"No need. We should spend some time building our team spirit, so we won't bother you."
"Okay, Choji. Today's a happy occasion, so talk less and eat more." Choji was about to say something else, but Shikamaru cut him off.
The three were close, and Choji understood what Shikamaru meant. Naruto had caught on too. He smiled at Shikamaru and the others, then found an empty seat.
"You know each other well?" Ino asked Shikamaru beside her. At the Academy, her attention had always been on Uchiha Sasuke, so she hadn't spent much time noticing Naruto.
"Of course. We're best friends." Choji said as he helped everyone grill the meat.
"It might surprise you, but Naruto's actually pretty reliable," Shikamaru said, unable to resist praising him.
Only Naruto and the other two knew why.
Meanwhile, Naruto and the others found a table by a window. After ordering, they started chatting.
Sasuke was aloof at this point, but he wasn't brooding yet. They chatted casually, mostly to get to know one another.
Soon, the grilled meat arrived. The three ate and talked, and though the atmosphere wasn't as lively as the other group's, they got to know each other better.
Sasuke wasn't an idiot. He could tell what Naruto and Hinata meant to each other.
After they finished eating, all three tried to pay. In the end, Sasuke spoke up and took charge.
Thanks to Choji, the three of them got a fifty percent discount. Naruto silently made a note of it. That was what he called a good friend.
The next morning, Naruto got up and took his time getting dressed and eating breakfast. Then he strolled over to the meeting place.
As expected, Sasuke and Hinata were already there, and both were growing impatient.
Kakashi's lateness had already annoyed Sasuke. Seeing Naruto arrive so late only made him angrier.
"Why are you only getting here now? And what's with our Jonin leader?" Sasuke demanded angrily.
"Hm? You didn't know? Hatake Kakashi is famous for being late. So I ate breakfast and took my time getting here." Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. He'd forgotten to tell the other two about Kakashi.
Hinata gave Naruto a reproachful look too. She was very obedient. She hadn't eaten breakfast and had arrived early, only to end up waiting until now. She already had a big appetite, and by this point she was famished.
Just as Naruto was about to explain, someone suddenly appeared in the clearing. It was none other than Hatake Kakashi.
"You! Don't you have any sense of punctuality?" Sasuke snapped at Kakashi as soon as he appeared.
"Sorry, sorry. I saw an old woman on the way and couldn't help giving her a hand." Kakashi scratched his head and offered an explanation that wasn't the least bit sincere.
The three stared at his dead-fish eyes. None of them believed a word he said.
Naruto was speechless. At this rate, the old woman could've walked all the way here by now.
"All right, all right. If we don't get started, it'll be lunchtime before we're done." Kakashi spread his hands.
Sasuke gritted his teeth, feeling like an idiot who'd been played by the two of them.
"Okay, today's test is for the three of you to take these two bells from me before noon. Anyone who gets a bell passes. Anyone who doesn't will be sent back to the Ninja Academy to study again." As he spoke, Kakashi pointed to the two bells at his waist.
"There are only two bells." Sasuke frowned.
"That's right. Which means one of you three is bound to be sent back to the Ninja Academy." Kakashi fixed his eyes on them with a smile.
Naruto and the other two exchanged glances.
"What a pointless trick." Naruto knew what Kakashi's test was really about, so he wasn't worried at all.
"I absolutely don't want to go back to school. I want to stay with Naruto."
Hinata made up her mind.
"Naruto can definitely get one of the bells..." Sasuke glanced at Hinata beside him and couldn't help feeling nervous. Maybe other people didn't know how strong Naruto and Hinata were, but Sasuke had often watched them train. He knew that, at least for now, both of them were stronger than he was.
"Then the test begins." As he spoke, Kakashi reached into the ninja pouch at his waist with his right hand.
Sasuke tensed and instinctively started to retreat.
Hinata did the same, activating her Byakugan in an instant.
Naruto alone looked at Kakashi in speechless disbelief as he pulled a copy of Icha Icha Paradise from his ninja pouch.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, are you looking down on us?" Naruto had suspected as much, but even he couldn't stop his brow from twitching at the sight.
"I suppose I can spare a glance while dealing with you," Kakashi replied casually, without even looking up.
Both Sasuke and Hinata frowned at that.
Reading a dirty book while fighting someone wasn't just looking down on them. It was an insult.
Naruto and the others exchanged glances. Sasuke and Hinata quickly retreated and disappeared from the clearing.
"Then I'm coming."
Naruto wasted no more words. He flashed forward and vanished from the clearing.
[Body Flicker Technique]
"So fast!"
Feeling a gust of wind beside him, Kakashi was surprised. He hadn't expected Naruto's Body Flicker Technique to be so fast.
He raised his right hand carelessly to block.
A heavy thud rang out.
The instant their fists made contact, Kakashi regretted it. The blow was too powerful to block with one hand, and it sent him flying.
"Looks like I really did underestimate you." Kakashi steadied himself and brushed the dust off his clothes, then put away the dirty book in his left hand.
"Yeah. Don't underestimate us."
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, he used the Body Flicker Technique again and disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was behind Kakashi, punching at him.
Kakashi turned around, too late to block.
"He hit him!" Sasuke exclaimed in surprise.
"It's the Substitution Technique." Hinata had kept her Byakugan active, so she could see the battlefield clearly. Compared to Sasuke's half-baked Sharingan, Hinata's Byakugan let her observe things in much finer detail.
In the clearing, Naruto's punch struck a wooden post, shattering it instantly.
"That strength is a little ridiculous, isn't it? How can a normal kid hit that hard?" Kakashi's eyelid twitched at the state of the wooden post.
That had been Naruto's physical strength alone; he hadn't used chakra. If he'd used an Ordinary Punch, anyone he hit would turn into a spray of blood.
[Double Suicide Decapitation Technique]
Just then, a pair of hands appeared beneath Naruto and grabbed his legs, pulling him down into the ground.
With a poof, Naruto's body turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared.
"Shadow Clone Technique? I didn't even notice. What an incredible Shadow Clone."
[Multi Shadow Clone Technique] With a series of poofs, ten Narutos appeared in the clearing.
They began to surround Kakashi and attack.