stopwatch out from somewhere.
That expression, that movement... Naruto had seen it before.
It felt like he had seen it somewhere.
Before he could think further, Kakashi had already begun a cold countdown.
"3... 2... 1. Start."
"Damn it!"
Naruto let out a roar and immediately began moving forward on his hands.
He would treat it as punishment. It would earn those two a chance. Just 5,000 laps. Nothing to it.
Add points for me!
Before he had gone very far, a voice came from behind him.
"Don't slack off. I'll be watching you the whole time."
That particular reminder finally made Naruto solve the mystery.
Damn Kakashi, he had actually taken Naruto's prank material and used it against him now.
Kakashi came in second place in a game of imitating Kakashi!
Watching Naruto run away on his hands, Sakura's face was full of sympathy.
5,000 laps... he would probably have to run until tomorrow.
"You two can go back now," Kakashi said.
After saying that, he shot away with a whoosh, seemingly going to keep watch over Naruto.
"Hmph."
Sasuke snorted coldly. He more or less understood now.
But for some reason, he thought again of that look in "Kakashi's" eyes.
Could such an oppressive gaze really have belonged to Naruto?
He had already had a feeling during the earlier handstand run.
But now he could clearly sense it. Was the gap between them really that huge?
Sasuke did not want to believe it, but the facts gave him no choice.
"Sasuke-kun, let's go eat." Sakura stepped forward, stars in her eyes.
Though she completely failed to understand what had happened today, at least the danger had passed, and she still had a chance to be with Sasuke.
And now, without Naruto acting as a third wheel, it was time for the two of them to be alone together.
"I don't have time."
Then Sakura saw Sasuke stand on his hands again and begin running forward, trying to catch up to Naruto.
At that moment, Sasuke's face was expressionless.
Sasuke was only doing this because he did not want to lose to Naruto, not because Naruto was running 5,000 laps on his hands to earn him a chance, not because of the teamwork Kakashi-sensei had mentioned, and certainly not because of the sharing honor and disgrace the three of them had discussed yesterday.
That was right. That was how it was.
"Sasuke, Sasuke!" Sakura ran after him.
A little while later.
Naruto, who had finished one lap, found the two of them ahead of him rather strange.
"What are you two doing?"
Sasuke answered with a cold snort.
"Oh, I get it. That's right, we're a team! We should share honor and disgrace!"
Seeing that Sasuke did not object, Sakura seemed to realize something, and Naruto made another suggestion.
"How about we give our group an awesome name?"
Sasuke was already struggling too much to answer him.
Only Naruto, who was still relatively relaxed, had the microphone all to himself.
"It's better to pick a group name early, before someone gives us some title or something. The Three Ninja? Listen to that, there's no uniqueness or beauty to it at all."
"If you ask me, we should be called Hokage Legend! Huh? Kakashi-sensei, why are you waiting for us here?"
Kakashi's eye curved into a crescent as he smiled. "Congratulations. You all pass!"
Thanks to Youle for the divine monthly ticket support, and thanks to wseldenring, Book Friend 20190701171449905, and Book Friend 20200311234641281 for the two monthly tickets. Thank you.
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