Kakashi frowned slightly.
The moment Sasuke revealed his Sharingan, Kakashi felt an inexplicable chill run through him.
Though Sasuke was only a Genin at the moment,
the scrutiny of those Sharingan eyes
made Kakashi feel strangely uncomfortable.
"Wait, could I be imagining things?"
"Why do I sense a hint of killing intent in this kid's Sharingan?..."
Kakashi wondered to himself.
Though he was puzzled, his expression returned to normal in an instant. He replied calmly:
"Good, very good!"
"What a romantic young man. No wonder he's so handsome! Hahaha..."
Kakashi was an old hand at this.
With just a few words, he instantly thawed the atmosphere, which had been colder than ice.
Hearing this, Naruto gritted his teeth again.
Honestly, Kakashi-sensei...
Couldn't he praise me in front of my goddess for once?
If that wasn't bad enough, he just kept praising Sasuke!
Ugh! My goddess is slipping farther and farther away. What am I supposed to do now?...
"Be with the person you like?..."
"Did Sasuke say that here to hint at something to me?..."
Sakura intertwined her fingers. Her cheeks grew even redder, and she lowered her head further and further.
With her pink hair, she looked utterly enchanting!
After using his Sharingan to study the change in Kakashi's expression a moment earlier,
Sasuke was fairly sure he'd imagined things.
As he slowly relaxed,
he suddenly pressed a hand to his forehead and staggered backward two steps. Then he quickly pretended not to know what was going on and replied to Kakashi:
"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei. I just awakened my Sharingan, so I'm not used to it yet."
"On top of that, I have so little chakra that my old problem has flared up again..."
Seeing this, Sakura hurried over to support Sasuke, her face full of concern.
To conceal the fact that he'd used his Sharingan to peer at Kakashi, Sasuke didn't refuse Sakura's kindness for the first time. Instead, he deliberately acted as if he were weak from exhaustion...
"Old problem?"
Kakashi paused for only a moment before understanding.
"Was it the time Iruka mentioned, when he passed out after using Multiple Shadow Clones?..."
"This kid..."
He sighed inwardly,
but didn't press the matter.
Instead, he finally got to the point and spoke in a serious tone for the first time:
"I called you all here today
first, so we could get to know one another.
Second, I need to tell you about a small test you'll take tomorrow to become Genin."
"A small test?..."
At those words, Naruto immediately shifted his attention from his hostility toward Sasuke.
In truth, he knew his chakra control was extremely unstable.
Before, he'd had no hope of passing the graduation exam.
He hadn't expected to graduate in such a muddle and end up on the same team as his goddess, Sakura.
So now, hearing there'd be another test, he immediately felt uncertain...
"That's right..."
Kakashi nodded at Naruto, then continued explaining:
"Every student graduating as a Genin has to take this test.
The Bell Test."
A few minutes later, Kakashi briefly explained the rules of the Bell Test.
It was actually quite simple.
The three members of Team 7 just had to work together to touch the bells at Kakashi's waist.
Once a bell rang, the test would end immediately.
At that moment, the three of them would truly become Konoha Genin.
It sounded simple, but in practice, it was nearly impossible.
Who was Kakashi?
An elite Jonin of Konoha!
A renowned figure throughout the entire Shinobi World.
And who were the three members of Team 7?
They weren't even Genin yet!
The test only required them to ring a bell, but if the Jonin didn't go easy on them,
they might not even get close enough to see him...
Naruto knew how difficult this would be.
He might seem like a fool, but when it mattered, he wasn't stupid at all.
He asked with a grin:
"So, Kakashi-sensei, will you go easy on us tomorrow? I mean..."
As if he knew what Naruto was about to say, Kakashi raised a hand and cut him off:
"No. Every ninja has gone through this, and I'm sure you can do it too..."
Naruto's mouth twitched. His eyes rolled, and he stubbornly tried again:
"But, Kakashi-sensei, was your teacher an elite Jonin like you?..."
It was a devilishly sharp question.
Elite Jonin weren't exactly like ramen, found everywhere...
If Kakashi admitted that his own teacher had only been an ordinary Jonin,
Naruto would have him trapped.
He couldn't keep insisting he wouldn't go easy on them after that.
Hearing Naruto's question, Kakashi froze. Then he looked at Naruto, his thoughts seeming to drift into the distant past, and murmured:
"No."
"Hahaha!..."
At Kakashi's answer, Naruto jumped for joy, thrilled that his scheme had worked.
"Hahaha! Your teacher wasn't an elite Jonin, Kakashi-sensei. So surely you'll lower the difficulty of our test tomorrow, right?..."
For once, even Sakura gave Naruto a thumbs-up.
Sasuke, meanwhile, remained calm and indifferent, as if it had nothing to do with him.
Thinking his little trick had worked, Naruto was soon brought back down to earth when Kakashi murmured:
"My teacher wasn't an elite Jonin, but he was Kage Level. I don't think he was any weaker than the Third Hokage..."
"What?!..."
Naruto and Sakura cried out in unison!
A few seconds later, Naruto slumped onto the ground behind him.
At that moment, he regretted ever opening his mouth!
He'd only wanted to get a better chance of passing the test.
Instead, he hadn't managed to trick Kakashi into lowering the difficulty.
Kakashi had turned the tables on him!
And now Kakashi-sensei had said his teacher was Kage Level.
That was a whole level above an elite Jonin!
So not only could they forget about the test being made easier,
but whether Naruto's reminder had actually made Kakashi raise the difficulty was now a complete mystery.
After a long while, Kakashi seemed to receive some kind of order.
In the next instant, without saying a word to the three of them, he blurred and vanished from the spot...
"Sasuke, Sasuke, what do we do now?..."
Earlier, while Sasuke had pretended to faint, Sakura had helped him up.
Now she felt somewhat closer to him.
She hurried over and grabbed his arm again, shaking it back and forth as if she were a girl acting coy with her boyfriend.
Watching from the side, Naruto's face turned green in an instant...
"What do we do?..."
Sasuke casually shook off Sakura's pale hands.
"Don't worry. Tomorrow, I'll take care of it..."
Sakura: "Huh?..."
Naruto: "Damn it! He's showing off again!..."
Before you continue