Chapter 65: Crack, Crack, Crack…
"Is there really any point in continuing? I can already tell that at your current level… you're not a match for me. More testing won't change that."
Ryū was starting to feel it was getting late. He still had two rooms on the second floor that needed cleaning.
Kakashi glanced over at Guy, who stood not far away, jaw hanging open in stunned disbelief.
He took a deep breath, then said with measured composure: "I don't sense any hostility from you. I don't know why you've been hiding your strength, but I don't think you're a bad person—at the very least, you wouldn't do anything to harm that idiot over there. Still… I want to see just how wide the gap between us really is."
* * *
Did he just… get friend-zoned?
He'd actually been given a good-person card.
Ryū found it a little hard to process.
If a girl had handed him a good-person card, that would've been one thing. But the person handing it to him was Kakashi! And the bigger problem was that Kakashi was a guy!
Difficult upon difficult, unreasonable upon unreasonable… a parade of increasingly melodramatic phrases marched through his brain.
Ryū very nearly snapped and killed Hatake Kakashi on the spot.
He had no problem watching other people engage in philosophical exploration.
But the moment it involved him personally—
That was a whole different ballgame!
While Ryū's imagination was running wild, Kakashi took his silence as consent.
Shadow… Clone Jutsu!
Two identical Kakashis materialized in front of Ryū.
"Ryū-san… here I come!"
"Huh? Oh… sure."
* * *
Crack, crack, crack…
Crack, crack, crack…
Crack, crack, crack…
Crack, crack, crack…
A dense barrage of combat sounds erupted across the secluded clearing.
The two of them plunged back into battle. But the outcome was exactly the same.
Kakashi simply could not do a single thing to Ryū!
After some unknowable stretch of time, Ryū rolled his sleeves back down and waved to Guy in the distance. "Thanks for treating today, Guy! If I've got time, I'll return the favor!"
Somewhat dazedly watching Ryū leave, Guy swallowed hard.
Of the three of them, the one who'd been hit hardest by the shock was him.
Because in Guy's eyes… Ryū was supposed to be an ordinary person.
A kind-hearted, good neighbor.
Someone who'd looked out for him since he was a kid.
And now this man—this "ordinary person"—had wiped the floor with Hatake Kakashi until Kakashi couldn't fight back. And Kakashi was a jōnin!
Well… "wiped the floor until he couldn't fight back" was maybe a slight exaggeration.
But what had just happened—the battle that had just taken place—
Was pretty much that, yeah.
When had Ryū-san gotten this strong? Could Kakashi be right—that Ryū-san had actually been powerful all along and had simply been hiding it for reasons unknown?
But of course, there was another very real possibility. And that possibility was: Youth!
Only Youth could produce such an unbelievable miracle!
Only Youth could explain this otherwise incomprehensible reality!
Ryū-san's strength… was Youth itself…
So strong!
In any case, there was no way Guy himself could defeat Kakashi that effortlessly.
He might not even be able to beat Kakashi at all right now.
He needed to train harder.
Starting tomorrow—double the training regimen!
* * *
Just as Guy was igniting his chūnibyō-grade "Youth" fighting spirit, a somewhat feeble voice rose from beside him. "Hey… Guy. *cough cough* Could you maybe… take me to Konoha Hospital first? I think… everything hurts."
Guy snapped back to attention, turned his head, and found himself looking at a thoroughly battered Kakashi.
That fight had been, in every sense, a one-sided demolition.
Kakashi had only managed to drag things out by cycling through every obscure ninjutsu and genjutsu in his repertoire.
Beyond that… he'd been able to do nothing.
Ryū's strength was terrifyingly, hair-raisingly overwhelming!
Replaying the fight in his mind, Kakashi's exhausted face cracked into a bitter smile. He murmured to himself, "That guy is absurdly strong. Zero chakra fluctuation, yet his raw power is monstrous."
"Especially that last kick… I nearly blacked out on the spot. If I hadn't managed to block at the last second, I probably would have passed out right there. Then again, the way things are now… passing out might actually be preferable…"
He could tell that Ryū's speed was extraordinary and his strength was immense.
And across the board, it was hard to spot a single weakness.
But what unsettled him most was Ryū's stamina.
The fight had dragged on for ages.
Kakashi himself was gasping for air.
Even walking was a struggle now.
And yet that man named Ryū hadn't so much as breathed hard once.
He hadn't even broken a sweat!
Was this even human?!
A monstrous constitution, plain and simple.
Powerfully, terrifyingly strong!!
* * *
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Konohagakure—in a small building near the Hokage Tower.
The former Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, gazed into a crystal ball before him.
His eyes were filled with gravity and astonishment. He murmured to himself, "I seem to have witnessed something extraordinary… Kakashi… was actually defeated!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen was no stranger to Hatake Kakashi, the young jōnin.
The boy was the son of Konoha's White Fang—one of the village's true prodigies!
A jōnin at the age of twelve.
At roughly fourteen now, Kakashi's strength surpassed that of many jōnin.
In time, he could even be called an elite among elites—a jōnin among jōnin!
Within Konohagakure, that placed him among the higher echelons of combat power.
Second only to Kage-level ninja.
And yet, to Hiruzen's utter bewilderment—
Kakashi had been defeated. And the man who'd done it bore not a single scratch!
He hadn't even shown a trace of fatigue.
It beggared belief.
* * *
"A hidden master? But if he wanted to hide his strength, why accept Kakashi's test—why even invite Kakashi to test him? Wouldn't it be better to just keep it hidden? What is his aim?"
Hiruzen stared into the crystal ball, brow furrowed deeply. But Ryū's figure had already vanished from view.
His Telescope Technique required knowledge of the target's chakra signature to maintain surveillance.
Without knowing Ryū's chakra signature—without there being one to know—tracking him was impossible.
A thought struck Hiruzen. He frowned, muttering: "By doing this… was he trying to be seen by someone? By whom? Kakashi? Guy? Besides those two, who else? Wait—unless…"
Hiruzen's gaze sharpened: "He was showing his strength to me!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen, former Hokage, was no fool.
He'd arrived at this very real possibility almost immediately.
And his guess…
Was exactly right.
* * *
Ever since he'd encountered Kakashi, Ryū had felt a set of "eyes" watching him—peering, probing.
But no matter what he did, he couldn't pinpoint where that strange gaze was coming from.
All he had to do was think about the Naruto storyline for a moment, and the answer was obvious.
The one person who could surveil someone's location, movements, and visual feed without anyone being the wiser…
That could only be Sarutobi Hiruzen, Konoha's premier peeping enthusiast.
Since the old man had already noticed him—
Given Hiruzen's position in Konohagakure, Ryū's true strength would surface sooner or later. Maybe in a week. Maybe in half a month.
So Ryū didn't mind flexing a little muscle ahead of schedule.
Better that than having complications crop up later.
That would only be more troublesome.
☆☆☆
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