Shinichi let out a long breath and was just about to pack up and leave.
At that moment, at the entrance to the training ground, a figure stood there soundlessly, backlit by the light, blocking the way.
Kakashi.
He stood there alone, his silver hair somewhat disheveled. Those eyes of his, usually so indifferent, were now fixed on Shinichi, surging with a kind of scorching heat and coldness intertwined—an emotion so close to obsession that Shinichi had never seen it in his eyes before.
The air itself seemed to freeze and turn cold with his appearance.
"Higashino Shinichi!"
Kakashi spoke, his voice hoarse.
"I did what you said!"
Kakashi took a step forward, his voice gradually rising, carrying a force like an outpouring: "Get stronger! Get stronger! Keep getting stronger! Throw away all hesitation, weakness, and useless entanglements... all of it! Think of nothing but this one thing!"
"I staked all my time, all my energy, everything I had, on those two words—get stronger! And then defeat you! Only then did I..."
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his right hand, fingers bent into a claw, holding it at his side.
The next moment—
Chiiiiiiii—!!!
A sharp, grating, ear-piercing noise—like hundreds upon thousands of enraged birds shrieking and roaring at the same instant—without warning tore apart the morning stillness of the training ground!
Dazzling blue lightning burst violently from Kakashi's palm.
Chidori!
The blinding lightning lit up half of Kakashi's face, and also illuminated the depths of his black eyes. There was no trace left there of his usual indifference or confusion, only an almost fanatical resolve, and beneath it an overwhelming obsession that could no longer be suppressed and was on the verge of erupting!
"Only then did I..."
Kakashi's eyes locked tightly onto Shinichi. Accompanied by the shriek of the Chidori, his voice abruptly turned savage.
"Only then did I develop this jutsu!!!"
???
Standing where he was, the calm expression Shinichi habitually wore showed a very rare and obvious look of stunned blankness.
An absurd yet overwhelmingly powerful sense of déjà vu surged into his mind like a tsunami.
Wait, bro?
Who even are you?
Uchiha Sasuke or what?
Did you take me for Uchiha Itachi?
An indescribable holy-shit feeling galloped through his heart like a runaway wild horse, almost making him lose composure.
This scene, these lines, that gnashing intensity like he wanted nothing more than to rush over and start fighting immediately—aside from the wrong hair color and eyes...
Shinichi had never imagined that the combination of provocation and breaking-before-rebuilding talk-no-jutsu he had used on the training ground back then would force Kakashi into bringing out Chidori ahead of time and even catalyze him into this Sasuke-like state.
Should I say you really are worthy of being Sasuke's teacher?
Shinichi complained inwardly.
"And you!"
Kakashi had no idea what Shinichi was thinking. His voice was slightly distorted by agitation and the shriek of Chidori. "What have you been doing during this time?! Wasting your time and energy on those meaningless things! What do you take getting stronger for?! And what do you take the path of a shinobi for?!"
Before the words had even fully fallen, Kakashi moved!
A ring of dust exploded from the ground beneath his feet as his whole body turned into a straight streak of blue lightning, shooting toward Shinichi at a terrifying speed far beyond his usual limit!
Shinichi seemed to have been "stunned" by this sudden full-force attack. He stood where he was without any attempt to dodge or form hand seals, as if he had no time to react.
The distance between them rapidly closed in the space of a flash and a spark!
A fierce gleam appeared in Kakashi's eyes, but just as the destructive edge of Chidori came within 3 meters of Shinichi, a trace of complicated emotion he himself had no time to think through suddenly flashed in the depths of his pupils.
Seeing that Shinichi was still standing there, his wrist subconsciously began to turn, wanting to redirect the violent lightning of Chidori toward the empty space at Shinichi's side.
However!
At the very instant his force was about to shift but had not yet done so, a hand clamped around the wrist of his right arm—the one using Chidori—like a pair of iron pincers!
The strength in that hand was astonishing. In an instant, it stopped all his intent to change direction, squeezing his wrist bones until they ached and making even his chakra flow stall.
Immediately afterward, gripping Kakashi's wrist, Shinichi gave a fierce pull and drag to the side of his own body!
Kakashi was completely unable to resist that enormous force. His whole body, together with the shrieking Chidori in his hand, was dragged along by it and involuntarily changed direction.
Boom!
With an ear-splitting roar, the dazzling lightning slammed solidly into a thick tree beside Shinichi that would have taken two people to wrap their arms around it!
Wood chips mixed with charred fragments burst through the air!
The part of the trunk that had been struck was instantly ripped through and pierced cleanly, leaving a horrifying hole straight through from front to back, its edges still crackling with tiny arcs of electricity!
The towering trunk let out a groan of unbearable strain, slowly tilted to one side, and finally crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The shriek of Chidori came to an abrupt stop. All that remained were the faint crackling sounds of residual arcs crawling over the damaged trunk, and the deathly silence at the scene.
Kakashi was breathing hard. His right hand trembled slightly from the violent chakra release and the pain of his restrained wrist. Blankly, he stared at the huge tree destroyed by his own ninjutsu, then suddenly turned his head and looked at Shinichi, who was still holding his wrist at close range.
Shinichi's gaze was calm and undisturbed, as if that dangerous moment just now had been no more than brushing away a fallen leaf.
My foolish little brother…
The words nearly slipped out, but Shinichi caught himself and forced them back down.
What came out instead was a statement tinged with a little emotion and approval: "Kakashi, seeing that you're no longer trapping yourself in the multiple-choice question of the past and tormenting yourself over it, but instead have turned this obsession into the force driving you forward—this version of you truly makes me happy."
Hearing that, Kakashi froze.
He had imagined many possible reactions—mockery for overestimating himself, rebuke for his recklessness, or a cold comment from those eyes that seemed to see through everything: "You're still far from enough."
But he had never expected this kind of almost gratified affirmation.
At that moment, Shinichi had already released the hand that had restrained Kakashi's wrist and instead asked, "What is this jutsu called?"
"Chidori," Kakashi answered instinctively.
"Chidori? A sound like a thousand birds, movement like thunder."
"A fine name—better than my Rasengan!"
Shinichi nodded and sighed in admiration, his gaze sweeping across the tree that had been pierced through. "This Chidori of yours, in terms of advanced application and rapid condensation of Lightning Release chakra, can be said to show that you've already gone quite far in your mastery of nature transformation."
"But as you can see, it still isn't condensed enough. In terms of power, it relies too heavily on the momentum of the thrust, lacking the constraints of more precise shape transformation. The dissipation of its force and its controllability are its current shortcomings."
His tone shifted slightly as he raised his right hand. A sphere of highly compressed, violently rotating blue chakra appeared, humming steadily in his palm.
"By coincidence, I happen to have done some research into chakra shape transformation."
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