The battle between Sasuke and Kakashi had dragged on from morning all the way until the afternoon. In the end, Kakashi relied on his vast combat experience to defeat Sasuke.
That said, by the time it was over, Kakashi looked utterly drained—like he'd overindulged in... a lot.
The truth was, his chakra reserves were just too limited. Or rather, the burden of the Sharingan was simply too heavy for a non-Uchiha. Once he activated it—no matter who he was fighting—he always ended up like this.
Sasuke, on the other hand, despite losing the match, didn't have a scratch on him. He just stood off to the side with his hands in his pockets, visibly frustrated, looking thoroughly dejected.
His speed and strength outclassed Kakashi's—but their difference in battle experience was massive. Kakashi, being an all-rounder ninja, was simply a different beast. Losing to him wasn't surprising.
He was just… still green.
"Kakashi-sensei, did we pass? If not, we can go another round tomorrow!"
Kakashi, down to half a life bar, just weakly waved his hand at Naruto and gave a thumbs-up.
"Tomorrow? I need at least one day off."
"Kakashi-sensei says we passed."
Naruto turned to Kakashi again with a teasing smile.
"But Sensei, as your student, I gotta remind you—maybe lay off the dirty books, huh? You look half-dead."
Then Naruto's gaze shifted toward Sasuke, and the smile slowly faded.
"Sasuke," he called out sharply.
Sasuke quietly walked up to Naruto, head down, eyes fixed on his toes like a student waiting to be scolded.
"Let's not even talk about taijutsu—you already know what went wrong."
"As for ninjutsu… come on, you didn't even use a single one."
Naruto had taught Sasuke everything he learned from Root and Hozuki Castle. Sasuke might not know as many jutsu as Kakashi, but when it came to annoying the hell out of someone, his arsenal was solid.
"What, you think you're some kind of badass? So cool you can win with just taijutsu against a jōnin?"
"Could you beat him? No. You couldn't."
To be fair, Sasuke had done incredibly well. Even Kakashi at age twelve wasn't this strong.
But Kakashi had definitely been holding back. He didn't use any of his trump cards. If it were a real fight, Kakashi would've opened with his fully activated Sharingan and a Chidori. Sasuke would've gone down in minutes.
Their gap in combat experience was enormous.
Fortunately for Sasuke, Kakashi had been curious about his strength and allowed the fight to become a war of attrition.
Engaging Sasuke in a battle of stamina and taijutsu… yeah, that was disrespecting the school of Kame-Sen'nin flow. No wonder he looked half-dead now. He just wasn't the brilliant sword-wielding prodigy he used to be.
Naruto continued:
"I'm calling you out directly."
"When your taijutsu is restricted, what should you do? Use ninjutsu! Do I really have to teach you that?!"
Trying to fight Kakashi with just taijutsu? That was underestimating him. Sure, he looked like he had kidney failure now, but if you pushed him, he could keep going for hours. This is the same guy who would say "I'm out of chakra" and then casually chat with a Chidori in hand.
He even knew a bit of the Eight Gates—maybe not all of them, but enough to be dangerous.
"Also—your genjutsu resistance is trash, and you have the Sharingan!"
Sasuke had three tomoe, but only used the dynamic vision and copying abilities. He had no skill in genjutsu at all.
(Not Naruto's fault—he didn't know genjutsu, so he couldn't teach it.)
"And lastly—how many times did you lose focus during that fight? You tell me."
Spacing out against Kakashi? Naruto was speechless. The only reason Sasuke wasn't knocked out was because Kakashi held back a lot.
Bottom line: Sasuke already had the strength of a jōnin, but he didn't yet have the temperament of one.
As Naruto scolded him, someone finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Naruto! Why are you being so mean to Sasuke?!" Haruno Sakura stormed over, hands on her hips, finger pointed right at Naruto as she snapped, "Kakashi-sensei is a jōnin. Isn't it normal that Sasuke lost?!"
"Sasuke gave it everything he had!"
"Do you even know how hard he works?!"
I see him train every day. If anyone knows how hard he works—it's me! Not you!
"You're just a delinquent without parental discipline—you wouldn't understand!"
"Shut up, stupid woman!"
Before Sakura could even finish her tirade, she was cut off harshly.
Not by Naruto—
But by Sasuke.
His face was stone-cold, his gaze chilling. That unfamiliar, murderous look in his eyes made Sakura instinctively step back in fear.
Congratulations, Sakura—you just hit Sasuke where it hurts.
"Who do you think you are?"
"What right do you have to interfere in our business?"
Sasuke didn't say it out loud, but deep down, he had immense respect for Naruto. No matter how harshly Naruto scolded him—hell, even if Naruto doubled the harshness—Sasuke would still stand there and listen.
The fact that Sasuke could go toe-to-toe with Kakashi now? That was because Naruto trained him.
Calling Naruto sensei wouldn't be an exaggeration.
And don't forget—when Sasuke was at his most lost, most broken—Naruto had been by his side. If this were a different kind of story, and they were opposite genders, they'd be married already.
Their bond? Unshakable.
And then there was what Naruto said the night before:
"Indra… I'm your older brother, Asura."
That line had completely shattered Sasuke's emotional defenses.
He'd lost his parents, his clan. How desperately do you think he craved familial warmth? The colder he acted, the more he yearned for it.
And now Sakura was attacking Naruto?
Yeah. No.
"You're annoying."
Idiot.
Naruto could only shake his head.
She hadn't contributed a single useful thing this whole time. Couldn't she just cheer from the sidelines?
Who was she trying to impress with that arrogance?
"You think this is canon Naruto who had a crush on you? I'm not him."
"Who even told you we were teammates?"
"Aren't we teammates…?" Sakura stammered. If it were anyone else, she would've snapped back. But this was Sasuke—so she faltered, her voice uncertain.
Naruto stared at her in disbelief.
"When did you get the idea that we were teammates?"
Get real.
Wake up.
Nobody here sees you as a teammate.
Kakashi tried to stand up, but he just didn't have the strength left.
"This… this is the real problem."
Just as Naruto had said:
Neither of them ever saw Sakura as part of the team.
I mean—
Do lions become friends with rabbits?
In the following days, Kakashi led them through a few D-rank missions for practice. But the dynamic didn't change: Sakura was always left out. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke accepted her as part of the group.
Kakashi didn't know how to help. This wasn't his strong suit. Hell, he'd driven himself into depression.
If he were strong enough, maybe he could force it to work.
Problem was—he could barely go even with Sasuke. As for Naruto...
According to the Third Hokage, Naruto had already mastered the power of the Nine-Tails.
Kakashi couldn't help but imagine the Red-Hot Habanero Kushina, hair flaring and yelling.
How was he supposed to fight that?
He had a headache just thinking about it.
"Naruto."
A week later, Kakashi finally pulled Naruto aside.
"You know we can't go on missions if we don't have a three-man cell."
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto interrupted, "the teams were assigned by the academy, based on exam scores and random distribution."
"If they're randomly assigned, there's bound to be compatibility issues. You know what happens when a team isn't on the same page, right?"
"Because of ability differences, I don't think she's suited to be on our team."
"The gap between us is just too big."
"She can't keep up with me and Sasuke. If she stays, she'll only hold us back."
Naruto was telling the truth. Teams weren't permanently locked—they were constantly adjusted based on synergy and compatibility, though the original anime didn't show this much.
Plenty of Konoha's geniuses had changed teammates multiple times.
Kakashi himself graduated at five and rotated through several teams before finally settling with Obito and Rin.
"But Naruto… only nine genin graduated this year. Unless you're willing to wait until next year's batch, you and Sasuke can't form a full squad."
Exactly what Naruto was waiting for.
"That's why Uncle Danzo arranged a new teammate for us."