Naruto stood where he was, calmly meeting Kakashi's gaze. His voice was steady. "First, you deliberately used rules and intimidation to push us to the extreme, both physically and psychologically."
"Then you forced the three of us Genin into the harshest jungle-law scenario, yet expected three boys who'd only just graduated from the Ninja Academy to understand the almost fairy-tale notion of teamwork under such extreme conditions."
"That's extremely difficult, and unreasonable in itself."
Kakashi froze for a moment. Had those words really come from a Genin who'd only just graduated from the Ninja Academy?
Without waiting for Kakashi to respond, Naruto continued, "Second, even if the three of us 'got lucky' and passed..."
"So many Genin teams graduate every year. Are all the other Jonin Instructors supposed to deliberately make their students guess the hidden meaning of 'teamwork' under the most difficult circumstances?"
"Or do they only test basic skills? If several—or even many—newly graduated teams passed their tests simply by demonstrating basic ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu skills, then by your standards, weren't they unqualified from the start? Shouldn't they have been failed?"
Sakura and Sasuke both held their breath.
They'd never thought about any of this. At first, they'd only been focused on taking the bells.
They hadn't even thought through how the two bells were supposed to be divided among the three of them.
"Third," Naruto continued in the same steady tone, "what if the students you failed in previous years graduated the following year and happened to get a teacher who didn't test teamwork, but passed because they had solid fundamentals?"
"Then tell me, did they learn teamwork during their graduation test? Most likely, they didn't!"
"Your test may not have filtered out people who don't understand cooperation. It may have filtered out people who were unlucky enough to get you as their Jonin Instructor."
"Those candidates you failed will still go to the battlefield and carry out missions. They'll still die because they don't understand teamwork."
"In fact, I asked some of the Genin you failed. Some graduated anyway, while others became ordinary villagers. Even now, they still don't understand why you failed them."
"If you really want to 'save' more people, you should report this testing system to the Hokage and implement it across all of Konoha, instead of patting yourself on the back here."
Kakashi's eyes shifted slightly. Even Minato-sensei and his godmother Kushina hadn't been so harsh, had they?
This was downright terrifying.
But Naruto wasn't finished.
"Fourth, even if we take this a step further, teamwork might indeed improve the odds of survival. But does it really need to be elevated to something we must understand or master from the very beginning?"
"Newly graduated Genin can learn to recognize the importance of teamwork while being led by a Jonin Instructor on D- and C-rank missions. There's no need to make rookies figure it out during a test packed with all kinds of extreme conditions."
Naruto paused, glancing briefly at Sasuke and Sakura. Then he spoke in a calm, resolute voice. "So, Teacher Kakashi, the test you designed is unfair, unnecessary, and ineffective. Its only purpose may be to satisfy your personal guilt over 'something.'"
Having gone through many survival exercises, Naruto knew why Kakashi had set those conditions.
Because of Obito.
Naruto respected Teacher Kakashi. But after the Mizuki incident, he'd begun looking at things from a different angle, drawing on countless experiences and a wealth of knowledge.
Including this survival exercise.
At the same time, Naruto understood what he really needed to do in this cycle, so he continued. "True 'teamwork' shouldn't be a hollow answer conjured up by an artificially designed crisis."
Back in his first life, had the three members of Team 7, Naruto included, really developed a sense of teamwork?
Naruto could confidently answer, A little, but not much.
In truth, it had taken Naruto a long time to understand what real teamwork meant.
It wasn't something he could grasp all at once.
With that in mind, Naruto said, "The spirit of teamwork should grow naturally, like a tree beneath the sun."
"Teacher Kakashi, if you try to force it to grow through the law of the jungle, all you may get is something that looks like teamwork."
Silence fell over the training ground.
Sasuke and Sakura stood there, completely stunned.
They'd never imagined that such a simple survival exercise could conceal such complicated reasoning and contradictions.
Kakashi remained where he was, his expression hidden beneath his mask.
But his one half-lidded eye suddenly opened wide, filled with shock and thought.
Every one of Naruto's points had struck directly at the flaws in his survival exercise.
They'd also brought Kakashi, who'd been drifting through life in a daze, a little more to his senses.
You had to hand it to him: he really was his teacher's son.
Like a younger generation surpassing the older one.
Now, let me test what you really think.
"Clap, clap, clap!"
A genius who'd become a Jonin at the age of twelve.
Whether it was books he'd read or knowledge beyond the art of ninja combat, Kakashi considered himself far more knowledgeable than Naruto. He calmly raised his hands and began to clap.
The sound of Kakashi's applause rang out across the quiet training ground, a little out of place.
Naruto's expression didn't change, but he knew what was going on.
Based on his experience across so many cycles, Teacher Kakashi wasn't the sort to meekly admit defeat after a few well-chosen words.
Rather than an admission of defeat, this applause felt more like the prelude to a counterattack...
Sasuke and Sakura, standing nearby, clearly weren't thinking that far ahead.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he looked at Kakashi, then at Naruto's impassive face. Did Naruto really leave Teacher Kakashi speechless?
Sakura visibly relaxed. She even looked a little pleased with herself, as if they'd won.
Her opinion of Naruto had completely changed.
She now thought Naruto wasn't just good at fighting—he could even argue Teacher Kakashi into submission.
But the next second, Kakashi stopped clapping.
His usually half-lidded eye opened fully, and his whole presence changed in an instant.
The lazy, half-asleep air about him disappeared.
In its place was a seriousness befitting an elite ninja... real focus?
"That was a very impressive argument, Naruto."
Kakashi's voice held a gravity Naruto hadn't heard from him before, along with a fleeting note of admiration. "Your sharpness of thought has completely exceeded my expectations. You're almost entirely right, but..."
"That's only on the assumption that this is an ordinary exam, meant to select candidates fairly."
Then Kakashi changed tack, sweeping his sharp gaze over Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura in turn.
"But you made one mistake. You took me for an examiner who strives for absolute fairness and wants to put a perfect system into practice. I'm not."
As he spoke, Kakashi slowly shook his head. "I'm a Jonin Instructor. My first responsibility isn't to grade every student fairly. It's to look after my own team—to be responsible for every one of them staying alive, and for whether our missions succeed."
"Other teams' Jonin Instructors may use different standards. They may be willing to risk misjudging someone. That's their choice."
"But I, Kakashi Hatake, am not willing to take that risk."
"I won't lead subordinates whose character I don't know, whose backs I can't trust, into all kinds of dangerous missions."
"Maybe you're right, and I'm only trying to make up for a regret. I'm looking for subordinates whom I, Kakashi Hatake, can trust—people I can safely turn my back on, so they won't die on the battlefield. That's my personal standard, nothing more."
Throughout his reply, Kakashi's tone remained calm, but his resolve was unmistakable.
As he spoke, Kakashi's gaze at Naruto grew more complicated, with a hint of scrutiny. "My test is meant to see whether, in the most desperate and unfair circumstances, you still have the instinct to think of your teammates."
"If you'd teamed up with Sasuke and Sakura to take the bells, I would have passed you."
"But you took the bells on your own and then gave them to the others. All I saw was another 'genius' caught up in his own strength and ignoring the rules. I have to snuff out that tendency before you create another tragedy."
Disappointment colored Kakashi's voice.
It was hard to say whether he was disappointed by a genius going astray, by his teacher's son taking a different path, or whether he wasn't disappointed at all and was only pretending to sigh.
"Naruto, the ninja world has never been fair. You may be able to use fairness to refute me today, but tomorrow you won't be able to reason your way out of a ninja who wants you dead, or talk an enemy bent on destroying the village into changing his mind. In that moment, the only thing that works is the cruelest rule of all."
At last, Kakashi's gaze hardened again. He looked at Naruto and gave his final verdict. "So I stand by my judgment."
"Naruto Uzumaki, you failed."
"That doesn't mean I deny your strength. It's because you refuse to accept the rules of this real, cruel, and deeply imperfect ninja world. That attitude often determines how far someone can go."
Naruto listened quietly to everything Kakashi had to say, and seemed to understand, more or less, what he was getting at.
Either way, Teacher Kakashi couldn't out-argue him.
The reason was simple: if Kakashi beat him in this debate, Naruto would review it over and over again.
Would Kakashi still be able to beat him in the next cycle, or the one after that?
So Teacher Kakashi was destined to lose.
Besides, Naruto hadn't been trying to debate Kakashi or determine who was right and who was wrong.
There was no point in that.
Kakashi might not have been trying to do that, either.
So Naruto spoke softly. "Teacher Kakashi, you... lost."
Before you continue