The next day, early morning.
Team 7's Genin arrived at Konoha's front gate ten minutes early, waiting for Kakashi.
Fortunately, their Jonin Instructor was quite reliable and was only five minutes late for their first mission outside the village.
The moment Naruto saw Kakashi, he had the urge to grab him by the collar and force him to take a good look at the time!
However, the white-haired slacker just ignored all three of them grumbling and said with confidence that the alarm clock at home was five minutes slow.
Being a few minutes late...
That didn't count as being late.
Naruto rolled his eyes at Kakashi's ridiculous excuse.
"Kakashi-sensei, that's not how this works!"
"If you're five minutes late, you're wasting five minutes of each of us!"
"That's a full twenty minutes in total!"
Kakashi: "???"
Sasuke: "???"
Sakura: "???"
Tazuna: "?????"
Naruto still remembers that when he was in school in his previous life, his teacher always used this statement to scold him.
At that time, he hated this kind of remarks very much.
But Naruto never thought that one day, he would use this sentence to teach a white-haired Shinobi, who was always late, a lesson.
'Sigh…'
'As expected, Uzumaki Naruto ended up becoming the person he hated the most.'
Naruto's little speech left Kakashi completely speechless.
At first glance...
It kind of sounded like it made sense.
But the more Kakashi thought about it, the more he felt something was off, but he couldn't tell what the problem was.
Sakura and Sasuke didn't quite get it either and were only shocked after hearing this.
"Heh, don't sweat the small stuff..."
"Let's go."
Kakashi scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly to cover the embarrassment.
After spending so much time with Naruto, he'd figured out how to deal with him.
Whenever Naruto started picking fights, he just needed to steer the topic way off course.
Kakashi straightened his clothes and walked out of the gate of Konoha Village with his team and Tazuna.
The moment Team 7 left, all the Shinobi in Konoha began to rush towards the Hokage Tower.
The battle for low-rank missions in Konoha begins!
If Naruto were to see this scene, he would probably wonder if he had traveled to some post-apocalyptic survival world.
As the Konoha's gate stood behind team, Team 7 officially left the village and headed for the Land of Waves where Tazuna came from.
In order to protect the client and the pink-haired mascot in the team, Kakashi had Sasuke follow right behind him, while Naruto took up the rear.
That way, if anything happened, both would be in position to protect their team's two weakest members.
Kakashi was walking in front of the team. Feeling extremely bored, he reached into his Ninja Pouch and took out the latest issue of Icha-Icha Paradise and began to read it with a blissed-out grin. His body even trembled with joy every now and then.
Naruto behind was shocked.
He wondered how could Kakashi laugh like that from reading some sleazy romance book.
It's not like Naruto hadn't seen some adult stuff in his past life, but nothing ever got him acting like Kakashi.
Naruto suddenly became curious about the content of Icha-Icha Paradise.
Sakura, who was walking in the middle with a backpack on her back, kept sneaking glances at Sasuke's profile every few seconds, and her face would turn red every time she looked at him.
It is unknown what's going on in this girl's mind.
Tazuna glanced at the white-haired Jonin, who was walking and reading in front of him, then glanced at the pink-haired girl giggling to herself beside him, and finally found the yellow-haired brat at the back of the team.
At this time, the yellow-haired brat was holding a wooden stick in his hand, and was hitting the nearby flowers and plants like a crazy person. He even poked a bush with the stick when he encountered it.
'Sigh…'
'Can I get a refund?'
Tazuna's old face was wrinkled into a ball. He had already begun to regret entrusting this team to escort him.
Deep down, he let out a long sigh, 'Damn it! It turns out that cheap goods are not good!'
'I should have known not to lie about the mission!'
Naruto noticed the weird look Tazuna was giving him, but he didn't bother explaining himself.
What would this old man even understand?
There is a deep meaning behind what he did.
Hitting the surrounding plants and bushes with a stick is all to find out the Shinobi lying in ambush nearby.
It's definitely not because the stick in his hand was too straight and he couldn't help but wave it around.
However, speaking of the Shinobi lying in ambush here...
Naruto had somewhat forgotten how the two Shinobi, who didn't even have names, ambushed him and the others in the original work.
Splash…
As Naruto was lost in thought, he accidentally stepped into a puddle. The splashing water directly wet his trouser legs, and the fabric stuck to his skin with water stains.
'Damn it! These were brand new pants!'
'And this puddle looks like it has a lot of bacteria...'
Naruto felt itchy all over just thinking about it, and kicked his legs in disgust.
He felt that as long as he kicked fast enough, the water on his pants wouldn't soak into his skin!
And so, a yellow-haired boy at the back of the team stood there and kept kicking sideways, his pants rustling with his movements.
Splash…!
At this moment, two Shinobi in strange costumes suddenly jumped out of two puddles on the ground.
Just then, one of them jumped out from under Naruto's feet.
He really had no other choice but to hide in the puddle.
The two of them were actually lying in ambush nearby, but who knew that Naruto would pick up a stick and started poking here and there. They were just a little bit away from being exposed.
So, they had no choice but to transform into puddles on the road. Although it looked a bit off, it was better than being poked out by this brat with a wooden stick.
"You little brat!"
"I've had enough of you!"
"Die..."
Bang…
Naruto had just entered the dual-line mode. He was chatting with the big fox in the sealed space while kicking his legs to dry his pants. Before he could react, he felt like he kicked something.
"…What the hell just flew over?"
While Naruto was in a daze, Sasuke had already stabbed the sneak attacking Shinobi to death with a kunai.
Sasuke stretched out his hand and pointed far away, and then, Naruto saw a corpse lying on the ground with its head twisted 360 degrees.
'Ah... this...'
'So it was this guy that I kicked just now??'
Naruto was stunned.
He'd been looking forward to an epic, satisfying battle...
But the result, is this?
'That's it?'
Kakashi didn't even raise an eyebrow. He glanced up at the two dead attackers, then calmly flipped another page of his book, as if they'd never even existed.
'But Naruto...'
'He is truly the No. 1 Shinobi in terms of unexpectedness!'
Sakura, on the other hand, was filled with regret. The bloodlust from that enemy had completely paralyzed her. Her limbs had gone stiff, and all she could do was raise her kunai in front of her like a panicked shield.
If Sasuke hadn't acted in time...
She felt that both she and her client were going to be killed tragically at the hands of the enemies.
Sakura felt a sense of powerlessness once again.
Kakashi noticed that the girl's expression was not right, so he slowed down his pace and spoke softly.
"Sakura… don't be too hard on yourself."
"People have different natural aptitudes."
Sakura looked up at her teacher, then looked at her two teammates, "But… why is the gap between people so huge?"
"…Huh?"
Kakashi was stunned by the girl's words, and then he said with a strange look on his face, "Sakura, I think you might've misunderstood what I meant..."
"They're not even people."
Uchiha Sasuke: "???"
Uzumaki Naruto: "???"
The two boys turned to the white-haired slacker at the same time, with confusion written all over their faces.