Stealing Bells

"On the way here, a black cat blocked our path, so we kindly took it home," Naruto casually made up an excuse.

"You bastard, do you think I'd believe that?"

Sasuke grew even angrier, feeling like he had been tricked.

"Teacher hasn't arrived either. What's the rush?"

Naruto was speechless.

Seeing that Kakashi had yet to arrive, Hinata also breathed a sigh of relief.

These brats are suspicious. Kakashi slowly walked over from the distance.

"Kakashi-sensei, why did you only get here now?"

There was a hint of resentment in Sasuke's voice.

"Haha, I helped an old lady cross the street on the way here." Kakashi blurted out an excuse without hesitation.

Sasuke fell silent, feeling like a complete idiot.

"Alright, there's no need to mention such trivial matters again."

Kakashi checked the time.

"There's still some time before noon. Your task is to seize these two bells before then. Those who pass will remain; those who fail will be sent back to the Academy."

Kakashi held up two bells.

Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Only two bells?"

Sasuke frowned.

"That's right. Out of the three of you, only two will pass."

Kakashi's voice was calm.

He looked at the three of them. Naruto remained calm, Sasuke frowned in concern, and Hinata's gaze was firm.

What a boring trick.

Naruto only believed in strength now.

I have to stay. Sorry, Sasuke.

Hinata's little face was resolute. After finally being assigned to the same team as Naruto, she absolutely did not want to go back.

"Alright, begin. And Naruto, this is only a test. Don't use that power."

Kakashi seemed to recall something and added a reminder.

"Don't worry."

Even if Kakashi had not said so, Naruto would not have used it.

Sasuke swiftly retreated and hid himself.

Naruto and Hinata took up fighting stances.

Both of them were taijutsu specialists.

"Hm. You two might at least be worth watching."

Looking at the children before him, Kakashi could not muster much interest. His right hand reached into his ninja tool pouch.

"Are you taking out a weapon?"

Sasuke and Hinata immediately became wary.

Only Naruto was completely unconcerned.

Kakashi pulled a little yellow book from his ninja tool pouch.

The atmosphere instantly fell silent.

"You really are looking down on us."

Naruto was speechless.

After thinking for a moment, he drew two kunai from behind his back.

Kakashi's pupils constricted.

"Those are..."

The shock in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Naruto flung out the kunai and rapidly formed hand seals.

[Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique]

Over a hundred kunai rained down.

Kakashi dodged, disbelief still filling his eyes.

"Flying Thunder God?"

Naruto's body vanished in an instant.

He drew back his fist and threw a punch.

Kakashi performed a flip and landed in the distance.

"How do you know that ninjutsu?"

Naruto paid him no mind.

"As expected, it's still a little difficult to use in battle."

Unlike Minato, Naruto could use it, but he lacked that same smooth, seamless flow.

"What kind of ninjutsu was that? It was so fast." Sasuke stared in shock from his hiding place.

Naruto continued attacking. This ninjutsu had already been registered with the Hokage, so he did not need to worry about using it now.

Besides, since he could fight openly this time, Naruto had no intention of holding back.

Unfortunately, Naruto's combat experience was genuinely lacking.

His taijutsu attacks combined with the Flying Raijin Technique simply could not keep up.

"Whew, you really gave me a scare." Kakashi quickly discovered Naruto's weakness.

Minato could attack seamlessly the instant he appeared, while Naruto would pause for a second or two after appearing before launching an attack.

That was enough to overwhelm ordinary shinobi, but against someone as battle-hardened as Kakashi, it was an enormous opening.

"This is a little too difficult."

Naruto sighed helplessly and stopped using taijutsu to attack.

"Giving up?" Kakashi was surprised.

Naruto began forming hand seals, but the sight of his hand seal technique made all three of them shake their heads.

Hand seals were basic. Nearly every shinobi could form several seals per second, but Naruto was the complete opposite.

Naruto had never practiced hand seals as a child. Rather, he no longer needed them now, but it was not yet time to expose that fact.

[Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere]

Naruto expelled transparent blasts of air from his mouth.

Kakashi's expression changed as he quickly dodged.

What is going on? How does he know such a dangerous ninjutsu?

Kakashi was stunned. This was a high-level Wind Release technique.

After firing dozens of shots without hitting Kakashi, Naruto promptly gave up.

The other two had long since been dumbstruck.

"I'm out of options. Hinata, why don't you give it a try?"

Naruto shrugged, his face full of helplessness.

"Uh, alright."

Only then did Hinata snap out of it. She had always known Naruto was strong, but she had never expected him to be this strong.

Her gaze became serious. She raised her hands into a stance and charged forward.

A faint smile appeared on Naruto's lips.

Kakashi was just about to use taijutsu when he suddenly noticed Naruto's smile and instinctively became wary. However, he was wary of the wrong person.

Hinata struck out with her palm.

Kakashi raised a hand to block.

A stream of chakra traveled through their touching arms and entered Kakashi's body.

It instantly began destroying the meridians in his arm.

Kakashi's expression changed as he immediately retreated.

The chakra within his body erupted at once.

The chakra in his arm was dispersed, but Kakashi now looked warily at the cute little girl standing not far away.

What was that? That wasn't the Eight Trigrams Palm.

Although Hinata did not quite understand, she charged forward again.

Kakashi no longer dared to make contact with Hinata. He had no desire to experience what had just happened a second time.

At this moment, Naruto was the only one who knew exactly what was happening.

Martial arts. The Hyuga Clan is quite unusual. Their technique is acupuncture points—they inject their own chakra into an enemy's body and seal off the chakra flow in their meridians. It's lethal to shinobi. Their other method, the Eight Trigrams Palm, sends chakra into the enemy's body to destroy their internal organs.

This ability closely resembled martial arts. While martial arts could destroy through force, the truly deadly part was the internal energy driven into the body.

Naruto possessed many such methods within his body.

They could all be considered forms of martial arts.

So he had taught this method to Hinata.

For ordinary martial artists, this method was rather simple, because their internal energy would automatically protect them in battle.

Shinobi were different. Their offensive methods all lay in their techniques, while their bodies were fragile.

Thus, when facing this sort of attack, all they could do was evade.

If Kakashi had not reacted quickly just now, that arm would already have been crippled.

Hinata had only ever fought Naruto herself, so she had no idea just how formidable she truly was.

Naturally, Kakashi could not use ninjutsu against Hinata.

Kakashi now dodged left and right, no longer daring to block with taijutsu. Helplessly, he took out a kunai from his ninja tool pouch.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei, you need a weapon to deal with genin? Isn't that a little excessive?"

Naruto was speechless.

"Damn it, why are those two so strong?"

Sasuke's expression was grim in the distance.