The Back Mountain Assessment

As Naruto charged forward, Sasuke and Sakura kept their eyes fixed on Qi's Water Clone. Sasuke was alright, but Sakura had never seen how a true high-ranking ninja fought before. She was incredibly curious.

In truth, she was not the only curious one. Before Qi arrived, more than just the three members of Team 7 had already come to this place.

Several people were hidden deep within the forest, watching to see how Qi would teach these three.

"Oh dear, what a foolish son. Why did he just rush straight in?"

A woman's voice rang out softly from the forest, but it quickly fell silent, as though someone had stopped her.

Naruto could not hear it. By then, he had already rushed in front of Qi's Water Clone, and over a dozen fists came raining down on it.

"Pfft..."

The fists passed straight through the Water Clone without resistance. Before everyone's eyes, most of its body turned into water and scattered apart.

"Huh?"

"He succeeded!?"

Not only Sasuke and Sakura, but even the several people hidden in the forest were greatly surprised.

Could Qi be going easy on him?

But Qi's next actions told them plainly that getting this guy to go easy was utterly impossible. Back then, Ogata had beaten him for real, so naturally he was not about to be overly polite to Naruto and the others...

The water formed from the clone did not disperse completely. On the contrary, the liquefied portions transformed directly into whips of water and lashed out at Naruto's Shadow Clones.

A series of sharp crackling sounds rang out. The dozen or so Narutos were sent flying without any ability to resist, all of them falling into the lake behind them.

Setting Sasuke and Sakura aside for now, the other people in hiding