In the Midst of the Exercise

At ten in the morning, at the Konoha Training Ground, Kakashi arrived fashionably late, deliberately putting on a relaxed attitude: "Yo~ good morning."

However, the reaction of the three in front of him was very different from what Kakashi had expected—in his anticipation, even if the three children didn't fly into a rage on the spot, they should have at least complained loudly. Yet, the expressions of the three were extremely calm, without a hint of impatience.

"You all seem to be more excellent than I thought."

Kakashi did not skimp on praise; he put away his relaxed demeanor, took an alarm clock from his bag, and placed it on a nearby tree stump: "I have set the alarm to ring at exactly twelve o'clock."

He then reached into his pocket, pulled out two small bells, and held them up to display: "Your mission is to snatch these two bells before twelve noon. Anyone who fails to get a bell within the allotted time will be considered to have failed the mission and will be sent back to the Ninja Academy to study for another year."

"Kakashi-sensei,"

Naruto raised his hand: "If I'm not mistaken, there are only two bells in your hand."

"That's right, only two."

Kakashi said, hanging the two bells on his waist without a hint of joking: "Honestly, I find dealing with three people quite troublesome, so I intend to send one of you back to the academy."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow: "Is it really okay to say something like that?"

"Of course it's okay."

Kakashi looked calm: "This is the authority granted to a lead jonin by the Hokage."

Sakura wanted to complain, but Naruto stopped her: "Let's figure out how to get the bells first."

"Very decisive."

Kakashi took an extra look at Naruto: "You and Sasuke are both not bad; perhaps I should just send Sakura back to the academy."

"Please wait until we fail before saying things like that."

Naruto stretched his limbs, his gaze never leaving Kakashi: "Is there anything else to say? If not, can we begin?"

Kakashi nodded and announced: "Then—the exercise begins!"

Naruto decisively formed hand seals: "Multi Shadow Clone Technique!"

Hundreds of Narutos surrounded Kakashi, three layers deep inside and out.

This is truly astonishing; to be able to create such a number of shadow clones. In terms of total chakra alone, it's probably several times mine... as expected of the teacher's child!

Kakashi scanned the area, his expression unchanged, but he was silently calculating in his heart: Perhaps I won't be able to read my book in peace.

From the gaps in the "Naruto crowd," two kunai and two shuriken suddenly shot out.

Kakashi swayed his body and dodged them all without moving his feet.

But when the kunai and shuriken flew behind Kakashi, they suddenly transformed into the appearance of Naruto, reaching out to grab the bells at Kakashi's waist.

"Shadow clones combined with the Transformation Technique, truly proficient!"

Kakashi turned quickly, using both hands and feet to disperse the four Naruto shadow clones, but his body was briefly suspended in mid-air.

Sasuke, hiding in the crowd of Narutos, did not let this golden opportunity slip by. He formed hand seals at the fastest speed of his life, inhaled, and exhaled: "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly—for a newly graduated genin to be able to perform the Great Fireball Technique was actually quite impressive, but compared to Naruto creating hundreds of shadow clones at once, it seemed slightly plain.

Naruto didn't just watch Sasuke output; while Sasuke was forming seals, a shadow clone standing behind Sasuke used Sasuke's body as cover and secretly formed seals as well, coordinating with Sasuke's speed to perform a jutsu simultaneously: "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

The flames exhaled by Sasuke merged with the whirlwind exhaled by Naruto, turning into a fire tornado of astonishing momentum, with both speed and power significantly increased.

"A combination of Wind Release and Fire Release?!"

Kakashi almost pulled up his headband. He formed seals with serious speed, performed an Earth Release, and tunneled into the ground.

Naruto seemed to have anticipated that Kakashi would hide underground, controlling the wind to push downward so that the fire tornado would grind as much as possible into the ground. But Sasuke didn't know this and couldn't coordinate well; in the end, the fire tornado only scraped off a layer of topsoil and did not injure Kakashi.

"Tch, what a pity."

Naruto muttered to himself and reminded Sasuke: "Kakashi-sensei used Earth Release, watch out for the ground."

Sasuke promptly activated his Sharingan to look at the ground and jumped up at the critical moment, dodging the hand reaching out from underground.

Although he had grabbed at empty air, Kakashi still had to emerge from the ground—the effect of the Earth Release was fading, and he couldn't move freely underground forever.

Seizing the gap where Kakashi hadn't fully emerged from the ground, Sakura, who had been observing for a while, finally launched her first wave of offense—from a blind spot (behind him), she threw a kunai that shot straight toward Kakashi's neck.

Then, as a matter of course, it was caught by Kakashi with one hand.

The moment he touched the kunai, Kakashi's expression changed; the kunai in his hand had already turned into the appearance of Sakura, who grabbed Kakashi with both hands, an Explosive Tag about to burn out stuck to her chest.

Kakashi's pupils dilated sharply, and before he could say anything, he was engulfed by a violent explosion.

"Sakura, you even brought an Explosive Tag; I remember they are quite expensive."

"Expensive or not, I don't have much chakra, and I don't know any jutsu with enough lethality, so I can only rely on these things."

"Sasuke, can you see the situation clearly?"

"No, my Sharingan is only one-tomoe, and the smoke from the explosion is too thick to see through."

"There's no sign of Kakashi-sensei in the vicinity for now... he wasn't blown to death by Sakura's Explosive Tag, was he?"

"How could that be? Kakashi-sensei is a jonin; he wouldn't be killed by a single Explosive Tag."

When the smoke from the explosion cleared, there was only one crater on the ground, but the power of the Explosive Tag was not enough to leave no remains.

Naruto: "That Kakashi-sensei just now was a shadow clone, wasn't he."

Sasuke: "I've been watching him with my Sharingan the whole time. When did he switch to a Shadow Clone?"

Sakura: "It must have been when he used Earth Release to hide underground."

"The question is, where is Kakashi-sensei now?"

Naruto scanned his surroundings, his gaze finally settling on the trees bordering the training ground: "As expected of a jonin, he's hidden himself well."

Sasuke said with a hint of frustration: "If only my Sharingan could evolve to the Two-Tomoe..."

"What do we do?"

Sakura glanced at the alarm clock: "There's less than an hour left."

"Although it's earlier than I planned, let's put our teamwork on hold for now."

Naruto said to Sasuke and Sakura: "You two probably won't be able to intervene in the coming fight, and I don't want to waste extra energy looking after you."

Although Sasuke had never seen Naruto fight at full strength, he understood the gap between them and nodded, pulling Sakura back a few paces: "Then be careful yourself."

At this moment, Kakashi, hiding in the nearby woods, was observing the trio: "Even the weakest, Sakura, is stronger than other newly graduated genin. Sasuke is only a bit of experience away from being a chunin. The most suspicious one is Naruto; he's only used Wind Release and Shadow Clones so far, but he's definitely hiding something else."

Then, Kakashi watched as over a dozen of Naruto's Shadow Clones lined up and simultaneously unleashed Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, with such absurd power that it tore the entire forest where he was hiding right out of the ground...