Chapter 190: The Perfect Killing Tool: Chidori and Sharingan
Sizzle...
A single leaf, held between two fingers, crinkled and crumpled as if crushed by an invisible hand.
Training Ground 7 was quiet, save for the sound of heavy breathing.
Sasuke Uchiha knelt on one knee, his chest heaving, his entire arm trembling from chakra exhaustion. He had just successfully made the leaf wrinkle.
This was the ultimate, basic manifestation of Lightning Release chakra nature transformation.
"Not bad."
Kakashi's lazy, muffled voice came from a nearby tree trunk. He sat on a high branch, his back against the tree, holding a novel with an... ambiguous... orange cover.
"Nature transformation is barely passable. For a supposed 'genius' of the Uchiha Clan to master it in three whole days, I can only say… it's alright."
A vein throbbed on Sasuke's forehead.
This guy. Even when praising him, he had a way of being infuriating.
"However, don't celebrate too early."
Kakashi snapped his book shut, the sound echoing in the clearing. He tucked it away and, in a fluid motion, dropped down from the tree, landing silently on the grass.
His expression, which had been bored and distant, finally became a little more serious.
"Nature transformation is just the very basics. It's the alphabet. Next, comes the real challenge—form transformation."
[Inorin's Note: Nature Transformation is changing the quality of one's chakra (e.g., to 'lightning'). Form Transformation is changing its shape and movement (e.g., into a ball or a blade).]
Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "Now you can make lightning. But can you control it?"
"You have to shape those wild, chaotic bolts into the form you desire. You have to condense them, stabilize them, and imbue them with the strongest possible penetrating power."
"This," Kakashi said, his voice dropping, "is the core of Chidori."
Sasuke stood up, ignoring the burn in his muscles. His eyes were burning as he looked at Kakashi. He had waited for this moment for too long.
"Watch closely, Sasuke."
Kakashi slowly raised his right hand, palm upward.
"I will only demonstrate this once. Pay attention. This is what the Ninjutsu Chidori truly is."
Kakashi's visible eye, the one that was no longer a Sharingan, suddenly became sharp as a scalpel.
Zzz… Zzzzz… Zzzzzzz—!
The air itself began to change.
The sound of electricity crackled, like a live wire snapping. The air filled with the sharp, clean smell of ozone.
Pale blue Lightning Release chakra, like countless tiny, writhing electric snakes, surged from Kakashi's right arm. They furiously gathered in his palm, climbing over each other, fighting for space.
The sound grew louder. And sharper.
It became a high-pitched, piercing shriek. It was as if a thousand birds were chirping simultaneously, right there in his palm, a sound so sharp it pierced one's eardrums.
Sasuke instinctively activated his Sharingan, his two-tomoe spinning as he stared, unblinking, at Kakashi's every move, analyzing the flow of chakra.
This is… this is incredible! The concentration...
"Chidori!"
Kakashi let out a low roar, and his figure instantly vanished from his spot!
His speed was extreme. He didn't just run; he became a white bolt of lightning. He shot across the clearing, his hand outstretched, charging towards a giant, solid boulder in the distance of the training ground.
A boulder that was more than two people tall.
Boom—!
A deafening roar. It wasn't the sound of an explosion. It was the sound of thunder, cracking right next to their ears.
Kakashi's right hand, wreathed in that wild, screaming lightning, pierced effortlessly into the hard, solid rock as if it were wet paper.
There was a half-second of complete silence.
Then, centered on Kakashi's palm, a spiderweb of glowing, superheated cracks spread wildly, instantly covering the entire boulder.
The next second, the giant rock exploded.
It didn't just break; it detonated with a thunderous crash.
Countless shattered stones, some as large as Sasuke's head, flew everywhere. A massive cloud of smoke and pulverized rock filled the entire training ground.
Sasuke stared blankly at this scene, a surging, violent tide of emotions rising in his heart.
This... this was power.
This was a true, high-level offensive Ninjutsu. It was many times more powerful, more focused, than his family's Great Fireball Technique.
If… if I can master this Ninjutsu…
What is that guy, Uzumaki Naruto, compared to this?! His stupid clone tricks... his lucky wind blade... they're nothing!
Sasuke's heart pounded uncontrollably, filled with a raw, visceral craving for this immense power.
"Did you see?"
Kakashi's calm voice came from within the settling dust. He walked out, his hand now empty, his arm completely unharmed.
"This is Chidori. It's a thrust-type assassination Ninjutsu. It concentrates all of your chakra into a single point and maximizes its destructive power by combining it with a high-speed dash."
Kakashi walked over to Sasuke, his expression becoming incredibly solemn.
"This Ninjutsu is very powerful. But its flaw is equally fatal."
"Flaw?" Sasuke frowned. A jutsu that strong... how could it have a flaw?
"Exactly." Kakashi nodded.
"With the Chidori's attack method, it must be combined with a high-speed, linear dash to unleash its maximum power. You are, quite literally, a human spear."
"However, in such an ultra-high-speed state, the user's vision becomes extremely narrow. You create a 'tunnel vision' effect. You can only see what's directly in front of you."
Kakashi's tone held a hint of dark reminiscence.
"If the enemy simply sidesteps and counter-attacks... you are moving too fast to react. You would be running yourself onto their blade."
"Before, I had the Sharingan," Kakashi said, his voice quiet. "With its powerful insight and dynamic vision, I could compensate for this flaw. I could even predict the enemy's counterattacks before they made them."
"But now," he stated, his voice flat, "I no longer have the Sharingan."
"If I were to use Chidori against an enemy without any defenses, as I just did, it's a perfect assassination. But against an experienced ninja... they would have a hundred ways to take my life before I could ever strike them."
"So, for me," Kakashi concluded, "this Ninjutsu now has a fatal flaw. Unless the enemy is completely immobilized, I would not use it easily."
Sasuke instantly understood. His mind, the mind of a genius, put the pieces together.
"And you," Kakashi's gaze fell, landing pointedly on Sasuke's blood-red, two-tomoe Sharingan.
"You possess the Sharingan. Your insight is enough to allow you to see the enemy's every move, even during a high-speed dash. You can react to a counter before it's even a threat."
[Inorin's Note: The Two-Tomoe Sharingan (Futatsudomoe Sharingan) grants the user enhanced perception and predictive capabilities, allowing them to track high-speed movement and anticipate an opponent's next move.]
"The Sharingan exists to wield Ninjutsu like Chidori."
Kakashi's voice grew intense. "No, it should be said that a Ninjutsu like Chidori was born to be used by the Uchiha!"
"It can perfectly combine your speed and the Sharingan's insight, unleashing a power far, far greater than the sum of its parts!"
Kakashi's words greatly excited Sasuke.
A Ninjutsu born for the Uchiha!
This wasn't just some random jutsu. This was a technique practically tailor-made for him, Uchiha Sasuke!
He would take this jutsu, and he would make it his own.
"Then, let's begin." Sasuke's voice was low and brimming with a new, dark energy.
"I will learn it in the shortest possible time!"
Watching the highly motivated Sasuke, Kakashi nodded to himself, a hidden thought passing through his mind.
Fugaku-sama, you have a good son. A terrifyingly driven one.
And Hokage-sama… your foresight is truly unmatched. You knew this would happen. By pitting Sasuke against Naruto, you've lit a fire under both of them. These two boys... they are going to grow to heights we can't even imagine.
The training for Chidori was far more difficult than Sasuke had ever imagined.
It was one thing to wrinkle a leaf. It was another thing entirely to form and contain a miniature, screaming thunderstorm in his hand.
"Zzz… Poof!"
A cluster of unstable, pale-blue lightning had just condensed in Sasuke's palm. It was chaotic, formless. But before he could even try to shape it, it couldn't be maintained. It instantly dispersed, turning into a few weak, harmless electric arcs that vanished into the air.
"Damn it!"
Sasuke let out an unwilling growl and tried again, holding his right wrist with his left hand, just as Kakashi had shown him.
Zzzzzzz—
He pushed his chakra out, visualizing the thousand birds.
This time, the pale blue lightning stayed in his palm for a noticeably longer time. It was a visible, vibrating mass of pure chakra.
It was still unstable, flickering like a candle flame that could extinguish at any moment, but it had finally, finally, successfully condensed into a shape!
"This is the feeling!" Sasuke thought, his heart pounding.
"Hold it!" Kakashi's voice rang out from the side, breaking his concentration.
"Don't just make it, hold it! Don't get distracted! Keep compressing it! Squeeze it down! Give it shape!"
Sasuke gritted his teeth, forcing his mind to focus. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead from the sheer mental strain.
His mental focus was highly concentrated.
The lightning in his palm grew brighter. The chirping sound it emitted became clearer, more defined.
I... I'm doing it!
Poof!
It dispersed again.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Sasuke stumbled, falling to one knee. He was panting heavily. Each failure was accompanied by a huge, agonizing expenditure of chakra and, more surprisingly, mental energy.
It was exhausting.
After only those few attempts, he already felt deeply, profoundly exhausted. His arm was numb.
"Take a break." Kakashi, a true-to-form Jōnin, tossed him a bottle of water.
"I told you this was the hard part. Training isn't something that happens overnight. Your chakra and mental energy are pretty much depleted. Any more and you'll just be wasting your time."
Sasuke said nothing. He caught the water, twisted the cap off, and drank it all in one long, desperate gulp.
"It's not enough…" he whispered, his voice raspy.
"This level... this is far from enough!"
He threw the empty bottle aside.
After a rest that was far too short, Sasuke, without any hesitation, pushed himself back to his feet. He plunged back into his frantic, obsessive training.
During the day, under Kakashi's quiet, watchful guidance, he repeatedly tried to condense the Chidori.
Poof! Failure.
Zzz... Poof! Failure.
Zzzzz-CRACKLE-pfft! Failure.
At night, long after Kakashi left, telling him he was a fool who would burn himself out, Sasuke stayed.
He stayed alone in the dark training ground, under the cold moonlight, continuing to push every last ounce of chakra and physical strength from his battered body.
When he was hungry, he ate a few military-grade soldier pills.
When he was so tired he literally collapsed, he leaned against a wooden post, resting for only a short while.
Then, he stood up, and he continued.
Only one thought occupied his entire mind.
Become stronger!
Become even stronger!
Strong enough to completely, utterly, and finally trample that guy, Uzumaki Naruto, underfoot!
This almost-obsessive, burning determination became his endless, limitless motivation.
Kakashi saw all of Sasuke's efforts.
He didn't say anything out loud. He just watched, often from the shadows of the trees, long after he had supposedly "left" for the day.
In his heart, he grew to appreciate this young, dark, and damaged Uchiha more and more.
This perseverance... Kakashi thought, leaning against a tree as he watched Sasuke fail for the hundredth time, only to immediately try again.
It's truly terrifying.
A genius isn't scary. What's scary is a top-tier genius... who works harder than anyone else.
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