Chapter 6 Your Smile, I Will Protect ItAt 4:30 AM the next morning, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke met at the training ground.
"Good morning."
Naruto and Sakura greeted each other with their eyes closed, while Sasuke maintained his usual cold demeanor.
Knowing Kakashi wouldn't come, Naruto wouldn't have waited foolishly; he simply used his ninja tool backpack as a pillow and continued sleeping under the tower.
As dawn broke, Kakashi didn't appear; as day broke, Kakashi still didn't appear.
Naruto was still fast asleep, while Sakura and Sasuke stood beside him like two scarecrows.
Sakura was utterly exasperated. She wanted to chat with Sasuke, but he completely ignored her. So annoying! If only Naruto were awake; that restless guy would never let her get bored.
She considered waking Naruto, but seeing how soundly he was sleeping, Sakura refrained.
[If I don't finish today's exercise, I'll be sent back to the Ninja Academy. Naruto's strength is even weaker than mine; he must have been very anxious last night. Oh well, let him sleep a little longer.]
"Good morning, everyone!"
Finally, Kakashi arrived late, almost noon.
"Too slow!" Sakura pointed out Kakashi's lateness with dissatisfaction.
"Ah, well, a black cat walked right past me."
Seeing the three's questioning expressions, Kakashi quickly coughed and took out an alarm clock, placing it on a tree stump.
"Alright, set the time to 12 o'clock. Your task is to snatch the bell from my hand before noon. Those who don't complete the task won't get lunch; they'll be tied to that pillar over there and watch me eat my lunch."
The three clutched their stomachs, feeling somewhat devastated. They couldn't believe such words came from a teacher. They finally understood Kakashi's sinister intention in not letting them eat breakfast.
"Wait a minute, Kakashi-sensei."
Sakura suddenly spoke, looking hesitantly at the bell in Kakashi's hand.
"There are three of us, so why are there only two bells?"
Kakashi chuckled, "Only two means one of you is destined to be tied to a pillar and eliminated, sent back to the Ninja Academy."
As he spoke, Kakashi shook the bell in his hand.
"At least one, or at most all of you, will be eliminated. You can use bladed weapons, because you won't succeed unless you're determined to kill me."
"Then, ready… go!"
The instant Kakashi said "go," Naruto charged towards him, rapidly forming hand seals while running, transforming into seven identical Narutos. The Naruto in the center threw a kunai with all his might.
[What, he's already making his move?]
Sasuke and Sakura had just taken their positions and were still considering their tactics when Naruto made the first move.
Not only were they surprised, but even Kakashi was quite taken aback. Naruto seemed different from the intelligence reports; he didn't often make boastful remarks, but his attacks were anything but hesitant.
However, Kakashi remained calm. After all, he was an elite Jonin of Konoha. He easily dodged the kunai and effortlessly blocked all of Naruto's shadow clones' attacks with one hand, then suddenly grabbed at Naruto in the middle.
"It's you, isn't it? Gotcha!"
Then, something completely unexpected happened. Naruto, whom he had grabbed, gave him a bright smile and vanished into smoke—a shadow clone.
What?! The kunai was clearly thrown from Naruto's hand just now! How could this be?
Oh no!
Kakashi felt a gust of wind behind him, and the kunai he had dodged instantly transformed into Naruto, swiftly grabbing for the bell at Kakashi's waist—Transformation Jutsu!
Naruto's fingertips had even brushed against the bell when Kakashi quickly dodged several meters to the side, narrowly avoiding it.
"What a pity." Sakura, standing nearby, covered her mouth in surprise. She hadn't expected Naruto to be so brave, and to almost succeed.
"Hmph." Sasuke looked at Kakashi with some disdain. This teacher didn't seem that strong; he hadn't expected Naruto to almost succeed.
"Yo yo, not bad, I really underestimated you, you loser."
Kakashi said with feigned contempt, especially drawing out the last three words, trying to provoke Naruto into attacking.
However, Naruto, having failed in his first attack, didn't linger. Instead, he jumped out of the fray, creating distance between himself and Kakashi. In the manga, Kakashi's most memorable move wasn't Kamui, but the Thousand Years of Death technique. Since his surprise attack had failed, Naruto had to consider his backup plan.
"Ha, then you can watch out, Kakashi-sensei. If I, this loser, succeed, you'll be a complete failure."
Seeing that Naruto showed no intention of attacking again, and Sasuke and Sakura remained silent, Kakashi finally couldn't help but sigh.
"Sigh, what a boring game."
As he spoke, Kakashi, under the watchful eyes of the three, leaned against a large tree and began reading a book. The book's title was quite violent: *Icha Icha Paradise*.
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"Damn it!" Sasuke thought angrily. This was simply intolerable! This was utterly disrespectful to him, the successor of the Uchiha clan! Especially after Naruto's impressive performance, Sasuke was eager to attack and couldn't concentrate.
[Damn it, whether you're my teacher or not, I'll show you the power of the Uchiha clan!]
With that thought, Sasuke didn't hesitate. He threw a kunai, and Kakashi fell to the ground with a thud.
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Sakura, who had been watching from the sidelines the whole time, was stunned. "No way, Sasuke didn't kill his teacher, did he?"
However, her worries were obviously unnecessary. He'd only stabbed a piece of wood—a substitution jutsu!
But Sasuke had anticipated this. He used the Body Flicker Technique to block Kakashi's path, and the two exchanged another round of taijutsu.
Naruto wasn't paying much attention to the fight. Instead, he was looking at the tree below, where a bell lay quietly.
Naruto, who had read the original manga, was immediately speechless. The bell, hanging perfectly at his waist, snapped and fell right in front of him! It was so obvious! Couldn't they at least respect someone's intelligence? Such an obvious trap, just to fool a naive "sweetheart" like him? Kakashi-sensei was too wicked.
[Fine, Kakashi-sensei, since you underestimate me so much, it lessens my guilt about winning through dishonorable means.]
Naruto lifted his foot and walked towards the bell. When he was about half a meter away, sure enough, a sharp pain shot through his ankle as he was hoisted into the air.
Kakashi, having thoroughly humiliated Sasuke and buried him in the ground, and then thoroughly frightened Sakura, leisurely tried to tease Naruto, only to find Naruto already free and happily eating his bento in front of a nearby stone monument.
[I really underestimated you.]
Kakashi silently moved to the stone monument behind Naruto, and just as Naruto stuffed a large rice ball into his mouth, he suddenly spoke.
"Hey!"
Even though Naruto was somewhat prepared, he was still startled by Kakashi's sudden outburst. The rice ball choked in his throat, twitching several times until tears streamed down his face before he finally managed to swallow it.
"Um, Kakashi-sensei, I just..."
Naruto put down his bento, turned around, and said awkwardly.
Kakashi said sternly, "It's too late. Are you ready..."
Kakashi didn't finish his sentence because the instant Naruto turned around, his hands had already formed hand seals, and a dozen Naruto clones roared and charged towards him.
Hmph, the same old trick again? They really don't know how to adapt.
Kakashi easily blocked the first few clones, but just as he was about to leap over them, his feet felt like they were rooted to a tree, unable to move an inch.
Super...invincible...powerful...super glue?
The sudden change caused Kakashi to lose his balance. This momentary lapse in concentration gave Naruto an opportunity. A shadow clone grabbed Kakashi, followed by a second, and a third.
A bunch of unruly, mischievous clones almost ripped off Kakashi's eyepatch.
After Kakashi escaped, the bell at his waist was already in Naruto's hand. How many years had it been since Konoha had seen anything like this? He never expected it to happen to Kakashi.
Sasuke and Sakura arrived just then, stunned and speechless at the sight of the bell in Naruto's hand.
Watching Naruto approach, Sakura's face flushed instantly, and she unconsciously lowered her head.
"Sakura."
"Mm."
Sakura saw the bell offered to her, looked up at the radiant smile on his face, and heard his warm yet undeniably domineering words:
"I will protect your smile!"