Sparring Kakashi

In the second round of the Joint Chunin Exams, all candidates had to survive in the wilderness for three days, as arranged by Iwa ninja. The Chunin Jonin leading the teams from various countries had nothing to do.

At this time, Yichen personally sought out Kakashi, the captain of the Konoha delegation.

Yichen glanced at the group from Konoha and asked, "Captain Kakashi, where is your vice-captain Nara Senior? Is there anything we can help you with?"

Kakashi thought to himself, "You don't know? If you hadn't taken advantage of Shikaisen Nara's suspicious nature, would he have been so angry he vomited blood and was bedridden?" But he still calmly said, "Thank you for your Lord Tsuchikage- sama. Shikaisen Nara- senpai is just feeling a little unwell. He'll be fine after a couple of days of rest. There's no need to trouble your village."

Yichen nodded, muttering to himself, "That's right. Being too clever for one's own good can backfire; it's normal to suffer a setback."

Kakashi naturally heard this and thought to himself, "As expected, it was done by you Iwa ninja." He wanted to ask about the current situation of the Monkey Clan, but considering his mission, he gave up.

"Captain Kakashi, since everyone has some free time and your students are all taking exams, why don't you spar with our Iwa ninja?" Yichen said to Kakashi.

Without waiting for Kakashi's reply, he directly called out to one of the Iwa ninja who had come with him.

The man immediately stepped forward from the crowd and said, "Chunin Hirao from Iwagakure. Please enlighten me, senior from Konoha."

After saying that, the man took out Kunai and waited for the Konoha ninja.

The Iwa ninja's sudden attack caught the Konoha group off guard.

With Shikaisen Nara absent, Kakashi was the only one with the decision-making power. Several Chunin from Konoha looked at Kakashi. One of them directly asked, "Captain Kakashi, how about I go and have a match?"

Kakashi thought about it and didn't object.

Chunin, the Chunin slowly walked out of the Konoha ranks.

In the first match, Konoha won easily. Hirao readily conceded defeat without further provocation.

In the second match, Konoha easily won again.

After a few matches, Konoha no longer felt there was anything wrong with the competition.

So the Iwa ninja started sending out some veteran Chunin or genius Chunin.

In these matches, both sides had their wins and losses, and gradually some Konoha ninja also felt that they had gained a lot, so the last bit of resistance in their hearts disappeared.

This is normal; the competition between the two sides was fair, simply to increase each other's combat experience. Yichen wasn't worried about Konoha's misunderstandings, since he had always acted openly and honestly.

From morning till evening, the two sides fought hundreds of battles, but no one cared about the number of wins or losses; everyone just felt they had gained a lot.

As they parted, they agreed to continue the next day.

The next day, early in the morning, Iwa ninja led the Konoha group to an indoor Training Ground. The reason given was: it was quiet there and less likely to be disturbed.

The group from Konoha naturally didn't care about such a trivial matter; where the competition was held didn't matter. What they didn't know was that just a wall away, a Byakugan was watching them.

This Training Ground was specifically built to facilitate Byakugan spying; the previous match against the Sunagakure was held here.

That morning, Chunin -level matches continued one after another. But in the afternoon, occasionally, Jonin Iwa ninja would step forward to challenge Jonin Konoha.

Kakashi was initially wary, but after the match, he felt reassured. The Iwa ninja didn't use any tricks, and the Tsuchikage Yichen, even stepped in to help their Konoha when Jonin to be injured.

This temporarily put Kakashi's suspicions at ease.

Gradually, the competition Jonin became a regular occurrence.

Then, at Yichen's behest, some Iwa ninja Jonin to challenge Kakashi. Kakashi initially refused, but the Iwa ninja who were refused did not persist and instead challenged other ninjas.

Later on, Kakashi started to feel a little embarrassed as he refused more and more times, because no matter which Konoha Iwa ninja he wanted to challenge, they never refused.

So when yet another Jonin challenged Kakashi hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing. This was like a floodgate opening, and more and more people began challenging Kakashi.

Kakashi's ability to unleash his full power in a fight truly depends on the opponent's strength. Regardless of the opponent's strength, none of his dozen or so battles have been quick victories. Yichen even sent two Chunin to the arena, and Kakashi, perhaps out of politeness, exchanged blows with them for a few rounds.

Regardless, the Iwa ninja sent out Jonin -level ninjas. Kakashi was Elite Jonin with almost no weaknesses. No one in the Iwa ninja could defeat Kakashi, and no one could even force Kakashi to use his Sharingan.

Finally, seeing that it was getting late, Yichen gestured to Seiji, an Elite Jonin who had previously served as a squad leader in the Anbu.

Seiji leaped into the center of the arena and looked at Kakashi below, saying, "Watching others compete makes my hands itch. Captain Kakashi, let's give it a try."

Kakashi could sense that this person was quite strong, so he didn't underestimate him. He nodded, jumped into the arena, and launched Taijutsu attack on the person.

This Seiji was specially chosen by Yichen to be Kakashi's sparring partner. Like Kakashi, he is good at both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, and is also excellent at tactical planning.

Of course, this Seiji is quite old. He's not a genius like Kakashi; he's the kind of person who has accumulated knowledge and skills over many decades to reach this level.

The two clashed repeatedly, using everything from Taijutsu to various elemental Ninjutsu, but neither could gain the upper hand, which made Kakashi take the matter seriously.

However, just as Kakashi was getting into the swing of things, Yichen said, "Alright, Captain Kakashi, it's getting late. If Kakashi 're interested, you can come again tomorrow."

Kakashi paused, glanced at the sky outside, and realized it was indeed getting late. He Yichen nodded first, then looked at Seiji and said, "Seiji- senpai, let's continue tomorrow."

Seiji nodded calmly and said, "No problem."

After returning to his residence, Kakashi, as usual, visited Shikaisen Nara told her about the day's events. Shikaisen Nara said, "So, compared to yesterday, the Iwa ninja improved the skill level of both sides in today's sparring match?"

Kakashi nodded and said, "The last match is between me and a Chunin Elite Jonin from Iwa ninja."

Shikaisen Nara thought for a moment and said, "I guess the Iwa ninja really want to practice their combat experience against us. I suspect they did the same thing with the Sunagakure before, which is why the Sunagakure and some of the Iwa ninja have a mutual respect for each other."

"During tomorrow's match, pay attention to your opponent's strength. If they are close to advancing in rank, don't go all out. It's better to lose the match than to let the Iwa ninja achieve their goal."

"The Iwa ninja who led the Squad Leader Jonin sent to Konoha for the Joint Chunin Exams Kawakita last time is a disciple of the Fourth Tsuchikage. After arriving in Konoha, he went around challenging others, hoping to become Kage Level through constant battles. If you encounter him, whatever you do, do not fight him."

"I understand," Kakashi said.

Meanwhile, after Kakashi and the others left, Yichen went to the room where Hu was and asked, "How was it? Did you get anything?"

Hu shook his head and said, "There weren't enough sessions, so I didn't get any complete Ninjutsu. But that Kakashi truly lives up to his reputation as the Fourth Hokage's disciple; he knows so many. In one afternoon, with so many matches, apart from the Three Basic Jutsu, not a single Ninjutsu was the same."

Yichen said, "Kakashi knows so many techniques, not because the Fourth Hokage taught him. I estimate that even the Fourth Hokage didn't know as many Ninjutsu as he did when he was alive. He has a Sharingan, and his own Ninjutsu talent is extremely high. He also has multiple attributes, which allows him to copy other people's Ninjutsu in combination with the Sharingan."

"Most of his Ninjutsu were copied from enemies in battle."

"Huh, so he's similar to me? He also steals other people's Ninjutsu? Will I be discovered?" Hu said.

"That shouldn't be the case. The Sharingan has strong dynamic vision, but it doesn't have X-ray vision, so he shouldn't be able to see you. But you should still be Mind's Eye. If he tries to Wind Release: Breakthrough this wall in front of you, you should hide quickly," Yichen said.

Hu said, "Understood!"

On the third day, Kakashi and the others arrived as promised, and Yichen also brought his disciples from previous terms. This time, since both sides were more familiar with each other, the competition area was divided into two parts: one for Chunin- level competitions and the other for Jonin- level sparring, with occasional matches between Elite Jonin.

With Kakashi as his sparring partner, Yichen vigorously encouraged his disciples to challenge him.

So, of all Yichen's disciples, except for the three from the Team One who were absent, and Matsutani Shinya in the village, the other disciples took turns going up to fight Kakashi.

Even Suda Himezuki and Katsuya, who hadn't officially become Jonin yet, and Kawazoe Yura, who was only skilled in Sealing Jutsu, went up and fought Kakashi back and forth for a round.

As for Ogura Saki, Takuya, Yoshimura Kazumasa, Uchiyama Takuhiro, Kanako, each of them took turns sparring with Kakashi several times. Their reason was simple: they weren't convinced; as fellow disciples of the Kage, they didn't want to embarrass their teacher.

Kakashi probably wanted to thoroughly test the strength of Yichen 'Yichen disciples, so he would fight them for several rounds when they were fighting.

Finally, Kakashi, perhaps having grown interested in the battles, or perhaps having gained something from each fight, Yichen said, "Lord Tsuchikage, please allow me to challenge you."

Yichen thought for a moment and said, "How about this, I'll have Ikura and fight you tomorrow. You've seen my abilities these past two days; I'm suited to step in and save people in critical moments. If I fight you and something goes wrong, I won't be able to stop myself, and no one can stop us then. But if Ikura and fights you, I can still intervene."

Kaka thought about it and felt that Yichen's words were not just a perfunctory remark, so he agreed. However, he was still somewhat disappointed that he could not fight against the Kage of a village.