Chapter 18: If it doesn’t kill me, I’ll keep courting Death.

“A brilliant coordination.”

Kakashi had to admit that the final coordination of the trio was truly brilliant.

Though that particular scene gave him slightly high blood pressure.

“Success! Yahoo~”

Naruto was extremely excited over there, while Sasuke also looked toward Hanabi.

Before the audience, a “flashback” scene appeared.

Before engaging with Kakashi, Hanabi had actually already created Shadow Clones (Kage Bunshin). Naruto and Sasuke, who were hung in the air, were both rescued by Hanabi.

“Damn it, that Jonin is really hard to deal with.” Sasuke’s face was grim; he had a reason why he absolutely had to become a ninja.

“We definitely have to teach that guy a lesson,” Naruto said.

“You already had a way to deal with Kakashi, didn’t you?” Sasuke realized something and looked at Hanabi again. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Kakashi had been lured away by Hanabi and hadn’t shown up yet, which meant he was definitely occupied.

“Of course. I investigated everything that could be investigated through public and non-public channels. The battle began the moment the mission was assigned,” Hanabi said.

“Hanabi, why didn’t you tell us earlier? We could have set traps to deal with that guy long ago!” Naruto, having fallen for Kakashi’s trap, now wanted to dig a pit to deal with Kakashi.

“That won’t work. Kakashi only needs to provoke you a little, and you’ll fall for it, Naruto,” Hanabi said.

“Huh? If you told me in advance, Hanabi, I definitely wouldn’t fall for it!” Naruto felt he could still fight another three hundred rounds.

“Because you will definitely fall for it. Even if I explained it, you would still definitely fall for it,” Hanabi said with certainty.

“I’m not that stupid… right!” Naruto looked at Sasuke again. Sasuke’s expression, which screamed “Are you stupid?”, instantly broke Naruto’s defense.

“So, even if I said we should hide, would you listen, Naruto?”

“As if I, the great Naruto, would hide!”

“See, just like that.”

“As expected, this guy falls for it as soon as he’s provoked.” Sasuke couldn’t help but retort.

“Then there’s you, Sasuke. You are used to acting alone; from the very beginning, you never thought about cooperation. But as a ninja squad, not understanding cooperation is absolutely unacceptable,” Hanabi said. “For a student like you, Sasuke, I believed that only by letting you recognize the situation first would you be able to calm down.”

– Without you two fighting together to add drama, how can I earn popularity?

“…” Sasuke also fell silent. Yes, he hadn’t thought about cooperation from the start.

“Then what should we do!” Naruto scratched his head in frustration.

“It’s simple. Put this on first.” Hanabi’s Shadow Clone took off her own mask.

Shadow Clones can also “replicate” the equipment on their bodies. Even animals on one’s person can sometimes be “Shadow Cloned” together. Of course, they will disappear together once the chakra is exhausted.

After the “flashback” on the screen ended, the audience suddenly understood.

[Got it. One is reckless, the other is stubborn.]

[Wifey is so smart. Let the two hit a wall first, then they’ll know to listen to her.]

[Scheming girl (Xin Ji Girl), she instantly took control of the team’s leadership.]

“Truly remarkable genjutsu.” While the audience watched the flashback, Kakashi looked at Hanabi. “Genjutsu that even I couldn’t distinguish is truly astonishing.”

“Ah, that.” Hanabi smiled and said, “Actually, from start to finish, there was no genjutsu.”

Kakashi was stunned.

The audience, who had just switched back from the flashback, were also all stunned.

Countless question marks floated across the screen.

“There was only transformation (Henge). Of course, you couldn’t tell the difference, Kakashi-sensei. From start to finish, I was just putting on a play in front of you, Kakashi-sensei.”

Kakashi naturally couldn’t tell.

Because there was no genjutsu at all; those people were Hanabi’s transformations. It was a “reality show” from beginning to end.

“Then what about the phantom? That… wasn’t genjutsu either?”

“Just the refraction of light. I used lenses formed by chakra to distort the light path and change my perceived distance, which is why those phantoms dissipated so easily,” Hanabi said. “Chakra is amazing, isn’t it?”

Even the initial phantom wasn’t genjutsu; in reality, it was refraction caused by forcibly distorting light with ice crystals and chakra. Of course, strictly speaking, this is still genjutsu, as real-world genjutsu is visual deception. So this should be classified as “Optical Genjutsu” rather than the traditional Yin Release (Inton) genjutsu. It is also recorded in the Second Hokage’s Complete Collection of Ninjutsu.

Kakashi was induced from the beginning to believe he had fallen for a technique, which led to him being passive at every turn.

“When I started by saying this was ‘Ninja Tactics’ genjutsu, it was to give you a preconceived impression, Kakashi-sensei, making you think I was using genjutsu. But in reality, from beginning to end, there was no genjutsu at all.”

[A genjutsu without genjutsu, isn’t that a form of genjutsu itself?]

[Kakashi: I can’t tell, I really can’t tell!]

[What are you looking at? You’re also Red Dragon (Hong Zhong)! (Reference to the deceiving tile/entity in the novel Daoist of the Weird)]

[Ninja intelligence and counter-intelligence, deception and counter-deception, the Three Great Jutsu—these few episodes are truly freaking brilliant.]

“Kakashi-sensei, you are a Jonin (Jōnin – High Ninja), and an elite among Jonin, so we absolutely couldn’t defeat you head-on. But our goal wasn’t to defeat you, but to complete our mission. Therefore, as long as we achieved the goal, it was fine. Before this, I collected information on you and your past teammates. Just making you waver mentally and consequently make mistakes was enough,” Hanabi continued.

Kakashi couldn’t help but sigh: “Truly clever. But it’s best to use this trick sparingly; it’s easy to get beaten up. Not everyone is as easy to talk to as I am. If you encounter someone with a bad temper, you might really be killed.”

“It’s precisely because it’s you, Kakashi-sensei, that I dared to use this trick~”

Kakashi: “…”

[Let me translate. Hanabi: I was targeting you specifically.]

[Kakashi: Are you polite?!]

[Killing the person, and destroying the heart too.]

[Shrimp kernel pig heart (Xia Ren Zhu Xin – Pun for ‘Murder and crush the heart’), Shrimp kernel pig heart ah!]

[Waiting for the cheeky brat (Mesugaki) to fail.]

[As expected of my wifey.]

“Then when did your plan start?” Since he had already asked this much, he might as well get to the bottom of it.

“From the moment Naruto put down the chalkboard eraser,” Hanabi said.

“Eh?” Naruto pointed at himself. Although he didn’t quite understand, Naruto, who had been a bystander eating melon (Chi Gua – watching the drama), didn’t expect it to involve him?

“First, mislead Naruto and Sasuke by establishing a sinister and vicious imaginary enemy image for them, starting with making them wary of you.”

“M-Mislead?!” Sasuke also lost his composure.

“Yes. If I told you from the start that Kakashi-sensei is a lazy guy, and getting hit by the eraser was probably just him genuinely not caring about us kids’ pranks, you would have easily slacked off, right? But if in your eyes, Kakashi-sensei became a vicious Jonin doing everything possible to drive us back to the academy, you would also put aside your prejudices under the pressure.”

What Hanabi said made quite a bit of sense.

But Naruto felt something was off—Did Hanabi really consider all these things?

Naruto had known Hanabi since childhood, and the Hanabi he knew didn’t seem like the type of person who would do this.

So, Naruto instinctively asked: “Then what’s the real reason?”

“Because teasing you guys… is very fun.”

“Hah?!” ×3.

All three of them lost their composure directly.

[Kakashi: Reputation damaged.]

[Shrimp kernel pig heart, shrimp kernel and also pig heart. Hey, I feel like I just said something similar lol.]

[Hanabi: For the lulz (Le).]

[Damn, so my wifey is a thrill-seeker (Le Zi Ren).]

[Dying of laughter. Analyzed so much earlier, turns out it was all just for teasing people.]

[This is ‘as long as I don’t die, I’ll court death to the limit.’]

[Hanabi is becoming more and more of a cheeky brat (Mesugaki) in this wave.]

After a chaotic scene, Kakashi finally became serious.

“Alright, the review and jokes end here.” Kakashi looked at Naruto. “So, Naruto, who do you plan to give the bells to? Only two people can graduate.”

“I—” Naruto was speechless for a moment.

He really wanted to graduate.

But Hanabi put in the most effort, and even Sasuke played a key role. He felt more like he was snatching the peach (Zhai Tao Zi – taking credit).

He wanted to graduate, but… was this really okay?

Naruto looked at Hanabi; Hanabi just smiled.

Naruto looked at Sasuke again. He could see the desire in Sasuke’s eyes to become a true ninja, but Sasuke also remained silent, just looking at him.

The choice was in his hands.

“I,”

“Let’s get this straight first, Naruto. We are a squad.” Naruto was just about to speak, but Hanabi interrupted him.

– A squad?

Right, a squad!

“Don’t think about sacrificing yourself, idiot.” Sasuke also saw through Naruto’s thoughts.

Sacrificing himself to let the other two graduate.

However, he was seen through.

“Ah—I understand.” Naruto gave a dashing smile. He looked up at Kakashi-sensei. “What’s this about one person or two people? We advance and retreat together!”

The three stood together.

“Is that your decision? If you advance and retreat together, the worst-case scenario is all three of you getting expelled.” Kakashi’s voice was cold.

“We are a squad. Abandoning one person or whatever, I won’t do such a thing! I won’t abandon anyone! We are three as one!” Naruto gripped the bells tightly.

“In that case, I can only announce that you…”

Kakashi sighed, his voice low.

But then he suddenly raised his head, a smile on his face: “Congratulations, you—all passed.”

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