The rules of the exercise had barely left Kakashi's lips—he hadn't even called out "start"—when Hinata Hyuga lunged forward, spearheading the assault.
She was a child just graduated from the Academy, yet the speed she displayed was far beyond what the word "Genin" could define. In Kakashi's experienced eyes, her velocity exceeded the standard for Konoha's lower-ranked shinobi by a staggering margin.
Attacking an elite Jōnin so recklessly? Kakashi thought, a lazy smile tugging at the corner of his eye. You're underestimating your opponent, little girl.
With a light leap, Kakashi retreated. As he dodged, Hinata's palm strike met empty air. Instead of struggling to regain her balance from the forward momentum, she leaned into the tilt, snatching a handful of shuriken from her pouch and letting them fly with lethal precision mid-fall.
What? Kakashi was genuinely impressed by her body control. To throw with such accuracy while technically off-balance required a level of physical mastery that could only come from grueling, specialized training.
Despite his surprise, Kakashi's hands were a blur. Hinata's taijutsu was formidable, but her projectile work was merely average for a ninja of his caliber. He didn't even bother to dodge; as his feet hit the ground, his right hand shot out, his fingers catching the center rings of the spinning shuriken with effortless grace.
The shuriken spun harmlessly around his fingers like toys. Hinata's two-stage opening gambit had failed to leave a scratch.
Seeing her attack neutralized, Hinata looked up. The skin around her temples bulged with thick, throbbing veins. She had activated the Byakugan.
The Byakugan? Already mastered? Kakashi noted.
But as he focused on her eyes, a faint rustle sounded beneath his feet.
The Real Trap
Kakashi's instincts screamed. He looked down just as a hand erupted from the soil, reaching desperately for the bells hanging at his waist.
Hinata's charge had been a feint.
While Kakashi was distracted by the heiress's aggressive frontal assault, Naruto had made his move. He had used a Shadow Clone to stand behind Hinata as visual bait while his real body tunneled underground, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Naruto and Hinata had grown up together; their mutual trust was absolute. Against an elite like Kakashi, a direct attack was suicide, but if Hinata moved, Naruto followed—no matter how reckless the choice seemed.
Naruto didn't waste time trying to punch a Jōnin. His goal was the bells.
The suddenness of the ambush caught Kakashi off guard. He glanced back at the "Naruto" still standing in the distance and realized he'd walked right into a Genin's trap. However, years of experience allowed him to react a split second before fingers met silver.
Kakashi's hand blurred, snatching Naruto's wrist. With a sharp flick of his arm, he sent Naruto flying through the air toward Hinata.
At Kakashi's level, his speed and strength were on a different plane. Even with the Uzumaki bloodline gifted by Kushina and Minato, Naruto was still just a twelve-year-old boy. He was tossed aside like a rag doll.
"Naruto!" Hinata cried out, reaching to catch him, but the force behind the throw turned Naruto into a human bowling ball, knocking both of them to the ground.
Fire in the Sky
Sasuke Uchiha didn't stand by and watch. The moment Kakashi countered Naruto, Sasuke saw the opening he needed. His fingers were already a blur of hand signs.
As Naruto and Hinata tumbled, Sasuke finished the sequence: "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of roaring flame erupted in the center of the training ground, the intense heat cracking the earth as it rolled toward Kakashi.
First Hinata's taijutsu, then Naruto's tactical use of clones, and now... this? Kakashi's brain struggled to reconcile what he was seeing. This wasn't the level of a normal Genin. A fresh graduate like Sakura Haruno—that was the standard. These three were monsters.
BOOM!
The flames engulfed the area. Kakashi used a Substitution Jutsu at the last possible second, vanishing into the canopy of a nearby tree.
He had intended to pick them off one by one to test their individual limits, but when the smoke cleared, the clearing was empty. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata had used the cover of the fire to vanish into the woods.
The Hunted Hunter
The battlefield went silent. Sasuke was crouched in a bush, his eyes scanning the treeline for any sign of silver hair. Kakashi, meanwhile, suppressed his chakra and moved through the shadows, relying on physical tracks to find his students.
However, the game was rigged.
High up in a dense tree, Hinata and Naruto lay flat against a branch. Following Hinata's silent pointing, Naruto looked exactly where Kakashi was hiding. Naruto couldn't see him through the foliage, but he trusted Hinata's Byakugan implicitly.
Naruto pulled a kunai and wrapped an Explosive Tag around the hilt.
He summoned a Shadow Clone, which grabbed the kunai and leaped toward Kakashi's position with a loud roar. "Kakashi-sensei! I've got you now!"
The clone's scream was a distraction, meant to flush Kakashi out and mask the location of the real Naruto and Hinata.
They found me? Kakashi wondered. Is it the Byakugan?
He saw the clone diving toward him and flipped out of the tree into the open clearing. Behind him, the explosive tag detonated. A pillar of fire and debris erupted, scorching the woods.
Explosive tags? Kakashi felt a headache coming on. These kids were coming at him with everything. He had been forced out of hiding and into a disadvantageous position. By the standards of a Genin test, they had already passed with flying colors—but the test wasn't about combat prowess.
The Gentle Fist's Sting
Shhh-shhh-shhh!
A rain of shuriken whistled from the trees. Kakashi didn't flinch as they thudded into his chest—only to vanish and be replaced by a log riddled with blades.
Sasuke, hidden in the brush, felt his heart sink. I missed!
Before he could relocate, hands burst from the earth and grabbed his ankles. With a violent jerk, Sasuke was pulled into the ground up to his neck. Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto didn't hesitate. A dozen clones dropped from the sky, swarming Kakashi to keep him away from the trapped Sasuke.
Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu? Kakashi marveled. Minato-sensei is really reckless, teaching a Genin that... or maybe it was Kushina-sensei.
Kakashi moved like a ghost among the clones, popping them into clouds of smoke within seconds. Meanwhile, the real Naruto was frantically digging Sasuke out of the dirt.
As the last clone vanished, a sharp gust of wind brushed Kakashi's neck.
"Ha!"
Hinata appeared directly behind him. Kakashi twisted his body to dodge her palm strike, but as she grazed past him, he felt a chillingly familiar sensation.
This feeling...
The chakra flow in his arm stuttered. As an elite Jōnin, Kakashi knew his body perfectly. He had fought Hinata's brother, Shinichi, years ago and had tasted the bitterness of the Gentle Fist. That memory was etched into his very nerves.
The Gentle Fist didn't need a direct hit to be dangerous; a mere graze could disrupt the chakra network. If she landed enough of these "misses," his ability to mold chakra would eventually collapse.
Kakashi decided to end it. Using his superior speed, he found an opening in Hinata's stance and swung the edge of his hand toward her neck for a knockout blow.
The Last Gambit
Now!
Just as Kakashi thought he had secured her, Hinata's eyes flashed. She didn't try to block his hand. Instead, she thrust her palm toward the bells at his waist.
"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!"
A concentrated blast of high-pressure chakra erupted from her hand. The force didn't just hit the bells; it snapped the silk cord holding them. The bells were blasted into the air, flying straight toward the clearing where Naruto and Sasuke were.
Kakashi's hand connected with Hinata's neck, and her eyes rolled back as she slumped into his arms. He laid her gently on the grass, then looked up just in time to see the silver bells land perfectly in Naruto's outstretched hand.
Kakashi stood frozen, his mask hiding his sheer disbelief.
The Vacuum Palm? At her age? How is that even possible?
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