This Battle Had Been Nothing More Than a Tease from the Very Beginning!

Inside the shrine.

Yamada Tetsuya kept swinging his blade to suppress the anxious Kakashi before him, preventing Kakashi from going to rescue him. A delighted, bloodthirsty smile hung on his face as he spoke.

"Ha ha ha! Although Koichi was always so snide most of the time, he was pretty useful when it mattered!"

"Bastard, just stand there and watch another bastard die!"

"Clang!"

Kakashi struggled to block the katana before him. As he watched Hyuga Setsuna, who was about to be struck by the three-headed wolf, anxiety and fury flickered in his eyes.

Damn it, if only I were a little stronger.

Driven by anger and anxiety, Kakashi stopped merely defending against Yamada Tetsuya's slashes and instead launched a nearly berserk counterattack.

The short blade in his hand repeatedly became sharp streaks of light as it slashed toward Yamada Tetsuya. He had clearly abandoned all defense; every move was a strike meant to take them both down together!

Seeing the brat before him acting so out of character, Yamada Tetsuya grew excited as well. Failing to take down this brat for so long had truly felt humiliating.

Now that the brat had finally lost his composure, his chance had come!

"Splat!"

Bright red blood flowed from Kakashi's forehead, passing over his exhausted eyes and blurring the world before him.

The dog-faced mask that had concealed his face had long since been knocked flying into the distance.

"Boom!!"

A terrifying blast suddenly rang out, accompanied by a dreadful cyan wind pressure.

Kakashi's already weakened body was immediately swept away by the wind pressure and sent flying backward.

Using his short blade embedded in the ground to prop himself up, Kakashi looked despairingly toward the place where Hyuga Setsuna had vanished. His blood-covered face was filled with sorrow and regret.

"Setsuna was obviously so strong. How did this happen?!"

If... if I had listened to him and fought that sensory-type guy, then Setsuna... he wouldn't have died.

Did Setsuna die because of me?

Tokugawa Koichi lowered the arm shielding him and looked at the spot where Hyuga Setsuna had vanished after being struck by the three-headed wolf. He mockingly said to Kakashi with a carefree expression, "My, my, I never expected that guy to be so weak!"

Hearing Tokugawa Koichi's mocking words, Kakashi opened his mouth to retort, but his severe injuries forced him to cough up blood instead.

"Urgh, cough, cough!"

Blinding blood kept dripping onto the ground. Yamada Tetsuya looked at Kakashi not far ahead and raised the Snow Walker blade resting on his shoulder.

"Alright, that bastard is dead. Since I can't feed him to the dogs, I can only chop you into mincemeat and feed you to them instead!"

With that, Yamada Tetsuya walked toward Kakashi with a bloodthirsty smile.

At that moment, a clear voice carrying a teasing tone suddenly rang out across the battlefield.

"Hey, Kakashi, are you already done for?"

"I told you long ago to fight that kidney-deficient sensory-type guy, but you just had to stubbornly go fight that idiot over there!"

As that clear voice rang out, the expressions of the three people present changed instantly.

Tokugawa Koichi's face immediately turned pale, because the voice had come from behind him.

Yamada Tetsuya stopped in his tracks as he walked toward Kakashi, the bloodthirsty smile on his face frozen stiff.

As for Kakashi, who was half-kneeling while leaning on his short blade, the despair and sorrow on his face froze when he heard that voice. Then uncontrollable joy and laughter overtook him. He kept coughing, but his laughter never stopped.

"Setsuna, you bastard! If you weren't dead, you should've come out sooner!!!"

Then, as though some unknown strength had suddenly supported him, Kakashi swayed upright, proudly raised his head, widened his eyes, and said to the stunned Yamada Tetsuya in the distance.

"Idiot, our battle isn't over yet!!"

Perhaps because he had spent so much time with Hyuga Setsuna lately, the once icy Kakashi had become sharp-tongued as well!

Kakashi pulled the short blade from the ground, continuously squeezing the Chakra within his body dry. Then he leaped toward Yamada Tetsuya. Lightning began to coil around the blade in his hand as it drew an arc like a thunderbolt and slashed down at Yamada Tetsuya.

Yamada Tetsuya snapped back to his senses. Looking at the short blade cutting toward him, he roared and charged forward.

Seeing Kakashi regain his fighting spirit and become even fiercer than before, Hyuga Setsuna smiled as well.

Then the smile on Hyuga Setsuna's face changed. Looking at Tokugawa Koichi before him, whose forehead was drenched in cold sweat, he said with malicious mockery in his voice.

"You didn't really think I was defeated that easily by your Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, did you?"

"This battle had been nothing more than a tease from the very beginning!"

Feeling the malicious words coming from behind him, Tokugawa Koichi wanted to say something to stall for time and recover his Chakra. But an invisible ripple suddenly locked onto him tightly.

Along with that ripple came an Eight Trigrams formation that suddenly spread open.

Only then did Hyuga Setsuna's voice slowly reach him.

"Forget it. I'm not interested in hearing you talk. Now it's time for me to send you to the world of the dead!"

With that, Hyuga Setsuna assumed the stance of the Gentle Fist Art.

"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

"Two Palms!"

"Four Palms!"

"Eight Palms!"

"Sixteen Palms!"

"Thirty-Two Palms!"

"Sixty-Four Palms!"

As Hyuga Setsuna's clear voice rang out, blue Chakra flames ignited around his hands. He continuously struck at the sixty-four Chakra points on Tokugawa Koichi's body.

Facing the incoming Gentle Fist: Sixty-Four Palms, Tokugawa Koichi desperately wanted to move his body aside, but the Ninjutsu and Genjutsu he had just cast had already drained all his Chakra.

"Bang!!"

Countless palm shadows, carrying overwhelming force that shook everything, landed on Tokugawa Koichi's body!

Tokugawa Koichi's frail body was like a broken rag doll as it was sent flying by that overwhelming force and smashed viciously into the distance!

Yamada Tetsuya, who was fighting Kakashi, stared at Tokugawa Koichi as he slammed to the ground like a rag doll. His expression immediately froze.

A sharp light flashed through Kakashi's eyes. He swiftly seized the opportunity, and the short blade in his hand traced a desolate arc as it came down on Yamada Tetsuya.

"Splat!"

Bright red blood sprayed across the ground like a fountain. Yamada Tetsuya's chest and heart had been torn open, leaving behind a grotesque wound.

With disbelief in his eyes, Yamada Tetsuya looked at Tokugawa Koichi's dead body lying on the ground in the distance. He paid no attention to the agony radiating from the grotesque wound in his chest and heart.

He licked his dry lips. His blood-red eyes held an indescribably complicated emotion as he spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Hey, Koichi, if you're not dead, get up and say something!!"

Yet all that answered him was deathly silence.

It felt as though an inexplicable emotion had surfaced in his heart, making him feel awful.

Second update!

It felt like writing battle scenes might not suit me very well...

Writing psychological descriptions felt so exhausting. I really envied those great writers who could sketch out an unforgettable character with just a few sentences... It felt like a whole bunch of brain cells had died!