What the Hell Just Flew Past?

The next morning, at dawn.

The members of Team 7 arrived at Konoha's gates ten minutes early to wait for Kakashi Sensei.

Fortunately, their jonin leader was fairly reliable. For their first mission outside the village, he was only five minutes late.

The moment Naruto saw Kakashi, he wanted nothing more than to grab the guy by the throat and make him take a good look at what time it was!

However, the white-haired Zhong Deng ignored the three of them complaining and even righteously claimed that the alarm clock at his house was five minutes slow.

Being a few minutes late...

Didn't count as being late.

Listening to Kakashi's sophistry, Naruto immediately rolled his eyes at him.

"Kakashi Sensei, you're wrong to think that way!"

"If you're five minutes late, you waste five minutes of each of our time!"

"That adds up to a full twenty minutes!"

Kakashi:?

Sasuke:?

Sakura:?

Tazuna:???

He remembered how, back when he was in school, teachers always used this line of reasoning to lecture him.

At the time, he had hated that argument beyond measure.

Yet Naruto had never imagined that one day, he would use those very words to lecture some white-haired ninja who loved being late.

Sigh...

Sure enough, Naruto Uzumaki had ultimately become the person he hated most.

Naruto's words instantly left Kakashi speechless.

At first glance...

There didn't seem to be anything wrong with what he had said.

But after thinking it over carefully, Kakashi felt that something was off, yet he couldn't figure out exactly what the problem was.

Sakura and Sasuke didn't understand it. After hearing that argument, they were utterly stunned.

"Hehe, don't worry about such trivial details..."

"Let's set off."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and chuckled to hide his embarrassment.

After spending so much time with Naruto, he had more or less developed a method for getting along with him.

Whenever this kid started picking a fight, all he had to do was forcefully redirect his attention.

Kakashi straightened his clothes and led the team, along with old man Tazuna, out through Konoha's gates.

The moment Team 7 left, every ninja in Konoha began flooding toward the Hokage Building.

The battle for Konoha's low-level missions had begun!

If Naruto had seen this scene, he probably would have wondered whether he had transmigrated into some post-apocalyptic world.

As Konoha's gates closed behind them, Team 7 officially left the village and headed for Wave Country, where Tazuna lived.

To protect their client, as well as the pink-haired accessory in the team, Kakashi had Sasuke follow behind him while Naruto stayed at the rear to guard their retreat.

If anything happened, they would be able to protect the two weakest people in the group immediately.

Walking at the front of the group, Kakashi found himself unbearably bored. He reached into his Ninja Tool Pouch, took out the latest issue of "Make-Out Paradise," and began reading it intently, his body occasionally trembling with amusement.

Naruto, at the back, was dumbfounded.

Why was Kakashi laughing while reading a Little Liu Bei??

He had read plenty of erotic manga in his previous life, but he had never acted like Kakashi.

For a moment, Naruto became curious about the contents of "Make-Out Paradise."

Sakura carried a backpack as she walked in the middle of the group, stealing a glance at Sasuke's profile every few seconds. Her face reddened a little more each time she looked.

Who knew what exactly was going through the girl's mind.

Tazuna looked at the white-haired jonin in front of him who was reading while walking, then glanced at the girl before him who was giggling foolishly to herself. Finally, he noticed the blond at the back of the group...

At that moment, the blond was holding a wooden stick and, like his brain had short-circuited, was whacking the flowers and grass around him. Whenever he came across a bush, he even had to poke it a couple of times with the stick.

Sigh...

Could he get a refund?

Tazuna's old face wrinkled into a ball. He had already begun regretting hiring this ninja team to escort him.

He even silently sighed to himself...

Damn it! Cheap goods really were never any good!

If I'd known, I wouldn't have lied about the mission!

Naruto noticed that old Tazuna was looking at him strangely, but he didn't bother explaining his actions.

What did this old man know!

There was a deeper meaning behind what he was doing.

Smacking the flowers and grass around him with a stick was all to uncover any ninjas lying in ambush nearby.

It definitely wasn't because the stick in his hand was too straight and he couldn't resist twirling it around.

Still, speaking of the ninjas lying in ambush here...

He had somewhat forgotten how these two nameless ninjas had ambushed them.

Splash—

Lost in thought, Naruto stepped into a puddle, and the water splashing up soaked his pant leg. The damp cloth clung to his skin.

Damn it! I just changed into these pants!

And that puddle clearly had lots of bacteria in it...

Just thinking about it made Naruto itch all over. With a disgusted expression, he began kicking his leg in place.

He figured that as long as he kicked fast enough, the water on his pants wouldn't touch his skin!

And so, at the back of the group, a certain blond stood in place, repeatedly throwing side kicks. His pants rustled with every movement.

Splash—

At that moment, two oddly dressed ninjas suddenly leaped out of the two puddles on the ground.

One of them happened to emerge from beneath Naruto's feet.

Hiding in the puddle had truly been a last resort for him.

The two of them had originally been lying in ambush nearby, but who could have known that this blond brat, for some reason...

Would pick up a stick and poke here and poke there. They had nearly been exposed.

In the end, the two of them had found an opportunity...

To transform into two puddles on the road. Though it looked rather abrupt, it was still better than being poked out by that brat's wooden stick.