The training ground was quiet as the first rays of sunlight began to pierce through the canopy of leaves. Morning dew still clung to the grass, glistening like tiny gems, untouched and serene — a deceptive calm before the storm.
At precisely 5:00 AM, Team 7 gathered as instructed, their youthful faces determined despite the early hour.
But there was no sign of Kakashi Hatake.
Sasuke stood with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed like a hawk watching prey. His dark bangs fell just over his Sharingan-sealed eyes, already restless with anticipation. Sakura yawned quietly, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. She shifted awkwardly, glancing repeatedly at Sasuke with the faintest blush, though trying to appear focused. Meanwhile, Naruto simply sat down cross-legged on the cool grass, unfazed by their teacher's absence.
From within his robe, Naruto retrieved a dark, glossy stone — a Void Stone — pulsing with faint ripples of spatial energy, like a beating heart of the cosmos. As he held it in his palm, he began circulating his Qi with deliberate rhythm, just as Yin Long had taught him. The chaotic nature of the Void began to harmonize with his internal flow. The stone vibrated faintly, releasing wisps of spatial essence that dissolved into Naruto's body. His breathing grew calm, his spiritual perception expanding like ripples across a still pond.
With his senses stretching across the area, he could feel every trembling leaf, every rustling squirrel in the trees, every droplet of dew sliding from a blade of grass.
Sasuke, not one to waste time, began his Taijutsu drills. Each punch and kick cut through the morning air with sharp precision. His muscles moved with the discipline of someone who had trained in solitude for years — and in truth, he had. Every motion carried the weight of vengeance, the bitter cold of loss. He was a blade yet to be fully drawn.
Sakura occasionally tried to mimic Sasuke's movements, her form awkward but improving. Yet her eyes wandered often, betraying where her true attention lay. Her mind was a storm of emotions, admiration, insecurity, and uncertainty.
Hours passed. The sunlight had climbed high, casting sharp shadows across the field. The wind rustled the leaves, but there was still no sign of their instructor.
Until, finally, at exactly 10:00 AM — he arrived.
A figure emerged from the tree line with a casual gait, hands buried in his pockets, silver hair defying gravity and time alike.
"Yo," greeted Kakashi Hatake, his tone lazy and unreadable. "Sorry I'm late. I got lost on the path of life."
Naruto opened his eyes slowly, unfazed. He had sensed Kakashi's approach ten minutes before he arrived, tracing his presence by the subtle fluctuations in space and faint energy trails he left behind. Naruto's perception had reached a level where the world itself seemed to whisper secrets to him.
Sasuke looked visibly irritated, and Sakura crossed her arms with a pout. But Kakashi didn't let them voice complaints.
He pulled two small silver bells from his pouch, letting them dangle between his fingers with a faint metallic jingle.
"Today's test is simple," he said. "Take these bells from me before time runs out. The ones who fail… go back to the Academy."
The air grew tense.
Before another word was said, Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance — and in a burst of smoke, they vanished into the forest, leaving behind only a few drifting ash particles and the faint scent of gunpowder.
But Naruto didn't move.
He stood slowly, his robe fluttering in the breeze, his sword already in hand — the **Decimating Divine Sword**, forged by Yin Long and tempered in celestial flames. It hummed faintly, resonating with Naruto's Qi.
He wasn't panicking. He wasn't hiding.
He was waiting.
His eyes, now possessing faint swirling patterns of space due to his Dao cultivation, peered into the forest. He saw through foliage and chakra disturbances alike, discerning the spatial distortions that betrayed movement. His perception could read intent from a fluctuation, strength from a vibration.
And then — a disturbance.
A flicker. A chakra signature curled behind the tall cedar tree — Kakashi, lightly concealing his presence with minimal chakra usage.
"Found you," Naruto whispered.
In the next instant, Naruto vanished — not by mere speed, but through a short-range spatial shift, a technique he had developed by integrating the **Void Dao's** first insight: *Silent Step*.
He reappeared directly before Kakashi, sword gleaming in the sunlight.
Kakashi blinked, genuinely surprised.
"Impressive," he muttered.
Naruto raised his sword.
"**Decimating Sword Style — First Move: Heavenly Burning Slash!**"
Golden flames burst along the blade's edge, burning with Yang Qi so dense it distorted the air. The slash descended like divine judgment, fast enough to cut through solid steel and hot enough to ignite the grass below.
*Clang!*
Kakashi had barely enough time to activate his Sharingan and raise a kunai to parry. The collision sent a shockwave rippling through the forest. Trees shuddered. The grass was scorched in a wide arc behind Kakashi, the force leaving behind a deep groove.
Kakashi's arm trembled slightly.
He had used fifty percent of his strength.
And Naruto — still had not broken a sweat.
"You're holding back," Naruto said, voice low but steady, his eyes glowing with ethereal calm. "Let me test the strength of a Jonin."
With a step that tore the air, Naruto moved again — this time faster, aided by a minor tear in space created by his control over spatial Qi. He emerged behind Kakashi in a flicker, blade already drawn back.
"**Second Move: Yang Flame Descent!**"
Kakashi barely pivoted in time to dodge a slash that sliced clean through a boulder twenty meters behind him. The flame from the blade didn't burn like ordinary fire — it seared through chakra layers, targeting the internal flow itself.
This wasn't ninjutsu. It was **cultivation warfare** — something beyond what Kakashi had seen from any Genin.
"Looks like I really have to take this seriously," Kakashi said, activating his Sharingan fully and raising his chakra to 65%.
The two clashed again.
Naruto's strikes were no longer simple sword swings — they were expressions of Dao. Every slash contained intent — the will to cleave through the heavens, to cut through illusions, to challenge fate itself.
Kakashi countered with deadly precision, but Naruto's spatial footwork made him hard to track. He would vanish mid-attack, reappearing at impossible angles, slicing with trajectories that ignored standard geometry.
They fought like phantoms dancing across the clearing.
Kakashi threw a lightning-charged kunai.
Naruto spun mid-air, deflecting it with the back of his blade, and flicked a thread of Yang Qi toward Kakashi's exposed blind spot. Kakashi twisted, narrowly avoiding it, but that second of distraction was enough.
Naruto blurred, reappearing directly above him in mid-air.
"**Third Move: Solar Dragon Fang!**"
A brilliant arc of blazing gold cleaved downward like a divine beast striking from the sun itself.
Kakashi raised both arms in a cross block, but the sheer pressure forced him back. He landed with his boots skidding across the earth, leaving a trail of torn ground behind him.
And then — *jingle.*
The string of one bell was sliced, fluttering through the air.
Naruto reached out and caught it as his breath was hasty.
Kakashi looked at the severed string, stunned. A smile tugged beneath his mask.
"…You're no ordinary Genin."
Meanwhile, in the deeper part of the forest…
Sasuke and Sakura were in chaos. Trapped in separate genjutsu, tangled in wire traps, and buried to their necks — they had failed to communicate, coordinate, or analyze the battlefield.
Their arrogance and emotion had been their downfall.
Kakashi stood before all three of them after the bell test had ended. Sasuke and Sakura looked disheveled and bitter, while Naruto stood straight, the bell in his hand, his sword sheathed, and his presence regal and unwavering.
"You passed," Kakashi said, his tone finally serious. "Your strength and perception… they're beyond what I expected."
Naruto did not smile. He simply turned his gaze to his teammates — one glowering, the other ashamed.
"But you all failed."Kakashi said to them.
**To be continued…**