Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Chapter 10: The Ninja Career Officially Begins

Kakashi stared at Sakura, his voice growing even deeper: "So you're saying that the reason your mission failed is because the enemy was too strong?"

Kakashi usually appears approachable and even makes up absurd excuses for being late.

But once he gets serious, Sakura can't handle Kakashi's aura at all.

"Sakura, do you think being a ninja is some kind of child's play? In your self-introduction yesterday, you kept talking about Sasuke. Did you naively think that as long as you choose to become a ninja like Sasuke, he will play house with you?"

"I……"

Sakura wanted to argue, but faced with Kakashi's imposing gaze that seemed to see right through her immaturity.

Sakura ultimately chose to remain silent.

"Have you ever wondered why ninja academy graduates are grouped into ninja squads led by Jonin?"

"Why, after finally graduating from school, do you still have to participate in this exercise where failure means starting all over again?"

Kakashi scanned Naruto and Sasuke in turn, before finally fixing his gaze on Sakura: "Sakura, you said it yourself, the three of you are just recent graduates, no match for a Jonin like me... Faced with an exam that you can only fail from the start, can't you figure out the real purpose of this exam?"

"Purpose……?"

Faced with Kakashi's question, Sakura blankly repeated Kakashi's words.

"It's all about 'teamwork'!"

Kakashi generously shared the answer with the three of them.

"This exercise is just a test. If the three of you work together, you can at least take one bell from me."

Hearing Kakashi's words, Sakura looked confused: "But there are only two bells, and you want the three of us to fight over one bell. That makes it impossible to cooperate; we'll just start fighting amongst ourselves!"

“This is the real test,” Kakashi replied. “The outcome of the struggle for the bell is not important; what matters is the process.”

"When ninjas are carrying out real missions, they often face the choice of sacrificing themselves or their team—protecting, abandoning, sacrificing, or fighting together..."

"Sakura, you have already made this choice without even realizing it."

Sakura paused for a moment, and before she could figure it out, Kakashi had already given her the answer.

"You chose to abandon Naruto... but your choice did not lead to the mission's success."

Kakashi's tone shifted from instructive to accusatory.

“Sakura, you didn’t consider Naruto’s position at all! After Sasuke’s attack failed, all you could think about was Sasuke, who was nowhere to be found, and you even deliberately exposed yourself because of it. Although you wanted to make amends after Naruto saved you, it was all in vain.”

He wasn't just criticizing Sakura alone.

Kakashi looked at Naruto: "And Naruto, you were only concerned with being a hero and saving the damsel in distress! You could have found the right moment to save Sakura from the genjutsu trap without me noticing, but you took the genjutsu in her place, leaving me, as the enemy, with no worries."

After criticizing Naruto, Kakashi finally fixed his gaze on Sasuke: "As for you, Sasuke. You never thought about Naruto and Sakura, treating them as a burden—all your actions in the exercise were based on the assumption that you were the only one fighting against me."

Kakashi's insightful comment silenced the three of them.

"I'll give you one more chance. Take a one-hour break, and we'll resume the exercise at 1 p.m.

Seeing the three of them like this, Kakashi's attitude softened slightly.

"But the punishment from this morning's exercise remains in effect. Sasuke is not allowed to eat. Of the three who participated in the exercise this morning, only his behavior was completely devoid of 'teamwork,' and neither of you are allowed to give him your lunchboxes!"

“Anyone who violates this rule will no longer be required to participate in the afternoon's exercise; I will immediately deem them unqualified.”

Without giving him a chance to explain or plead, Kakashi finished his monologue and instantly left using the Body Flicker Technique.

It's clear that Kakashi's scathing rebuke quickly built up his authority as the team leader.

Even though Kakashi had already left, Sasuke and Sakura remained motionless.

Naruto didn't care; he was the only one who knew the correct answers from beginning to end during this exercise.

So Naruto wasn't intimidated by Kakashi at all.

Kakashi had barely left using the Body Flicker Technique when he immediately went to find his lunch.

After a long while, Sasuke finally spoke to Sakura, "Sakura, go eat."

"But……"

"I'll probably be short on energy for the afternoon's exercise, so you and Naruto need to eat a good lunch. I'll be the bait in the afternoon... You and Naruto together must at least manage to snatch one bell from Kakashi."

Sasuke shook his head, stopping Sakura from saying what she was about to say, and rationally analyzed the situation.

"I see……"

Sakura held back the tears that were about to fall, rubbed her eyes, and slowly opened her bento box.

Seeing that Sakura had been persuaded by him, Sasuke turned his gaze to Naruto.

"Naruto."

Sasuke shouted, "Sakura's taijutsu is a little weak, but her ninjutsu is pretty good; you are the opposite, so the two of you should cooperate and complement each other—when you eat with Sakura, listen carefully to my plan."

"Hmm...you said you don't like sweets, so which do you prefer, salty or sour? Oh, I want to eat spicy food, so you can't choose."

But Naruto completely ignored Sasuke; Naruto's bento box consisted of three-colored rice balls.

Spicy wasabi rice balls, salty bonito rice balls, and sour plum rice balls.

"Hey! Naruto! Stop messing around and listen to me!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto with some annoyance, his voice unconsciously rising.

"Stop...stop arguing..."

Sakura, who had just picked up her chopsticks, quickly came over to ease the tension.

Naruto ignored Sasuke and Sakura.

He hesitated for a moment between the bonito rice ball and the plum rice ball. What kind of rice ball did Sasuke like in his previous life?

I can't remember exactly, but Naruto just randomly chose one based on his own preference.

He took out a wooden fish rice ball and, to Sasuke's surprise, stuffed it into Sasuke's mouth.

"Ugh! Cough cough!"

After swallowing such a large rice ball in one gulp, Sasuke felt a huge blockage in his throat, making him feel suffocated.

"Give!"

Naruto handed Sasuke a cup of herbal tea to help him swallow.

At this moment, Sasuke didn't have time to care about anything else. He grabbed the cold tea and swallowed the rice ball whole with it.

"what……"

Sasuke, realizing what had happened, froze on the spot.

"Naruto! What have you done! You've broken the rules!"

Sakura said worriedly.

“But we’re classmates, so rules are nothing compared to friendship.”

Naruto smiled at Sakura.

This exercise was like an open-book exam for him.

Without a second thought, he screwed the lid back on the herbal tea.

It's about time—

—As expected, Kakashi suddenly appeared again using the Body Flicker Technique.

"You guys!"

Kakashi shouted angrily at the three of them.

The next second, she became incredibly happy and gentle.

"You passed!"

Chapter 11 The Critical Rank C Mission

Time flies, and it's already May.

The survival exercise for Class 7 was two months ago.

For the past two months, the seventh team has been carrying out the tasks assigned by the village, working together to improve their coordination.

Under Kakashi's leadership, Team 7 is now showing signs of "seamless cooperation".

Naruto also had his own feelings during this period.

The most obvious feeling is that ninjas make money too fast!

Team 7, composed of a group of ninjas who have just become genin, can only accept D-rank ninja missions.

These tasks are nothing more than ordinary tasks like finding lost pets and helping with farming, which have nothing to do with the ninja world.

However, such D-level missions offer high commissions ranging from five thousand to fifty thousand taels.

Even though these commissions have to be taxed by the village before being distributed equally among the ninjas who carry out the mission, they are still a considerable income.

Moreover, occasionally there will be wealthy people like Lady Shijimi, the wife of the daimyo of the Land of Fire, who will issue a D-rank mission that is nothing more than finding a cat, but will raise the commission to the highest D-rank amount of 50,000 ryo.

So Naruto saved a lot of money in the past two months.

I never imagined that after working myself to the bone in my past life, I couldn't earn any money, but in this life, after only two months as a ninja, I'm already showing signs of financial freedom.

However, Naruto was also well aware that although his ability to earn money so easily as a genin was related to the high commissions for ninja missions, it was inseparable from the support of Konoha.

As the most powerful of the five great ninja nations, the Land of Fire, Konoha Village's reputation attracts countless people from both their own country and abroad, who entrust their tasks to Konoha's ninjas.

In peacetime, only Konoha could live such a comfortable life as a genin; other major powers might not be able to.

The Land of Earth utilized the Akatsuki's fighting force due to its reduced military strength and the loss of numerous commissions.

The Water Kingdom's Blood Mist policy resulted in years of isolation.

The Sand Village of the Land of Wind has even resorted to the risky tactic of attacking Konoha in order to maintain the village's operation.

The Land of Lightning continues to expand its fighting strength, and its methods are extremely violent.

In fact, if you simply shift your focus away from Konoha and look at the entire ninja world, you can easily see that the shadows left by the Third Shinobi World War have not yet dissipated.