[Ding! Received 2,000 negative emotion points from Kakashi Hatake!]
Faced with his three students' anger and accusations, Kakashi felt as though he had just suffered a public humiliation.
What? They had been fighting each other just to decide who would lead their team?
Wasn't that exactly the result I wanted?
Well, uh...
"Yare Yare... I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted to test your reactions."
Kakashi scratched his head, his face red. "Looks like your vigilance still needs work. I dropped out of the sky in plain sight, and not one of you noticed. Hey, aren't you three being a little too careless?"
Naruto paused at that. Kakashi really had some nerve-he could even come up with an excuse for this.
"Kakashi-sensei, that explanation isn't convincing at all!"
"I think he just wants too much control."
Despite being challenged to his face by all three students, Kakashi acted as though nothing had happened. He narrowed his eyes, gestured for them to continue, then simply returned to his previous spot.
"Go on, then. I won't be testing you this time."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke, then nodded. "Scatter!"
Whoosh, whoosh...
Naruto and Sasuke vanished from where they stood, darting into the surrounding woods to hide.
Sakura Haruno was hardly on the same wavelength as either of them. Seeing both disappear into the woods, she hurried after them.
"Oh? Finally getting a little serious?"
Kakashi appeared to be reading a martial arts manual, but his attention was actually on the spot where the three had disappeared. That was close. I nearly caused a disaster.
"Hey, you three brats, don't try to stall. If you haven't taken the bells by lunchtime, you fail. And the consequence of failure is... going back for retraining."
Kakashi wasn't particularly loud, but his