Chapter 523: Killing Intentions Against Kakashi

Whew!

Kakashi took a deep breath, concentrating his Thunder Breathing more and more, entering the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

Streaks of electric light emerged around Kakashi’s body, flickering with his breathing rhythm, like dancing lightning snakes, strengthening Kakashi’s body and continuously increasing his strength and speed.

As his breathing deepened, the lightning on Kakashi’s body became even more dazzling, and a powerful aura appeared, blowing away the surrounding dust and smoke.

Hohzuki Mangetsu stopped his advance after noticing the drastic change in Kakashi’s body, gripping the long sword in his hand and beginning to retreat.

Although Kakashi liked to use Lightning Release Chakra Mode as an auxiliary move for No Thought Strike, Lightning Release Chakra Mode itself was actually a very powerful ability.

It could not only vitalize the body and greatly enhance physical abilities, but also increase Lightning Release Chakra Nature Transformation, allowing him to use Lightning Release without hand signs, and with even greater power.

However, Chakra issues always forced Kakashi to make choices; he had to carefully calculate and use the abilities that would be most effective in combat.

Whoosh whoosh!!

Just as Hohzuki Mangetsu was wondering what kind of move this was from Kakashi, Kakashi shot two Kunai at Hohzuki Mangetsu at an extremely fast speed, and they were Kunai enhanced with Lightning Release Chakra Nature Transformation!

Clang!

Bang!

Hohzuki Mangetsu used one hand to slash at the incoming Kunai with his sword, and the other hand formed a pistol shape, shooting water droplets to intercept them.

“Lightning Release: False Darkness!”

Kakashi performed no hand signs, and without warning, he spat out a sharp bolt of lightning at Hohzuki Mangetsu.

Rumble!

Hohzuki Mangetsu didn’t expect Kakashi’s next move to come so quickly. He desperately used Hydrification Technique to try and dodge, but was still affected by the lightning.

Due to the nature of lightning, Hohzuki Mangetsu couldn’t maintain a fully hydrated state, and the parts of his body struck by the lightning suffered severe damage.

“He actually concealed a no-hand-sign Lightning Release,” Hohzuki Mangetsu’s face turned ugly as he felt the sharp pain in his body.

He knew Kakashi had mastered Lightning Release and had been specifically guarding against it, but he didn’t expect Kakashi to be able to use no-hand-sign Lightning Release so quickly. The intelligence he had on Kakashi didn’t include this ability.

Hohzuki Mangetsu didn’t have time to think too much. He retreated with difficulty, then raised his hand to release a Ninjutsu.

“Water Release: Water Hail!”

A large amount of water droplets, like raindrops, formed in front of Hohzuki Mangetsu’s palm and then shot out.

“Thunderclap Flash: Godspeed!”

Kakashi was not one to give his opponents a chance, and immediately used his strongest move besides No Thought Strike.

He concentrated all his strength, his body tensed like an arrow about to be released from a bowstring.

Boom!!

A thunderous roar erupted. All his power burst forth simultaneously with the explosion of Lightning Release Chakra. Kakashi shot out like a streaking bolt of lightning, leaving a scorched trail on the ground.

Bang!

Hohzuki Mangetsu hadn’t even had time to clearly see Kakashi’s figure when Kakashi had already arrived in front of him, placing the White Fang Short Blade, enveloped in boundless lightning, against his neck. Hohzuki Mangetsu could clearly feel the arcs of electricity dancing on it.

“I lost…” Hohzuki Mangetsu’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected to be defeated so haphazardly in the first round.

Hohzuki Mangetsu felt extremely frustrated. He still had many clever uses of Hydrification Technique he hadn’t demonstrated, and many moves he hadn’t used. How could he have lost like this?

But on the other hand, Hohzuki Mangetsu was somewhat convinced, because Kakashi’s strength and combat ability were both extremely formidable, a presence he couldn’t defeat at this moment.

“Kakashi Hatake wins!” the referee announced.

“This speed is quite interesting. If he could be faster and stronger, he might even have a chance to snatch first place from Nagato,” Hanzō shook his head with a hint of regret.

Based on Kakashi’s performance, he was undoubtedly a super genius. However, Kakashi was a few years younger than Nagato, putting him at a disadvantage in terms of training time. Otherwise, the final outcome of the Youth Martial Arts Tournament would be hard to say.

Hanzō really wanted a dark horse to emerge in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament and snatch first place, because Sōsuke’s expression would definitely be very interesting then.

He thought his disciple was strong enough to make his strongest Ninjutsu the first-place prize, but then a dark horse appeared and took first place. Hanzō genuinely found the thought amusing.

“Hanzō, why are you suddenly smiling? Is it because your Rain Ninja contestant is about to appear? I seem to remember no Rain Ninja entering the elimination rounds, did I remember wrong?” Kakuzu, sitting to Muzuki’s left, asked curiously.

Hanzō’s slightly smiling face instantly froze, then returned to its original expressionless state.

Since Hanzō was invited as a special guest to watch the Youth Martial Arts Tournament, many Rain Ninja participated in the Youth Martial Arts Tournament.

Whether it was due to their lacking strength or bad luck in encountering strong opponents, all the Rain Ninja fell in the preliminary rounds, with none advancing to the elimination rounds.

For Hanzō, this was somewhat embarrassing.

Because he was on par with Sōsuke, and the Amegakure was on par with the Shinobi Sect. Yet, all of the Shinobi Sect’s representatives, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, advanced, while the Rain Ninja, despite having more participants, all fell before the elimination rounds. In terms of the next generation of genius Ninja, the Amegakure had a significant gap compared to the Shinobi Sect.

Hanzō stared blankly at the battle arena, where the next fight hadn’t yet begun, hoping the battles would start and end quickly so he could return to the Amegakure. Staying in Six Paths City made him feel uncomfortable all over.

Seeing the referee announce the winner, Kakashi put away his White Fang Short Blade and walked towards the contestant waiting room.

When Kakashi walked back into the waiting room, many Ninja inside were still replaying Kakashi’s lightning-fast slash in their minds.

“What’s going on? I feel like the gap has widened even after so much hard training,” Mei Terumī was a bit confused.

During the Chunin Exams, she felt Kakashi was just okay; although he was stronger than her, there wasn’t no hope of winning at all.

Now, Mei Terumī felt Kakashi was truly terrifying.

Mei Terumī put herself in his shoes. If she were in his place, she wouldn’t be able to dodge Kakashi’s Godspeed slash.

The only countermeasure Mei Terumī could think of was to release Hidden Mist Technique beforehand.

Her Hidden Mist Technique was highly skilled; most detection methods in the Ninja World couldn’t break its effect.

“How could this be?” Mei Terumī felt extremely depressed.

Her feeling at this moment was like the last exam where Kakashi scored 75 points, and she only had 70.

After a long period of hard work, she scored 80 points, but Kakashi scored 95 points.

From the results, Mei Terumī had indeed improved, and significantly so, but the actual gap between them had widened.

“As expected of Kakashi. Although he’s stronger, he’s still so cautious,” Rin Nohara said with a smile, hands clasped together.

If Kakashi wanted to defeat his opponent as quickly as possible, he could have gone all out from the start and beaten Hohzuki Mangetsu, possibly taking even less time than Might Guy.

But Kakashi didn’t do that. Instead, he chose to first probe for information and then resolve the enemy in one go.

Rin Nohara felt Obito really needed to learn this from Kakashi.

Based on Rin Nohara’s understanding of Obito, when the opponent’s strength was slightly weaker than his own, Obito would generally choose the flashiest fighting style.

Obito pouted, “He just likes to show off. If he’s so capable, he should slash two more times.”

With Kakashi’s Chakra reserves, if he were to slash two more times, someone would have to carry him into the waiting room.

“Kakashi Hatake… What is his relationship with Konoha White Fang, Sakumo Hatake?” Sasori’s eyes flickered, and he couldn’t help but glance at the approaching Kakashi.

Before the elimination rounds, he didn’t care about any of the participants, so it was impossible for him to pay special attention to an unfamiliar Konoha Ninja.

Now, Sasori carefully analyzed Kakashi Hatake’s appearance and suddenly realized that this young Ninja named Kakashi Hatake bore a striking resemblance to Konoha White Fang.

The person Sasori hated most in his life was the Ninja known as Konoha White Fang.

Because Konoha White Fang had killed his parents, leaving him without the warm embrace of his parents forever.

A major motivation for Sasori to learn puppetry was to kill Konoha White Fang and avenge his parents.

However, fate played a cruel trick. After Sasori became proficient in puppetry, news of White Fang’s suicide quickly reached Hidden Sand Village, and Sasori thus lost his major life goal.

Sasori had no one to avenge, because his enemy was already dead. For this, Sasori was depressed for a long time, feeling that life had lost its meaning.

“So, the child of Konoha White Fang, huh? Good. Your father killed my parents, so I will kill you,” Sasori’s dormant desire for revenge ignited.

At this moment, he no longer cared about the so-called Chakra blades worth millions. If he could avenge his parents, what were a few puppet-making materials worth?

Although he had closed his Transparent World, Kakashi’s sense of crisis was very keen. He suddenly felt a subtle killing intent and subconsciously swept his gaze around the waiting room.

Due to Kakashi’s impressive performance just now, many Ninja in the waiting room were looking at Kakashi. Kakashi noted down everyone’s expressions, but for a moment, he couldn’t figure out who harbored killing intent towards him.

“No, I can’t make a move here,” Sasori put on a calm expression and suppressed the killing intent in his heart.

A large number of young geniuses were gathered here, and there were also Ninja from the Shinobi Sect. Sasori wasn’t sure if he could kill Kakashi under these circumstances.

Kakashi’s speed just now was too fast. As long as he couldn’t kill him in one blow, Kakashi could escape with his extreme speed.

At that time, if Ninja Master Sōsuke and Hanzō, the Half-God, both made a move, Sasori wouldn’t even be able to escape unscathed, let alone kill Kakashi.

He had to find a suitable opportunity, just like when he killed the Third Kazekage.

“Who could it be? Hidden Mist? Or Iwagakure? Or Kumogakure?” Kakashi pondered which Ninja might harbor killing intent towards him.

Logically speaking, it would most likely be the Ninja Villages that were at war with Konoha.

Among the three great Ninja Villages, Kakashi thought Hidden Mist was the most suspicious, because Kakashi had killed many Hidden Mist Ninja on the East Bank Battlefield, and it was possible that some of the participating Hidden Mist Ninja had relatives or friends among them.

Secondly, Kakashi and his group were more famous in Hidden Mist than in other Ninja Villages, so it was not impossible for Hidden Mist to instruct their participating Ninja to find an opportunity for assassination.

Although he knew someone wanted to kill him, Kakashi was not flustered at all, because his four teammates were all by his side, and Muzuki was also not far away.

To kill him, even if Haku and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were resurrected and came, they would not be qualified.

“Be careful from now on. Someone might try to attack us Konoha Ninja,” Kakashi wrote this sentence on a piece of paper after sitting down next to his teammates.

Obito’s eyes widened when he saw it, wanting to say something, but Kakashi put a finger to Obito’s mouth and shook his head slightly.

At the moment, they were in the open and the enemy was in the dark, so they absolutely couldn’t reveal that they had discovered the enemy’s intentions.

Shisui subtly scanned all the participants, looking for suspicious Ninja.

Rin Nohara tensed her body, ready to gather Chakra and fight at any moment.

“We have plenty of strength on our side, no need to worry too much,” Kakashi wrote another sentence.

Rin Nohara thought about it and agreed. Might Guy and Shisui were both there; they were now an elite squad of five Jonin.

The competition continued in an orderly fashion.

After Kakashi’s battle, there was a fight between an Iwagakure Ninja and a Cloud Ninja, with the Cloud Ninja narrowly winning.

Then it was Shisui’s battle. Shisui’s opponent was also an Iwagakure Ninja.

Shisui won this battle very easily, effortlessly defeating the Iwagakure Ninja with only his Sharingan Genjutsu.

This caused Kitsuchi in the audience to feel heartbroken. Although many Iwagakure Ninja had advanced to the elimination rounds, most of them lost in the first round.

Later, Kakashi saw someone they knew, Asuma, who had come to the competition with them.

Kakashi felt Asuma’s position was a bit awkward.

To say Asuma was weak wasn’t true; Asuma didn’t have much trouble defeating his opponent in the first round of the elimination rounds. But to say he was strong, Asuma was still quite a distance from them.

Although his strength level was somewhat awkward, Kakashi felt Asuma would most likely reach the quarterfinals.

Because Asuma had a very good draw; he wouldn’t encounter any too strong Ninja before the quarterfinals.

Everything depended on comparison. Asuma wasn’t good compared to them, but compared to most participants, his strength was quite respectable.

Additionally, Mei Terumī, whom Kakashi had suspected, also advanced to the second round.

In the second-to-last battle, Obito immediately activated his Flame Breathing Chakra Mode at the start of the fight, defeating his Iwagakure opponent with a large-scale Fire Release.

The last two contestants were not Ninja from great Ninja Villages; one was a Grass Ninja Village Ninja, and the other was a Frost Ninja Village Ninja. Ultimately, the Grass Ninja Village Ninja proved superior and won the match.

This made Kakashi sigh at the disparity in the world. Some people fought Nagato and Might Guy in the first round, while others fought Grass Ninja in the second. Obito’s draw was really too smooth.

Thus, the first round of the elimination tournament concluded.

Since the earlier contestants rested while the later ones fought, the earlier contestants could also rest during the second round while the later ones fought.

Therefore, the mid-match break was not long, and the second round of battles officially began half an hour later.

Again, starting with Nagato at number one, they proceeded in order.

PS: I’m too sleepy today. I almost fell asleep while typing. It’s really absurd; I almost face-rolled the keyboard while typing.

It must be the backlash from staying up late yesterday. I’ll only update once today. I’ll try to write more tomorrow depending on the situation, to make up for it.