The jingling of the two silver bells broke the stillness of the clearing. Kakashi Hatake spun them lazily around his index finger, letting the metallic sound penetrate the minds of the three genin standing before him.
"Your task is very simple," Kakashi began, his voice devoid of any urgency. He pointed to a mechanical alarm clock he had placed on top of the center stump. "You have until noon to take these bells from me. Those who fail to do so will go without lunch. I will tie you to those wooden posts and eat my lunch right in front of you."
Sakura's stomach did a painful flip. Sasuke clenched his jaw, his dark eyes locked onto the small silver objects.
"But wait, Sensei," Sakura interjected, her high-pitched voice betraying her panic. "There are only two bells! And there are three of us!"
Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. It was a cruel smile, designed to sow discord. "Exactly. Which means at least one of you will fail no matter what. That one will be sent back to the Academy. Of course, any of you can use any weapon. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you won't get the bells."
The silence that followed was dense, heavy with deadly tension.
For Sasuke, the math was simple: he would take a bell at any cost. Sakura didn't matter to him, and the idiot Naruto mattered even less. For Sakura, the math was terrifying: she had to get a bell alongside Sasuke-kun, and Naruto would have to return to the Academy.
For Naruto, the math was an insult to his intellect.
*A crude illusion,* thought the ancient Immortal, without a single muscle in his face twitching. His mind, forged in the furnaces of a thousand cosmic wars, deconstructed the test in less than a second. *In the demonic sects of my previous world, a trial with insufficient resources was designed to force disciples to slaughter one another, filtering out the weak. But this village is no demonic cult. They preach the ridiculous notion of the 'Will of Fire' and camaraderie. Therefore, the true objective of this test is not to obtain the bell... it is to be willing to lose it for the welfare of the group.*
It was a test of sacrifice. A psychological game designed to break the ego.
Naruto almost let out a sigh of disappointment. *What a childish method of teaching. Testing loyalty through deception only breeds resentment in the long run. But... I suppose it is the standard for these mortals.*
"Ready?" Kakashi murmured, reaching his hand toward the weapon pouch on his leg. "Begin!"
As if propelled by a spring, Sasuke and Sakura vanished.
The Uchiha utilized an agile backward leap, immediately blending into the shadows of the high branches of a nearby pine tree, erasing his presence with the efficiency of a prodigy. Sakura ran toward the densest undergrowth, hiding behind a thick bush, suppressing her breathing as best she could. The Academy's teachings were clear: a ninja must first know how to conceal themselves.
The wind blew across the training ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
Kakashi blinked, his single visible eye lowering toward the clearing.
Naruto hadn't moved. He remained standing, in the exact same spot, his hands hanging relaxed at the sides of his orange jacket. He hadn't adopted any defensive stance. He hadn't pulled out a kunai. He was simply standing there, watching the Jōnin with the same serene and abyssal gaze an elder would direct toward a rowdy child.
"You know..." Kakashi said, scratching the back of his neck with a touch of genuine awkwardness. "The essence of the ninja art is supposed to be deception and camouflage. Your teammates understood that quite well."
"Camouflage is a tool for those who fear being seen, or for those planning an assassination," Naruto replied. His voice was flat, devoid of the slightest inflection of fear or reverent respect. "Hiding from a predator that can smell blood, hear a heartbeat, and perceive chakra fluctuations from miles away is a pathetic waste of energy."
Kakashi tilted his head. The boy's words were... technically correct. Against a Jōnin of his caliber, Sasuke and Sakura's hiding spots were obvious. But for the worst student in the class to verbalize it with such coldness was unnatural.
"Interesting philosophy," murmured Kakashi. He reached his hand to his tactical vest and, with excruciating slowness, pulled out a small, bright orange book. The title *Icha Icha Paradise* gleamed under the sun. He opened the book halfway and fixed his gaze on the pages. "Well, since you're right here in front of me, you can attack whenever you like. Don't worry, I can read in the meantime."
The provocation was obvious. It was a monumental display of disrespect designed to infuriate the opponent and force them into making a reckless mistake.
From his hiding place in the trees, Sasuke gritted his teeth. *That idiot Naruto is going to fall for it. He's going to charge in screaming and get crushed in a second.*
But Naruto didn't scream. He didn't fly into a rage. Instead, an almost imperceptible smile, cold and heavy with ancestral irony, curled his lips.
*Arrogance,* Naruto evaluated internally. *The fatal flaw of all mortals who believe they have reached the summit of their tiny world. The Vermilion Saint made the exact same mistake centuries ago by underestimating my cultivation base. It cost me three ribs to shatter his spiritual core, but it cost him his life.*
"Reading during a martial exchange," Naruto said, his voice dropping an octave, resonating with a strange vibration in the still air of the clearing. "A cheap psychological tactic to destabilize the enemy's mind. It works well against emotional children. But, Kakashi Hatake... if you choose to keep your eyes on those pages, I guarantee you won't live to read the end."
The air in the clearing suddenly seemed to grow heavier.
Kakashi didn't look up from his book, but his seemingly relaxed posture shifted. The muscles in his legs micro-tensed. Chakra flowed into his feet. His ANBU assassin instincts, dormant beneath years of apathy, suddenly screamed at him that the twelve-year-old boy in front of him was no joke.
Naruto took the first step.
It wasn't an explosive charge. There was no war cry. It was a soundless glide.
**Ghost Step of the Silent Cicada.**
Naruto's heel touched the grass without crushing it, shifting his body weight in a manner that defied mortal physics. In the blink of an eye, the ten-meter distance between him and Kakashi was cut in half.
The Jōnin's single visible eye widened beneath his forehead protector. *He's fast! He didn't use chakra to propel himself; it's pure muscular strength and biomechanical momentum!*
Five meters away, Naruto abruptly dropped his center of gravity, evading a front kick from Kakashi that even Sasuke, from up in the trees, couldn't see coming. The Jōnin had reacted out of pure instinct to the boy's unnatural speed.
But Naruto didn't retreat. Utilizing the momentum of Kakashi's miss, he spun on his left foot. His right hand shot forward—not as a fist, but with fingers extended like a spear of flesh and bone, aiming directly at the femoral artery in Kakashi's inner thigh. It was a paralyzing, precise, and lethal strike.
Kakashi slammed the book shut with his left hand, using the thick cover to deflect Naruto's fingers by a mere matter of millimeters. The impact sounded like wood striking solid rock. The Jōnin felt a dull, alarming pain shoot up his left arm. *What muscle density! He hits like a block of iron!*
Kakashi tried to use his right hand to grab the blonde's arm and throw him, but Naruto flowed like water. He retracted his arm before Kakashi could seize it, and in the same fluid motion, his left hand subtly brushed against the Jōnin's tactical vest, just above where the bells hung.
No one saw it. Not Sasuke with his dormant Sharingan, not Sakura from the bushes, not even Kakashi himself, who was entirely focused on the brutal physical exchange.
But in that split-second brush, a piece of coarse paper, bathed in black ink and a faint residue of chakra, remained adhered to the green fabric of Kakashi's vest.
The **Lesser Gravity Talisman** was in position.
Naruto executed a backflip, landing three meters away with the grace of a feline. His breathing hadn't quickened in the slightest.
Kakashi remained standing, his orange book shut tight and clenched in his left hand. His eye stared at the blonde genin with a mixture of profound shock and absolute serious. There was no longer any trace of mockery in his posture.
"That taijutsu..." Kakashi murmured, his mind racing a mile a minute, searching through his mental archives of all the hidden villages. "No wasted movements. No openings. They don't teach that at the Academy."
Naruto slowly straightened up, lacing his hands behind his back.
"I warned you, hunter," said the reincarnated Immortal, as an invisible thread of chakra connected his will to the hidden talisman. "Close your book. Because the real battle has only just begun."