As soon as he finished speaking, one of Naruto's shadow clones appeared beside them.
Seeing Naruto's shadow clone, Sasuke suddenly understood.
He immediately formed hand seals, and a shadow clone of his own appeared.
"Naruto, you're so smart! Why didn't I think of that?"
Seeing Sasuke beam as though he had discovered a whole new world, Naruto smiled and stroked his hair. "Stick with me, you can't go wrong."
At those words...
Sasuke's face flushed bright red. He hurriedly swatted Naruto's hand away. "Hmph, who wants to live with you? Don't flatter yourself."
Watching Sasuke flee the living room in embarrassment, Naruto reminded him, "If you're going to keep training that hard tonight, go back and rest right now."
Hearing Naruto, Sasuke stopped and nodded. "Mm, I know."
Konoha Ninja Hospital, ICU Ward.
Kakashi lay in his hospital bed, holding Icha Icha Paradise in his left hand and rubbing his temple with his right.
After reading for a while, he turned to check the clock. "Good grief. I still feel a little weak."
"Well... shall we do it this way, then?"
Kakashi formed a one-handed seal. "Shadow Clone Technique."
Immediately, a slightly unsteady Kakashi appeared in the ICU Ward.
Under the nurse's astonished gaze, Kakashi's shadow clone swayed from side to side as he slowly left the hospital and headed toward Team 7's meeting place.
It wasn't actually that Kakashi was shirking his duties.
His body genuinely hadn't recovered.
Besides, Team 7 had only just been formed, and all three students were relatively weak.
Most of the missions they could take were simple C-rank tasks, such as cleaning, weeding, and finding lost cats or dogs.
Missions of that rank carried no risk, so Kakashi figured sending a shadow clone to muddle through would suffice.
At a bridge in Konoha.
Sakura