Sorry, Kakashi-sensei, but Your Trap Is Too Low-Level

Early the next morning, at the Seventh Training Ground.

The sky had not fully brightened yet, and the air was filled with a chilly mist.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood before three wooden posts, sporting enormous dark circles under their eyes and yawning incessantly.

Their stomachs growled loudly. Clearly, they had taken Kakashi's warning not to eat breakfast seriously.

"Damn it! When is that white-haired teacher finally coming?!"

Clutching his stomach, Naruto stomped irritably in place.

"It's almost six already! Did he oversleep?!"

"Shut up, dead last. Just wait quietly."

Sasuke leaned against a wooden post with his eyes closed, but his faintly twitching eyelids betrayed his impatience.

Just then, a set of unhurried footsteps came from the woods at the entrance to the training ground.

The three of them perked up and turned toward the sound in unison.

"Is the teacher finally here?!" Naruto shouted excitedly.

However, the person who emerged from the woods was not that silver-haired man.

It was a boy who was also yawning, but held an outrageously enormous sandwich in his hand.

Sen Senju.

Not only was he late, he had even brought breakfast.

The sandwich was half the size of his head, stuffed with thick slices of grilled meat, fried eggs, and fresh vegetables.

The rich aroma of grilled meat mixed with butter was especially tantalizing in the cold morning air.

"Gulp."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all swallowed hard at the same time.

"B-Big Brother..." Naruto stared straight at the sandwich in Sen's hand. "Didn't you say the teacher told us not to eat breakfast?"

Sen lazily took a huge bite and replied indistinctly.

"You believed what the teacher said?"

"He's definitely hiding in some corner eating ramen himself. He's only fooling little fools like you."

With that, he took another crunchy bite of fragrant grilled meat.

The sound of his chewing was like the devil's temptation in the silent training ground.

Watching Sen feast away, the three of their stomachs growled even more fiercely.

Time passed as Sen leisurely finished the entire giant sandwich and even drank a bottle of milk.

"Yo, good morning, everyone."

A lazy voice finally descended from above.

Like a ghost, Kakashi appeared atop the middle wooden post.

"You're late, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto was the first to jump up and accuse him.

Kakashi scratched his messy silver hair and shamelessly made up an excuse without changing expression.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I got lost on the road of life this morning."

He jumped down from the post, holding a small alarm clock in his hand.

"Alright, enough nonsense. The exercise begins now."

Kakashi took out two small bells tied with red cords from his ninja tool pouch and shook them in front of them.

"The rules are simple."

A teasing glint flashed through his dead-fish eyes.

"Whoever takes these two bells from me before noon passes."

"Those who fail to take one..."

Kakashi paused, his tone turning sinister.

"Get back to the Ninja Academy and start over!"

The three of them changed expression immediately.

"Wait! Sensei! Why are there only two bells? There are four of us!" Sakura hurriedly asked.

"Good question." Kakashi smiled like an old fox.

"That means at least two of the four of you will be eliminated."

"Alright, the alarm is set for noon."

Kakashi placed the alarm clock on a wooden post, and his voice instantly turned cold.

"Then, the exercise—begin!"

The moment he spoke—

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Sasuke and Sakura vanished from where they stood, each slipping into a hidden patch of grass.

Only Naruto, the single-minded fool, shouted and charged straight at Kakashi like a little bull.

"I'm definitely taking those bells! I'll beat you head-on!"

Kakashi watched Naruto charge at him and shook his head helplessly.

"What an impatient kid."

As for Sen, after Kakashi announced the start, he let out a burp.

He slowly stretched, then ambled toward a patch of shade nearby like an old man taking an after-meal stroll.

The dappled sunlight there made it perfect for going back to sleep.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi never stopped watching Sen.

While effortlessly dodging Naruto's attacks as though teasing a child, he rapidly calculated in his mind.

"Sasuke and Sakura understand the basic rules of being a ninja. Hide yourselves first."

"That idiot Naruto isn't worth worrying about."

"The biggest variable is that Sen Senju!"

Kakashi took out Icha Icha Paradise from his pocket and flipped it open with one hand, pretending to read casually.

In truth, the Sharingan beneath his forehead protector had already quietly opened.

"That old man Hiruzen specifically warned me that this brat is a monster capable of shattering a barrier with one kick."

"I need to test him first and see what he can really do."

As Kakashi thought, he seemingly stepped back at random.

While evading Naruto's straight punch, he secretly formed a hand seal.

Bang!

The ground gave way beneath Naruto's feet, and a simple rope trap hoisted him upside down into a tree.

"Damn it! Let me down!" Naruto flailed and struggled in midair.

Kakashi ignored him completely.

He saw that Sen had already reached the patch of shade and was about to find a spot to lie down.

Now!

Kakashi's figure instantly turned into a cloud of smoke and vanished.

When he reappeared, he had silently slipped into the soil beneath Sen's feet.

Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!

This was one of Kakashi's most proficient assassination techniques—silent and impossible to guard against.

He would use this move to give that incredibly lazy-looking brat a lesson he would never forget!

Underground, Kakashi held his breath and swiftly moved beneath the soil like a loach, arriving directly beneath Sen.

He could clearly sense Sen's exceptionally steady footsteps from above.

"Not even a hint of caution. What a naïve brat."

Kakashi sneered inwardly.

Now!

A cold light flashed in Kakashi's eyes as both hands shot out of the dirt!

Like ghostly hands reaching up from hell, they precisely seized Sen's ankles!

"Got him!"

Kakashi rejoiced inwardly and exerted force with both arms, preparing to drag Sen directly underground and leave only his head exposed.

However.

The next second.

The smug expression on Kakashi's face froze instantly.

The warm, soft sensation of human ankles that he had expected to grasp never came.

Instead, his hands met something incredibly hard, rough, and even somewhat cold!

It felt as though he had seized two ancient tree roots buried deep in the earth, harder than steel!

"What is this?!"

Kakashi was shocked.

He abruptly looked up.

Sen on the ground still wore that lazy expression and even looked down at him with a smile.

And the ankles that Kakashi had tightly seized.

At some point, they had completely turned into dark brown, hardened wood covered in growth rings!

And that was not all!

The wood was growing downward at a visible speed, like nails pinning Kakashi's hands firmly into the thick soil instead!

Kakashi used all his strength to pull his hands free.

Yet he found that the two "roots" possessed astonishing power, like two iron clamps he could not break away from!

"Th-This is Wood Release Substitution?!"

Kakashi was completely dumbfounded.

A Wood Release Substitution cast instantly without hand seals? And it could even restrain him in return?!

What kind of godly technique was this?!

Sen looked down at Kakashi, whose upper body and hands were the only parts still aboveground, then sighed helplessly.

In an exceedingly disdainful tone, he slowly spoke.

"I'm saying, Kakashi-sensei."

"Isn't your burying-people-in-a-pit trap a little too low-level?"