When it came to "heart-stabbing"—especially stabbing Guy's heart—Kakashi was an absolute professional.
The two stood on the protective netting of the White Building, in a horse stance, focusing their breath.
Guy pulled out his cigarette filter.
Kakashi gave him a look of contempt and pulled out a large sausage.
"Tsk!"
"I'll count to three... one, three—start!"
"You cheated!"
The promised "one, two, three" became "one, three," with the "two" being skipped entirely by Guy. Kakashi's eye twitched, and a hint of relief appeared in his dead fish eye... like hell it did! He thought to himself, "You thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed, shameless Guy... you actually learned how to cheat! You're not the Guy I used to know; the Guy I know isn't like this!" Not wanting to be left behind, Kakashi quickly exerted himself, and a stream of water shot out, forming a parabola.
Guy's face turned red, a grunt escaped his throat, and as his breath sank deep, the parabola moved forward another meter or so, surpassing Kakashi.
Kakashi's dead fish eye widened, and he exerted force as well.
Guy got ruthless—
"Gate of Opening—Open!"
The landing point of the parabola suddenly extended by two-thirds, the slender stream of water splashing onto the ground in spots, dragging out a line that moved further and further away.
"Are you crazy?"
"Kakashi, my eternal rival—in a duel with my best friend, I must give it my all!"
Guy shouted wildly.
"Gate of Opening—Open!"
Kakashi would not be outdone and also opened the "Gate of Opening" of the Eight Gates Formation. The majestic Chakra brought greater strength and speed, causing the water pressure to surge and catch up with Guy once more... "Gate of Rest—Open!"
"Gate of Rest—Open!"
"...Ya!"
Guy let out a strange cry, and his parabola showed no sign of weakening. On the other hand, Kakashi's parabola shrank back at a visible rate and dried up in an instant. Guy was still full of water power, maintaining his momentum and keeping the water pressure and distance perfectly controlled.
"I won!"
"Yours is smaller than mine."
"Hey, hey—" Guy was interrupted by that sentence and quickly changed his angle, "Hmph, Kakashi, yours didn't go as far as mine..."
"Yours is smaller than mine..."
"You have kidney deficiency!"
"Yours is smaller than mine!"
"You're weak..."
The competition between the two quickly turned into a meaningless argument. They left the White Building while bickering, each wearing a macho pink sunscreen mask on their face, parading through the streets. Ino was fortunate enough to "encounter" Guy again—this was already the third time—and it was also her first time seeing Kakashi—the pink sunscreen mask version of Kakashi.
"Ugh, what a sin... I didn't expect you to be this kind of Kakashi!" Ino covered her face, thinking, "With these two together... I really should be asking them for brand damage fees."
It was way too blinding... Then, Ino remembered... it seemed her sunscreen masks didn't have a "brand" yet. What would be a good name for it?
Shumei? Shuting? Shu... Various terms, some familiar and some strange, kept popping into her head.
Ino leisurely found her mother, then checked on Kana together before closing the stall and heading home.
In the evening, she used a Secret Technique to control a rabbit in the forest and attempted a Nature Transformation of the water attribute—
Somewhat surprisingly, the extreme of the water attribute Nature Transformation turned out to be a bizarre state that had mass but no physical size.
When three meridians overlapped, the state of the water turned into ice, thus gaining some cold properties. When the meridians continued to overlap, reaching seven, the ice became quite solid and transparent. By the time it reached twelve meridians... it was cold to the extreme, and the state reached its limit—when all electrons stopped moving and the internal motion of atoms also ceased, size disappeared, leaving only a spreading chill.
The forest for dozens of yards around was frozen in an instant, before frost even had time to condense in the air.
Instead, a large amount of frost appeared further away, and under the diffusion of cold air, a ring of white mist formed.
"Crap!"
Ino immediately left the rabbit's body... As the frost lost its source, the surrounding warm air swept in, forming a gale. Large patches of frost melted instantly, and a light rain fell in local areas... By the time the patrol personnel who observed the situation reached the scene, everything was over.
The corresponding investigation results soon appeared on the Hokage's desk—
According to the investigation:
A suspected Ice Release ninja beast appeared deep in the Forest of the Leaf. After screening and confirmation, human involvement was ruled out; no traces of Ninjas were left around, nor were there any signs of a fight.
An Ice Release ninja beast... A Ninja beast capable of creating such a large area of frost made Sandaime, Danzo, and others take interest.
Next came a series of actions: sealing off the forest and dispatching ANBU to search inch by inch, narrowing the range to find the Ninja beast.
Such a powerful Ninja beast was certainly no match for a Jinchuriki, but it was much stronger than an average Ninja. Furthermore, such a Ninja beast remaining in the forest was a danger to Konoha Village—whether for Ninja Academy students or graduated Ninjas, the forest was an important training ground.
Most reconnaissance and survival training were conducted in the forest... but it was all in vain... They naturally couldn't find the Ice Release ninja beast; even after turning the Forest of the Leaf upside down, they found nothing.
After submitting a report stating that "this Ninja beast might be a summoned beast that accidentally entered the Forest of the Leaf," the matter was dropped.
A summoned beast that accidentally entered the Forest of the Leaf... Ino learned this news from Inoichi Yamanaka and was both amused and exasperated:
Heavens, could she tell people it was a misunderstanding? She just wanted to experiment with the Nature Transformation of the water attribute... Who knew that a Nature Transformation of "water" would involve ice, and the extreme of that state would lead to absolute zero... After this experience, Ino became careful, choosing locations far from Konoha—the further, the better—for her next experiments.
She no longer experimented every day. After staying quiet for a few days, she experimented with the earth, wood, fire, and metal attributes... as well as the Yin and Yang attributes. She had essentially experimented with all seven basic attributes.
Ino named them the "Seven Limits" and prepared to write another theoretical textbook to discuss them specifically—
Writing books and establishing theories gave her a great sense of accomplishment.
When the first edition of "Seven Limits" was completed, Konoha was finally about to welcome its second Konoha-Suna Joint Chunin Exams.
Konoha opened its gates, and Ninjas from small, distant villages arrived one after another, along with guests who came for the spectacle—Konoha's hotels began to fill up, and some private residences were temporarily requisitioned and opened. The entire village exerted all its effort to welcome tourists from all directions. Sandaime took the lead here, especially in integrating the intelligence system.
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