Facing the signature technique left behind by his former colleague, whose strength had once been evenly matched with his own.
Kakashi's expression turned unusually grave. He lifted the forehead protector covering his left eye, revealing the Three Tomoe Sharingan hidden beneath it.
Was he getting serious?
Seeing Kakashi reveal his Sharingan, Sasuke thought to himself.
Although Kakashi had already activated his Sharingan, Sasuke's eyes remained as black as ever.
It was not because he was being overconfident. He simply did not want to use his Sharingan.
Once an ordinary Sharingan awakened, the number of Tomoe could only increase, never decrease.
He had awakened directly with three Tomoe. If he used it now, it would naturally appear in its three-Tomoe state.
Everyone knew that the Second Hokage had studied the Uchiha clan more deeply than anyone else. Even many Uchiha clan members themselves did not understand the Sharingan as thoroughly as the Second Hokage did.
The awakening of the Sharingan often meant that an Uchiha had suffered some sort of emotional shock before being able to awaken it. It was not particularly related to one's own strength. The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had personally witnessed such changes countless times.
The Second Hokage would inevitably have left behind records concerning the Uchiha clan for the Hokage who came after him.
So far, Sasuke had only suffered one major shock: the night his clan was massacred. Other than that, there had been nothing else.
What Sasuke needed now was the Third Hokage's approval, not his wariness. If the Third Hokage discovered that he had awakened directly with three Tomoe, it would inevitably draw the Third Hokage's suspicion, perhaps even Danzo's attention.
That was why, over the past few years, he had never exposed the fact that he had awakened the Sharingan. Even Kurama Yakumo only vaguely knew that Sasuke had awakened it; she did not know how many Tomoe his Sharingan possessed.
Perhaps Kurama Yakumo had already guessed it while inside Sasuke's inner world, but she had never mentioned it.
"Kakashi-sensei, be careful!"
The moment he spoke, Sasuke and the clone beside him erupted with full force. Amid surging winds, they flashed straight before Kakashi in an instant.
They surrounded him together, so fast and so numerous that they were like shadows sweeping across his face, a dense black mass.
As expected of Shisui's Body Flicker Technique. Even my Sharingan can't distinguish, at least for the moment, which are afterimages, which are physical bodies, and which is the original.
Kakashi sighed inwardly as his body rapidly retreated. The short sword in his hand moved so fast that it nearly formed a dense curtain of blade shadows, while the clashing of swords rang out without pause.
Since I can't tell them apart, then...
Kakashi slashed hard with his short sword, sending out a bolt of lightning at tremendous speed. After barely forcing Sasuke back, he quickly formed hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A waterfall-like torrent surged up before Kakashi, forming a wall of water between him and Sasuke's clones. When the crimson blades struck the flowing water, they immediately gave off strange hissing sounds.
"Lightning Release: Earth Flash!"
Having just used the Water Formation Wall, Kakashi immediately followed up with a Lightning Release technique as Sasuke attacked. In an instant, he conducted lightning into the water, blasting Sasuke's clones to pieces.
The lightning continued racing toward Sasuke's true body at incredible speed.
Yet Sasuke merely retreated half a meter. With a twist of his wrist, the Chakra Metal katana in his hand instantly changed from red to white, streaks of lightning wrapping around its blade.
Kakashi's incoming Lightning Release: Earth Flash was like lightning encountering a lightning rod, irresistibly pouring into the blade as light and electricity flared brilliantly!
"Lightning Release: Lightning Return!"
Sasuke leaped into the air, gripping his sword with both hands. Condensing incomparably vicious lightning, he swung down fiercely amid raging winds and tearing air, the attack carrying terrifying force.
Lightning Return?
What kind of ninjutsu was that?
He had merely redirected my Lightning Release technique into his blade.
Kakashi complained inwardly, but his movements were anything but slow.
Facing Sasuke's made-up Lightning Return, Kakashi neither dodged nor retreated, rapidly forming several hand seals.
"Raikiri!"
Blue lightning condensed in Kakashi's hand. The current was so fierce and its presence so immense that it emitted the piercing shriek of a thousand birds crying at once!
Bang!
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
A strange sound rang out. The lightning in Kakashi's hand actually cut straight through the lightning surrounding Sasuke's blade, leaving a small but noticeable notch in the blade itself.
I've finally seen this technique!
Seeing the move he had long dreamed of, Sasuke had no time to mourn his weapon. He simply flipped backward.
Before he could land, Kakashi's body moved rapidly, kicking up bursts of whistling wind as he clung to him like a maggot to the bone.
Sasuke was forced to counterattack, but this time, he no longer used Uchiha Style swordsmanship or Fire Release Sword Technique. Instead, he used the same style Kakashi had inherited--
White Fang Sword Technique!
Perhaps it was because Sasuke had made far too deep an impression on him during their first meeting.
Perhaps the quiet favors Sasuke had cultivated earlier had paid off, and Sasuke was also a clansman of Uchiha Obito, as well as the Uchiha clan's only surviving orphan.
Or perhaps Kakashi simply found Sasuke pleasing to the eye.
After all, judging from the original timeline, although Uzumaki Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son, Kakashi paid more attention to Sasuke in terms of teaching from every angle. He had even secretly given Sasuke extra lessons in private.
Under Sasuke's deliberate efforts to get close to him, he had become Kakashi's student a year ago and begun receiving his guidance.
Since Sasuke excelled at swordsmanship, Kakashi taught him not only some ninjutsu, but also the White Fang Sword Technique passed down through his family.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sounds of blades colliding rang out continuously. Lightning and white flashes occasionally streaked over the weapons as the two traded fast attacks with even faster counters, moving so quickly that afterimages trailed behind them and dazzled the eye.
"Alright, that's enough!"
Kakashi stepped back, took a breath, and spoke.
"Alright, Kakashi-sensei."
Sasuke nodded. After taking several heavy breaths himself, he sheathed the katana in his hand.
Looking at Sasuke's calm expression, Kakashi fell silent for a moment before sighing. "Sasuke, your current strength has already surpassed mine when I was your age."
Kakashi had completed the jonin exam and become a jonin at the age of twelve, setting the record for the youngest jonin. Though that had partly been due to the war and the village's considerations regarding his father.
His own strength had also been close to jonin level at the time, at the very least reaching the level of a special jonin.
The reason Kakashi said that he had only been close to jonin level back then was because, shortly after becoming a jonin, he encountered Kakkō, an Iwagakure jonin. He suffered a crushing defeat, had his left eye stabbed blind, and even his White Fang Short Sword was broken.
Only after his close friend died, and with the support of the Sharingan, did he erupt in battle and kill the Iwagakure ninja. Only then did he truly possess jonin-level strength.
Sasuke was also twelve years old now. What Kakashi meant was that Sasuke already possessed the strength to fight a jonin head-on.
It was clear just how highly Kakashi regarded Sasuke.
Before you continue