Survival Exercise (3)

"What the hell is going on? Kakashi, your eye... what happened to it?!"

Sasuke stared fixedly at Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan, barely able to control his emotions. Another Sharingan like that, that kind of Sharingan... Sasuke's body trembled uncontrollably as the image of that man's eyes kept surfacing before him.

"..." Kakashi was silent, then said in a low voice, "This Mangekyō Sharingan wasn't awakened by me... its original owner had already opened it long ago. I only just realized it."

"Mangekyō Sharingan?" Sasuke heard this term for the first time. In an instant, Itachi's words from that night echoed in his ears again—

"When you have eyes like mine, come find me then."

Eyes like mine? The Mangekyō Sharingan?

Damn it... Sasuke clenched his fists tightly.

Hinata watched Sasuke with concern; his state was extremely abnormal. Seeing Sasuke's condition, Naruto sighed inwardly with some worry. Sasuke's emotional knot was just too deep. This matter seemed to have become a thorny curse wrapped around his heart—the more he struggled, the more it hurt.

It seems only Itachi can truly untie Sasuke's heart.

But no matter what, getting through this Survival Exercise was the urgent priority. Naruto's head ached as he casually tossed a shuriken at Kakashi, who sidestepped slightly to dodge.

Naruto grinned. "Can't you just dodge it coolly with Kamui, Teacher Kakashi?"

Kakashi broke into a sweat and explained helplessly, "I'm not you, Naruto. I don't have that much chakra to waste." He felt a pang of frustration—how was he supposed to communicate with someone like this?

"Oh..." Naruto nodded, a smile spreading across his face, then raised his hands and formed the Ram seal.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

Bam bam bam bam bam bam bam...

Hundreds upon hundreds of golden Naruto clones appeared in the not-so-large training ground, surrounding Kakashi in layer after layer.

"Take this, Teacher Kakashi!" Nearly a thousand golden Narutos laughed in unison, their voices echoing as they charged at Kakashi all at once.

Is this guy doing this on purpose? Kakashi felt exhausted. Splitting into this many shadow clones at once—how much chakra did that take? It was unimaginable! Catching one Naruto's fist and kicking apart another clone lunging from behind, Kakashi inexplicably sensed a hint of mockery in the technique.

Naruto, of course, had no intention of mocking him. He just wanted to use the human-wave tactic as cover to do something.

"Lightning Style: Ground Run!"

A dragon-like bolt of lightning flashed through the crowd of shadow clones, and then bam bam bam bam bam... a large swath of clones dispersed. But that was fine—scatter one batch, and an even bigger one surged forward.

Kakashi pulled out the short sword strapped upright on his back, using the blade and taijutsu skills honed on the battlefield to efficiently take down Naruto's clones.

"Sasuke, Hinata, I have a plan..." Outside the fray, Naruto called to Sasuke and Hinata.

Nearly a thousand shadow clones—Kakashi took them all down in under five minutes.

This was also the downside of having too many clones: not only was the chakra consumption massive, but splitting it a thousand ways severely weakened each individual's combat power. Even though some chakra returned to the original when clones were dispersed, it was still a huge loss.

Only someone with an absurdly vast chakra pool like golden Naruto could afford to play this way...

With all the clones gone and the view clear, Kakashi saw only Sasuke left.

"Got your tactics ready? What a headache..." Kakashi stared with his dead-fish eyes, his nerves on edge. Naruto's situation was just too special—his combat power was ridiculously strong. How was this a freshly graduated academy student? Even an average chūnin couldn't last more than a few minutes against him.

And he hadn't even used that Rasenshuriken...

Sasuke, who had trained alongside Naruto for six years, was also far stronger than their peers, which gave Kakashi plenty to worry about. He had to be wary of Naruto's overwhelming strength while keeping an eye on Sasuke, the Three Tomoe Sharingan wielder, to see what he might pull.

In a few more years, when these two grow up, I'll be completely left behind...

"Kakashi, after the exercise is over, I hope you'll tell me about your eye," Sasuke said calmly.

"You'll have to pass my exercise first before we talk about that."

"Hmph." Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk as he reached his hands into the two large ninja tool pouches at his lower back.

Kakashi's left Mangekyō rotated slightly as he calmly observed Sasuke's movements.

Did he have those pouches before?

The next moment—

Sasuke's hands became a blur, and countless shuriken rained down on Kakashi like a torrential downpour.

This is insane... The Uchiha Clan's throwing technique?!

Kakashi instantly flooded his body with Lightning Release Chakra to stimulate his cells and enhance his reflexes, darting to the side. But Sasuke, also using his Three Tomoe Sharingan, reacted just as quickly, curving the shuriken storm to follow Kakashi's movement.

Seeing no way to dodge, Kakashi had no choice but to fully activate his left eye's Kamui, entering an intangible state that ignored physical attacks. All the shuriken passed straight through him and embedded into the ground behind.

With my current chakra, I probably can't even last the full five-minute limit of this state... But Sasuke probably can't keep up this high-speed throwing for long either.

Kakashi remained intangible, thinking as he tried to escape the shuriken's range.

The rain stopped.

"Great Fireball Technique!" Sasuke formed hand seals in a flash, spat out six flaming shuriken, and shot them at Kakashi.

More?! Just as the Great Fireballs were about to hit, two of the countless shuriken on the ground beneath Kakashi exploded with a bam bam, and two Narutos leaped out, fists and feet aimed at Kakashi right behind the fire.

Just as I thought...

The Great Fireballs and both Narutos' attacks all missed, passing through Kakashi's body.

I can't keep this up—the Mangekyō is almost at its limit...

The moment his attack passed through, Teacher Kakashi's counterattack was already coming—his whip kick nearly landing on the faces of the two Shadow Clone Narutos in front of him. But just then, Sasuke's Fuma Shuriken arrived before his eyes at the same time.

No pause at all...

Kakashi had no choice but to push Kamui to its limit once more. The Fuma Shuriken scattered one of Naruto's clones, passed through Kakashi's body, and his whip kick simultaneously failed to hit the other Shadow Clone Naruto, slipping right through.

The Fuma Shuriken fully exited from behind Kakashi—

Bam! The spinning Fuma Shuriken suddenly turned into Hinata! Her Byakugan open, she struck a palm toward the meridian points on Kakashi's back!

Not good, it's Gentle Fist! If that attack lands, it's really over...

The gap between the two attacks was far too short, but fortunately, Kakashi's reflexes were excellent, and he activated Kamui again just in time... Hinata's palm strike swung through empty air.

Kakashi's body stiffened. All his Chakra stopped flowing, solidifying in his meridians.

He turned to look in front of him—Hinata's Pressure Point Strike was pressed against his chest.

The remaining Shadow Clone of Naruto from earlier had actually been Hinata's Transformation Technique.

The "Hinata" behind him went poof and turned into Naruto.

A short blade was held against Kakashi's neck. Sasuke's face was expressionless, but the arm gripping the knife trembled slightly—clearly, the high-powered thrown weapon earlier had taken a massive toll on his arm. Sasuke stared intently at Kakashi's left eye, which had receded back to three tomoe.

"Ahh..." Kakashi, surrounded and pressed by the three of them, his Chakra sealed inside his body, had no choice but to helplessly pull down his Headband to cover his left eye. Exhausted, he plopped down onto the ground and grumbled, "What kind of genin are these..."

Huff... Naruto was also worn out. The golden light around him faded, and he sat down as well.

Reaching out to take the Bells from Kakashi's waist, Naruto grinned happily. "Don't be like that, Teacher Kakashi. You just haven't adapted to the burden of the Mangekyō Sharingan yet... Also, you have way less Chakra than I do."

Kakashi helplessly pressed his forehead. After a moment, he turned and squinted, asking, "So, how are you three going to split the Bells? Sasuke? Hinata?"

Sasuke lowered the short blade. Hinata stood nervously in place, glancing at Naruto, then at Sasuke.

Naruto said nothing. He understood the true meaning of this exercise, and he knew that Teacher Kakashi knew he knew—so this wasn't a question for him, but a test of Sasuke and Hinata's choices.

Sasuke broke the silence. "Give them to Naruto and Hinata... I just need to get stronger. Whether I become a genin or not... doesn't matter." Hinata looked at Sasuke in surprise and said urgently, "How can that be, Sasuke-kun? I... I..." She cast a reluctant glance at Naruto behind Kakashi, then finally said firmly, "Let me go back to the Academy instead..."

Kakashi and Naruto exchanged a look and smiled at the same time.