The enormous wave crashed down.
The raging Wood Dragon that had churned the lake lost its supply of chakra.
With a bang, it turned into a massive log over ten meters long, floating quietly on the still-heaving water.
Kakashi forced his weakened body to stay upright, kneeling on one knee on the muddy shore.
He pointed at the enormous log on the lake, his finger trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.
"You... you just..."
Kakashi's voice had gone completely off-key, as though someone were strangling him.
"The way you circulated your chakra just now... that was Water Dragon Bullet's pattern?!"
Sen blinked innocently at Kakashi's thunderstruck expression.
He nodded, his tone as casual as if he were discussing what to have for dinner.
"Yeah."
"I saw you and that guy with no eyebrows making hand seals. It looked pretty cool, so I gave it a try."
Sen spread his hands, looking somewhat helpless.
"Unfortunately, I don't have water-nature chakra, so I had to use wood instead."
He even curled his lip, delivering an extremely picky assessment of the "Wood Dragon Bullet" that had just stunned everyone present.
"Using wood to imitate flowing water still feels a little clunky. The power seemed a bit lacking."
"If I used actual water, it should have more explosive force."
Barely passable?
The power was a bit lacking?!
Hearing those words, Kakashi felt blood surge straight to his head, and his vision went black.
His proud title of "Copy Ninja."
It had been built on his chakra-draining Sharingan and years upon years of painstaking training!
He had to see his opponent's extremely complex hand seals clearly, possess the corresponding chakra nature himself, and instantly determine the path of the chakra flow.
Only by meeting all three demanding conditions could he just barely copy