In the small clearing of the training ground, Makoto stood with his hands behind his back, leisurely admiring the surroundings, completely unconcerned about the disciples hiding nearby. The aura of a true master was on full display.
Hidden among the surrounding trees, Team Seven was whispering among themselves.
Naruto said, "Sensei likes pranks, but he probably wouldn't lie about something like this. So we still have a chance."
Sakura frowned. "But Sensei's perception abilities are really strong."
Sasuke looked genuinely worried for his teammates' intelligence. "Perception is still a type of ninjutsu, isn't it? Doesn't it require chakra too?"
Naruto nodded. "Exactly. So as long as we can catch him off guard, we've got a shot. My dad said Sensei's neural reaction speed is even better than his, so there's no way a direct sneak attack from any obvious angle will work."
"Sakura, you're the only one here who can use Earth Release. We'll need to rely on you later. Sasuke and I will create an opening for you."
Sakura became a little nervous. This was the first time in her life she had been entrusted with such an important role. But after seeing the encouraging look in Sasuke's eyes, she nodded fiercely.
"Got it. Leave it to me."
Sasuke lowered his voice. "Naruto, your chakra reserves are the largest. Maybe we can do this..."
Meanwhile, out in the training field, Makoto stared absentmindedly at a large tree nearby. Faint traces of the past could still be found on it.
Suddenly, a faint whistling sound cut through the air from behind the tree.
Several shuriken shot toward the trunk at incredible speed, but just before impact, they collided with one another, changing trajectory and curving in exaggerated arcs around the tree to strike at the target hidden behind it from both sides.
Makoto didn't jump away. He merely stepped backward twice and calmly watched the shuriken fly past his eyes.
The Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu looked flashy, but after colliding midair, the weapons inevitably lost speed.
Rasengan!
No one knew when Naruto had hidden himself up in the tree, but the moment Makoto stepped back, he descended with the spinning sphere of chakra in hand and slammed it downward.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!
Hidden in the shadows, Sakura formed hand seals and unleashed her jutsu, creating a circular earthen wall behind Makoto. It wasn't very tall, nor particularly thick, using only a small amount of chakra, but it successfully blocked off his retreat routes to the left, right, and rear.
They were forcing Makoto to move forward and face Naruto's Rasengan head-on.
At that moment, Makoto only had one apparent option left—jump upward.
And it was obvious there would be a surprise waiting for him up there, because Sasuke had already freed himself up.
Fortunately, Makoto answered with the ultimate anti-strategy technique—smashing straight through the wall.
Using nothing but raw physical strength, he kicked a massive hole through the earth wall and escaped behind it before Naruto could hit him.
A kunai flew past the wall immediately afterward—that was Sasuke's predicted attack.
Naruto's Rasengan smashed directly into the Earth-Style Wall, instantly shattering the poor structure and sending dust flying everywhere.
But he didn't stop there.
Quickly forming hand seals, Naruto unleashed a simple Wind Release technique that blew the dust straight toward Makoto. Immediately afterward, the three of them launched volleys of shuriken and kunai into the dust cloud.
They really weren't holding back at all. Apparently, they weren't worried about turning their beloved teacher into a pincushion.
Inside the dust cloud, Makoto listened carefully to the sounds around him while continuously dodging the incoming weapons. His body moved as lightly as a willow leaf, yet as swiftly as a bee darting through dense flowers.
The barrage of projectiles looked chaotic, almost random.
But it wasn't random at all.
They were using the attacks to force his movement.
The moment Makoto leapt out from the weakest side of the dust cloud, he was greeted by a massive fireball head-on.
This was the Uchiha Clan's signature technique, the Great Fireball Technique, but its speed had become even faster after being accelerated by Naruto's Wind Release.
Left with no other choice, Makoto jumped sideways again.
But the instant he landed, he sprang upward once more, because a cluster of earth spikes suddenly erupted beneath his feet.
This was Sakura's Earth Release: Earth Spears.
The coordination between the trio's ninjutsu was flawless.
This was the tacit understanding they had forged through endless beatings during their training at the dojo.
Makoto had already been forced to the edge of the clearing.
Before his feet could even touch the ground again, it was as though he had stabbed a Naruto nest.
A whole crowd of Narutos suddenly burst out from the nearby bushes, surrounding him from all sides.
What was Naruto's greatest advantage?
His enormous chakra reserves.
That meant he also knew how to use the human-wave tactic known as the Multi Shadow Clone Technique.
Of course, this version of Naruto was the intelligent type. He wouldn't recklessly spam the technique and waste chakra for no reason.
And right now was the perfect opportunity to let Sensei experience what it meant to be surrounded by BOYS from every direction.
This was the perfect chance to bury Sensei under a mountain of Narutos.
The classic dogpile strategy.
Narutos from all directions lunged forward with outstretched hands. The sheer density nearly triggered Makoto's trypophobia. His legs lashed out continuously, kicking apart every shadow clone attempting to approach the bells.
Worried Naruto wouldn't be able to handle the pain of repeated heavy blows?
No problem.
The kid had two giant dads backing him up inside his body. His skin was thick, his flesh tough, and his spirit even tougher.
Outside the encirclement of shadow clones, Sakura shouted, "Sensei! How can you fight back?!"
Makoto replied matter-of-factly, "Obviously. I only said I wouldn't use chakra or my hands. I never said I wouldn't retaliate."
Sakura thought about it carefully.
...And he actually had a point.
If he really didn't fight back at all, Naruto could just mindlessly bury him under endless shadow clones.
So Sakura stopped protesting. Instead, she took the shuriken and kunai Sasuke handed her and started throwing them into the crowd of Narutos—though she carefully avoided actually hitting her teammate.
Every single projectile slipped perfectly through the gaps between the clones, as if the whole thing had been rehearsed beforehand.
Unfortunately for them, Makoto no longer possessed an ordinary human body. His neural reaction speed was absurdly fast, always allowing him to find space to dodge.
Or he would simply hook one Naruto over with his foot and use him as a shield.
The result left Naruto with an indescribably "refreshing" expression. Having his shadow clones repeatedly blown apart by kunai really wasn't something normal people could endure.
Before long, all the shadow clones had been cleared out.
But just before that happened, Sasuke pulled sharply on his hand, tightening more than a dozen intersecting steel wires around Makoto and trapping him inside.
These were the wires he and Sakura had launched earlier, with the other ends connected to nearby trees.
Then Sasuke bit one end of the wire between his teeth while his hands rapidly formed seals, dazzling lightning flashing around them.
He was clearly preparing to give someone the full electroshock package.
Makoto fixed his eyes on Sasuke's movements. The moment the hand seals began, he recognized it as a Lightning Release technique and prepared to burst free from the steel wires with sheer strength.
But at that exact moment—
A tiny evil hand quietly emerged from underground.
It snatched away the bells and immediately fled.
"Yes! Success! I got the bells!"
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged smiles.
The operation had been executed perfectly.
This was the real Sakura.
The Sakura outside had been fake all along.
After using two Earth Release techniques, Sakura's chakra reserves had already been reduced by nearly half.
The Earth-Style Wall had only looked impressive, but the later Earth Spears technique was a genuine B-rank ninjutsu—far beyond the normal scope of a genin.
So after using Earth Spears, while Naruto's clones surrounded Makoto, she had quietly slipped underground.
The Sakura outside had actually been one of Naruto's shadow clones transformed into her, even going so far as to pretend to complain.
Sasuke's steel wires and Lightning Release had all been distractions.
Given Sasuke's current mastery of lightning-nature transformation, even if he managed to hit Sensei, it probably wouldn't even be enough to paralyze him. They were fully aware of that.
Everything they had done was to create an opportunity for Sakura, the one capable of using Earth Release.
"Not bad. Good tactics, and your teamwork was flawless. Alright, you've passed the third stage."
Even without using chakra, Makoto's superhuman senses could still detect the movement underground.
But this was only a test, not an opportunity to crush a bunch of newbies' confidence.
Since his adorable disciples had worked so hard and achieved their objective, then naturally, they passed.
...
Sakura shamelessly stuffed the bells into her ninja pouch.
"Sensei, these bells are really meaningful to me now. Just give them to me as a gift, okay?"
Makoto smiled.
"No problem. But Sakura, I only said I wouldn't use chakra during this stage. I never said I hadn't used chakra beforehand."
"That bell was transformed from an explosive tag. And it's already been automatically activated. The chakra inside the explosive tag doesn't count as mine either, so technically, I still didn't break the rules."
"Ahhh!"
The pink-haired girl instantly went numb. She hurriedly pulled out the bell and threw it away.
Makoto flashed forward and caught it in his hand.
"And now it's back in my hands again."
"Huh? Sensei, why didn't it explode?"
"Remember what I said before the battle started? During the third stage, we were enemies."
"And yet you actually trusted the enemy's words. Too naïve."
Naruto and Sasuke fell silent.
Sakura was practically on the verge of tears.
Had she really thrown away their hard-earned victory with her own hands?
Sasuke suddenly spoke up.
"Sensei, what you said was that as long as we took the bells, we would pass, right? We already took them just now. You never specified how long we had to keep them."
Sakura immediately nodded frantically.
Right! Exactly! That was the logic!
As for how she got tricked into giving them back, she refused to care. They had still stolen them successfully.
Makoto blinked.
"Huh? Is that how it works? ...Well, fair enough. Clever."
After saying that, he tossed the bells back to Sakura.
"Thank you, Sensei! So is there a fourth stage?"
Makoto grinned.
"You already passed the fourth stage. That was it just now."
"Wait, that's still not right! You skipped from the first stage straight to the third. Where was the second stage?"
"You guess."
Naruto scratched his head.
"The second stage was the choice Sasuke and I made. We didn't abandon Sakura, and we didn't choose to return to the Ninja Academy with her either. Instead, we gave her hints. That means we already passed, right, Sensei?"
Sakura: "..."
Why did she suddenly feel like her teacher was nothing but traps from head to toe?
"Correct." Makoto nodded, then asked, "Do you know what this place is?"
Sakura answered, "A small training ground inside the village?"
"That's right. But for me, it has an even more special meaning."
"My house is very close to here. I started training here when I was just over three years old."
"And today, you all passed your test here as well, officially beginning your own paths as shinobi."
"So work hard."
"I hereby announce that from today onward, Team Seven is officially formed!"
"And to celebrate this special day, we're having a gathering at Yakiniku Q tonight."
"My treat."
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---