Rasengan

"Oh, so you're our team leader, Kakashi-sensei!"

Naruto laughed heartily, walked up to Kakashi, and said, "Kakashi-sensei, did you go to the bathroom? Why did you come so late?"

At Naruto's words, Kakashi's face beneath his mask filled with embarrassment.

He couldn't exactly tell his own students that he had lost track of time reading Icha Icha Paradise. That would be far too embarrassing, and he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Seeing that Naruto had already come up with an excuse for him, Kakashi could only go along with it. "Uh... yeah!"

"Sensei, are you sure you spent half the day in the bathroom?"

Haruno Sakura frowned at Kakashi. She felt that things couldn't possibly be so simple!

Kakashi froze, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

At that moment, Sasuke stepped up to Kakashi, held out his hand, and said, "Ninja headband."

Kakashi laughed. "It seems not everyone is here yet. I'll hand them out once everyone arrives!"

"Oh, you mean Mirai? I don't know why, but he still isn't here. Who knows what he went off to do."

Naruto clasped his hands behind his head and muttered to himself.

Hearing Naruto say that, Kakashi sighed softly.

Kakashi had never expected that something like this would happen on the very first day of gathering the team.

Then again, he never considered that it was mainly because he was always late that Mirai had yet to arrive.

Of course, Kakashi had no idea about that.

Right now, Kakashi was only worried about having to take on another troublesome delinquent.

Just then, Mirai appeared.

"Oh! You're all here. Looks like my timing is just right!"

Mirai walked toward the group while eating potato chips from the bag in his hand.

Uzumaki Naruto looked at the suddenly appearing Mirai, frowned at Kakashi, then turned back to Mirai and asked, "You two didn't arrange this beforehand, did you?"

Sakura also looked between the two of them, her face full of suspicion.

Sasuke merely stared coldly into the air, as though Mirai did not exist.

Kakashi laughed awkwardly. "Naruto, you really like joking around. I didn't even know any of you before I came here. How could I have made plans with one of you?"

"Alright, I won't waste any more words. First, welcome to Team 7. From today on, you are members of Team 7!"

"These are your ninja headbands. From now on, you are official ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

With his right hand, he took out four ninja headbands from his ninja pouch and tossed them to the four people before him.

After Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke caught their headbands, they immediately put them on their heads.

As for Mirai, he fastened his headband around his waist.

"Mirai, ninja headbands are worn on the head!"

Uzumaki Naruto looked at Mirai's unusual way of wearing it in confusion. Thinking that he did not know how to wear a headband, he spoke up to tell him.

Mirai rolled his eyes at Naruto. "Of course I know that. I just think it looks cooler this way!"

Everyone froze at his words!

Then they were left speechless. Even Sasuke and Kakashi, who usually loved to show off the most, secretly twitched at the corners of their mouths.

Clearly, Mirai's reasoning had stunned them as well.

Seeing that everyone had already gone off track in such a short time, Kakashi hurriedly pulled them back to the main topic.

"Alright, now that the headbands have been handed out, I'll explain the class's daily lesson!"

Kakashi swept his gaze over them, the corners of his mouth beneath his mask curling upward slightly.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I'm your instructor. Today is the first day the class has gathered, so I'll take this opportunity to assign today's lesson!"

Kakashi took three bells from his ninja pouch and tied them around his waist. As he did so, he said, "I have three bells here. Your assignment today is to snatch these three bells from me!"

"As for how you do it, there are no restrictions. You'll only have a chance of taking the bells if you come at me with the resolve to kill me!"

"What if we can't take them?" Naruto looked at the bells on Kakashi's waist and asked foolishly.

"Then you'll lose your chance to eat lunch and dinner. I'll also tie you to the wooden posts behind me and make you watch while I eat lunch and dinner!"

"What?!"

Naruto and Sakura cried out almost at the same time. Clearly, they had not expected Kakashi to do something like that.

Sasuke, meanwhile, stared fixedly at the bells, his eyes filled with seriousness.

"Then begin!"

After saying that, Kakashi stood where he was, looking at the copy of Icha Icha Paradise in his hand and ignoring the four people before him.

It was as though the four of them posed no threat to him whatsoever.

"Everyone, attack together!"

Naruto charged forward at the front, with Sakura and Sasuke immediately following behind him.

As for Mirai, he stayed where he was and watched the three of them, along with Kakashi.

Mirai knew Kakashi's strength well. As a jonin, how could Kakashi possibly let Naruto and the other two take the bells so easily?

Unless Kakashi deliberately exposed an opening for the three of them, they would have no chance of snatching the bells from him.

With a poof, Kakashi turned into a cloud of white smoke. Naruto rushed straight through it, rolled twice, and ended up sprawled on the ground.

"Over there!"

Sakura cried out, and everyone looked in the direction she was pointing.

With a rapid series of clang clang clang sounds, Sasuke had already thrown more than a dozen shuriken.

The shuriken struck Kakashi's figure. With another poof, it turned out to be another clone.

Just like that, the three of them struggled desperately for nearly twenty minutes. In the end, they were panting heavily, so exhausted they could barely stand.

"Mirai, why didn't you come help just now?"

Naruto sat on the ground, looking at Mirai, who had not joined them at all, unable to help asking.

"We're all in the same class. Everyone else is busy trying to grab the bells—aren't you going to help?"

Sakura frowned and raised her voice at Mirai.

Mirai shot Sakura a disdainful glance and stretched his body.

Kakashi was still sitting in the tree reading Icha Icha Paradise.

But when Mirai stretched, Kakashi's attention shifted to him.

"I was giving you guys a chance! If I stepped in, you wouldn't have had any chance at all!"

Sakura snorted and called him arrogant. Clearly, she did not believe him.

Naruto merely gaped, scratching his head.

Hearing Mirai's confident declaration from the tree, Kakashi smiled faintly.

"Interesting. It seems this Uchiha Mirai is quite strong, or he wouldn't be this arrogant!"

"Hatake Kakashi, now let me see what you're capable of!"

Mirai's eyes suddenly changed. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan had opened, and his aura surged sharply.