A flash of steel streaked through the air.
A long cut instantly opened across Kakashi's throat—
but before the blood could even spread, his body turned into a log.
Substitution Technique.
Uchiha Tatsumi stood where he was, quietly staring at the piece of wood in front of him. Then he turned and looked toward a nearby tree.
Kakashi was already standing atop it, gazing down at him coldly.
Of course Tatsumi had seen Kakashi use the Substitution Technique. The boy had moved fast—so fast that he had already left the spot the moment the substitution was completed.
But none of that could escape Tatsumi's eyes.
He simply hadn't bothered to pursue.
What intrigued him was something else.
On the surface, Kakashi seemed quick to react, but Tatsumi knew that wasn't the full story. Everything the boy had done felt less like pure reflex and more like preparation.
As though he had already predicted Tatsumi would act that way—
and had been ready for it in advance.
"It seems you're far more interesting than I thought," Tatsumi said quietly as he looked at Kakashi. Then he asked in a low voice, "Have you fought someone with the Sharingan before?"
"No. You're the first."
Kakashi shook his head and jumped down from the tree, his tone flat.
"But I've seen that style before."
Kakashi would never forget it.
The first time he sparred with Hikaru, he had been tricked by almost the exact same method.
Use ninjutsu to obstruct the Sharingan's line of sight, then attack from the flank.
In one-on-one combat, it was one of the best ways to deal with a Sharingan user.
Kakashi wasn't especially practiced in using that tactic himself, because he had never really fought enemies with the Sharingan before.
But having seen it once was enough.
He had understood the general principle.
And ever since, he had been on guard against exactly this kind of move.
The results proved his caution had been effective.
"I see."
Tatsumi nodded, not looking especially surprised.
"So you people really have studied the Uchiha quite thoroughly. But…"
Before the sentence had even fully fallen, Tatsumi's body blurred.
He charged again.
His ninja blade carved a sharp arc through the air, slicing straight toward Kakashi's throat.
"This is where you end!"
"Hmph."
Kakashi gave a cold snort, and his own blade met the strike immediately.
The two clashed again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The ringing of metal echoed endlessly through the forest.
The more Kakashi and Tatsumi fought, the fiercer the exchange became.
And the faster they moved.
Yet strangely enough, neither of them seemed to suffer any real injury.
Their movements were smooth as flowing water.
Their techniques simple, elegant, efficient.
But beneath that elegance hid something razor-sharp and terrifyingly lethal.
Their expressions looked calm—
but that calm concealed a completely different reality underneath.
Tatsumi was genuinely astonished now.
By this point, he already knew who the boy in front of him was.
If nothing had gone wrong in his deductions, then this child was Hatake Kakashi, disciple of the Fourth Hokage.
Only that boy could wield an Uchiha Sharingan despite not being of the clan.
But Kakashi's control and use of the Sharingan already seemed to surpass many actual Uchiha.
That performance in battle was simply unbelievable.
Most importantly—
through the mask, Tatsumi had already seen that eye clearly.
It had reached the level of the three-tomoe Sharingan.
"A foreigner with talent like this… truly unbelievable."
"But talent that great, once it becomes visible, only awakens even greater greed in others."
Tatsumi muttered inwardly, and the force in his sword arm became even more vicious.
Kakashi, on the other hand, looked outwardly calm.
But for some reason, his eye felt increasingly strange.
In the past, he had always been able to see clearly in battle.
But never like this.
Today, it felt as though everything had slowed down before him.
In his vision, all things seemed more sluggish—
yet what left him deeply frustrated was that although others looked slower, he himself also seemed slower.
His body couldn't keep up with what his eyes were seeing.
He could see the movement. He knew what he should do.
But his body simply couldn't execute it.
And worst of all—
the Sharingan's chakra consumption had become absurdly high.
He had barely used any ninjutsu during this fight, yet his chakra was already nearing its limit.
"What is going on?"
Kakashi couldn't make sense of the changes, but he knew one thing clearly:
he had to stay calm.
Though his chakra was steadily dropping, his insight had improved tremendously.
He could still keep fighting.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The exchange continued.
Then suddenly, as though tired of trading blades like this, Tatsumi flicked out several kunai and sent them flying at Kakashi.
Kakashi knocked them all aside immediately.
And in that instant of distraction, Tatsumi's hands flashed through seals.
A powerful Fire Release was already complete.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"
"That again?"
Kakashi frowned as he saw three roaring fire dragons charging at him from three directions.
He knew at once that he likely wouldn't be able to evade them all.
More importantly, he also realized Tatsumi had probably noticed his chakra problem.
The Sharingan was an eye that could see chakra flow.
There was nothing strange about his condition being discovered.
But faced with a large-scale, high-speed Fire Release like this, Kakashi had no choice but to bite the bullet and respond.
His hands flashed through seals.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
As his chakra surged, Kakashi knew he could no longer afford to conserve it.
He had to end this quickly.
The earthen wall rose from the ground, and at the same time Kakashi quietly pressed one hand to the earth.
The chakra reserves that were already running low dropped even further.
But his attention wasn't on that.
It was on what lay behind him.
Earth-Style Wall had powerful defensive capability.
Its weakness, however, was equally obvious—
it couldn't properly defend his blind spot in real time.
And Kakashi knew exactly what Tatsumi intended.
The purpose of that Fire Release wasn't merely to break the wall—
it was to block Kakashi's Sharingan and launch a hidden attack from a dead angle.
Boom!
The first fire dragon arrived exactly as expected, smashing into the earthen wall.
Flames exploded outward.
Under the force of the impact, cracks instantly spread through the wall, and the roar of destruction shook the area.
Kakashi did not move.
There was no time to worry whether the explosion would attract other Uchiha.
The second fire dragon was already coming.
Taking a sharp breath, he poured more chakra into the wall.
The cracked structure stabilized slightly.
Boom!
Another deafening explosion.
The wall, which Kakashi had just barely reinforced, shattered again.
This time, the entire upper half was blown away.
Kakashi clenched his teeth.
He still didn't move.
He still hadn't found Tatsumi's position.
But now he stopped feeding chakra into the wall entirely.
It was already on the verge of collapse.
No amount of patching would change that.
He crouched silently in place, his Sharingan peering through the cracks in the damaged wall at the oncoming fire dragon.
He was tense.
Extremely tense.
But he knew that if he moved rashly, he'd create an opening.
If he was going to move, it had to be at the exact moment the fire dragon hit the wall.
Then, suddenly—
Kakashi realized the fire dragon seemed to be slowing down.
And in that very instant, within the red-and-black world created by his Sharingan, strange lines appeared.
Those lines spread across the 'slowed' fire dragon, curving along it in a bizarre arc.
It was as though something was telling him—
if he attacked along that line, he could break the fire dragon apart.
Kakashi's mind went blank for a moment.
He had no idea what was happening.
What he didn't know was that at that exact moment, the three tomoe in his eye were spinning faster and beginning to merge.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, Kakashi sensed movement elsewhere.
At once, he fell out of that strange state.
The clear line vanished from the red-and-black world.
The fire dragon's 'slow' motion abruptly returned to full speed.
Kakashi had no time to think about it.
The instant the fire dragon was about to strike the wall, he leapt sideways.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several kunai tore through the smoke and shot toward Kakashi while he was suspended in midair.
His ninja blade flashed rapidly, knocking them away one by one.
"Got you!"
From behind him, Tatsumi had already rushed in.
His ninja blade split the air as it stabbed toward Kakashi's throat.
There was no room to dodge in midair.
Yet even facing that decisive strike, Kakashi's expression remained calm.
Bang!
At the moment Tatsumi closed to within five meters of Kakashi, the ground below exploded apart.
Another Kakashi burst from underground.
The cry of a thousand birds instantly filled the courtyard.
Crackling lightning danced around the hand of the Kakashi emerging from below, and he drove that terrifying thrust straight at Tatsumi's chest.
Tatsumi had no time to think.
His blade lashed out at the attacking Kakashi—
but the instant his Sharingan saw the target clearly, his expression shifted.
Because through the eye's perception, he could tell immediately:
that Kakashi was a clone.
A Lightning Release clone.
Unfortunately, it was too late to withdraw.
More importantly, he had no way to stop now.
The Lightning Clone was already on top of him.
His body tilted slightly to one side in a subtle attempt to reduce the damage, then his blade cut straight through the clone.
In the next instant, violent lightning exploded across his body.
He slammed his sword into the ground, trying to ground the current, but the pain was still overwhelming.
"Argh!"
Tatsumi let out a furious roar.
He looked as though he was on the verge of collapse.
Kakashi, forcing his Sharingan to remain open, formed seals again.
The cry of Chidori rang out once more.
With a powerful forward burst, he lunged straight toward Tatsumi.
Ten meters.
Tatsumi was still on one knee, seemingly unable to move.
Five meters.
Tatsumi slowly lifted his head. Even through the mask, his gaze looked chilling.
Three meters—
just as Kakashi was about to strike, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
A powerful sense of danger bloomed in his chest.
And through the haze of battle, he saw chakra gathering in Tatsumi's eyes.
"Genjutsu?"
Kakashi immediately realized what Tatsumi was trying to do.
His speed rose again.
At the same time, he quickly shut his right eye.
After all, his right eye didn't possess the Sharingan's power.
But the instant he closed it, Kakashi saw a glint flash through Tatsumi's eyes.
That sense of danger became even more intense.
Buzz.
In a single instant, as Tatsumi's Sharingan spun wildly, a strange surge of chakra stabbed directly into Kakashi's brain.
Kakashi's body faltered for the briefest moment.
His speed slowed, if only slightly.
Though he recovered faster than Tatsumi had expected, it no longer mattered.
The moment Kakashi fell into that genjutsu, the outcome was decided.
Bang!
Almost the same way Kakashi himself had used earlier—
a figure suddenly burst out from Kakashi's blind side on the right.
The kunai in that person's hand stabbed directly toward him.
The strike was absurdly fast.
But just before the blade pierced him, Kakashi's body tilted sharply, and the kunai passed almost flush against his neck.
At the same time, Tatsumi had already regained his footing.
He drove a heavy kick into Kakashi.
Because Kakashi's body was already twisted into an awkward posture from evading the first attack, he had no way to resist it.
He was sent flying.
Bang!
With a muffled crash, Kakashi slammed hard into a wall.
Still, he quickly forced himself back up.
He maintained his guard.
But his condition was already hanging by a thread.
"As expected of ANBU's elite," Tatsumi said at last.
"For an outsider to use the Sharingan to this extent… even many Uchiha aren't your equal."
"But this is as far as you go."
"Because you are not an Uchiha."
"Because you only have one Sharingan."
Kakashi stared at the man in silence.
He had no interest in answering.
He knew exactly how he had lost.
The reasons were simple.
First, his chakra was no longer enough to sustain prolonged combat.
Second—
he only had one Sharingan.
His other eye was healthy, yes, but that was exactly the problem.
That eye couldn't resist genjutsu.
Which meant that when facing illusion techniques, Kakashi had been forced into much riskier responses.
And those responses had given Tatsumi the chance to end the fight.
The man had effectively created a blind spot in Kakashi's field of vision—
and launched the deciding attack from that blind spot.
It was a frustrating loss.
But there had been nothing he could do.
"Still… what happened to the Sharingan today? Why did that strange state appear?"
Kakashi wondered silently.
He wasn't especially dejected by defeat.
He simply reached behind himself, pulled out a kunai, and used chakra to activate the seal etched onto it.
There was a reason he had come prepared.
Hikaru had given him this kunai, and Kakashi had accepted it without hesitation.
Because he knew exactly where he was going tonight.
He was entering the Uchiha compound on a mission.
No matter how confident he was, he would never step into that without a fallback.
And the result proved he had been right.
His confidence wasn't misplaced. If not for the sudden surge in his Sharingan's chakra consumption, he might not have lost so quickly.
But defeat had always been possible.
Because the man before him really was strong.
And intelligent.
He had used his own strengths while constantly magnifying his opponent's weaknesses.
That method was both terrifying and worth learning from.
Still, no matter how strong he was, Kakashi did not believe for a second that he could beat Hikaru.
"And after a battle this loud, the other Uchiha will be here soon. At this point, only the Minister can settle things."
Kakashi didn't feel much mental burden over it.
Or rather, from the very beginning, he had never wanted to come here at all.
Now that he had already failed, letting Hikaru step in was perfectly fine by him.
More importantly, he could finally ask what all of this was really about.
He trusted Hikaru.
Always had.
But this was still the Uchiha compound.
Still Obito's home.
"It seems you still haven't given up."
Tatsumi looked at Kakashi coldly and began walking toward him.
"Pointless resistance. What I'd really like to see is that ANBU man who uses Wood Release."
He sounded almost regretful.
"But sadly, that wish won't be fulfilled."
At those words, the First Elder nearby shook his head faintly.
Everything was over.
Though tonight's developments had been more dangerous than expected, in the end things had reached a fairly acceptable conclusion.
But this incident also burned one truth into his heart:
if ANBU had moved, then Konoha had moved.
Which meant some matters could no longer be delayed.
"No. I think you can."
A voice suddenly rang out in the courtyard without warning.
At once, the First Elder—who had just begun to relax—furrowed his brow.
Tatsumi stopped as well.
Both of them lifted their heads together.
On a wall at the edge of the courtyard, under the pale silver moonlight, a figure stood there.
Several minutes earlier, in the forest outside Konoha, Hikaru was feeling the changes within himself with immense satisfaction.
Especially when he looked at his status panel.
He couldn't suppress the smile on his face at all.
Name: Senju Hikaru
Sex: Male
Birthday: March 24, Konoha Year 34
Level: Quasi-Kage (system assessment without using any abilities) (vast chakra reserves) (small portion of Dragon Vein chakra sealed)
Dōjutsu: divine Eye (Initial Stage)
Bloodline Development: Mid-grade (Senju secret arts, basic Yang Release secret art), Kekkei Tōta (unnamed)
Jinchūriki: Nine-Tails (mid-grade; can grow by devouring large quantities of special chakra; can be cultivated by planting a high-grade Nine-Tails fruit) (still growing due to excessive chakra intake)
Seed: Basic Three-Tails Chakra (1%)
Fruit: None
Mission: Become the true Big Boss of the ninja world (unique) (Progress: 27%)
Though the system only showed a few additions—really just a dōjutsu category and the newly planted Three-Tails chakra seed—the harvest Hikaru had gained tonight was enormous.
To be honest, just obtaining a dōjutsu and a Three-Tails chakra seed that was already under cultivation was enough to make him absurdly happy.
Actually, just like his unnamed Kekkei Tōta, the eye had originally remained in an unnamed state within the system.
But Hikaru felt it was better to give his eyes a proper name, so he had named them himself.
At first, he had actually thought of calling them something ridiculous like Blue Eyes—
but after thinking it over, he decided against using such an odd name.
The Tenseigan had left too deep an impression on him, yet his own eyes clearly differed from it. After all, they didn't possess that same brilliant radiance.
So in the end, he simply stole the name of Boruto's eye.
After all, the difference between his eye and Boruto's seemed to be little more than whether the sclera was black or not.
And honestly, Hikaru felt that black sclera made a person look too much like they'd been revived by Impure World Reincarnation.
His own white sclera looked much better.
"All in all, everything turned out perfectly. Aside from the unavoidable failure with Dead Bone Pulse, I got everything else I wanted."
Hikaru sorted through his thoughts.
The only thing that had failed to yield anything tonight was Kimimaro's Dead Bone Pulse.
But he wasn't too bothered by it.
Kimimaro's bloodline development was still too low, so Hikaru had never held especially high expectations.
Of course, he hadn't removed that piece of bone from the tree either.
He had time.
He could wait.
"Right now, whether as Senju Hikaru or under that persona…"
He paused, then smirked slightly.
"Maybe from now on I should just call that mask identity .—or .."
Hikaru's power set had indeed become rather complicated.
But it wasn't actually difficult to categorize.
Of the five basic chakra natures, he had left Lightning Release completely untouched.
But Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind had all reached the high-grade level.
Beyond that, he also possessed the Nine-Tails, the power of Kekkei Tōta, the divine Eye, high-grade senjutsu chakra, and the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Yes—
his high-grade senjutsu chakra had also matured successfully tonight.
Coupled with his passive Yang Release control, one could say he was developing in all directions toward the path of an Ōtsutsuki bloodline.
What he still lacked, however, was Yin Release.
That problem had no immediate solution.
Perhaps he could try to find the answer in an Uchiha Sharingan—
but first, he needed to get hold of one.
"I wonder how Kakashi's side is doing. But with all those Uchiha sent in to carry it out, plus Kakashi standing by, there shouldn't be any problems, right?"
After over a year in ANBU and under Hikaru's constant guidance—not to mention the fact that his eye itself was at the Mangekyō level—Kakashi should have been more than capable of dealing with these people.
He wasn't being asked to wage war on the Uchiha.
Just to handle a target.
In Hikaru's view, that shouldn't have been a problem at all.
At that thought, chakra stirred faintly within him.
He had already harvested everything he came for tonight.
He was preparing to leave—and perhaps check in on Kimimaro while he was at it.
The boy was currently hidden in an abandoned hunter's cabin outside Konoha.
If all went according to plan, Xueying and the others would 'accidentally' find him on their way back to the village after finishing their mission, then bring him back to Konoha.
But just as Hikaru was about to move, he suddenly felt one of his Flying Thunder God markers activate.
That instantly stopped him.
He turned his gaze toward the distance—
toward Konoha.
"Did something happen on Kakashi's side?"
Hikaru tilted his head slightly.
He really hadn't expected trouble over there.
In his view, this should not have been a difficult matter at all.
Still, he didn't pause for even a second.
Following the sense from his marker, he locked onto the source almost immediately.
The only thing he could hope now was that things hadn't spiraled too far out of control.
ANBU interfering in the internal affairs of a clan—
from any angle, that was not good.
Especially because Konoha's upper ranks all knew that he stood behind Minato.
He couldn't even throw the blame onto Hiruzen Sarutobi if things went badly.
With that thought in mind, Hikaru vanished from where he stood.
And when he appeared again, he was already inside the Uchiha compound, perfectly silent.
His sensory perception spread rapidly in all directions.
He had to determine the exact situation at once.
What eased him slightly was the professionalism of ANBU—and the cooperation of the Police Force.
Though Kakashi's side had failed to resolve the enemy quickly and had caused a fair bit of noise, most of the Uchiha who felt the disturbance and tried to come over had already been intercepted.
"Only a handful nearby who couldn't be stopped, plus a few hiding in the surrounding shadows…"
Hikaru grasped the whole situation almost instantly through his sensory ability.
And once he did, he couldn't help laughing at himself.
He had just gained the divine Eye, yet the first thing he did upon arriving was still to rely on sensory detection instead of his eyes.
Habits really weren't easy to change.
"Pointless resistance. What I'd really like to see is that ANBU man who uses Wood Release. But sadly, that wish won't be fulfilled."
Just then, Tatsumi's voice reached Hikaru's ears clearly.
Hikaru raised a brow.
If someone had gone out of their way to make a request like that, wouldn't it be rude not to grant it?
Besides, he had just obtained the divine Eye.
He wanted to test its power properly—especially that so-called chakra mode.
That, he was genuinely looking forward to.
So he came without a mask.
He raised his chin slightly, and under the moonlight he looked especially aloof and proud.
But almost immediately, he remembered that he was not currently wearing his masked persona.
So he lowered his chin a little again before speaking calmly.
"No. I think you can."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a stone dropped into still water, instantly stirring waves throughout the courtyard.
Hikaru stepped lightly down from the wall.
He ignored the masked Uchiha's gaze completely and walked straight to Kakashi's side.
"What happened?" Hikaru asked flatly. "You couldn't even deal with someone like this?"
"He's strong. And my Sharingan had a problem today."
Kakashi shut his Sharingan, then spoke in an exhausted voice.
"I don't know why, but today the chakra drain was four or five times higher than usual. Maybe…"
He paused briefly.
"Maybe Obito really didn't want me to come here…"
Then he lowered his gaze.
"I've disappointed you, Minister."
Hikaru frowned slightly at those words.
He knew Kakashi hadn't wanted to come.
But the problem was—who else was more suitable for handling Uchiha like this?
Still, Kakashi's words made Hikaru's eyes brighten slightly.
The Sharingan's consumption had risen by four or five times?
Did that mean the Wi-Fi password had finally been entered correctly?
At that thought, chakra began gathering in Hikaru's eyes.
He remembered clearly that this eye possessed an ability called super-insight—
an ability that supposedly let him see through anything.
He wanted to know whether it really was that absurd.
Chakra rippled outward.
Hikaru gently shut his eyes.
Then, when he opened them again, brilliant light bloomed within them.
Kakashi froze.
This was the first time he had ever seen Hikaru's eyes become like this.
And not just him.
Everyone else was also momentarily stunned by the change in Hikaru's eyes.
Especially Uchiha Shin and the First Elder—
both of them already realized exactly who had arrived, but since when had the Senju clan ever possessed eyes like these?
Hikaru ignored them all.
In his eyes, the others were already corpses anyway.
His gaze settled on Kakashi.
And in that instant, he finally understood what super-insight really meant.
Within his vision, Kakashi's closed Sharingan now displayed a pattern shaped like a shuriken.
It was as though that pattern had already awakened—
it just hadn't yet fully shown its power.
"So this is what super-insight means. Not bad at all."
Hikaru murmured inwardly.
Then he patted Kakashi on the shoulder and said slowly,
"I know you have a lot of questions right now. For example, why I sent you here."
"But don't overthink it. Do you think Obito is blaming you?"
He shook his head.
"No. That's Obito's gift to you."
"Get some rest. I'll explain in a moment, and then you'll understand what I mean."
As he spoke, Hikaru turned his gaze toward Tatsumi, the First Elder, and the others hidden around the area.
His chakra surged.
In an instant, that destructive power hidden in his eyes poured out.
It rapidly spread across his body, forming a layer of azure chakra around him.
The force was so terrifying that even Hikaru's outline seemed to blur beneath it.
Under that pressure, the Uchiha present felt their breathing become difficult.
Hikaru himself, however, looked perfectly calm—
even though his heart was already roaring like a storm.
He took a slow breath.
Then he fixed his gaze on Tatsumi and let out a light chuckle.
"Now that I'm here…"
"…let me show you properly."
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.
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