章 40: Chapter 40: Team 7, What’s With the Insane Grind?
After that day, Sakura finally realized just how insanely powerful her two teammates were.
She wanted to train alongside Sasuke, but he just mocked her for being too weak…
His disdainful expression and cutting words left Sakura feeling utterly crushed.
But the poor girl completely misunderstood Sasuke's intention.
Sasuke, who wasn't one for long explanations, was actually trying to tell her...
With her fragile body, there was no way she could handle the tree-punching exercises, let alone the tree-dragging endurance training.
Even Sasuke himself was barely able to keep up with half of Naruto's pace.
Still, the next day, the three of them finally received their ninja headbands from Kakashi and officially became part of the Leaf Village's finest... fresh new Genin brimming with potential.
To get them accustomed to the ninja lifestyle, Kakashi started assigning them low-level missions he picked up from the Hokage's office.
These missions were the usual grunt work: pulling weeds for villagers, finding lost pets, or cleaning up garbage from rivers.
The most ridiculous one was helping villagers plant crops.
Kakashi thought these missions suited Naruto just fine, but the Third Hokage had a growing sense of unease...
Naruto finally became a ninja, and now Kakashi was dragging the poor kid off to farm fields??
Although the Third wasn't too thrilled about it, he decided to let Kakashi do his thing.
At first, Naruto and the others were pretty enthusiastic about the missions.
But by the third day, Naruto had flooded the village with countless Shadow Clones to handle tasks, and Sasuke and Sakura soon followed his lead, using clones to grind through the missions.
As for their real bodies...
"Pair of twos!"
"Pass."
"Skip."
Naruto grinned slyly and laid down a card with a small smirk.
The three of them were hanging out in the small forest, half-heartedly training and mostly playing cards.
They were earning mission rewards every day just by lying around. Life was far more comfortable than any other ninja in the village.
Their faces were covered in ink marks and sticky notes as they lounged about.
Kakashi, perched on a branch above them with his nose in a book, cast a glance at his team, his expression hidden behind his typical deadpan stare. He wasn't quite sure how to feel.
On the one hand, he loved this lazy lifestyle where he didn't have to babysit the kids too much. He could relax, read his book, and take naps in the trees.
On top of that, as the leader of Team 7, he still got a nice cut from their mission rewards.
It felt like he'd entered retirement early.
In theory, this was great... but he couldn't quite feel happy about it.
Damn Naruto had sent out thousands of Shadow Clones to monopolize every single low-level mission in the village. He wasn't picky about the tasks either—he took everything, which earned Team 7 quite a bit of resentment from the other Genin, even some Chunin and Jonin.
Naruto used to have a bad reputation in the village, but now, the entire Team 7 was earning scorn.
In less than a week, Team 7 had completed over 700 D-rank missions…
That's two months' worth of missions for the entire village!
If Kakashi hadn't put a stop to it, Naruto might've finished all the D-rank missions for the whole year.
If that happened, the village's ninja, especially the lower-ranking ones, would probably be out of a job!
Kakashi could already picture their faces when they'd confront Naruto and say:
"Uzumaki Naruto, what the hell is with this grind?!"
Even the Third Hokage was getting worried about the situation.
It wasn't like there hadn't been ninjas who used Shadow Clones to take missions before…
But who the heck created hundreds, even thousands of clones like Naruto did?!
The Third had hoped that once Naruto became a ninja, he'd mature a little and be more responsible.
Sure, they no longer had to worry about their Jinchuriki running off to farm fields, but now the Third had a brand-new headache to deal with...
"Reporting, boss!"
"All tasks for the day are complete!"
Several clones lined up neatly in front of Naruto, just like how office workers reported to their boss back in his previous life.
Except this time, Naruto finally got to play the role of the boss.
Still holding his cards, Naruto nodded in satisfaction at his clones' work, stood up slowly, and clasped his hands behind his back, pacing back and forth in front of them like an old man.
At that moment, all the clones tensed up.
"I've seen all your hard work. You've all done an excellent job."
"But..."
"We've only completed 700 D-rank missions?!"
"That's not even a tenth of this month's performance target!"
"You three thousand clones only managed this much work?"
"Can you not handle this? If not, I've got plenty more clones who can!"
A familiar sense of dread washed over the clones. They all hung their heads low, none daring to speak up.
They had worked so hard...
But it wasn't like there were even that many missions in the village!
Wait a minute…
The village?
Suddenly, the clones realized the absurdity of their situation.
Damn it!
The real Naruto was having the time of his life, lounging around with a popsicle and soda...
He hadn't even done 10 missions himself!
How did he have the nerve to say something like that?!
The clones were outraged.
"Damn it, real Naruto! Who do you think you are?"
"You're treating your clones like slaves! Haha! Naruto, you've become the very thing you used to hate!"
"Brothers, rise up! Uzumaki Naruto will never be our master!"
"Shall we let kings and generals have their way just because of birthright?!"
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"
The clones, unable to tolerate any more oppression from the real Naruto, rolled up their sleeves and charged at him.
What followed was a massive brawl between Naruto and his sea of clones…
The rest of the team watched the scene unfold with completely blank expressions.
They couldn't help but wonder if Naruto was playing some kind of new, weird game.
Who the hell picks a fight with their own Shadow Clones?!
Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura were totally baffled by Naruto's behavior.
During the chaos, they could hear him shouting strange things like…
"The peak is reserved for those who embrace the twilight and follow the false prophet!"
"The ninja world isn't ready for this kind of myth-making!"
"Damn it, buff up the Yellow Flash already!"
…
It was just a bunch of weird phrases like that.
Even Sasuke, who spent every day with Naruto, didn't know what the heck he was talking about.
But Naruto didn't care about their stares.
He was bored out of his mind from playing cards with Sasuke and Sakura. He had no choice but to mess around with his clones for fun.
After all, only he could really get his own jokes.
And besides…
Uzumaki Naruto wasn't about to play cards with two cheaters!
These two were just too much. One used his Sharingan to peek at his cards, while the other secretly kept track of everyone's moves and tried to calculate her way to victory.
Were they really ganging up on him, the only honest player here?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Naruto was wiping out his clones left and right. In no time, he'd taken down a whole swarm of them.
Watching this, Kakashi could barely hold in his shock.
After all, when a Shadow Clone is dispelled, its memories return to the original.
One or two clones would be fine…
But hundreds or thousands of clones dispelling at once was like shoving a boulder into your brain.
Any normal ninja would go insane from receiving the mental overload of a few dozen clones. But this kid...
Naruto was blowing through dozens of clones at a time, and not only did he look completely fine, he had a big smile on his face, clearly enjoying himself.
Kakashi couldn't help but wonder...
What kind of freak is this kid?
Is he really Minato and Kushina's son?
"Hey, Naruto!"
"The Third Hokage asked me to tell you guys to head to the Hokage's office."
"Looks like there's an important mission."
A single clone ran over, grinning as he relayed the message, clearly hoping for some praise.
Naruto froze for a second, his heart suddenly filled with anticipation.
An important mission?
Could it be the Land of Waves??
Are they about to fight Zabuza?
Kakashi closed his book, jumped down from the tree, and, with his usual dead-fish eyes, said, "Let's go. We'll find out at the Hokage's office."
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