Defeat

He had hit the jackpot: a Stand capable of creating ice for attacks—Horus!

Feeling the physical exhaustion caused by refining such a large amount of chakra, Lin Ke did not even have time to rejoice. Without hesitation, he controlled Horus and launched an attack.

"Crack~" Six enormous ice spikes appeared out of thin air at his sides, three on each side.

Whoosh! ×6 The ice spikes shot out one after another.

What was this?! Hatake Kakashi's previously lazy expression instantly turned serious. He sensed an extremely unusual chakra fluctuation, and the moment he saw the ice spikes appear from thin air, he had already gathered chakra beneath his feet.

Boom! The first ice spike to shoot out smashed a huge crater into the clearing.

Hatake Kakashi, who had used the Body Flicker Technique to leave his original position, did not escape the remaining ice spikes' attacks—

Because these things could track him!

Facing enormous ice spikes coming from all directions, with almost no angle from which to evade, Hatake Kakashi rapidly formed hand seals.

Snake—Rabbit—Dog. Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!

Four earthen walls rose up, completely enclosing Hatake Kakashi.

Boom! The ice spikes struck the suddenly raised Earth Flow Walls at the same time and exploded. Blue-white ice rapidly spread across the cratered, battered earthen walls.

This brat?! ×2 The two teammates crouching in the forest were dumbfounded. How could a technique like this be mastered by a genin? And Ice Release—

Could a jonin actually be defeated? "Crack~"

The ground split open again. Hatake Kakashi repeated his old trick, once more using Earth Release: Underground Headhunter Technique to seize Lin Ke, who was swaying on the verge of collapse from exhausted stamina.

Checkmate!

It was not until more than half his body had been dragged underground that he reacted, but he did not panic. With all his remaining strength, he controlled Horus to spew freezing air around them. Both Hatake Kakashi, who had emerged from the ground, and Lin Ke, who was still being pulled downward, were frozen in place.

"Jingle~"

In the final second before he fainted, he grabbed the two bells. As the bells rang softly, Horus, unable to continue moving due to his exhausted stamina, dissipated, leaving behind only a patch of frozen ground.

The freezing had happened so quickly that the grass remained emerald green. Under the sunlight, ice crystals glittered brilliantly, reflecting against the lush green lawn and creating a breathtakingly beautiful scene.

Lin Ke hung his head unconscious, with most of his body sunk into the earth and his arms spread out to either side. A thin layer of ice covered him, while the bells he had snatched rolled away nearby.

This child—

Amid the sound of cracking ice, Hatake Kakashi pulled his Forehead Protector back down to cover his scarlet Sharingan, then stepped forward and pulled Lin Ke, who had frozen himself into the ground, out.

He had shattered Kakashi's Shadow Clone head-on and forced him to get serious. In terms of ninjutsu alone, this child's level should have been enough for promotion to Special Jonin.

Students at the Ninja Academy only needed to master ninjutsu to become genin. Genin needed to be clever enough to become chunin. Up to that point, ninja still seemed like a profession that required intelligence, but the requirements for promotion to Special Jonin and jonin were simple: sufficiently great power! In other words, no matter how clever a ninja was or how capable they were as a leader, if they were not strong enough, they could at most become chunin. But even if they were not particularly bright, they could still be promoted to Special Jonin or jonin if they possessed sufficient power.

This eight-year-old genin before him had displayed such a powerful technique, and moreover...

"Ice Release." Carrying Lin Ke, who had fainted from rapidly exhausting his strength and whose body was covered in another layer of ice, Hatake Kakashi raced toward the hospital, his mind working frantically.

In his memories, the clan that possessed the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai should have been in Kirigakure.

So how had a Konoha child with a clean background mastered Ice Release?

Or could it be...

The more he thought about it, the more complicated it seemed. Yet he could confirm one thing without exception—

This child probably would not be able to graduate this year. —An unfamiliar ceiling.

Lin Ke opened his eyes, his consciousness slightly hazy, before returning to the last moment preserved in his memory—

He had failed, but he had also succeeded.

He had never been capable of defeating an elite among jonin. He had even been defeated without forcing his opponent to reveal the Sharingan. (He did not know that Hatake Kakashi had already been using the Sharingan at the end.) He had successfully gotten the bells, but he had still lost the battle.

During the fight, he had made several mistakes. First, he should not have believed that he could contend with Hatake Kakashi in taijutsu. Not only had that wasted chakra and stamina, but it had also cost him the initiative.

If Kakashi had not wanted to gauge his abilities, then after the first round of taijutsu exchanges failed to produce results, what awaited him would have been a relentless series of attacks until he lost the ability to resist.

Then there was the combination of the Transformation Jutsu and Clone Technique. It was far too easy to see through. It might work as a first-meeting kill against weaker opponents, but against a strong opponent, they would figure him out within a few exchanges. It lacked variation and only exposed the weakness of his poor physical condition.

Next, his control over the Stand Technique had been too crude. He had used too much chakra when summoning the Stand, leaving him without enough stamina afterward to support Horus through more attacks. In the end, he could only use himself as bait and attempt a desperate final strike.

When his Stand Technique merely summoned a Stand and used its fists and feet for close-range attacks, it did not consume much of his stamina. But once a Stand's ability was involved, it directly drained his stamina to carry it out.

Using too little chakra when summoning a Stand could cause a hard-won, useful Stand to exist only briefly. Using too much chakra when summoning one would lead to the situation from this battle—

Not enough stamina, forced attacks, complete exhaustion, unconsciousness.

This was something he needed to weigh for himself. Every time he used the Stand Technique, the Stand he summoned was random and uncontrollable. Whether it was useful or not depended entirely on the situation.

Finally, because he was a transmigrator familiar with the plot, he had developed a condescending mindset. When he guessed that Hatake Kakashi was his instructor, something had gone wrong with his mentality, and he had desperately wanted to prove something.

To prove that he was not worthless just because he was a transmigrator? To prove that he was not some ordinary cannon fodder? To prove that everyone in the Naruto World was an NPC?

Even his initial attempt to fight Hatake Kakashi with taijutsu had stemmed from that highly irrational mindset.

He could have been trying to display his worth and make Konoha's higher-ups notice him, or he could have simply wanted to defeat his opponent. But the irrational anger that had arisen at the final moment because of his identity as a transmigrator should never have existed.

Lin Ke liked a saying he had encountered in his previous life: weakness is not an obstacle to survival; arrogance is.

He did not know when he had developed this habit of arrogance. If he did not correct it, it would become troublesome when something truly went wrong in the future. What mattered most now was recognizing himself clearly.

If you are wrong, admit it. If you get beaten, stand straight.