Pretending to Be Good Is a Skill Too

When Naruto pushed open Tazuna's front door, Sasuke was waiting for him in the entryway.

"Naruto, did you find anything unusual?"

Sasuke examined Naruto's expression and clothes, determining that Naruto had not encountered any danger while patrolling around Tazuna's residence.

Closing the door behind him, Naruto shook his head. "No problem. I didn't find any sign of enemies. For now, we should be safe."

After escorting Tazuna home, Kakashi's unconsciousness had left Team 7 severely lacking in combat strength.

If they encountered enemies again at a time like this—especially another Jōnin like Zabuza Momochi—they simply did not have enough means to deal with them.

So, after Naruto's Shadow Clone discussed it with Sasuke and Sakura, the three decided to take turns patrolling near Tazuna's residence in shifts.

If they found enemies, they would return and report the situation.

Or, if the person on patrol did not return on time to switch with the next person, the remaining two would immediately evacuate with Tazuna and Kakashi.

Naruto was the first to take patrol duty.

Of course, the Naruto on patrol had been a Shadow Clone, which dispelled itself midway through its patrol.

The information gathered by the Shadow Clone was immediately transmitted to Naruto's original body.

Thus, the Naruto returning from patrol now was naturally the real one.

"I understand. I'll take over from here."

Sasuke nodded and prepared to relieve Naruto for patrol duty.

At that moment, Sakura came running over. She called out to Sasuke, who was about to leave. "Wait, Sasuke! Kakashi-sensei is awake. He wants to talk to us!"

Hearing Sakura's message, Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a glance before the three members of Team 7 headed together toward Kakashi's room.

"I see... Your decision to patrol and keep watch was correct."

With Team 7 gathered before him, Kakashi listened as Naruto recounted what had happened while he was unconscious.

"But I'm awake now. Though I'm still weak and won't be of much use, there's no need for you to keep dividing your strength like this."

After considering it for a moment, Kakashi made his decision.

During Kakashi's unconsciousness, Naruto and the others' patrol arrangements had been a necessary choice.

Now that Kakashi had awakened, dividing Team 7 again would actually be more dangerous than keeping everyone together.

Kakashi had indeed exhausted nearly all his chakra by overusing the Sharingan, and he would remain weak for the next week.

But he was still a Jōnin. During his recovery, there were still things he could do that Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura—three Genin—could not compare to.

If necessary, Kakashi could still fight.

But he would be unable to rescue companions who ran into danger while on patrol.

Keeping Team 7 together with Tazuna, the person under their protection, would make it easier for Kakashi to protect them.

Therefore, concentrating their combat strength was currently the best way to deal with danger.

"But... what if another Jōnin like Zabuza appears during this time?"

Sakura spoke up to ask.

No matter how well she did in school, she was still a young girl lacking practical combat experience and did not fully understand many things.

"Rogue ninja at the Jōnin level aren't so easily hired. Zabuza is probably the only Jōnin Gato has."

As Team 7's teacher, Kakashi patiently answered Sakura's question. "Our enemies from here on will at most be Chunin like the Demon Brothers, along with a somewhat larger number of wandering samurai."

"If the next enemies are only Chunin, the three of us can handle them." Sasuke cut into the conversation, looking at Kakashi, who seemed listless at the moment. "Kakashi, just rest properly. Zabuza, the one you needed to fight, is already dead."

"No... That's exactly what I called you here to discuss."

Kakashi covered his mouth as he thought—

—"Zabuza may still be alive."

Sasuke and Sakura both wore stunned expressions, shocked by the bombshell Kakashi had suddenly dropped.

"Kakashi-sensei, why do you think Zabuza isn't dead?"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke and Sakura before asking.

"Normally, the bodies of rogue ninja are dealt with on the spot by the Rogue Ninja Pursuit Squad... And the weapon that masked boy used to kill Zabuza was wrong..."

The small ninja tools commonly used by shinobi were shuriken, shaped like multi-pointed throwing stars; kunai, shaped like small blades; and senbon, shaped like long needles.

Of those three kinds of ninja tools, senbon had the lowest killing power.

In the hands of a medical ninja, senbon could even change from weapons of attack into medical instruments for acupuncture.

Under normal circumstances, senbon were used to restrain enemies rather than kill them.

Since that masked boy was an ANBU member from Kirigakure, assigned to hunt down Momochi Zabuza as a rogue ninja—

Then either shuriken or kunai should have been the better choice.

Yet in the end, he had chosen the senbon with the lowest killing power.

And the target struck by the senbon had been Zabuza's neck.

Listening to Kakashi's matter-of-fact tone, Sakura was the first to notice something was wrong. "Kakashi-sensei, did you notice the problem from the beginning?"

Kakashi looked up at Sakura and gave a slight nod under her questioning gaze.

"That masked boy was probably Zabuza's companion. But at the time, I was forcing myself to hold on as well... He chose not to continue attacking us and instead took Zabuza away... We were lucky."

Kakashi had noticed the clues from the start, but the circumstances at the time had made it impossible to continue fighting.

That was why Kakashi had taken a gamble.

It seemed his luck had not been bad.

Kakashi's gaze moved across the three members of Team 7, observing their expressions.

Upon hearing that Zabuza might still be alive, both Sasuke and Sakura looked worried that Zabuza would launch another attack while Kakashi was weak.

But while Sakura's expression was filled entirely with worry, Sasuke's concern contained a trace of rational thought.

Sasuke was probably considering how they should respond if Zabuza attacked again.

Especially since if Zabuza truly attacked again, that masked boy would very likely appear alongside him.

Sakura and Sasuke's reactions were both within Kakashi's expectations.

Kakashi was more curious about Naruto's reaction.

Naruto did not show the slightest sign of worry and merely stood quietly to one side.

Noticing Kakashi's gaze, Naruto raised his eyes and met it.

"Naruto, aren't you worried that Zabuza will appear again?"

"Because Kakashi-sensei, you don't seem worried either."

Naruto's answer made Kakashi widen his eyes in surprise. Sasuke and Sakura also belatedly noticed Kakashi's reaction at Naruto's words.

What sharp instincts.

Kakashi assumed Naruto simply had keen intuition.

After all, that was the impression Naruto had given him.

From questioning the number of bells during their survival exercise, to saving Sakura from the Demon Brothers... and now, interpreting Kakashi's emotions.

Perhaps Naruto could develop in the direction of a sensory-type ninja in the future...

Kakashi never imagined that what he saw as Naruto's keen intuition had all been deliberately displayed by Naruto.

The Land of Waves mission had risen from C-Rank to B-Rank, perhaps even becoming an escort mission infinitely close to A-Rank.

Once the mission ended, Kakashi would surely report every detail to the Third Hokage, and that report would inevitably fall into Danzo's hands.

If Naruto did not lead Kakashi's thoughts astray, Danzo would definitely notice something unusual in the mission report Kakashi submitted.

But if he caused an error in Kakashi's thinking—

Kakashi already belonged to the Hokage faction. As long as his report included even a slight personal bias in its assessment of Naruto and described what Naruto had done in the Land of Waves through Kakashi's own subjective perspective—

It could prevent Danzo from beginning to suspect him.

Even if Danzo still suspected him, that mission report—misdirected by Naruto through Kakashi—would create an image of Naruto that suited the Third's preferences.

It would make the Third continue choosing to protect Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei, have you prepared some way to deal with Zabuza?"

Sakura's question brought Kakashi back from his thoughts.

"If Zabuza isn't dead, he won't appear during this period either. I confirmed that Zabuza had 'died.' Even if it was a staged death, it would place an enormous burden on his bodily functions, so he needs to recuperate just as I do."

"By the time he has recovered, I will have restored myself to normal as well."

"So don't worry about Zabuza. When the time comes, leave him to me again."