Sasuke and Sakura immediately tensed up when they heard that they had to be prepared to die.
Both of their expressions turned serious.
Having experienced death firsthand, Sasuke naturally knows the meaning of that word.
As for Naruto, he just stared speechlessly at Kakashi's retreating back.
'If I hadn't watched Naruto Anime before, maybe I would have believed it.'
'The ancestral tradition of snatching bells...'
'Always with the same old routine.'
'If you have the guts, then you can make us fail the exam, and then we can all slack off and wait for Madara-sama's Infinite Tsukuyomi.'
'Prepare for death, my ass...'
In Naruto's opinion, Kakashi was the one who needed to get mentally prepared. Because if he really got serious, one punch might not be just a joke.
"I'm going home!"
With a wave of his hand, Naruto tossed out a portal and was about to go back. Sasuke and Sakura looked over in surprise, as they could not see any nervousness on Naruto's face.
"Naruto... aren't you worried about tomorrow's mission?"
Sakura's words made Sasuke nod, as if he wanted to know what Naruto was planning.
Naruto shrugged it off casually.
"Don't worry about it. You just lie down and relax. Sasuke and I will carry you."
This is a bit discouraging, but what Naruto said is also true.
If he and Sasuke got serious, even Kakashi might not be able to beat them.
As for Sakura...
Well, she was basically just an optional accessory.
Sakura's face froze, and inside, she was already boiling over.
'Damn Uzumaki Naruto!'
'How dare you look down on me!'
'Tomorrow, I'll show him what I'm made of!'
When Sasuke heard Naruto's confident words, his nervous look disappeared and he felt that tomorrow's mission was suddenly under control.
He and Naruto have known each other for such a long time, and he has never seen Naruto dare to say anything he is not sure of.
"You go on ahead."
"I won't be training today. See you tomorrow."
"Got it."
After saying that, Naruto stepped into the portal and vanished before the two people's eyes.
Sasuke lowered his head, put his hands in his pockets, and turned away without saying anything to Sakura.
"Um…"
"Sasuke-kun… are you sure everything will be alright tomorrow?"
Sakura took the opportunity to run over to Sasuke and look for a topic to talk about.
"Don't worry, Naruto and I are strong."
Sasuke said without looking back, and walked away even faster.
He was in a hurry to go to the east side of the village for training, so he had no time to play romantic games with a pink-haired fangirl.
Sakura looked at Sasuke's departing figure, and thought of what he had just said. For a moment, she felt that she was a little redundant...
…
The next morning before dawn, the three of them showed up early at the training grounds.
Sasuke and Sakura came especially early, arriving before 5 AM. On the contrary, Naruto tossed a portal and came to the training ground when he saw that it was 5 AM.
As for why he arrived on time…
Because honestly, Naruto wasn't sure whether Kakashi would be late or not.
After all, ever since he came to this world, a lot of things had changed.
Who knew if Kakashi would suddenly decide to be punctual?
After standing around for a bit and yawning repeatedly, Naruto checked the time and saw that it was almost 6 AM, so he figured the white-haired slacker probably wouldn't show until noon.
At that thought, Naruto just shrugged and pulled some stones out of his system inventory, then built a stone house on the spot. Then he pulled out a bed and dropped it inside.
He looked back at Sasuke, put another bed, then lay down on it and fell into a deep sleep.
Sasuke was used to Naruto's antics by now. Seeing the extra bed inside the stone house, he didn't hesitate and just lay down too.
Sakura, on the other hand, was in complete shock.
First, Naruto pulled out some weird stuff, then built an actual stone house in under ten minutes right before her eyes, and now both of her teammates were snoring away without a care in the world...
To be honest, she was completely petrified.
"How… how did you even do that?!"
"How did a stone house suddenly appear?!"
Sakura blurted it out instinctively, but the only response she got was the snoring of her two teammates.
That completely broke her brain.
Sakura's thoughts began to spiral...
'Who I am?'
'Where am I?'
'What am I supposed to be doing today…?'
It took Sakura a while to realize that today she was going to carry out the mission that Kakashi had mentioned…
'But why has Kakashi-sensei been late for over an hour now!?'
'And my teammates not only conjured up a stone house, but also fell asleep on the spot...'
'What the hell is going on!'
…
Kakashi, who was watching from the shadows, was in a similar state to Sakura at the moment.
He slapped a hand to his forehead and sighed deeply.
'I knew it!!'
'I knew something like this would happen!'
Kakashi had watched Naruto grow up and is very familiar with his strange Kekkei Genkai.
According to the previous assessment process, he would first warn the three not to eat breakfast today, and then give them two lunchboxes to test their teamwork.
But the key point is…
Naruto is like a mobile cafeteria.
The previous method simply doesn't work for him!
If Kakashi tried to give them two lunchboxes, he was pretty sure Naruto would just whip up an entire buffet on the spot.
So from the start, Kakashi hadn't planned to use the lunchbox trick to test this team.
Because of that…
He was planning to leave the three of them waiting for a few hours just to observe how they'd react.
But the result...
It was exactly as Kakashi had expected.
As long as Naruto was around, he could forget about conducting a proper test.
Kakashi was seriously starting to regret agreeing to take these three kids under his wings...
'Sigh, whatever.'
'Let's just get started."
Watching Naruto and Sasuke sound asleep inside the stone house, Kakashi couldn't help but feel a little disheartened.
It was supposed to be an evaluation for all three of them, but thanks to Naruto, the whole tone had been completely derailed.
Kakashi felt even more uncomfortable, especially since he was still squatting in the bushes and enduring mosquito bites.
With a sigh, Kakashi vanished from where he stood.
"Morning."
"Huh??"
Just as Sakura was leaning against the wall trying to take a quick nap herself, she suddenly saw Kakashi appear right in front of her and casually greet her.
Sakura was so shocked that she immediately jumped up from the ground and kept bowing and apologizing to Kakashi, unaware that someone was almost two hours late.
"I'm sorry! Kakashi-sensei, I didn't mean to fall asleep!"
Sakura's flustered attitude gave Kakashi a bit of comfort.
'At least someone on this team still behaved like a normal student.'
Seeing Sakura like this, then glancing at the other two…
"Go wake them up."
"Y-yes!"
Sakura was already breaking into a cold sweat.
'It's over! It's over!'
'I've already left a bad impression on Kakashi-sensei during our first mission...'
'It's over. We will definitely not pass the assessment.'
'It's all Naruto's fault!'
Sakura walked into the stone house dejectedly, and when she saw the two guys sleeping soundly on the bed, the vein on her forehead started throbbing.
"Sasuke-kun! Naruto!"
"Kakashi-sensei is here!"
Despite being asleep, the moment they heard her call, the two of them instantly jumped up into defensive stances.
Naruto rubbed his eyes and glanced at the time, 'It was not even 7 yet…'
'Wait, what!?'
'Did Kakashi take the wrong medicine!?'
'Why is he here so early!?'
Naruto put away the beds in the room, yawned, and stepped outside. Then, he saw Kakashi looking at the sky, seemingly thinking about life.
"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei."
"Haaah…"
Kakashi turned his head and looked Naruto up and down. He was this close to punching the kid.
'What on earth is wrong with this child!'
'If I didn't know him personally, I would definitely have to send him back to the Academy to start over.'
Kakashi sighed, then pulled out a bell from his belt and placed it in front of the three.
"Your mission today..."
"Is to snatch these bells from me."
"Even just touching them counts as passing."
"If none of you manage that, you'll be deemed unqualified and sent back to the Academy for another year."
"You've got three minutes to prepare."
Sasuke and Sakura's expressions turned weird upon hearing that.
'Didn't you say that we should be prepared for death??'
'And this is it??'
Sasuke didn't even entertain the thought of failure. After all, he was no longer that weak, sobbing kid from the night of the genocide.
Now, he is strong!
And more importantly, he had a teammate whose power was flat-out ridiculous.
"Naruto, Sasuke."
"Let's work out a battle plan!"
Sakura was very happy, because this was what she was best at.
The two of them turned their heads to look at her at the same time, and countless question marks seemed to appear in their face.
'Battle plan?'
'What's that??'
Naruto's approach to combat had always been the same: charge in directly.
The words 'battle plan' didn't exist in his vocabulary.
However, Sakura didn't notice her teammates' reaction, and squatted down to start analyzing on her own.
"Kakashi-sensei is a Jonin. For us, defeating him head-on..."
"Is basically impossible."
"So…"
"Kakashi-sensei, let's just get started already!"
"It's been a while since I sparred with you!"
Naruto interrupted Sakura off mid-analysis and said excitedly.
He'd been waiting for this moment for a long time!
Just the thought of avenging his previous humiliation filled Naruto with trembling anticipation.
Next to him, Sasuke nodded in agreement. He liked this kind of straightforward, no-nonsense approach.
As for battle plan...
In Naruto's words, it's just unnecessary fluff.
Kakashi's eyelid twitched when he heard that.
'Where was the teamwork spirit he was supposed to be seeing here!?'
'Having one reckless maniac on the team was already bad enough. But now, Sasuke looked like he'd been completely corrupted by Naruto!'
'As for Sakura...'
'Those two clearly didn't take her seriously at all!'
Sakura, who was cut off mid-sentence, stood there awkwardly. She could also see Naruto and Sasuke's attitude towards her...
'Damn it!'
'I was actually ignored!'
'I will let you two see how powerful I am later!'
"In that case..."
"Let's begin."
Kakashi shed his usual laid-back demeanor and instantly switched into combat mode.
He didn't know how strong Sasuke had gotten…
But if he doesn't take Naruto seriously...
It's really possible that he'll suffer a great loss at the hands of this kid!