Survival Exercise (3)

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

Sasuke stared fixedly at Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan, utterly unable to control his emotions. That kind of Sharingan again... That kind of Sharingan... Sasuke's body trembled slightly against his will as that man's eyes kept surfacing before him.

"..." Kakashi fell silent, then said in a low voice, "This Mangekyō Sharingan wasn't awakened by me... Its original owner had opened it long ago. I merely discovered it."

"Mangekyō Sharingan?" It was Sasuke's first time hearing the term. In an instant, Itachi's words from that night rang in his ears again—

"When you possess the same eyes as me, come find me again."

The same eyes? Mangekyō Sharingan?

Damn it... Sasuke clenched his fists tightly.

Hinata watched Sasuke worriedly. His current state was extremely abnormal. Seeing Sasuke like this, Naruto sighed inwardly, somewhat concerned. Sasuke's emotional knot ran far too deep. It was as if this matter had become a thorn-covered curse wrapped around his heart—the more he struggled, the more it hurt.

It seemed only Itachi could completely untie Sasuke's knot.

But no matter what, getting through the Survival Exercise before them was the urgent priority. Naruto had a headache and casually tossed a shuriken at Kakashi. Kakashi shifted slightly and sidestepped it.

Naruto smiled. "Can't you coolly dodge it 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." Kakashi felt deeply aggrieved. Why was it impossible to communicate with someone like this?

"Oh..." Naruto nodded with a faint smile, then raised his hands and formed a cross seal.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!

Poof poof poof poof poof poof poof...

Hundreds upon thousands of golden Naruto clones appeared across the not-so-large exercise ground, surrounding Kakashi in layer upon layer.

"Take this, Teacher Kakashi!" Nearly a thousand golden Narutos laughed, their voices merging into a deafening echo as they rushed Kakashi all at once.

Was this guy doing it on purpose? Kakashi felt exhausted. Splitting off that many Shadow Clones—just how much Chakra would that take? It was unimaginable! Catching one Naruto's punch and kicking away another Naruto who had lunged at him from behind, Kakashi somehow caught a trace of mockery in the technique.

Naruto naturally had no intention of mocking him. He merely wanted to use the cover of a human-wave tactic to do something.

Lightning Style: Ground Run!

A dragon-like streak of lightning flashed through the crowd of Shadow Clones, followed by a series of poofs as a huge number of clones were dispelled. But it did not matter. Once a large group was scattered, an even larger group surged forward.

Kakashi drew the short blade strapped upright to his back again, using the swordsmanship and taijutsu he had honed on the battlefield to efficiently deal with Naruto's Shadow Clones.

"Sasuke, Hinata, I have a plan..." Naruto called out to Sasuke and Hinata from the outermost edge.

Nearly a thousand Shadow Clones were all dispersed by Kakashi in less than five minutes.

This was also the drawback of creating too many Shadow Clones. Not only was the consumption enormous, but dividing Chakra into a thousand portions weakened each individual clone's combat power too severely. Even though some Chakra returned to the original body after a clone was dispersed, it was still far from worth the cost.

Only golden Naruto, whose Chakra reserves were absurdly vast, could afford to fight like this...

Once all the Shadow Clones around him vanished, Kakashi's view suddenly cleared, and he found that only Sasuke remained before him.

"Have you prepared your strategy? What a headache..." Kakashi stared with his dead-fish eyes, his nerves taut. Naruto's situation was simply too unusual. His combat strength was absurdly powerful. Was he really a newly graduated Academy student? An ordinary chunin could not last more than a few minutes against him.

He had not even used that "Rasenshuriken"...

And Sasuke, who had trained alongside Naruto for six years, was no ordinary fighter either. He far surpassed the other students of their class, which gave Kakashi quite a headache. On one hand, he was deeply wary of Naruto's combat strength; on the other, he had to watch out for what Sasuke, wielder of the Three Tomoe Sharingan, might pull.

Once the two of them grew for a few more years, I probably won't be able to keep up at all...

"Kakashi, I hope that after the exercise ends, you can tell me about your eye," Sasuke said calmly.

"You should wait until you've passed my exercise before talking about that..."

"Hmph." Sasuke curled his lips and reached both hands into the two large ninja tool pouches at his waist.

The Mangekyō in Kakashi's left eye turned slightly as he calmly observed Sasuke's movements.

Did he have those two ninja tool pouches before...?

The next moment—

Sasuke's hands turned into two blurs, and countless shuriken blanketed Kakashi like a torrential downpour.

This was way too exaggerated... The Uchiha Clan's throwing technique?!

Kakashi instantly circulated Lightning Release Chakra throughout his body, stimulating its vitality as he rapidly retreated to the side. However, Sasuke, who also had his Three Tomoe Sharingan activated, reacted just as quickly, and the rain of shuriken curved with Kakashi's movements.

Seeing that there was no escape, Kakashi could only helplessly activate Kamui to its fullest. His entire body entered an intangible state that ignored physical attacks. Every shuriken passed straight through him and embedded itself in the ground behind him.

With my current Chakra, I probably can't even sustain this state for its five-minute limit... But Sasuke surely can't maintain such intense throwing for long either...

With intangibility active, Kakashi thought as he tried to run out of the shuriken rain's range.

The rain stopped.

Great Fireball Technique! Sasuke rapidly formed hand seals and breathed out six burning shuriken that shot toward Kakashi.

Again?! As the Great Fireball attack was about to reach him, two shuriken among the dense carpet beneath Kakashi's feet exploded with two poofs, and two Narutos leaped out. One threw a punch and the other a kick, attacking Kakashi right after the Great Fireball Technique.

Just as I thought...

The Great Fireball attack and the two Narutos' attacks all missed, passing through Kakashi's body.

This won't do. The Mangekyō is almost at its limit...

The moment the attacks passed through him, Kakashi's counterattack arrived. His sweeping kick nearly struck the faces of the two Shadow Clone Narutos, but Sasuke's Fuma Shuriken arrived before him at the same time—

No pause at all, huh...

Kakashi was helpless. He once again pushed Kamui to its limit. The Fuma Shuriken dispersed one Naruto clone and passed through Kakashi's body, while Kakashi's sweeping kick likewise passed through the other Shadow Clone Naruto without harming him.

The Fuma Shuriken completely cleared Kakashi's back—

Poof! The spinning Fuma Shuriken actually transformed into Hinata! Her Byakugan was open as she struck Kakashi's back meridians with her palm!

Not good, the Gentle Fist! If I get hit by that, it really will be over...

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

Kakashi's body stiffened as the Chakra throughout his body stopped flowing, freezing within his meridians.

Turning to look ahead, he saw Hinata's Pressure Point Strike pressed against his chest.

The remaining Naruto clone from before had actually been Hinata's Transformation Technique.

The "Hinata" behind him vanished with a poof, turning into Naruto.

Sasuke held a short blade to Kakashi's neck, his expression blank. The arm holding the blade trembled slightly; clearly, the earlier barrage of ninja tools had drained his arm tremendously. Sasuke stared intently at Kakashi's left eye as it reverted to the Three Tomoe Sharingan.

"Ah..." Surrounded and pressed in by the three of them, with the Chakra in his body sealed, Kakashi could only helplessly pull down his Headband to cover his left eye. He collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion and muttered gloomily, "What kind of genin are these...?"

Whew... Naruto was exhausted as well. The golden glow around his body faded, and he sat down too.

Naruto reached over and removed the Bells from Kakashi's waist, smiling happily. "Don't be like that, Teacher Kakashi. It's only because you haven't adapted to the burden of the Mangekyō Sharingan yet... Besides, you have far less Chakra than I do."

Kakashi rubbed his forehead helplessly. After a while, he turned and asked with narrowed eyes, "Then how will you distribute the Bells, Sasuke, Hinata?"

Sasuke lowered his short blade. Hinata stood there nervously, looking at Naruto, then at Sasuke.

Naruto said nothing. He knew the true meaning of this exercise, and he knew Teacher Kakashi knew that he knew, so this question was not for him. It was asking Sasuke and Hinata what they would choose.

Sasuke broke the silence. "Give them to Naruto and Hinata... I only need to become stronger. Whether I become a genin... doesn't matter." Hinata looked at Sasuke in surprise and hurriedly said, "How can that work, Sasuke? I... I..." She reluctantly glanced at Naruto behind Kakashi, then finally said firmly, "I should go back to the Academy instead..."

Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other and smiled at the same time.