'If I want to beat Kakashi, I need a plan…' While trading blows with Kakashi Hatake, Zhao Yi Qianming turned tactics over in his mind.
"Go, Qianming! Pound that jerk Kakashi!" Obito Uchiha seemed to love seeing Kakashi get thrashed. He kept shouting support for Zhao Yi Qianming from the sidelines.
Anyone who didn't know better might think he and Zhao Yi Qianming were close friends, but in half a year of classes they had barely exchanged three sentences.
"Hm?"
Zhao Yi Qianming glanced at Obito, eyes narrowing. 'Got it.'
Bang!
He forced Kakashi back with a heavy strike, sprang away, and his hands flashed through Hand Seals.
"Th—that's not mine!" Obito blurted when he saw the sequence. Zhao Yi Qianming's seals matched the pattern for [Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu], which even Obito himself hadn't fully mastered yet.
'No way!' Obito's heart jumped. 'When did Zhao Yi Qianming learn that?'
Kakashi knew Obito well. Backed by deep family training, he recognized the seals at once.
He didn't dare be careless. His hands blurred into seals too.
The sequence for the Fireball was simple. As Zhao Yi Qianming finished, he reared back as if to spit a fireball.
At the same instant Kakashi completed his own seals, slapped one hand to the ground, and invoked a jutsu:
[Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall]
A wall of earth surged up. Zhao Yi Qianming's Fireball, however, never came.
'Got you.' The instant the wall rose to block Kakashi's view, Zhao Yi Qianming darted forward, vaulted past the wall, and unleashed six Shuriken in a crisscross spread toward Kakashi.
Thup! Thup! Thup! Thup! Thup! Thup!
All six struck, turning Kakashi into a hedgehog.
"Kakashi!" Rin cried and moved to check his wounds.
Poof!
The 'Kakashi' bristling with blades burst into smoke and became a cut log.
[Substitution Technique]
"Pretty cautious," Zhao Yi Qianming said with a thin smile.
The ambush had missed, but Kakashi was only five. No matter his talent, his Chakra reserves couldn't be large. Two jutsu back-to-back would have drained most of what he had.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two Kunai shot from a nearby tree. Zhao Yi Qianming slipped aside and counterthrew, flushing Kakashi from cover.
"Huff… huff…"
Kakashi was flagging. Two releases in a row, one of them a higher-grade jutsu like [Earth-Style Wall], had emptied him. Even his stamina was close to tapped out.
Staring at Zhao Yi Qianming—who looked only slightly winded—Kakashi's eyes grew grave.
If not for that last-second prickle of caution, he might already have lost. He cursed himself silently. 'I should have known. Without a mentor, how could Zhao Yi Qianming have learned Fireball Jutsu?'
He had doubted at first, but when he remembered that an uncoached Zhao Yi Qianming could already fight him even, it hadn't seemed impossible that he'd learned [Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu] too.
That assumption was exactly how he fell into Zhao Yi Qianming's snare.
Kakashi still refused to accept defeat. Or perhaps the son of the White Fang simply was not permitted to lose.
He drew a Kunai and charged again.
The blade sliced through Zhao Yi Qianming's afterimage. Kakashi's heart lurched. "Clone Technique. Not good—"
Poof!
"Argh!"
Before he could regain his footing, Zhao Yi Qianming drove a fist into his face and knocked him flat.
Kakashi tried to throw up a guard, but his body didn't respond in time. Zhao Yi Qianming's blow sent him flying.
"Damn it. I didn't even catch the clone…" He struggled to rise and realized he couldn't feel a scrap of Chakra. Even his braced hands were trembling and weak.
"You lost, Kakashi," Zhao Yi Qianming said, dusting himself off.
Kakashi stared at him in silence.
Always lifted up by others, he had been beaten by Zhao Yi Qianming. The blow to his pride was obvious.
He was still only five. His mindset wasn't mature. It might take a long time to bounce back.
Zhao Yi Qianming could only offer a wordless apology.
He had no grudge against Kakashi, and he didn't covet Kakashi's reputation. He only wanted the higher-ups to notice him through this victory so his own future would be easier.
So he could not pull his punches.
"Despicable! You tricked Kakashi using my jutsu!" Obito shouted at Zhao Yi Qianming.
He thought he would be happy to see Kakashi lose. But seeing Kakashi so dejected, he couldn't feel pleased at all. Some part of him even wanted to check on Kakashi.
"A shinobi must stay calm and judge carefully," Zhao Yi Qianming said coolly. "Before you use a jutsu, first fool the enemy's senses. Then plan for their response. If you don't even understand that, maybe you don't need to be a shinobi."
Quoting the original words back at their source felt oddly satisfying.
"I—I know that stuff, obviously!" Obito blustered.
"Kakashi, are you all right?" Rin helped him up, worried.
"I'm fine." Kakashi shook off her hand and looked at Zhao Yi Qianming. "You win this time. There won't be a next."
"If there is, you're welcome to challenge me anytime," Zhao Yi Qianming said.
"This match goes to Zhao Yi Qianming. Both sides, form the Seal of Reconciliation," Yamamoto Hideyoshi announced loudly now that the outcome was clear.
"Please guide me well."
"Please guide me well."
Zhao Yi Qianming stepped up to Kakashi. They extended right index and middle fingers and pressed them together.
After a bout, forming the Seal of Reconciliation was a traditional custom in the shinobi world. Battle bred hostility. The seal dispelled it, shifting the relationship from enmity to rivalry.
"An excellent duel. All of you should learn from Zhao Yi Qianming and Kakashi Hatake," Yamamoto Hideyoshi said, applauding.
—