Rouga Nadare

Kakashi, who was preparing to head back to find Naraku, had not gone far before he encountered two individuals.

They wore a special type of armor and launched an attack on Kakashi with kunai in their hands.

These two were the very same ones who had been chasing Naraku earlier; they had followed him all the way to this location.

Facing the sudden onslaught, Kakashi did not let his guard down; he drew the short blade from his back and engaged them in a fierce battle.

"Ice Release, Ice Prison Technique!"

The burly man among the two quickly formed hand seals and let out a loud shout.

White ice erupted from the ground around Kakashi, rapidly forming a prison that trapped him inside.

"Excellent, you're caught," the burly man couldn't help but smile after seeing Kakashi completely encased within the ice.

"Watch out behind you!" Before he could celebrate too early, his companion's cry of alarm reached his ears.

The burly man turned his head, only to see a flash of silver.

Squelch!

The next moment, he felt a chill at his neck. Instinctively, he covered his throat with his hands, and bright red blood began to flow between his fingers. "Ugh!"

After a pained groan, the burly man lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. Kakashi's figure then emerged, and one could see that the silver short blade in his hand was stained with blood.

"Ice Release ninjutsu, huh," Kakashi muttered to himself.

Just as the ice prison was about to form, he had submerged into the ground, moved behind the burly man, and finished him off while his guard was down.

When it came down to it, this was simply a gap in strength. The burly man was only a chunin; even if he could use Ice Release, he was no match for Kakashi.

The rest of the battle was even easier. The remaining man was of similar strength to the burly man and soon fell before Kakashi as well.

After sealing the two corpses into a scroll and erasing the traces of the battle, Kakashi turned back. He had just received a message from his shadow clone that Naraku had already arrived at their rendezvous point.

His tense nerves relaxed slightly without him realizing it.

"As expected of Kai, he's already finished it," beneath the glacier, Naraku, who had been keeping his eyes closed, seemed to sense something and snapped his eyes open. Beside him lay the unconscious Fuyubana Koyuki.

"However, if it's only this much, it won't put any pressure on you, Kai," Naraku muttered.

He then turned his head to the side, a slow smile spreading across his lips. "I hope your performance will be a bit better!"

Before long, Kakashi arrived, looking at Naraku with a slight frown. "Where did you go just now?"

"Eh," Naraku paused for a moment. "I was targeted by two rats. It took a bit of time to shake them off."

Naraku explained casually.

"Alright, we need to get this young lady out of here quickly. It will be troublesome if Fuyubana Dotō catches up to us."

Hearing this, Kakashi said nothing more. He bent down to scoop the unconscious Fuyubana Koyuki into his arms, and they set off once again.

They hadn't gone far, however, before they came to a halt. It wasn't because they were tired, but because a man clad in Snow Ninja armor stood in their path.

"Rouga Nadare." Seeing the newcomer, Naraku's eyes lit up. Just as he prepared to charge forward, someone was faster than him—Kakashi.

"Take Koyuki and go first."

Having dropped those words, he gripped his short blade and charged at Rouga Nadare. The blade traced a bright arc through the air, aimed straight at the opponent's vitals as if tearing through the atmosphere.

"Heh, just two brats, are they?" Rouga Nadare dodged Kakashi's attack with a slight tilt of his body, his sharp gaze falling upon Naraku and the girl with utter disdain.

"Has Konoha fallen to such a state?" he remarked with a contemptuous tone.

Although both Kakashi and Naraku wore masks, the well-traveled Rouga Nadare still recognized their identities.

Ignoring the mockery, Naraku had already begun moving in another direction with Fuyubana Koyuki in his arms the moment Kakashi charged.

Kakashi's actions were exactly as Naraku had expected.

"Brat, I can't let you just walk away like that," Rouga Nadare said, preparing to move as he saw Naraku leaving.

But the next moment, a silver figure blocked his path once again.

"Get out of the way, brat, or you'll die," Rouga Nadare said after seeing Kakashi standing before him.

Unless absolutely necessary, Rouga Nadare did not want to truly engage Kakashi and his companion. Despite his dismissive words about Konoha, he knew full well the status of the village.

Even if Konoha had declined, it was not a power the Land of Snow could afford to provoke. Furthermore, given the age of Kakashi and Naraku, they were undoubtedly geniuses of Konoha, which gave him pause.

Kakashi naturally ignored his words. He gripped his short blade, staring at Rouga Nadare with a serious expression.

From the way the man had dodged his attack earlier, it was clear that Rouga Nadare's taijutsu was superior to his own. His strength was worlds apart from the two Snow Ninjas he had faced earlier; Kakashi dared not be careless.

"Since that's the case, don't blame me for being ruthless." As the strongest enforcer under Fuyubana Dotō, Rouga Nadare was not a man of many words. He quickly formed hand seals.

"Ice Release: One-Horned White Whale!"

With a low shout from Rouga Nadare, the ground trembled violently. A massive white whale erupted from the earth, shattering the snow as it lunged straight toward Kakashi.

Kakashi's eyes flickered. He had already lifted his headband, and his scarlet eye glowed with an eerie light against the snowy backdrop.

Relying on the dynamic vision of his Sharingan, he easily tracked the whale's trajectory, then pushed off with his feet and leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the attack.

"That is..." Rouga Nadare paused slightly upon seeing Kakashi's scarlet eye, but his expression quickly turned fierce once more.

"It's not over yet." He raised one hand and slashed it toward Kakashi. The white whale on the ground leaped into the air, lunging at Kakashi once again.

Kakashi remained completely unfazed, his hands moving in a rapid blur of seals.

"Chidori."

Blue arcs of electricity surged over his hand, as fierce and jagged as real lightning.

With thunder gripped in his palm, Kakashi met the charging White Whale head-on.

Bang!

The massive collision unleashed a shockwave, and the White Whale, composed entirely of ice, shattered into fragments under the impact of the lightning.

"What kind of jutsu is this?" Rouga Nadare muttered, stunned. In his eyes, Kakashi was nothing more than a teenage brat; he hadn't expected him to be capable of blocking his attack.

"As expected of a genius from Konoha."

"But I wonder, how many times can you block an attack like that!"