Konohafajure no sato :
Training Ground 3 :
The morning mist clung to the tall grass of Training Ground 3 like a silken shroud, dampening the sound of the nearby stream. The symphony of the wild—the sharp chirping of sparrows and the rhythmic drone of awakening insects—filled the space, marking the final countdown to the designated hour.
It was 5:50 AM. Naruto and Sasuke sat in a tense, shared silence .
Then, the atmospheric peace was shattered.
Naruto's ears perked up as his sensory field detected a frantic, high-pitched energy signature approaching from the main path. He glanced at Sasuke, a mischievous glint dancing in his sky-blue eyes.
Leaning slightly toward the Uchiha, Naruto lowered his voice to a pitch-perfect, mocking soprano, mimicking a certain pink-haired kunoichi's inflections.
"Sasuke-kun~" Naruto whispered, just a second before the real voice echoed through the trees.
"SASUKE-KUUUNNNN...!!"
The synchronization was terrifyingly accurate. Sasuke's eye twitched violently, a vein throbbing at his temple. He shot a look of pure vitriol at Naruto, who had already whipped his head away, his shoulders shaking as he buried his face in his hands to stifle a fit of hysterical snickering.
Naruto hadn't expected his prediction to land with such comedic precision; the sheer absurdity of Sakura's obsession, contrasted with the lethal seriousness of their situation, was a comedy he couldn't help but enjoy at Sasuke's expense.
Sakura Haruno practically skidded into the clearing, her face flushed and her breathing shallow. The moment her eyes landed on the dark-haired boy, she seemed to undergo a total physiological reset.
The exhaustion of her "marathon" search the day before and the hunger gnawing at her stomach seemed to vanish, replaced by a surge of sheer, unadulterated adrenaline.
She ignored Naruto entirely, treating him like a piece of background scenery as she swarmed Sasuke. "Oh, Sasuke-kun! You're so early! Did you wait long? I was so worried I'd be late, but I made it just for you!"
Sasuke didn't even look up. He simply massaged the bridge of his nose, mentally erecting a fortress of silence to drown out the verbal barrage.
Naruto, watching from the periphery, was genuinely impressed.
(Look at her,) Naruto mused, his analytical mind clicking into gear.
(Yesterday She collapsed during a thirty-minute run ...but later she was wandering the village like a fly in a jar, completely lost and physically drained..... . Yet now, the moment she sees her 'crush,' her body forces a recovery...And yet, fueled by the sheer power of a crush, she's standing here at 6:00 AM acting like she's on a spring picnic. Sasuke... good luck with that.)
Naruto checked his pocket watch. 6:04 AM. The air was still, devoid of the sharp, electric hum that usually preceded Hatake Kakashi's presence.
(I don't sense his chakra anywhere within the perimeter,) Naruto noted, his sensory net expanding. (Fine. If he wants to play the waiting game, I'll play the productive one.)
Naruto didn't sigh or grumble.
He had expected this. Instead of pacing or engaging in Sakura's one-sided conversation, he reached into the hidden pocket of his combat vest and pulled out a heavy, weathered scroll.
Unrolling it across his lap, Naruto focused. This wasn't a standard academy text. This was a deep-dive into the Five Elements Seal (Gogyo Fuin)—the only A-rank technique currently within his inheritance that he felt he was ready to conceptually deconstruct.
It was a complex array of interlocking kanji and chakra-conductive ink patterns, designed to disrupt or enhance elemental flows with surgical precision.
Beside him, Sasuke's attention shifted. The Uchiha's curiosity was a sharp thing, often cutting through his facade of indifference. He had seen Naruto reading these scrolls before, but the complexity of the script on this one was daunting even to a genius of the Uchiha bloodline.
Sasuke watched Naruto's finger trace a particularly intricate spiral of ink, wondering what kind of power was hidden in those lines.
Sakura, finally noticing that Sasuke's gaze had drifted away from her , looked aside
"Whoaaaa... where did you come from, Naruto?!" Sakura blurted out, blinking as if he had just manifested out of thin air.
Sasuke's palm met his forehead with a resounding smack. (Is she actually blind?) the Uchiha wondered. (He's been sitting right here the whole time.)
Naruto looked up from the A-rank seal, his expression dry. "We've been sitting here for twenty minutes, Sakura ,You might want to work on your situational awareness. It's a pretty big part of the job."
"What?! Really?!" Sakura's face reddened, half in embarrassment and half in reflexive anger. "Don't be a jerk! Anyway... what are you doing with all those old scrolls? Are you just trying to look smart?"
Naruto didn't rise to the bait. He tapped a finger on the center of the seal. "It's Fuinjutsu. The Art of Sealing."
"Fuinjutsu?" Sakura repeated, the word tasting strange on her tongue. "You mean... like those storage scrolls we saw in the basic logistics class?"
To Sakura, Sealing was a dry, academic subject used for inventory management—something to be memorized for a test and then forgotten in favor of "real" jutsu like fireballs or illusions.
In her elective years, she had followed Sasuke into Bukijutsu, thinking weapons were the pinnacle of combat.
Naruto closed the scroll slightly, his eyes taking on a more serious light. He caught Sasuke eavesdropping, the Uchiha's ears practically twitching to catch the explanation. Naruto decided to humor them both.
"Most people think Fuinjutsu is just for putting items into scrolls," Naruto began, his voice calm and authoritative. "But that's like saying Ninjutsu is only for lighting candles. True Sealing is the art of manipulating the very fabric of reality through written formulas. You can seal a person's chakra, lock away an elemental disaster, or even anchor a soul. Everything from the barrier protecting the Hokage's office to the very gates of this village is built on Fuinjutsu."
He pointed to the Five Elements Seal unrolled before him. "This here? This can theoretically freeze the chakra flow of a target so completely they forget how to breathe..A Single touch and you can't even use Chakra .... It's not just 'stuff,' Sakura"
The silence that followed was still . For the first time, Sakura looked at the scroll not as a prop, Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his mind racing. But he hasn't paid much attention to anything than revenge , and his mind draw a blank.
Naruto watched the blank expressions on Sakura and Sasuke's faces and realized his brief lecture on the "Art of Fuinjutsu" had hit a wall of academic indifference. Shaking his head, he dived back into the scroll, the complex ink patterns drawing him in.
Sasuke, feeling the weight of the silence, huffed and walked to the far edge of the clearing to wait, giving Naruto space. Sakura, seeing Naruto occupied with something clearly above her head and "Sasuke-kun" moving away, grumbled under her breath before scurrying after the Uchiha.
Half an hour passed. Naruto let out a frustrated grumble, scratching the back of his head.
(Ugh, I really should have signed in for a 'Great Sage' buff today,) he thought. (But no... I want to do this fight without relying on cheats. I need to know my own limits.)
Instead of a combat buff, Naruto mentally signed in at the training ground to trigger his Accelerated Training passive. He checked his watch: 6:34 AM.
Suddenly Naruto had a Light Bulb Moment and A cold smirk touched his lips. If Kakashi wanted to be late, Naruto would ensure every wasted second became a nail in the Jonin's coffin.
Naruto wove a familiar hand sign. With a soft chorus of poofs, ten Shadow Clones materialized.
[Shadow Clone Jutsu: Lv. 5 (MAX)]
Two years of relentless grinding had pushed the B-rank technique to its limit. Now, Naruto could summon an additional clone with every level-up and, more importantly, he had mastered the art of chakra allocation. He no longer lost half his reserves to a single clone; he could now precisely inject a mere 25%, maintaining his longevity. Best of all, the mental backlash upon dispersal—the "load"—had been drastically dampened.
The clones shared a silent nod with the original and vanished into the treeline, scattering across the training ground like ghosts.
Naruto ignored the bewildered, inquisitive gazes from Sasuke and Sakura. He popped a lemon-flavored lollipop into his mouth and reactivated his core processing skill.
[MindHub: Lv. 6 (42/100)]
The skill progressed at a turtle's pace now, but Naruto didn't mind. System skills had no cap. He partitioned his mind into five distinct streams: four focused on the high-level geometry of the Five Elements Seal, while the fifth maintained Kaguya's Mind's Eye, a sensory radar that hummed at the edge of his consciousness, waiting for a specific, lethargic chakra signature.
Twenty-two minutes later, Naruto felt his chakra reserves top off. His recovery rate had improved exponentially; he no longer needed the half-hour wait of his Academy days, even without tapping into the fox's boiling red energy.
and this recovery would have been more if he hadn't awakened his bloodline and his Chakra reserves increased even more .
(The later you arrive, sensei, the more advantage I have,) Naruto thought, his gaze turning icy. ( Today I atleast want to be a One-Punch Man.)
Knowing Kakashi's Elite Jonin status and also knowing the full prowess of a Jonin , by studying Under Hattori Sensei , Naruto knew his limits , that's why He allocated himself a goal today .
A Punch to The face , even if One , Naruto really wanted to punch that face .
He summoned another wave of clones. They didn't spar or move; they simply found hidden vantage points and sat in meditative stillness, preserving every drop of chakra.
An hour passed. Sasuke was pacing like a caged animal, and Sakura was slumped against a post, her stomach giving an audible, traitorous growl. Hidden in the canopy, the ANBU guards assigned to the area were beginning to sweat.
The Captain of the detail watched through his mask as thirty Naruto clones sat motionless in a perfect tactical web around the clearing.
"Damn," the Captain whispered, his voice dry. "He's being terrifyingly serious, isn't he?"
"Captain," a rookie whispered, his eye twitching. "How does a fresh Genin even know the protocol for a survival exercise? He's setting up a war zone."
"He has friends who already graduated " the Captain replied silently
Despite the words though , The ANBU guards gloated inside except for the Rookie .
Neko looked at this and spoke
" well i am cheering him on "
" me too "
" let's bet "
" how should we bet "
" hmm we--"
The veteran guards shared a look of grim satisfaction. They remembered the hours they had spent waiting outside Kakashi's house in the cold years ago.
Seeing Naruto prepare such a brutal welcome for the Copy Ninja was almost therapeutic. As far as the ANBU were concerned, anyone who had to deal with Hatake Kakashi was bound to end up with either high blood pressure or a desperate urge to punch that masked face.
As the clock hit 8:00 AM, just as Sasuke's frustration was reaching a boiling point, a flicker appeared on Naruto's sensory map. The signature was still far off, moving at a leisurely, almost provocative pace.
(Finally. At that speed, he'll be here in exactly ten minutes.)
Naruto perked up, the lollipop stick clicking against his teeth. He stood up, calmly rolled his scrolls, and gathered his gear. He walked over to where Sasuke and Sakura were sitting in dejected silence.
"Hey, guys," Naruto said, his voice flat but carrying a sharp edge of anticipation. "Our Captain is here."
The pronouncement acted like a tether, Unconsiously pulling Sasuke and Sakura towards Naruto with an unconscious gravity. They stood in a loose semi-circle, the morning sun finally beginning to throw long, golden shadows across the trampled grass of Training Ground 3.
Seeing them gathered, Naruto's demeanor shifted. The casual air of the lollipop-chewing prankster vanished
"Alright, listen close. I'm going to share with you what this 'Survival Exercise' actually entails," Naruto began, his eyes scanning the treeline even as he spoke.
Sasuke stared, his dark eyes narrowing in a silent demand for proof. Sakura, however, couldn't contain her confusion. "Wait, how do you know something like that? And where is the Captain? I don't see anyone."
Naruto spared her a brief, sideways glance. "I'm a sensor, Sakura. I can feel him moving toward us. And that—"
"WHAT?! A sensor?" Sakura's voice jumped an octave, her disbelief coloring her tone. "How could someone like you be a sen—"
"Sakura, shut up," Sasuke grumbled, the words slicing through her outburst like a kunai. He didn't look at her; his gaze remained locked on Naruto, sensing the weight of the information the blonde was about to drop. Once she quieted, Sasuke gave a sharp nod. "hn."
"The Captain will be in this clearing in exactly ten minutes," Naruto continued ignoring the Pink Banshee, his voice lowering to ensure it didn't carry.
"I managed to get intelligence from a team that graduated two years ago. In simple terms, a Survival Exercise isn't just a workout. It's a final filter."
"A filter?" Sasuke echoed.
"Haven't we already graduated?" Sakura added, her brow furrowed in genuine anxiety.
"Graduating from the Academy makes you a Genin in name only," Naruto explained, his tone devoid of sugar-coating.
"A Jonin's time is the village's most precious resource. They don't waste it on dead weight. This test is designed to see if we are worth the investment of Hatake Kakashi. If we fail, We may still be Genin But We lose our Jonin sensei, and with him, our future."
"What? But I worked so hard!" Sakura's face paled as the reality of the situation crashed down. "They can't just take it away!"
Naruto ignored her protest, pressing on. "Every Jonin has a different metric. Some test raw strength, others test intelligence, and some—the eccentric ones—test based on how they 'feel' about the team's spirit. Most exercises, however, revolve around a combat engagement. We have to fight the Jonin."
"Against Kakashi?" Sasuke's hand instinctively moved toward his weapon pouch. The challenge didn't scare him; it stoked the fire in his chest.
"But isn't that dangerous?" Sakura asked, her voice trembling. "What if... what if sensei gets hurt?"
Naruto looked at his teammates, a small, smile playing on his lips. Sasuke was hungry for combat; Sakura was still laboring under the delusion that an elite Jonin was a fragile academic instructor.
He decided to shatter that illusion immediately.
"Listen here, you two," Naruto said, his voice dropping into a low, chilling register.
"I've had the opportunity to train under a Jonin-level combatant for over a year. Someone whose reputation is carved in blood. Even a month ago, with all my speed and all my tricks, I couldn't touch his clothes. I couldn't even scratch him , Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"
A heavy silence followed. Sasuke's pupils dilated as he processed the statement. Sakura felt a cold lump form in her throat.
"*gulp*"
Naruto was the undisputed Rookie of the Year—his prowess in Taijutsu and his uncanny reflexes were legendary within their class. Sasuke, who had tasted defeat more than once during their private spars over the years, knew Naruto wasn't exaggerating his own strength. If Naruto couldn't even touch a Jonin, what hope did they have?
"In this exercise," Naruto continued, seeing the gravity finally take root in their expressions,
" we have to prove we are worthy to be trained by a man like Hatake Kakashi. He's a legend of the Third War; he won't accept mediocrity."
Naruto paused, his internal clock ticking. He gave a mental thumbs-up to his own performance—he had successfully manipulated the team's tension, bridging the gap between Sasuke's ego and Sakura's incompetence by uniting them against a common, insurmountable wall.
"Alright," Naruto said, snapping his head toward the entrance of the training ground. "He's here."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted, his body coiling like a spring.
"Alright!" Sakura squeaked, trying to find her resolve.
A few seconds later, the silver-haired Jonin sauntered into the clearing. Kakashi looked exactly as he had the day before: his forehead protector slanted over his left eye, his hands buried in his pockets, and a tired, bored expression on his face.
However, as he scanned the clearing, his lone visible eye sharpened. He sensed the thirty Shadow Clones Naruto had hidden in the brush— He also noticed something even more peculiar: his three students were standing together. Not scattered, not bickering, but formed in a cohesive unit.
(Naruto's clones are scattered .... Shadow Clone Training ??..... and the team is actually standing as a squad? Even Sakura and Sasuke?)
Kakashi mused, a flicker of genuine interest passing through his mind ,He came to a stop before them, the silence of the morning hanging heavy. Sakura, her frustration bubbling over the fear Naruto had instilled in her, couldn't help herself.
"You're late, Sensei!" she shouted, pointing a finger at him.
Kakashi paused, tilting his head with a sheepish look that didn't reach his eye. "Ah, well, you see, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around..."
Sasuke's eye twitched. Naruto simply stared, his blue eyes unblinking.
"Well," Kakashi continued, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a small alarm clock. He set it on one of the wooden stumps in the clearing. "It's set for 2 hours. Your goal is simple."
Kakashi reached back into his pouch and pulled out two small, silver bells. They jingled softly in the morning breeze, the sound incongruously cheerful given the stakes.
"You have until the clock rings to take these bells away from me," Kakashi explained, danging them between his thumb and forefinger. "Those who don't have a bell by noon... well, you don't get any lunch. Not only that, but I'll tie you to one of those stumps and eat my lunch right in front of you."
Sakura's stomach let out a pathetic, traitorous growl. Sasuke's eyes drifted to the bells. There were only two.
"Wait a minute!" Sakura cried out, the realization hitting her. "There are only two bells, but there are three of us!"
Kakashi's eye crinkled into a dark, mocking smile. "Exactly. That way, at least one of you will end up tied to a stump and fail the mission. That person will be sent back to the Academy. Of course, you can use any weapons you like , Kunai Shuriken , Jutsu , anything ..... If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you'll never stand a chance."
He tucked the bells into his belt and took a casual stance, his hand moving toward his hip. "Are you ready? On my mark..."
Naruto shifted his weight, his chakra beginning to hum. Sasuke's hand gripped his kunai. Sakura took a deep, shaky breath.
"Start!"
The bell test—and the true test of Team 7—had begun.
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Author's note :
Well final chapter of Team 7 today , i hope before morning
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