The next morning.
Sakura stood in the designated training ground, a small bento box in her hand.
A cold, biting wind swept through. Sakura hurriedly pulled her thin clothes tighter around herself, her bare arms exposed to the air, shivering slightly.
Suddenly, she felt a warm coat, carrying the fresh scent of soap, draped over her shoulders. She quickly turned around to see Naruto's warm, smiling face.
"The weather has been quite erratic lately. Don't catch a cold."
Naruto's words made Sakura nod, deeply touched. Inner Sakura was going wild with infatuation.
But she soon noticed Naruto, now without his coat, was only wearing a thin casual shirt. She hurriedly and with concern tried to take off the coat, "Naruto, you're wearing so little, don't—"
Naruto gently stopped Sakura's movement and re-draped the coat over her, his handsome azure eyes filled with tenderness.
"It's very ungentlemanly to do nothing when seeing a cherry-blossom-like girl freezing in the cold wind."
A cherry-blossom-like girl? Ahhh, Naruto, don't be like this! It makes me want to hug you so badly! Inner Sakura had completely lost it, running rampant.
A thousand words ultimately melted into a shy "Mm."
"Sakura, how long have you been here?" Naruto asked softly.
"I just arrived a little while ago."
Just then, Sasuke's figure slowly appeared in the distance.
And so, the three-person squad was complete.
"Looks like Kakashi, the King of Tardiness, is even more extreme than I thought," Naruto chuckled lightly.
"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." After a short while, Kakashi arrived late, using his tried-and-true excuse.
"It's okay, we haven't been here long either," Naruto said, looking very understanding.
"Mm, this is pretty good. I wouldn't have guessed, your skills are decent." Sasuke, at the side, didn't even look up. He took a piece of sushi from Sakura's bento and savored it, then looked at Sakura with considerable surprise.
It was hard to imagine that this fangirl actually possessed culinary skills far surpassing his own.
Having received praise, Sakura excitedly picked up a piece of sushi and offered it to Naruto's lips. "Naruto-kun, I made this myself."
"Okay, thank you, Sakura." Naruto took a small step back, reached out to take the sushi, and popped it into his mouth. "Mm, it tastes great!"
Though her direct feeding attempt was declined, Sakura wasn't discouraged. She cheered herself on internally, Yosh! At least Naruto-kun ate my bento! This is huge progress!
The young girl's fighting spirit soared.
Kakashi quietly watched the three share the bento, suddenly feeling like an outsider.
It seemed like no one cared at all that he was late.
This feeling...
It was so annoying.
"Ahem." Kakashi attracted everyone's attention with a light cough, trying hard to put on a serious expression, his voice low.
"Next, we will begin the bell-grabbing test."
"I will have two bells on me. You need to get a bell before twelve noon."
"Anyone who doesn't get a bell isn't qualified to eat lunch. Since there are only two bells, one of you is destined to go hungry."
"Oh~ so that's what this is about. Boring," Sasuke snorted coldly.
"Boohoohoo, I'm doomed! I'm definitely the one going hungry," Sakura said with a dejected face.
"Don't worry, Sakura. After eating the bento, none of us are hungry. We can just share lunch later," Naruto said with an unconcerned smile.
Kakashi: ???
The atmosphere Kakashi had painstakingly tried to create was instantly shattered. He stood there, questioning his life choices, his mind in turmoil. How is this completely different from what I imagined? What kind of script is this?
The bell test, huh? Within Naruto, Minato let out a nostalgic sigh, a reminiscent smile on his lips. Back then, Kakashi went through a very strict bell test himself.
More than a decade had passed. Things had changed, people were different. The cocky Kakashi from back then had also grown up and was now someone else's teacher.
Having readjusted his mindset, Kakashi leaned lazily against a tree, not looking like a ninja at all. "You'd better come at me with the intent to kill. Otherwise, you won't succeed."
"Be careful. He's a ninja on par with Guy," Naruto reminded calmly. Sasuke nodded, while Sakura's hands turned cold with nervousness.
"Then the test... begins."
As his words fell, no one moved.
Sakura's gaze was fixed on Naruto.
She understood that with her own strength, only by cooperating with Naruto would she have any hope of passing the test.
Sasuke decided to observe for a moment first.
Naruto, however, decided to launch a direct frontal assault.
"Quite confident, all of you." Kakashi took out a copy of "Icha Icha Paradise" from his ninja tool pouch and began to flip through it lazily, his mood rising and falling with the book's content.
"That book!" Sasuke's eyes instantly transformed into the Sharingan, then his face filled with astonishment. "That's actually an adult book?"
Sasuke had discovered this "Icha Icha Paradise" when cleaning his family estate. Curious, he had briefly flipped through it, and the result was predictable.
"Can this kind of Jonin who reads adult books really guide us?" Sasuke looked doubtful.
"Don't underestimate anyone," Naruto said, then began to smile as he formed hand seals.
Nine-Tails, lend me some chakra. I want to see what qualifications this Kakashi has to be our supervising Jonin.
"Tch, use it. You'd best kill this disciple of the Fourth Hokage," the Nine-Tails goaded with schadenfreude.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" After a complex series of hand seals, Naruto unleashed a very proficient ninjutsu.
Great Breakthrough was only the most basic Wind Style jutsu, simply generating a gale, but the wind's strength was linked to the caster's chakra.
One had to know, the chakra within Naruto was at "chakra-tons" level.
"Whoosh!" An undeniably terrifying hurricane erupted from Naruto's mouth. The forest in this area instantly trembled, the rustling sound of leaves growing louder and louder. Dust from the ground was swept high into the air, enveloping Kakashi.
"Great Breakthrough can have this much power???" Kakashi's eyes widened. He put "Icha Icha Paradise" back into his tool pouch. Faced with this Great Breakthrough, which had power comparable to an S-rank ninjutsu, his heart pounded with terror.
Due to the vast range of Great Breakthrough, it wasn't suitable to escape directly with a Substitution Jutsu.
"Earth Style: Multiple Mud Wall!"
However, Kakashi was a Jonin, after all, and reacted instantly.
Several towering earthen walls rose up, blocking Kakashi's path.
Under the obstruction of the mud walls, Great Breakthrough seemed to have lost its killing power.
However, before Kakashi could even breathe a sigh of relief, Naruto's incantation began:
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Number 31: Shakkaho!"
A scorching fireball erupted from Naruto's palm. It shot into the Great Breakthrough, and with the wind's enhancement, the flames burned even more fiercely. In an instant, it shattered all the mud walls and plunged into the area behind them where Kakashi was, triggering a massive explosion.
Light and heat spread outwards in a sphere. Trees caught in it were instantly burned to a crisp, sending up billows of thick smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the entire area reeked of a burnt, unpleasant smell.
The ground was a complete mess; the earth underfoot even emitted a foul odor, its temperature extremely high.
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