Chapter 23: What Is the Punishment?
"Is being able to produce dozens or hundreds of Shadow Clones at once considered my strong point?"
Uzumaki Naruto thought for a moment, muttering to himself with some uncertainty.
"Right, strength in numbers! I'll have the clones come out together to discuss it."
Very quickly, Uzumaki Naruto came up with a good idea, so he immediately used the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.
With a series of popping sounds, the next second, countless Narutos crowded the small open space.
"Everyone, tell me how we can break this water ball?"
The original Uzumaki Naruto hurriedly held up the water ball and asked the clones loudly.
"Just step on it to break it."
"Squeeze it until it breaks!"
"Keep injecting a large amount of Chakra to make it burst."
"Hide a needle between my fingers, secretly poke it, and fool Kakashi-sensei."
"..."
For a moment, everyone was spouting nonsense, which gave the original Uzumaki Naruto a headache; they were all so unreliable!
"Quiet, everyone! No cheating methods allowed."
The original Uzumaki Naruto took a deep breath and suddenly shouted. Then, looking annoyed, he picked up a small bag of balloons. "Everyone, come and try! Whoever breaks the water ball first is the smartest me! But anyone who dares to play dirty, we'll all beat him up!"
"There aren't enough balloons for everyone."
The clones closest to the original body quickly took balloons, but many clones didn't get one, so they started shouting in protest.
"Stop arguing! You guys can share one balloon, take turns using it, or use it at the same time. Just stop arguing!"
The original Uzumaki Naruto was already irritated, and listening to their clamor made him even more annoyed.
Soon, Naruto's clones formed small teams of two or three.
Some teams harmoniously took turns using the water ball, while other teams argued incessantly over who got to use the water ball first.
There were even some teams that truly shared the water ball, with several people injecting Chakra into one water ball simultaneously.
"Idiot, rotate the water flow to the right!"
"No, it should rotate to the left."
"Rotating it upwards is correct!"
"..."
Bang—
Suddenly, with a 'bang,' the water ball burst, instantly silencing the noisy area.
Everyone subconsciously looked in the direction of the explosion.
"Hey, you guys broke the water ball just by injecting Chakra, right?"
"You really didn't squeeze it by hand?"
Some clones reacted and asked with disbelief.
The original Uzumaki Naruto also reacted at this moment and hurriedly ran over.
"Quickly try again using the method you just used!"
Saying that, he handed over the water ball in his hand and looked at them with expectant eyes.
The few clones who had just broken the water ball looked at each other, feeling immense pressure.
But they still took the water ball and replicated their previous actions under everyone's expectant gaze.
Bang—
Soon, the water ball burst again.
"..."
"Wow—"
"It actually worked! That's great!"
"So that's how you do it?"
Immediately following that, everyone erupted in cheers, their joy almost overflowing from their eyes!
— — —
— — —
"Idiot~"
"Idiot~"
After mastering the first stage, Uzumaki Naruto couldn't wait to run and demonstrate it to everyone.
The result, however, left Sakura and Sasuke speechless.
To break a water ball, he actually needed to rely on Shadow Clones?
Four Shadow Clones injected Chakra into the water ball from different directions, ultimately causing it to rupture.
"Well, Naruto, it's great that you found a way, but can you try to break the water ball by yourself once more?"
Kakashi first gave Naruto affirmation, then asked him to try alone.
"Eh?" Naruto was stunned, a little guilty as he dismissed his Shadow Clones. "Then I'll try."
Immediately after, he picked up another water ball and started trying by himself.
Controlling the water inside the ball to rotate in different directions using Chakra...
Uzumaki Naruto silently recited the method he had found, but the water ball only struggled a few times and did not break.
The three people watching couldn't help but put their hands to their foreheads, looking somewhat helpless.
"Wait, let me try again."
Naruto's face flushed, and he hurriedly tried again.
However, after trying several times, he still couldn't break the water ball.
"Ah, right."
Suddenly, in his anxiety, a flash of inspiration struck Naruto's mind—he thought of his other hand. He just needed to treat his other hand as the hands of the other Shadow Clones!
So, he quickly tried again, supporting the water ball with one hand while rapidly injecting Chakra from various directions with the other.
With a 'bang,' this time the water ball actually burst!
"What's the difference between this and the original method?"
Sakura saw this and couldn't help but complain speechlessly.
"Although... nevertheless, this... also counts as Naruto succeeding."
Although the process was a bit strange, Kakashi knew that Naruto managing to complete the first stage of training within three days already counted as an unconventional genius.
"Yay~"
Hearing Kakashi's approval, Uzumaki Naruto immediately happily gave her a 'V' sign.
"Since everyone has completed the first stage of training, let's start the second stage."
This time, Kakashi was prepared. She pulled out three rubber balls from somewhere and threw one to each of the three.
"The second stage is similar to the first, except this time you need to break rubber balls."
"Rubber balls?"
When Naruto and the other two took the rubber balls, the tactile sensation in their hands immediately made them realize that these balls were much thicker than balloons.
"Hmph, it's just this level. Watch me break it immediately."
Since it was similar to the first stage, Uzumaki Naruto wasn't afraid; he had already mastered the method anyway.
Even if the ball was a bit thicker, it would just require injecting a little more Chakra.
However, when he actually tried, Naruto found that things were not at all as he imagined—he couldn't break it at all!
"Ah, right. These rubber balls are tens or hundreds of times tougher than balloons, and there's no water inside. To burst a rubber ball, you can only rely on the Chakra mass you condense to rotate rapidly and irregularly,"
At this moment, Kakashi reminded them.
"Huh?"
Tens or hundreds of times?
This time, all three were a bit surprised. Indeed, the second stage couldn't possibly be simpler than the first.
"This time, the three of you will train here. Whoever finishes first gets a reward, the second place gets no reward, and the last one gets a punishment."
Seeing the solemn expressions on the three faces, Kakashi suddenly added a rule with a bit of mischievous pleasure.
"Eh?"
The three were stunned.
A reward?
A punishment?
It couldn't be getting whipped by Kakashi-sensei, could it?
Uzumaki Naruto suddenly recalled a scene from a certain manga—the adult comics and magazines he had looked at to learn the Sexy Jutsu.
The punishment the heroine said to the hero in it was to do things like this and that with a whip.