The next morning.
Training Ground 7.
A faint mist hung in the air, and dawn light filtered through the leaves, scattering dappled spots of light. Three thick wooden posts stood silently in the middle of the clearing, beside a cold Memorial Stone.
Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha waited there, all three looking a little tired and nervous.
"Damn it! Kakashi-sensei is taking forever!" Naruto clutched his growling stomach and paced irritably. "He said to meet at five, and now it's almost nine!"
"Quiet down, Naruto! Maybe he's testing our patience!" Although Sakura was starving too, she still contradicted Naruto out of habit.
Only Sasuke leaned against a tree with his eyes closed, resting as though he were conserving his strength.
All three had obediently skipped breakfast and were now dizzy with hunger.
"Hey, where's that guy?" Naruto suddenly realized someone was missing. "That bastard Shengu Xuan thinks he's an even bigger deal than our teacher? Is he late too?"
"Hmph. Maybe he was too scared to come," Sakura said disdainfully.
Just then, a leisurely voice came from behind them.
"Yo, good morning, everyone."
The three whipped around to see Shengu Xuan strolling over with a skewer of freshly grilled dumplings, still steaming. He also carried a carton of milk in his other hand.
"You... you jerk!" Naruto practically drooled at the food in Shengu Xuan's hand. He pointed at him angrily. "Didn't Kakashi-sensei tell us not to eat breakfast?!"
"He said, 'You'd better not eat,' not 'You're not allowed to eat.'" Shengu Xuan unhurriedly bit a dumpling off the skewer and spoke through his mouthful. "Besides, why should I listen to him? My body, my choice."
With that, he deliberately took a large gulp of milk in front of the three and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Grumble..."
Naruto's, Sakura's, and Sasuke's stomachs roared in protest at the same time.
The corner of Sasuke's eye twitched, and his gaze toward Shengu Xuan grew even colder. This guy had been challenging everyone's common sense since yesterday.
Bang!
Just then, a cloud of white smoke burst in the middle of the clearing, and Kakashi Hatake finally made his grand entrance.
"Yo, sorry, sorry. I got lost on the road of life again today." He waved, apologizing without a shred of sincerity.
When he spotted Shengu Xuan enjoying his breakfast, his dead-fish eye visibly paused.
Oh? The only one who ate breakfast? Did he disregard what I said, or... does he have absolute confidence in himself? Kakashi thought.
"All right, enough talk." Kakashi took two bells and an alarm clock from his pocket and placed them on one of the wooden posts.
"The alarm is set. You have until noon. Your task is to take these two bells from me." He shook the bells in his hand and stressed again, "Anyone who fails to get one gets no lunch and will be tied to a post. More importantly, failing the mission means going straight back for retraining."
"There are only two bells, but four of you." Kakashi's gaze sharpened. "In other words, from the very beginning, at least two of you are destined to be eliminated. You'll not only have to face me, but compete against one another. Use everything you have, and come at me with the resolve to kill me!"
"Begin!"
At Kakashi's command, Sasuke and Sakura vanished instantly, each finding somewhere to hide.
Only Naruto remained standing there foolishly.
"Hey! I'm not like you!" With his hands on his hips, Naruto pointed at Kakashi and shouted, "I'm going to fight you fair and square, one-on-one, and then take a bell!"
Kakashi lazily pulled his beloved Icha Icha Paradise out from behind his back and spoke nonchalantly as he read. "Really? Confidence is good, but too much makes you an idiot."
"Shut up! Take this!"
With a furious roar, Naruto charged at Kakashi like a raging bull!
What followed, however, was a completely one-sided thrashing.
Kakashi did not even put down his book. With one hand in his pocket, he easily dodged every one of Naruto's attacks.
"Hey, hey, you're behind me." Kakashi's voice suddenly came from behind Naruto.
Startled, Naruto whipped around, only to see Kakashi's afterimage.
"No, over here."
"Or here."
Kakashi flickered around Naruto like a phantom. Naruto could not even touch the hem of his clothes.
"Damn it!" Frantic and furious, Naruto formed hand seals. "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Dozens of Narutos appeared instantly, surrounding Kakashi from every direction.
"Oh? You can actually use an A-rank ninjutsu like this? That's an impressive amount of chakra." A flicker of surprise crossed Kakashi's lone eye, but his tone remained relaxed. "But quantity isn't quality."
He closed his book and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Secret taijutsu technique: Thousand Years of Death!"
Thrust!
Kakashi instantly appeared behind the real Naruto, his hands forming the tiger seal, and drove them viciously toward Naruto's... vulnerable spot.
"Aaaah!!!"
A piercing scream rang through the entire training ground. Naruto shot into the sky like a rocket, then plunged headfirst into the nearby stream.
Having dealt with the loudest one, Kakashi dusted off his hands and picked up his book again.
"All right, who's next?"
Just then, dozens of shuriken and kunai shot out of the woods, cutting off every route of retreat!
"Oh? Nice timing." Kakashi's gaze sharpened.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Sasuke leaped out from behind a tree, spewing a huge fireball that formed a crossfire with the shuriken and hurtled straight at Kakashi!
"An attack at this level... isn't nearly enough."
Kakashi vanished on the spot. The next second, he appeared behind Sasuke and pressed a hand onto his head.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
Sasuke felt the ground soften beneath his feet, and his entire body instantly sank underground, leaving only his head exposed, unable to move.
"Damn it... when did he..." Sasuke's face was full of frustration.
"Little girl, you can't just stand around watching." Kakashi's voice rang out elsewhere.
"Aah!"
Sakura screamed. She found herself in a blood-red world, with a wounded, dying Sasuke lying before her, pointing at her and howling, "Sakura... why aren't you saving me..."
"Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura broke down in an instant and fainted on the spot.
In just a few minutes, Kakashi had dealt with all three without spilling any blood.
Silence returned to the training ground.
Kakashi walked up to Sasuke's exposed head and looked down at him. "So much for the Uchiha Clan's genius. You only saw me, your enemy, and never considered your teammates at all. As you are, you can't beat me."
With that, he ignored Sasuke and turned toward the other side of the clearing.
There, Shengu Xuan had been leaning against the Memorial Stone the entire time, without even changing his posture. He finished his last dumpling, tossed the bamboo skewer into the trash, then unscrewed his milk and took another sip.
As though everything that had just happened had been nothing more than a boring monkey show.
"Hey." Kakashi approached Shengu Xuan, his dead-fish eye turning utterly serious for the first time. "You've been watching all this time. What do you think?"
"Very boring," Shengu Xuan replied flatly. "Does bullying three clueless brats give you that much satisfaction, Kakashi Hatake?"
Kakashi's gaze turned cold.
"You seem very confident. Well, the warm-up is over." He put Icha Icha Paradise back into his Ninja Tool Pouch, and his exposed right eye instantly became a scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
A sense of pressure several times stronger than before bore down on Shengu Xuan, almost tangible!
"Show me just what this Kekkei Genkai the Third hailed as 'Konoha's treasure' can do!" Kakashi took a fighting stance. "If you don't make your move, time will run out."
Shengu Xuan finally straightened up and rolled his neck, producing a series of cracks.
He looked at Kakashi, now ready for battle, and the corners of his mouth curled into a mocking smile.
"One-on-one? No, I already told you yesterday."
Shengu Xuan extended one hand and, under the horrified gaze of Kakashi's Sharingan, gently snapped his fingers.
"Snap."
"That would be far too unfair to you."
The instant his words fell, something changed!
The shadow beneath Kakashi's feet, the shadow beneath Sasuke's head, the shadows of the distant wooden posts, the Memorial Stone's shadow, the shade cast by every tree in the forest...
Every shadow throughout Training Ground 7 began churning violently at that moment, like boiling water!
"Bubble... bubble... bubble..."
Thick black liquid welled out of the shadows, and pitch-black figures slowly "grew" out of the ground.
They wore matching black stealth outfits, their scarlet eyes looking especially eerie in the morning light. Some held katanas, some gripped spears, and some carried flails...
One, ten, fifty, a hundred...
Within mere seconds, hundreds of Shadow Ninjas had surrounded the entire training ground, leaving no gaps! They formed a massive encirclement, with Kakashi and Shengu Xuan at its center.
No chakra fluctuations!
No signs of life!
Only endless, bone-chilling killing intent!
"This... this is..."
Buried in the ground, Sasuke watched the hellish scene unfold. His pupils constricted sharply, and his mind went blank.
He had seen only four in the examination room yesterday! Now there were over a hundred!
What kind of Kekkei Genkai was this?! This was not ninjutsu at all! It was practically... an army!
Kakashi's Sharingan spun furiously, and fine beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead. He could clearly see that these Shadow Ninjas had no chakra pathway systems inside them. They were nothing but killing machines made of shadows!
"A Summoning Technique? No! No Summoning Scroll, no blood contract, no hand seals..." Kakashi's voice was painfully dry. "Shengu Xuan, you... what exactly are you?"
Shengu Xuan did not answer. Like a monarch reviewing his troops, he merely swept a calm gaze over his Shadowkhan.
He extended a finger toward Kakashi, who stood surrounded by the shadow army as though facing a formidable enemy, and issued an order in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Now, the game has only just begun."
"Kakashi-sensei, let me see whether the so-called 'Copy Ninja' can last ten minutes against my undying legion."
"-All troops, attack."
Before you continue