Chapter 429: Kakashi
As a magic user who had been single for almost 30 years based on his strength, Kakashi didn't notice the girl's momentary emotional fluctuation at all.
Seeing Haruno Sakura turn to leave, he felt a little strange: "Are you not finishing watching this exam, Sakura?"
"There's nothing much to see anymore. The results won't change too much." Haruno Sakura turned back and explained, "Besides, our mission is to inspect the exam venue. It's not very good to stay here leisurely watching the competition, right?"
"Or is it that... Kakashi-sensei wants to slack off a bit longer? Master Tsunade will deduct your salary, you know!"
She blinked, walking forward with light steps, and said thoughtfully.
With a bright smile on her face, her eyes full of teasing mirth when looking at Kakashi, the melancholy just now had long vanished.
"That... sensei just wanted to care about the new batch of candidates." Kakashi scratched his head and took a few quick steps to catch up with the girl, "Of course, I won't forget to execute the mission."
"Really?" Sakura dragged out the word, looking at him suspiciously.
The two walked out of the exam venue, jumped onto the uneven roofs, and began to move at high speed along the periphery of the exam venue. The girl's soft laughter also came from the wind—
"But in my impression, Kakashi-sensei is always late, not very keen on training, and likes to hold an X-rated book every day without putting it down!"
"Cough cough...!"
Even with the thickness of Kakashi's face, he couldn't withstand such teasing. While jumping forward, he scratched his face awkwardly, not knowing what to say. As a teacher, being despised so much by a cute student, the teacher's dignity had completely melted away like ice!
Sakura has really become not cute at all now.
Kakashi widened his lifeless dead fish eye, followed behind Haruno Sakura, and tried hard to defend himself: "Sensei has been training very hard recently!"
And things like Make-Out Paradise not being an X-rated book, being late just because he got lost... filled the air with a cheerful atmosphere.
However, Haruno Sakura knew that Kakashi-sensei had really become much more diligent in the past two years—
Because he took Sasuke as a disciple.
Sasuke's progress speed was obvious to all. If Kakashi didn't want to be surpassed by his disciple just after accepting him, he could only work hard to train.
If he continued to be a salted fish, he really wouldn't have the dignity of a teacher even in front of Sasuke!
Haruno Sakura didn't intend to expose this point. After all, Kakashi had been her teacher. Teasing him and chatting jokingly was enough. Could it be that she still wanted to find a sense of superiority over Kakashi by despising her teacher? Even if Kakashi didn't mind, Haruno Sakura would feel that such behavior was ugly.
"I know sensei has been training hard recently. Speaking of which, Kakashi-sensei's strength seems to have really made a breakthrough improvement this year." The girl stopped teasing Kakashi. The two stopped on the roof of a tall building. Sakura looked him up and down seriously and said, "I can feel it..."
Not from the aura or presence, those somewhat mysterious things—of course, from the superficial chakra aura occasionally leaked, one could indeed vaguely perceive that Kakashi's strength had improved.
Mainly because Haruno Sakura had recently experienced the feeling of Shisui's Sharingan.
And under Kakashi's forehead protector, the hidden Sharingan occasionally leaked an aura that Sakura cared about very much—
Mangekyo Sharingan.
Walking side by side, Kakashi couldn't control that eye well. With her keen perception, Haruno Sakura easily confirmed this. The teacher and student hadn't performed missions or trained together like this for a long time, so Haruno Sakura could only guess that Kakashi made the breakthrough this year.
Feeling the girl's gaze stop on his Sharingan, Kakashi subconsciously covered his left eye, a little surprised: "Sakura, you discovered it..."
Haruno Sakura nodded: "Actually, from the moment Master Tsunade arranged for the two of us to patrol together, I should have guessed this."
A reasonable configuration should be Haruno Sakura paired with a sensory ninja, such as Hotaru Hyuga.
For Kakashi to be arranged to patrol with her, there was only one explanation: his strength was considered to have entered the "Kage" level.
That is to say, Kakashi could activate the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"How is it, Kakashi-sensei? Does the Mangekyo Sharingan feel great?"
The girl circled him curiously and asked.
"If it were a pure-blooded Uchiha, activating the Mangekyo should feel very good." Kakashi smiled bitterly and said, "But every time I activate the Mangekyo, I only feel a deep burden..."
Kakashi didn't tell Haruno Sakura that the first time he activated the Mangekyo and tried using a Mangekyo secret technique, he lay in a hospital bed for a whole week afterward.
"Maybe it's because the body hasn't adapted to the intensity of the Mangekyo yet!" Haruno Sakura smiled and comforted him, "If it's Kakashi-sensei, you will definitely be able to master the Mangekyo in a short time!"
"You have so much confidence in me, I feel even more pressured..."
Kakashi drooped his dead fish eye and said lifelessly; the expression on his face and tone were exactly like a salted fish that had lost its ideals...
"And my chakra volume is not much. Even if I exercise hard, it won't show results quickly." He adjusted his forehead protector, speaking without motivation, recalling the scene during training in his mind.
That secret technique called "Kamui."
Its power was extremely strong, and its consumption was also extremely shocking...!
Hearing this, Haruno Sakura didn't know how to continue the conversation for a moment. After all, possessing the Yin Seal, she had never felt insufficient chakra or physical emptiness due to the extremely high consumption of the Mangekyo Sharingan... Without these troubles, she didn't know how to help Kakashi. Forcibly comforting him further would be meaningless to Kakashi and would seem annoying instead.
Haruno Sakura simply walked to the edge of the roof, stepped on the edge of the concrete wall, squatted down rather boyishly, and overlooked Konoha.
—Pretending to be seriously patrolling.
The wind on the roof was strong. Very noisy.
The wind whistled, lifting the soft long hair at her temples, dancing and flying in front of her eyebrows, somewhat annoying. Haruno Sakura casually tucked the messy flying hair behind her ears, watching the peaceful Konoha in the afternoon, the crowd flowing like water, calm and unruffled.
This was not some pretended calmness before the storm; indeed, no one was causing trouble in Konoha at this juncture. After all, not every Chunin Exam had to encounter a Konoha Crush plan.
Even the Akatsuki had to weigh whether offending five ninja villages at once was worth it when the "Kage" of three ninja villages were present and all Five Great Nations had sent people.
It was just that this Chunin Exam was really significant. Tsunade worked hard to bring the Sand and Mist ninja over, not just for them to take an exam. There were many important things to discuss with Gaara and Terumi Mei, the two Kage, afterward. Therefore, even to prevent a one-in-ten-thousand possibility, she had to bring the highest combat power available in the village—two "Kage" levels—to sit on the scene and guard against unforeseen events.
Under such circumstances, patrolling the surrounding situation became a boring task where clearly no accidents would happen, but one had to widen their eyes to observe carefully, stay vigilant, and be ready to act at any time...
Kakashi didn't speak either, hands in his pockets, looking down from high above, walking round and round the high platform; the tall building where the two stood was the commanding height nearby, with an extremely open field of vision. One could overlook this area of Konoha just by looking down.
Although the task was dull and boring, the two still executed the order conscientiously. In fact, a considerable part of ninja missions were like this, plain and uneventful, without waves, not needing to risk one's life, or even fight, just needing to complete some minor work steadily.
Time passed quietly in silent work, until a long bell sound from afar broke the silence.
"The first exam is over."
Haruno Sakura stood up, looking in the direction of the exam venue, and said lightly.
"Then... our task for today is also over." Kakashi also walked over and said.
"Hn... by the way," he touched his nose, looking at Sakura and said, "Sakura, do you have time recently?"
"...Eh?"
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