After a brief blush, Sasuke realized his slip-up. Reaching out his hand to Shinju, he spoke in a mix of arrogance and shyness:
"I'm Sasuke. Nice to meet you."
Shinju: "???"
Could you not make that kind of face?!
You're really scaring me here!
Shinju was starting to doubt his earlier guess.
Could this really be a heroine-style plotline?!
This is way too dramatic!!
Seeing Sasuke and Shinju already making contact, Naruto came over and greeted Sasuke:
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"
Although Naruto wasn't too fond of Sasuke because of the whole Sakura situation, his naturally cheerful and optimistic personality meant he never held on to grudges for long. It was easy to get along with him.
While the three were having a friendly chat, the classroom door slid open.
A white-haired, one-eyed, masked teacher stepped inside.
This was the jōnin assigned to lead Shinju's team—Hatake Kakashi!
"What a weird outfit."
Shinju gave the ninja a once-over.
He recognized him—this should be Hatake Kakashi, the teacher of the original Team 7. He seemed pretty strong.
"Why's he wrapped up like that? This teacher's sense of fashion is seriously weird."
Naruto muttered as soon as Kakashi appeared.
Sasuke rested his chin in his hands, eyes fixed on Kakashi, lost in thought.
As the three kids sized up Kakashi, Kakashi was also sizing them up.
Naruto—son of a teacher, infamous troublemaker in the village.
Sasuke—the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre. Quiet, withdrawn, but extremely proud.
Finally, Kakashi's visible eye landed on Shinju.
Shinju—an unidentified war orphan picked up by a certain ninja, once a dead-last like Naruto.
But according to the information Kakashi had received, Shinju had graduated at the very top of the academy this year.
From dead-last to number one… and before coming to teach Team 7, the Third Hokage had specifically told him: don't be too shocked by what you find regarding Shinju.
Kakashi's interest in this red-haired boy was growing.
After a short silence, Kakashi addressed the three:
"From now on, I'll be your teacher."
"But… if you want to truly become genin, you'll have to pass my test."
"If you fail, I'll send you back to the academy for more ninja training."
"Huh? Another test? What's even on it this time?"
Naruto's voice stretched out, full of dislike for tests.
"There's no set content. Tomorrow at 5 a.m., meet me at the outdoor training field. Oh—and one more thing. Don't eat breakfast beforehand."
When Shinju heard that, his little face froze for a moment.
After all that hard work to finally graduate from the academy, going back would be humiliating.
But this teacher hadn't given any scope for the test… that made it impossible to prepare.
Kakashi pulled a book from somewhere, reading it casually as he said,
"That's all for now. We'll talk more after you pass tomorrow."
"Oh, and one more thing—you should know that so far, not a single genin I've taken on has ever passed."
...
The next day, 5 a.m.
Shinju and the others arrived right on time for their first test with the new teacher.
And they'd followed his orders exactly—no breakfast.
"Ahhh, skipping breakfast really makes you hungry," Naruto groaned, clutching his stomach when he saw the teacher wasn't there yet.
"Maybe he's taking this long because he's preparing breakfast for us?" Shinju said hopefully.
Surely the teacher wasn't actually late?!
6 a.m.
7 a.m.
8 a.m.
...
10 a.m.
The three of them had been waiting since 5 a.m.—five whole hours!
By now, their stomachs were growling loudly.
"What's with this teacher? Is he just standing us up on purpose?" Naruto said angrily, already turning to head home and make some instant noodles.
He was starving!
Just as Naruto took a step, Shinju grabbed his sleeve: "Wait. The teacher's here."
Naruto looked up.
Sure enough, Kakashi finally appeared at the training field.
"Sensei! Where were you?! You made us wait this long!" Naruto complained.
Shinju chimed in: "Yeah, you didn't make us come here early just to oversleep, did you?"
Kakashi's face reddened slightly, though he neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Waiting and patience… that was part of your test," he said.
Then he pulled two small bells from his pocket.
"Now for today's challenge. I have here two bells. If you can get one before noon, you pass and get to eat lunch. Fail, and you'll be tied to a tree stump as punishment—and no lunch."
Hearing the rules, Shinju immediately spotted the problem:
"Sensei… you've only got two bells, but there's three of us."
Kakashi yawned, unconcerned:
"Exactly. Which means one of you will have to be eliminated today."
"That's way too unfair! Completely unreasonable!" Naruto fumed.
Sasuke also frowned.
This jōnin was clearly aiming to send them all back to the academy.
Without another word, Kakashi pulled out a book from somewhere and started reading with great interest.
"Enough talking. Let's get started—I'm on a schedule."
Naruto bristled at the new teacher's arrogant attitude.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
He formed the hand seals, summoning clones to surround Kakashi!
Kakashi didn't even look up—just a few sidesteps and a couple of well-placed kicks, and all of Naruto's clones vanished.
"Uzumaki Naruto… holding back? Afraid you'll hurt me?" Kakashi chuckled.
"You're just fresh genin straight out of the academy, and I'm about to send you back. If you don't fight with the intent to kill me, you'll never get the bells."
Listening to Kakashi's confident words, Shinju nodded in agreement.
Sensei's right.
His skill was well beyond even a jōnin's.
And me? I'd only just graduated, still just a rookie—barely a few hundred jutsu at my disposal.
Plus, my Wood Release had been explicitly forbidden by the Third Hokage unless in an emergency.
All in all, the gap between me and Sensei was enormous.
If I didn't go all out… I'd be back in the academy before the day was over.
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