Before he could steady himself, Naruto Uzumaki's second strike had already arrived. A knifehand aimed not at any pressure point, but at his Adam's apple. Those five tightly aligned fingers were hard as iron, carrying undisguised killing intent.
Kakashi recoiled backward in alarm, executing a textbook backbend to evade the fatal blow.
"Whoa, Naruto Uzumaki, aren't you a little too enthusiastic?" He still tried to maintain that lazy demeanor, hoping to disrupt his opponent's rhythm with words.
Naruto Uzumaki said nothing and simply kept attacking.
Before he knew it, Kakashi had been forced by Naruto Uzumaki into the position he had anticipated.
A very soft click of the tongue came from Naruto Uzumaki's direction. It was the signal he had sent Sasuke.
Sasuke's fireball arrived right on cue.
The massive ball of fire did not fly toward Kakashi himself, but accurately blasted into a patch of bushes along his escape route.
The flames instantly devoured the green leaves.
Kakashi was forced to evade a second time, and this new landing spot happened to be the "closing point" of the entire tactical net.
The instant his feet touched the ground, three Senbon coated in purple poison shot soundlessly from the shadow beneath him in a triangular formation.
It was a trap triggered by an almost invisible metal wire working in tandem with Sasuke's fireball.
Naruto Uzumaki had arranged it there long ago.
Kakashi's pupils abruptly contracted into pinpoints.
For the first time, he felt a genuine threat.
His body twisted forcibly into an extremely awkward posture, and the muscles in his waist erupted with tearing pain.
He narrowly avoided the lethal Senbon, but the corner of his clothes at his waist was sliced open.
Their objective from the very beginning had not been to take the bells.
They had been planning on the premise of "subduing him."
When the strike failed, Naruto Uzumaki's cold voice rang out again.
"Retreat. Rebuild the formation."
Sasuke and Sakura did not hesitate in the slightest. They immediately followed Naruto Uzumaki and vanished into the depths of the forest.
There was no hesitation or wasted movement, displaying a chilling level of discipline.
Kakashi stood alone where he was, a trace of cold sweat seeping from his temple.
He lowered his head to look at the torn corner of his clothes and the Senbon gleaming faintly on the ground, his expression grave.
This tactic was logically sound and decisively executed.
It made use of everyone's traits, turning Sasuke's ninjutsu and Sakura's "uselessness" into indispensable parts of the plan.
And the one directing it all... was Naruto Uzumaki.
Time passed second by second, gradually approaching afternoon.
Naruto Uzumaki gathered the other two again.
He took out a simple map of terrain he had surveyed beforehand, with three locations marked by pebbles.
"One final attack. The target isn't the bells, but eliminating the target's combat ability."
"I'll be the main attacker and lure him to Point A. Sasuke, prepare your strongest ninjutsu at Point B. Sakura, stay at Point C. When you see my signal, detonate the Explosive Tags I gave you earlier."
The moment he finished speaking, Naruto Uzumaki revealed himself and charged at Kakashi like a cannonball fired from its barrel.
No hand seals. No ninjutsu.
Pure taijutsu combat.
His attacks were broad and forceful. Every punch and every kick carried brutal precision and deadly efficiency, nothing like those of a twelve-year-old Genin.
Kakashi was forced to deal with him at full strength. The rhythm of the battle was completely under Naruto Uzumaki's control, and Kakashi was being led step by step toward the predetermined trap location.
Just as Kakashi was about to be lured into Point A, he suddenly stopped all movement.
He abandoned his struggle with Naruto Uzumaki and instead looked up toward where Sasuke and Sakura were hiding.
The left eye that had been covered by his forehead protector slowly opened.
A scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun beneath the sunlight.
"Enough."
He had seen through the entire setup.
The next second, Kakashi appeared before the three of them in a Body Flicker and declared the exercise over.
"Not one of you ever considered 'taking' the bells from me. All you wanted was to 'defeat' me."
Kakashi first shook his head helplessly.
"When I told you to charge at me with the resolve to kill me, that was only a figure of speech. I didn't tell you to actually kill me. I'm your teacher. If such a great teacher like me died, where would you find another one?"
After making the joke, his expression tightened. His gaze passed over Sasuke and Sakura and fixed firmly on Naruto Uzumaki.
"Your coordination... had no trust in it. There was only cold calculation and exploitation. This isn't Konoha's idea of a 'team.' Companions shouldn't become bait that can be sacrificed."
Naruto Uzumaki calmly met that all-seeing Sharingan without the slightest fear.
"Sensei, victory is a team's only purpose. To ensure Konoha's survival, any sentimentality is a fatal weakness."
He took a step forward.
Kakashi's entire focus was on understanding the terrifying logic behind Naruto Uzumaki's words, trying to find even the slightest wavering in those blue eyes.
He became lost in thought, because this was precisely a question he had once struggled with deeply.
At that moment of intense mental concentration, a fatal opening appeared in his defenses for a full 1.7 seconds.
Naruto Uzumaki's hand flashed like a phantom past the stunned Kakashi's waist.
Two bells fell into his palm.
"Mission accomplished."
The bells in Naruto Uzumaki's palm rang with a crisp, final sound.
The air froze.
Sasuke and Sakura emerged from behind the trees where they had been hiding, their faces full of shock.
What they saw was not victory, but an incomprehensible overturning of everything they knew.
Kakashi stood frozen in place. That scarlet Sharingan stared fixedly at Naruto Uzumaki, every trace of laziness and casualness stripped away, leaving only the chilling sharpness of an elite Jonin.
"Team 7, pass."
Kakashi's voice was dry, as though he had forcibly squeezed the words from his throat.
He paid no attention whatsoever to Sasuke and Sakura. All his attention was on Naruto Uzumaki.
What terrifying insight. He had only briefly lost focus because he had suddenly remembered Rin and Obito, yet Naruto Uzumaki had seized even that fleeting opening.
"Your tactics were very successful."
Kakashi's gaze fell upon Naruto Uzumaki's calm face.
"But that wasn't a team. It was a machine. You treated your companions as parts that could be calculated and sacrificed. That way of thinking is more dangerous than any enemy."
Sasuke clenched his fist at his side, his knuckles turning white.
He stared at the bell in Naruto Uzumaki's hand. The sense of defeat coiled around his heart like poisonous vines, while his desire for that absolute control scorched his soul like wildfire.
Naruto Uzumaki tossed one bell to Sasuke.
"Victory is the best protection for your companions."
He offered no explanation and turned to leave.
Hokage's Office.
Smoke filled the room, and the atmosphere was oppressive.
"He used Sakura Haruno as a 'tactical sacrifice point' and Sasuke as a 'controllable assault force.'"
Kakashi's voice was heavy. He omitted the details of the traps and the fighting, merely recounting Naruto Uzumaki's cold theory.
"At the end, he said that victory was a team's only purpose, and that any sentimentality was a fatal weakness."
Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent, drawing on his pipe one puff at a time.
After a long while, he knocked the pipe against the ashtray.
"Kakashi, we may have made a mistake."
The old man's voice carried deep exhaustion.
"What we have always feared was that the Nine-Tails' hatred would consume Naruto Uzumaki."
He raised his head. An unprecedented gravity filled his clouded eyes.
"But now, it seems that Naruto Uzumaki's heart has already been occupied by something even more terrifying and colder than the Nine-Tails."
Beneath Konoha, Root.
Shimura Danzō listened to the full report on Team 7's exercise from within the shadows.
Unconcealed satisfaction appeared in his single eye.
"Perfect command ability, absolutely rational judgment, and ruthless decisiveness without hesitation."
"That is what a weapon should be."
His cane tapped lightly against the ground.
"Raise the surveillance level on the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki from 'observation' to 'evaluation.'"
"As for the selection plan, I will personally test his loyalty."
A voice answered from the darkness.
"Lord Danzo, regarding Umino Iruka..."
"He is an important chess piece."
A sinister curve appeared at the corner of Danzo's mouth.
"It is time to see whether this perfect weapon still retains the superfluous impurity known as 'humanity.'"
Before you continue