Tsk! I hadn't expected that not only would I fail to make use of him, but he'd turn around and pull one over on me.
I knew it. He'd agreed so suddenly—there was no way it could be that simple.
Looking at Kakashi, who was just as dusty and disheveled as himself, Chiba slightly turned his head away, closed his eyes, and let out a helpless sigh.
"What's wrong?"
Apparently, Kakashi caught that faint sigh. Hearing it, he turned to glance back at Chiba and spoke.
"Nothing."
Chiba shook his head and replied.
"Oh."
Hearing that, Kakashi did not say anything more.
And so, the two of them walked step by step through the night, slowly making their way back.
By now, both of them were practically exhausted. After dinner in the evening and after arranging some work, they had met up around seven o'clock at night for what was supposedly "ninjutsu training" or "ninjutsu exchange."
However, though it had been called ninjutsu training or exchange, it had ultimately turned into a contest of ninjutsu. Both had shown everything they could do, and by the end, they were dead tired. In terms of quantity, Kakashi had held the advantage. After all, he had now mastered more than three Chakra Nature Transformations, so he naturally knew far more ninjutsu than Chiba, who had only learned two.
But in terms of quality, Chiba had the advantage. After all, he had developed two S-rank ninjutsu, both of them tremendously powerful. Kakashi only had the A-rank Chidori that could compare in power. Of course, Chiba could tell that Kakashi's Chidori had already acquired that feeling of being able to cut through lightning like Raikiri. Kakashi's current Chidori could also be considered an S-rank ninjutsu that was on the verge of completion. Still, in terms