Kakashi barely dodged as Naruto's nose nearly collided with his face. His eyelids twitched wildly at the sheer audacity of this brat. Was this loudmouthed, reckless troublemaker really the son of his late teacher? If it weren't for that unmistakable golden hair, he might have suspected that Minato had been... well, cuckolded.
Standing before him were four drunkards, each more troublesome than the last. Uzumaki Naruto, whose mouth worked faster than his brain; Uchiha Sasuke, who acted as if he was the reincarnation of a war god; Haruno Sakura, whose obsession with Sasuke seemed to have completely taken over any logical thought; and finally, Souta Kazuki, the oddest of the bunch. This kid lived with him and was supposedly bound to become Jiraiya-sensei's disciple in the future.
Kakashi could already feel a migraine forming. His future looked bleak. No, not just bleak—completely and utterly dark.
He sighed deeply, deciding it was time to establish his authority as their jonin instructor.
"Hey!!! You nasty little brats!!!" Kakashi's voice rang through the clearing. "Each and every one of you is really annoying! Don't think that just because you graduated from the Academy, you're real ninjas now!" His visible eye sharpened as he scanned each of them. "You're still far from being real shinobi!"
The four genin, who had been carelessly goofing around, instantly snapped to attention, their gazes locking onto their so-called sensei.
"You!" Kakashi pointed at Souta Kazuki, his tone cold. "Don't think that just because you're the future head of a small family, you're special. In my eyes, you're just a useless genin!"
"And that goes for you too, Uzumaki Naruto! Uchiha Sasuke! Haruno Sakura!" Kakashi's voice became sharper. "Right now, you're nothing but rookies among rookies! Trash among trash!"
The words stung.
Silence filled the clearing for a moment before a dangerous glint appeared in Sasuke's eyes. His expression turned ice-cold, his grip tightening into fists.
This weak, sluggish, always-late excuse of a jonin dared to insult him and Naruto? Unforgivable.
Naruto, meanwhile, was fuming. "You abominable white-haired man with kidney deficiency! Stop talking nonsense here! Your uncle, Uzumaki Naruto, is not afraid of you!!!"
Sakura's eyes burned with fury as well. How dare this pathetic, lonely man with obvious kidney deficiency—who had probably never even been loved by a woman—speak to Sasuke like that?!
As the tension thickened, the three of them immediately got into battle stances.
Naruto was the first to strike. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!!!"
With a series of loud pops, the entire clearing was suddenly filled with hundreds of identical Narutos. The sight was enough to make Kakashi's eye twitch.
"Holy crap! Multiple Shadow Clones?! He really is Minato-sensei's kid!" Kakashi muttered under his breath. His heart pounded in shock. Creating so many clones without any visible strain on his chakra reserves? His physical constitution was monstrous!
But before Kakashi could recover from that surprise, Sasuke suddenly spoke in a cold voice:
"Sharingan!"
In an instant, his eyes swirled into the fully matured three-tomoe Sharingan.
Kakashi froze.
What?!
Three-tomoe at this age?! That was already at jonin level! What kind of absurd monsters had he been assigned?!
Kakashi swallowed hard. These kids were far from ordinary.
But the surprises weren't over yet. Souta Kazuki, standing between Naruto and Sasuke, draped his arms around their shoulders and smirked.
"You guys sure get arrogant when you're drunk," he muttered. "If you dare to raise your voice at me, Kakashi, I'll make you wish you were never born!"
Kakashi's eye twitched. "What nonsense are you—"
But before he could finish, Souta suddenly started weaving hand seals.
Kakashi's instincts flared.
This sequence… No way…
Summoning Jutsu?!
The hell was this kid doing trying to summon a creature in the middle of a drunken tantrum?!
Did he think a single summoned beast would be enough to scare an elite jonin?! The arrogance! The sheer nerve!
But as Souta slammed his hand to the ground, Kakashi suddenly felt a dangerous spike of chakra.
BOOM!
A massive cloud of white smoke erupted around them. The force of the summoning shook the ground.
Kakashi's mouth fell open.
Emerging from the smoke were not one, not two, but sixteen legendary shinobi.
Standing before them, looking mildly confused, were Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Izuna, Senju Tobirama, Uchiha Tajima, Senju Butsuma, Uzumaki Mito, Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Mikoto, Might Dai, Hatake Sakumo, Hyuga Tennin, Uchiha Shisui, and Orochimaru.
Kakashi forgot how to breathe.
The world stood still.
Meanwhile, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were just as frozen.
"Father… Mother…?"
"Sasuke?! What are you talking about?!" Naruto blurted out in confusion.
But Sasuke wasn't listening. His body trembled, his eyes locked on two particular figures. Two people he had long thought he'd never see again.
Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto turned toward the sound of their son's voice.
Fugaku's normally stoic face softened, and for the first time in years, he smiled warmly.
"Sasuke... my son… It's been a long time."