38: Chapter 38 Kakashi! A Belated GatheringTime flew by and it was already afternoon.
Because of the intense battle between Naruto and Rock Lee, which resulted in Rock Lee's injury, and the earlier knockout of Kiba by Neji, coupled with Neji's own chakra depletion and mental trauma.
Ultimately, their plans for a get-together fell through, and they were all sent to Konoha Hospital for treatment.
Fortunately, the medical ninjutsu worked wonders, and Kiba Inuzuka's injuries were finally healed before Iruka-sensei announced the afternoon's class reshuffle.
His face was still a little pale, and he looked at Naruto and Neji with a somewhat awkward expression.
After announcing that the Jonin leading each squad would bring them together according to their respective plans, Iruka took one last look at his familiar students and left without looking back.
As the assembly time approached, each class group was led away by their respective Jonin.
Soon, the noisy classroom gradually became empty and deserted.
The atmosphere was oppressive in the corner of the classroom where Class 7 was located.
"Gurgle."
A loud rumbling sound broke the silence.
Naruto clutched his empty stomach, slumped on the table like a wilted eggplant, his resentment towards the teacher who hadn't shown up yet reaching its peak.
"Damn it.is that jerk of a teacher ever coming or not?"
Naruto wailed weakly, "If they hadn't come soon, I would have become the first ninja to starve to death!How can I be Hokage on an empty stomach."
"That's right."
Sakura couldn't help but whisper in agreement.Although she was more concerned about the time she could spend alone with Sasuke being stretched out indefinitely, the anxiety of waiting was very real."This is just too unreliable."
Only Sasuke remained calmly seated by the window, arms crossed, his sharp gaze sweeping across the classroom doorway.
He secretly wondered: 'Is deliberately being this late.a show of force?Or some kind of test?To test our patience?'
Just then, Sakura's surprised voice rang out: "Huh?Naruto, what are you doing?"
Sasuke looked up at the sound and saw Naruto standing furtively above the classroom door frame, carefully placing a dirty blackboard eraser that had just been used on the door frame at a tricky angle.
'Idiot…' Sasuke scoffed inwardly.'How could such a childish trap possibly fool a Jonin?'
"Hey!Naruto!Stop it!"
Sakura immediately spoke up to stop them, her face filled with worry, mainly because she was afraid of tarnishing her image in Sasuke's eyes, "This is too much!The teacher will scold us!"
However, a flicker of excitement involuntarily crossed her mind: 'Ah.it's childish, but seeing the teacher make a fool of themselves seems kind of nice?'
Naruto jumped down without a care, dusted off his hands, and put his hands on his hips triumphantly: "Hehe!Serves him right for making us wait so long!This is the punishment of justice!"
Just as Naruto finished speaking, the classroom door was silently opened.
Outside the door, Kakashi Hatake had one hand in his pocket and was idly flipping through the information about Team 7 members that the Third Hokage had given him.
He was thinking to himself, 'Tsk, the Third Hokage has really given me a tough problem.'
Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, awakened a unique bloodline limit never before seen: Bullet Release.
Sasuke Uchiha, the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan, burdened with a blood feud.and another.
His gaze swept over Sakura Haruno's name on the file.'.The intelligence indicates that she's the girl Naruto likes, but she's also madly in love with Sasuke?'
This love triangle is like planting an even bigger powder keg in an already unpredictable group.What a mess.
Kakashi sighed deeply in his heart, as if he could already foresee countless chaotic events to come.
While engrossed in the jumbled information, he habitually pushed open the classroom door.
Snap!
A light object landed precisely on his signature silver hair, raising a small cloud of chalk dust.
The classroom fell into a deathly silence.
Naruto's eyes widened, and after a brief moment of astonishment, he burst into immense joy!
He jumped up suddenly, pointed at Kakashi's hair, and laughed so hard he almost fell over: "Hahaha!I got it!I knew it!Serves you right for being late!Hahahaha!"
Sakura's mouth gaped open in an "O" shape, and her face quickly filled with embarrassment.She hurriedly waved her hands, trying to distance herself from the situation.
"Um.Teacher!I.I stopped him just now!Really!It was Naruto who wouldn't listen to me!" Without hesitation, she shifted all the blame onto Naruto, who was still laughing wildly.
Sasuke frowned, his cold black eyes filled with disbelief and confusion.
'.This guy.is he really a Jonin?He can't even avoid a trap like this?How did he even become a Jonin?'
Covered in chalk dust and with the innocent blackboard eraser beside him, Kakashi stood rooted to the spot, feeling the focus of three gazes—ecstasy, embarrassment, and doubt—his fingers, which were flipping through intelligence reports, even paused.
He could almost hear the wailing voice within his own heart: '.Indeed.the trials to come have only just begun.'
He slowly reached out and took the blackboard eraser from his messy silver hair, gently patted off the dust, and then calmly brushed the chalk dust off his hair.
Then, with his one exposed dead fish eye, he calmly swept over the three people with their various expressions.
"Um..."
Kakashi said in a calm, even slightly lazy tone, "Well.my first impression of you guys.um.was rather unpleasant."
Naruto's laughter stopped abruptly, as if he had been choked.
Sakura's face froze in embarrassment.
Sasuke's gaze grew even colder.
"Come with me."
After Kakashi finished speaking, he ignored the sudden change in the expressions of the three people, turned around and walked out, and opened the information book about Team 7 again.
Naruto and Sakura exchanged a glance, looking.Sasuke, who followed the teacher out of the classroom, was confused, annoyed, and a little uneasy.He followed Kakashi to the rooftop of the school building.
Kakashi leaned against the rooftop railing, half his body bathed in the afternoon sun, the other half hidden in the shadows, exuding an air of nonchalance and elusiveness.
He pointed to the clean floor covered with tiles: "Sit down."
After the three of them sat down cross-legged, Kakashi slowly began to speak: "Alright, now, let's all introduce ourselves."
"Introduce yourself?"
Sakura asked疑惑地问道, "What do you want to introduce?"
"that is..."
Kakashi's gaze seemed to still be on the intelligence report, and he said in a perfunctory tone, "Tell me about the things you like, the things you hate, your future dreams, your hobbies, and so on."
Naruto immediately raised his hand: "Wait a minute!Teacher!Shouldn't you be the one to introduce yourself first?"
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