Back in the Hokage Office, Tsunade watched the crystal ball.
"Sakura did well. She waited for Naruto to make an opening instead of rushing in, and she controlled her chakra in that punch."
She sounded pleased. Sakura still had more to learn, but she was clearly better than before.
Jiraiya leaned closer to the crystal ball. "They're reading each other better than I expected after being apart so long. Kakashi's clone didn't have much time to react."
"That was only a Shadow Clone," Hiruzen said. "Kakashi was testing them."
"Still, they made him use it."
Tsunade nodded. Against a weaker opponent, their first attack might already have ended the fight.
Shinichi had remained quiet throughout the attack, and Jiraiya eventually turned toward him.
"What? You don't think they did well?"
"They did," Shinichi said. "But the test has only just started."
Jiraiya looked back at the image. Naruto and Sasuke were searching the area while Sakura kept watch around them, but Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.
"You think Kakashi is still holding back?"
"Those three are not the only ones who have gotten stronger in the past two years."
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, but Shinichi kept his eyes on the crystal ball.
"Kakashi has changed too."
The fight went on as they watched. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura continued pressing Kakashi, reacting to openings as they appeared, and soon the training ground looked very different from how it had at the start of the test.
Trees had been uprooted or snapped apart, the ground was covered in craters, and scorch marks stretched across the clearing.
Kakashi stood at the center of the field. His silver hair was messy and his breathing had grown heavier, but all three of his students still looked ready to keep fighting.
He looked at them and smiled beneath his mask.
"Honestly... it has only been two years, but the three of you have already come this far."
Sasuke's Sharingan had matured to three tomoe, while his Chidori, Fire Release, and taijutsu had all improved far beyond what Kakashi had expected.
Sakura had changed just as much. Her strength, chakra control, and judgment in battle showed that she had learned far more from Tsunade than medical ninjutsu alone.
Naruto looked the most battered, with dirt and sweat covering his face, but his familiar grin remained.
For a moment, Kakashi thought of Minato, Obito, and Rin, as well as how far Naruto had come since his days at the Academy.
He let out a quiet breath. "You three did well. Better than I expected."
Sasuke's expression did not change. "It's still not enough."
Naruto nodded. "Then we just have to keep getting stronger."
Sasuke did not argue as he turned back to Kakashi. "If we want those bells, we'll have to stop holding back."
"Exactly," Naruto said.
Kakashi lowered his stance, one hand resting near his ninja pouch. "Then show me what you can do."
Sasuke moved first, lightning erupting around his hand as the Chidori took shape.
"Chidori!"
He shot forward, the sharp cry of the technique filling the training ground as he charged straight at Kakashi.
Naruto reacted immediately and created a Shadow Clone. The clone helped shape the spinning chakra in his palm while Naruto compressed wind chakra into it, forming countless thin blades along its edge.
"Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
He rushed in from Kakashi's left, using Sasuke's attack to limit where Kakashi could move.
Seeing the remaining escape route, Sakura circled behind Kakashi. Chakra gathered in her right fist, and the ground cracked beneath her foot as she launched herself forward.
Sasuke attacked from the front, Naruto closed in from the left, and Sakura cut off Kakashi's retreat from behind. The three attacks arrived almost together, leaving him no safe way out.
Realizing he could no longer evade them normally, he reached into his ninja pouch and grabbed an unusual kunai.
It was longer than a normal kunai, with a three-pronged blade and a formula inscribed along the handle.
Naruto's eyes widened the moment he saw it.
"That is..."
Before he could finish, Kakashi threw the kunai toward an open patch of ground beyond their encirclement.
The weapon struck the earth outside their encirclement just as Sasuke's Chidori, Naruto's Rasenshuriken, and Sakura's fist closed in.
Then Kakashi vanished.
There was no burst of speed and no movement for Sasuke's Sharingan to follow. One instant Kakashi was standing between them; the next, he was gone.
All three had to stop their attacks so they would not hit each other.
By the time they realized what had happened, Kakashi had already appeared beside the three-pronged kunai. The bells at his waist rang sharply across the damaged training ground.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stared at him. None of them had seen him move. The kunai had landed, and Kakashi had simply appeared beside it.
Naruto looked from Kakashi to the weapon on the ground, slowly beginning to understand.
"Kakashi-sensei... was that..."
...
Hokage Office.
A teacup fell from Jiraiya's hand and shattered on the floor.
"Flying Thunder God!"
He shot to his feet, staring at the crystal ball.
"That was the Flying Thunder God Technique! Kakashi really learned it?"
Jiraiya leaned over the desk, unable to take his eyes off the image. The technique demanded exceptional chakra control and an understanding of space-time ninjutsu that very few shinobi possessed.
Hiruzen was surprised as well, though he remained calmer than Jiraiya.
"Kakashi was Minato's student, ...If anyone was going to try to inherit that technique, it would be him."
Tsunade said nothing, but even she had not expected Kakashi to actually master it.
Shizune glanced toward Shinichi. While the others were still processing what they had seen, his expression remained unchanged.
It was as though he had known Kakashi would use the Flying Thunder God.
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