What If-Just Hypothetically?

So fast!

Karura hurriedly began controlling the sand, sending it surging toward Kakashi in an attempt to intercept him before he got close.

Several streams of sand spread outward from Karura, attacking Kakashi like sand snakes!

She was going to use Sand Binding Coffin again to end the fight!

Seeing the streams of sand as he charged, Kakashi's vigilance rose to its peak.

All the attacks were coming from the front. As long as he focused and made use of his current speed, dodging them wouldn't be difficult!

Just before the first sand snake reached him, Kakashi tilted his head to the side and dodged the attack.

He dodged one, but two more sand snakes came at him at the same time. Faced with them, he could only lower his body as much as possible, nearly flattening himself against the ground to narrowly evade them.

Even after the sand snakes missed, the attack wasn't over. They seemed to have minds of their own and chased after Kakashi from behind.

However, the sand snakes were already far too slow to catch up with Kakashi now that he had unleashed his full speed.

"Desert Wave!"

Seeing that her attempt to intercept Kakashi had failed, Karura decisively strengthened her defense. But by then, it was too late.

Desert Wave had barely been released, and the spikes on the sand shield hadn't fully formed when Kakashi had already reached Karura.

The Chidori in his hand pierced through the sand shield with a piercing crackle!

Until now, Sand Release had been invincible, practically an absolute defense. But against the Chidori, it was no different from any other material—it crumbled at the slightest touch!

Kakashi's hand passed through the sand and shot straight toward Karura's neck!

"What!"

Karura's pupils contracted. She clearly hadn't expected her sand shield to be pierced so easily.

The shrill crackling rang right before her. She had no doubt that if the Chidori struck her neck, she would die on the spot.

But the instant the attack pierced the sand shield, the lightning in Kakashi's palm vanished, and his hand shifted into a grasping gesture. He grabbed Karura by the neck.

"Got you."

Kakashi clearly remembered the rules: no deliberately killing anyone during the third exam. Besides, his opponent had shown concern for him at the start of the fight.

"I forfeit..."

After saying this, Karura nodded to Kakashi with a grateful look.

Kakashi nodded back.

"The match is over!"

Since Karura had forfeited, the referee declared the match over.

The stands erupted.

"What kind of jutsu was that?"

"That was amazing. I could actually see the chakra!"

"So that's Kakashi? He's already created his own jutsu? Does that mean Akiyama Shun, who's always with him, has created a jutsu too?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You think creating a jutsu like that is easy? One person doing it is already incredible. You expect there to be two?"

"What if—just hypothetically?"

"Was Kakashi so late because he was practicing that jutsu?"

On the high platform,

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the Third Kazekage with a beaming smile.

"Well? I told you I believed in that boy."

As he spoke, Sarutobi Hiruzen kept his eyes on the Third Kazekage's expression. When he saw a flicker of frustration in the other man's eyes, he felt even happier.

"Heh. As expected of the White Fang of Konoha's son. To create his own jutsu at such a young age... It has incredible piercing power, and his decisions in battle were decisive."

The Third Kazekage's praise was sincere. Anyone who could accomplish so much at that age deserved a few words of praise, even if he wasn't from Sunagakure.

"No, Kakashi didn't create that jutsu."

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head.

"Kakashi didn't create it? Was it the White Fang of Konoha, then?"

The first person the Third Kazekage thought of was the White Fang of Konoha. He was famous for his swordsmanship, but it wouldn't have been strange for someone like him to create a jutsu.

"No, it was that boy named Akiyama Shun."

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe and continued, "Akiyama Shun taught it to Kakashi over the past few days."

The Third Kazekage fell silent.

So after all that, you were just telling me I wasn't well-informed enough to know about a prodigy like Akiyama Shun, who could both create jutsu and teach them well?

The Third Kazekage looked toward the stands, where Akiyama Shun was sitting with Kakashi.

He remembered that Akiyama Shun didn't come from any particularly distinguished family. He was a textbook civilian-born genius. Why did Konoha keep producing people like this?

First Namikaze Minato, and now Akiyama Shun.

Noticing the Third Kazekage's envy, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt even happier.

As for whether the Third Kazekage would lose his temper and try something against Akiyama Shun or Kakashi, Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't worried in the slightest.

Who was here, after all?

Not only was he, the Hokage, here, but so were Akiyama Shun's student, Jiraiya; Akiyama Shun's teacher, Tsunade; and Namikaze Minato.

Sunagakure wasn't in any position to pull any tricks.

After a long silence, the Third Kazekage finally said, "Then congratulations to Konoha. You've produced quite a genius."

Hearing his congratulations, Sarutobi Hiruzen waved a hand. "Sunagakure is doing well too."

He didn't say what, exactly, was going well.

Meanwhile, back in the arena,

the matches were still underway.

There were four matches in all today.

Kakashi had been in the third match, which meant Akiyama Shun would be in the fourth.

But their opponents were on completely different levels.

Kakashi had fought Karura, while Akiyama Shun was up against an ordinary exam participant.

He was even from Konoha.

Since they were from the same village, Akiyama Shun wasn't about to knock him out at the start and deny him any chance to show what he could do.

The Konoha shinobi was clever too. After showing off his abilities, he forfeited on his own, even though Akiyama Shun hadn't hurt him at all during the match.

After they left the arena, he sought Akiyama Shun out and thanked him.

He knew that if they had fought for real, he wouldn't have lasted even one round against Akiyama Shun. Akiyama Shun had been giving him a chance in the arena, helping him advance to Chunin more securely.

That was the end of it, after Akiyama Shun thanked him.

Four people advanced today. They drew lots for tomorrow's semifinal matchups, and Kakashi didn't draw Akiyama Shun again.

In an official competition like this, unlike the practical exams at the Ninja Academy, Kakashi couldn't ask someone to trade lots with him.

But it didn't matter to Kakashi.

The other two semifinalists were both quite ordinary. Kakashi was confident he could defeat either of them in under a minute, and then the final would still be between him and Akiyama Shun.

The semifinals and the final would both take place tomorrow.

That evening,

while out for a walk after dinner, Akiyama Shun ran into two familiar faces on the street.

Jiraiya and Namikaze Minato seemed to be discussing something.