Naruto's Preparations

When Kakashi shouted the words "Thousand Years of Death," Sasuke felt something strange in his lower body. As Kakashi suddenly exerted force, Sasuke let out a pig-slaughtering scream.

"..." Sakura stood frozen on the spot. She seemed to have witnessed something utterly horrifying.

No, I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything, Sasuke... I didn't see it... Sasuke...

Sakura hypnotized herself, seemingly trying to convince herself and erase everything she had just seen from her mind.

"Ah—" Sakura roared and charged straight at Kakashi, shouting inwardly, How dare he do that to my Sasuke? This is unforgivable.

Kakashi merely glanced at Sakura, and she suddenly felt as though her entire body had been struck by lightning. When she came to her senses, she saw Sasuke lying on the ground, covered in blood.

Sasuke looked utterly miserable. He lay face-down on the grass with his butt raised high. After suffering the ultimate technique of Thousand Years of Death, blood streamed endlessly from his rear, soaking his entire pair of pants crimson.

At the sight, Sakura's body went limp and her mind seemed to short-circuit. Then she fainted.

"It's Kakashi's genjutsu." Naruto hid in the bushes, and when he saw Sakura suddenly collapse, he immediately guessed that she had fallen under a genjutsu.

Naruto shifted his gaze to Sasuke. Sasuke was no better off. After being hit by Thousand Years of Death, he had buried his face deeply in the dirt. His body had not suffered much injury, but his mind seemed to have been ravaged countless times, and he refused to get up for a long while.

"What a terrifying taijutsu." Naruto said fearfully, "The physical damage can be ignored, but the psychological damage takes a lifetime to heal."

Naruto touched his own butt. Fortunately, he had hidden until the end. If he had challenged Kakashi first, he probably would not have escaped that move.

"There's one more." Kakashi stood up and looked around, seemingly searching for Naruto's hiding place.

Naruto immediately grew tense, and his lower body involuntarily tightened.

"Found you." Kakashi vanished from where he stood. When he appeared again, he had teleported in front of the bushes where Naruto was hiding, his entire face pressed against them.

"Ahhh—" Naruto was so frightened that he hurriedly crawled out of the bushes.

Kakashi said, "That kunai you threw at Sasuke earlier—it was thrown by you, wasn't it?"

"Haha." Naruto laughed awkwardly twice. "My aim was off, so it went astray. I was originally trying to hit you, Sensei, but it ended up hitting Sasuke."

"Is that so?" Kakashi said with a gloomy expression, "But from what I saw, that kunai was clearly aimed at Sasuke."

"Hahahaha..." Naruto continued awkwardly, "Sensei, you must have seen it wrong. Sasuke is my companion. Why would I attack him with a kunai?"

At the same time, Naruto thought, I had no choice. Sasuke had to take Thousand Years of Death for me, so I had to throw the kunai at him and force him to expose his back, giving you a chance to use Thousand Years of Death on him...

"Oh, is that so?" Kakashi said approvingly. "Sasuke is your companion?"

Naruto hurriedly said, "That's right. Sasuke is my companion, and Sakura is my companion too. We're on the same team."

"Don't think you can fool me!" Kakashi flashed behind Naruto and said with a dark expression, "You clearly wanted to use Sasuke to test me."

"Damn it! I'm going for it!" Naruto realized he could not fool Kakashi, so he could only fight him. He immediately lowered his body and used the advantage of his smaller frame to slip beneath Kakashi's crotch. Seeing the space between Kakashi's legs, he copied the hand gesture for Thousand Years of Death.

I'd rather use Thousand Years of Death on you than let my fragile chrysanthemum suffer Thousand Years of Death. That was Naruto's thought at this moment.

"Thousand Years of Death!" Naruto aimed at Kakashi, brought his palms together with four fingers pointed forward, and thrust straight ahead.

"This doesn't feel right..." Naruto felt his fingers strike something hard. Looking closely, he found that he had stabbed a broken log. Naruto cried out, "It's the Substitution Jutsu! He got away! He's so fast!"

"Heh—you're the one who surprised me the most." Kakashi appeared again, seemingly praising Naruto yet also belittling him. "I thought you would be the first one taken out today."

"I'm done for!" Naruto wailed. He had not expected that he still could not avoid it in the end.

"Leaf Taijutsu Secret Technique—Thousand Years of Death!" Kakashi's eyes gleamed fiercely. When he had used this move on Sasuke earlier, he had only used twenty percent of his strength. But Naruto had dared to imitate the move against him, so Kakashi decided to use fifty percent.

Naruto had nowhere to evade. Kakashi's move struck his lower body solidly. Kakashi repeated the same technique, bringing his palms together, pointing four fingers forward, and thrusting straight at Naruto's butt.

Clang—

Kakashi realized that the sensation was wrong. His fingers seemed to have struck something hard, and he immediately thought, This feels wrong. Thousand Years of Death didn't hit Naruto. Could Naruto have used the Substitution Jutsu like I did earlier?

Kakashi looked closely and discovered that was not the case. Naruto had not used the Substitution Jutsu, and his four fingers had indeed stabbed into Naruto's butt, but the sensation was completely off.

Naruto quickly jumped away, widening the distance between himself and Kakashi as he watched him warily.

Kakashi straightened up and said, "Why is your butt so hard?" At that moment, Kakashi noticed that his fingers were burning with pain, all of them red and swollen.

Naruto pulled a steel plate out of his pants and said, "Because I put a steel plate behind my butt."

"..." Kakashi froze for a moment and asked, "Why would you put a steel plate in your pants? Don't tell me... you already knew my taijutsu technique?"

"Of course not. How could I possibly have known in advance?" Naruto pulled out another steel plate from his chest and one from his back, taking three steel plates from his body in total. He explained, "As a ninja, it's perfectly reasonable to carry some steel plates for protection, right?"

"..." Kakashi had nothing to say. His attention was drawn to Naruto's three steel plates, and he lost focus for a moment.

Kakashi thought, Is it reasonable for a ninja to carry steel plates? It does seem to make some sense, but something still feels wrong. What exactly is the problem...?

"Sasuke! Get him!" Naruto suddenly shouted.

Kakashi finally realized what was happening, but it was too late. Sasuke had already steadied his emotions and rejoined the fight, sweeping a leg toward Kakashi's face.

Kakashi had no time to dodge and could only take the blow head-on, raising his left arm to block Sasuke's sweeping kick.

Naruto immediately followed up, closing the distance in two steps and reaching for the bells hanging from Kakashi's waist.

Naruto shouted inwardly, Bells, bells, I'm taking those bells! End this test already—I don't want to face Kakashi's Thousand Years of Death again.