"In any case, except for Naruto being strictly forbidden from using the Nine-Tails' Chakra, any other method—Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, traps, and everything else you can think of—can be used to your heart's content."
Kakashi paused, his right eye narrowing slightly as he scanned the three of them. "And, it's best to remember—without the resolve to 'kill me,' you will absolutely not get the bells."
The air seemed to freeze.
"Wait, wait a minute, Kakashi-sensei! This… this is too dangerous! This is just an exercise!"
Sakura's voice was clearly flustered as she tried to argue against the overly cruel instruction. But Kakashi merely glanced at her lazily, completely ignoring her protest.
"When I say 'start,' the exercise will officially begin."
"Naruto…"
Suddenly, Naruto saw Satsuki turn her head sharply, her eyes staring unblinkingly at him, her earlier forced composure gone, replaced by a subtle, almost imperceptible panic.
Kakashi's words, "may cause irreversible damage to your body," precisely pierced through her efforts to maintain calm, allowing her deepest fears to quietly surface.
Naruto sensed her unease. He turned his head, meeting her worried gaze. He reached out very naturally, skillfully ruffling her soft black hair.
"Don't worry, Satsuki," his voice was reassuring. "I promise you, I definitely won't use it. Don't worry about that."
He leaned in a little, lowering his voice, "After all, I promised you we'd become Ninja together, right?"
Satsuki lowered her head slightly, feeling the comforting warmth lingering in her hair, and softly hummed in affirmation, regaining her composure.
Kakashi's gaze inadvertently swept over Satsuki, her focused look as she stared at Naruto…
"Strange…" he thought idly, "I feel like I've seen that kind of look a long, long time ago…"
It was a fleeting, vague, and distant sense of déjà vu, but like a reflection in water, it vanished before he could grasp it.
Just then, Naruto turned to Sakura and said, "Sakura, listen. Prioritize protecting yourself and finding safe cover. Only after absolutely ensuring your own safety should you look for opportunities for tactical support, understand?"
"Ah? …Yes! Understood!" Sakura instinctively responded loudly, a hint of nervousness rising in her heart from being included in the tactical system, but also a sense of reassurance.
Kakashi, observing from the side, nodded imperceptibly. Hmm, he didn't let the weaker teammate directly withdraw, but instead gave more practical and safe guidance under pressure.
"Very good!"
Kakashi's voice returned to its usual lazy tone, "It looks like you're all ready for the challenge. Then…"
"Exercise, start!"
The moment his words fell, Sakura almost reflexively leaped backward, quickly finding a thick tree for cover, her kunai held horizontally across her chest, her mind highly focused, entering a state of alert.
However, in stark contrast to her defensive stance, Naruto and Satsuki stood side-by-side at the very front without hesitation, directly facing Kakashi.
"Let's go, Satsuki!"
"Mm!"
The next second, a powerful Chakra erupted from Naruto's body like a surging tide. It wasn't the violent and ominous aura of the Nine-Tails, but his own pure and immense blue Chakra.
At the same time, Satsuki's dark eyes suddenly changed, the deep black instantly replaced by crimson, and three pitch-black tomoe appeared out of thin air within that blood-red base, beginning to slowly spin.
"What an enormous amount of Chakra! Truly worthy of being the child of sensei and sensei's wife!"
And when Kakashi glimpsed the three slowly spinning tomoe in Satsuki's eyes, his surprise grew even more… "She's awakened the Sharingan at this age? Her talent is truly astonishing…"
Thoughts flashed like lightning. The next moment, Naruto's figure vanished from his spot without warning, appearing directly in front of Kakashi with the Body Flicker Jutsu almost at the same instant Kakashi detected the Chakra fluctuation!
"So fast!"
"Leaf Whirlwind!"
Naruto twisted his body in the air, delivering an incredibly sharp horizontal kick fiercely towards Kakashi's head!
Kakashi immediately raised his left arm to block. A dull thud echoed, and a solid impact resonated through his arm.
"So that's it, it's Guy's Taijutsu style. He knew Naruto often trained Taijutsu with Might Guy, but he didn't expect the results to be so significant."
Both the power and control are quite excellent… This level of Taijutsu would be considered outstanding even among Chunin. Kakashi continuously blocked and dodged Naruto's relentless barrage of punches and kicks, realizing that the opponent's offense was dense and the rhythm extremely fast, clearly the result of rigorous training.
"It seems I can't just deal with them while reading a book like I used to with graduates…"
However, this seemingly intense Taijutsu attack was actually Naruto's deliberately controlled performance. He wasn't truly using his full strength.
What concerned Kakashi even more was the gaze from behind that had been constantly fixed on him. Satsuki's three-tomoe Sharingan was sharply focused on him, and this feeling of being watched forced him to divide his attention and be wary of a potentially fatal attack from behind.
Just as he blocked one of Naruto's straight punches, an unusual sensation struck him without warning! Kakashi suddenly noticed an extremely subtle stagnation and disorder in the flow of Chakra within his body. This feeling…
"No!"
Alarm bells rang in his mind, and he immediately forced himself to interrupt his response to Naruto's attack, retreating a step without hesitation, while simultaneously rapidly manipulating Chakra with one hand to form a simple hand seal.
"Release!"
The slight feedback of a Genjutsu being broken came. Without the slightest hesitation, Kakashi almost instinctively used the Body Flicker Jutsu, his figure vanishing with a "whoosh" and reappearing a dozen meters away.
After he settled, he looked up. Sure enough, where he had originally stood, Naruto and Satsuki were standing side-by-side. Naruto had a hint of regret on his face for the failed plan, smacking his lips, while Satsuki frowned slightly, her eyes also showing a trace of disappointment.
"How embarrassing…"
Kakashi inwardly smiled bitterly, having actually fallen for a Genjutsu.
Satsuki's three-tomoe Sharingan, awakened on the night of the clan massacre, had never stopped training over these past few years. Years ago, when Fugaku learned that his young daughter had not only awakened the Sharingan at such a young age but had even directly achieved the three-tomoe, second only to the Mangekyo, he outwardly only calmly said, "As expected of my daughter."
But his heart was already filled with immense pride and relief. After shedding the heavy burden of clan head, he had more time to impart his lifelong understanding and techniques of the Sharingan without reservation, one-on-one, fully dedicating himself to helping Satsuki cultivate this power.
"In that case, Kakashi-sensei! We're going to get serious!" Naruto shouted. "Satsuki, use that move!"
"Understood!" Satsuki immediately caught on.
The two of them began forming hand seals rapidly almost simultaneously. Seeing this, Kakashi instinctively lowered his center of gravity, fully concentrating and wary of their movements.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Naruto took a deep breath, his chest expanding, then unleashed an extremely fierce, astonishingly large horizontal tornado from his mouth! It roared, sweeping up grass and dust from the ground, charging forward with the might to tear everything apart!
Almost in the next instant after the Wind Release was unleashed, Satsuki's hand seals were also complete.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
After her fingers remained on the last hand seal, she continuously spat out several intensely burning fireballs. These fireballs precisely and actively plunged into the violent tornado created by Naruto!
In the theory of Chakra nature transformations, Fire Release precisely counters Wind Release. However, this counter-effect here did not result in mutual cancellation, but rather a wondrous complementary effect—the violent wind not only failed to extinguish the flames but instead provided endless oxygen and a medium for diffusion, causing the fire to instantly surge!
Under the precise Chakra control honed by their numerous practices, Satsuki's fireballs perfectly merged into Naruto's Wind Release. Each fireball became a part of the tornado, pulled and stretched by the strong winds, ultimately transforming entirely into roaring flames.
The originally white tornado was instantly dyed a blazing orange-red, and an enormous, wildly spinning fiery tornado abruptly formed, violently assaulting Kakashi!
This was precisely the combination Ninjutsu that Naruto and Satsuki had secretly practiced and refined over a long period. Naruto had given it an extremely resounding name!
Wind Release Secret Art: Super Flashy Gale Dragon Flame Heavenly Swirling Howling Array!
Facing this composite Ninjutsu, which far surpassed Genin level and even made ordinary Chunin feel intimidated, Kakashi's exposed eyebrow twitched slightly.
"Hmm… for newly graduated Genin, this is quite intimidating," he muttered to himself. "It seems I absolutely cannot treat them as ordinary kids."
Seeing the massive fiery tornado about to engulf him, Kakashi no longer held back, also rapidly forming hand seals with both hands, preparing to seriously deal with this "surprise" from his students.