Kurallara uygun şekilde; anlatımdaki tüm ekleri (sensei, chan, kun) temizledim, diyalogları karakterlerin rütbe ve ilişkilerine göre düzenledim ve metnin akıcılığını artırdım.
As time passed, the suffocating toxic smoke finally thinned and drifted away.
The once-level ground was now pitted and scarred, the scorched earth upturned and flecked with reddish powder. A pungent stench of spice and rot still clung to the air.
But Kakashi was nowhere to be seen in the clearing.
"Cough… cough…"
Sasuke woke nearby, hacking violently.
Although he'd been given a gas mask, a few whiffs seeping through the gaps had jolted him awake. Instinct alone had forced him to straighten the mask while half-conscious. Only now was Sasuke regaining his senses.
Naruto came over and steadied him.
"Use your Sharingan—tell me the general direction Kakashi-sensei might be in."
Sasuke clenched his teeth against the urge to vomit, the single tomoe in his crimson eye spinning wildly.
"No one… nobody in the center…"
He swept his gaze across the area. Suddenly, he locked onto a patch of shadowed woods at the two o'clock position. An unnatural Chakra flow flickered there.
"Over there—in the trees!" Sasuke thrust out a pointing hand.
"Roger."
Naruto didn't hesitate for a second, nor did he bother to verify.
"Fire for effect!"
At his shout, several hidden Kage Bunshin wove hand signs in unison. They weren't casting Ninjutsu; they detonated the Kibaku Fuda pre-buried in that sector.
Boom-boom-boom—
The blasts hadn't even finished echoing.
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!" xN!
The Kage Bunshin opened a barrage on the same spot.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom—!
Trees snapped, stones flew. The relentless explosions seemed intent on plowing the earth clean.
"That should finish it, right?" Sasuke muttered, watching the bombardment.
When the smoke finally cleared, Naruto stepped forward and scanned the ruined ground. Only wreckage and burning trunks remained—no sign of a person.
"Impossible! My eyes don't make mistakes!" Panic crept into Sasuke's voice.
Just then, Sakura—looking shaken—ran in from a distance.
"Naruto! Sasuke! Are you two okay?"
She hurried to Naruto, apparently to check for injuries.
Sasuke, still on the ground, frowned. Something about Sakura felt off.
"Watch out!"
The warning had barely left Sasuke's lips when everything changed.
The "caring" Sakura's eyes turned ice-cold. Using their closeness, her right hand shot out like lightning; a Kunai pressed straight against Naruto's throat.
The move was sharp, precise—nothing like a fresh Genin.
"Got you, Naruto."
Sakura's voice dropped, lazy and low.
Poof—white smoke burst out.
Sakura morphed into Kakashi. The real Sakura had long since succumbed to Kakashi's Genjutsu and lay unconscious in the grass. Kakashi had simply replaced her with a Henge no Jutsu.
"Ambushing with concealment and transformation—this is the shinobi's game."
Kakashi's dead-fish eye glinted with amusement. "Nice trap, but still a bit green."
"Really?"
Naruto, Kunai at his throat, showed no fear. Instead, he adjusted his glasses, a strange grin tugging at his lips.
"Kakashi-sensei, did you forget what I hate most?"
"I can't stand… accidents."
Kakashi blinked.
Fss—fss—!
A hair-raising sizzle suddenly came from beneath this Naruto's clothes. Kakashi looked down—and his pupils shrank.
The boy's jacket was lined with row upon row of burning Kibaku Fuda!
This wasn't the real Naruto at all—it was a Kage Bunshin decoy that had been playing possum!
"Sasuke, heads up!"
BOOM!!
A titanic blast tore through the clearing, the shockwave peeling turf three feet deep.
Again!?
Sasuke, just revived, was hurled away once more, landing in a haystack with a lifeless stare.
When the smoke drifted off again, a crater gaped where the blast had been. Yet no part—no scrap—of Kakashi remained.
The Kakashi who'd held Naruto vanished in white smoke.
A Kage Bunshin!
All that heart-stopping "kill-or-be-killed" drama had been two clones play-acting. The only casualty was Sasuke…
Thirty meters away, atop a thick, leafy tree, the real Kakashi crouched on a branch, cold sweat sliding down his brow.
"Phew… that was close."
"The little maniac stuffed a Kage Bunshin with a self-destruct trap. If that had been my real body, I'd be in the ER right now!"
He wiped the sweat, still rattled.
He'd meant it as a simple teaching demo, a show of force for his cute students—to keep them in line later on. Instead, Naruto had turned it into a high-stakes match, almost costing Kakashi his cool façade.
"Still, at least my real body stayed hidden."
He glanced down at the wary Sasuke and the remaining Naruto clones, plotting his next move. He had to find the real Naruto or—
"Sensei, are you looking for me?"
A polite, gentle voice—yet one that froze Kakashi solid—whispered right beside his ear.
At the same instant, a hand deftly plucked the bell from Kakashi's waist.
Kakashi spun around, eyes wide.
A section of bark beside him peeled away like paper. There stood Uzumaki Naruto—clothes neat, hair unruffled—juggling the captured bell.
"What!?"
This time, Kakashi was genuinely stunned. "When did you…?"
He hadn't sensed a thing!
"From the start."
Naruto's lenses glinted coldly beneath the leaves.
"Sasuke's direction wasn't wrong: that was your decoy clone, a lure you set for us to blast. But a Jonin as careful as you would place his real body at a vantage point with a clean escape route. This tree was perfect."
Naruto flashed his trademark grin.
"Of course, that's hindsight—just figured it out. The real reason is…"
"Every tree around this training ground has one of my Kage Bunshin."
"So whichever one you picked, the ending's the same."
All around, bark sloughed off to reveal more Naruto clones eyeing their prey. The trees were alive with Narutos!
Kakashi stayed silent.
He had to admit: moments of utter helplessness were rare, and this was one.
Glancing at the ring of ambushers and the bell in Naruto's hand, Kakashi sighed and raised his arms in surrender.
"All right, you win."
"Exercise… over."