Chunin Ninja Exams 6

"Hmph, do you think I'm one of those useless weaklings who can't fight hand-to-hand?"

Sasori, with Kakashi closing in on him, did not panic in the slightest.

While controlling his two puppets to fall back and defend him, he spat out a smoke bomb he had prepared beforehand.

Bang! A cloud of thick purple smoke rose, obscuring the view.

Within the smoke, Sasori quickly retreated and took another smoke bomb from his ninja tool pouch, hiding it in his mouth.

But what caught him off guard was Kakashi, who should have been delayed by the smoke for at least several seconds.

Almost the instant he tucked the smoke bomb into his mouth, Kakashi's attack arrived.

"Ninja Art: Earth Walk!"

Relying on his sharp perception, Kakashi unleashed a Lightning Release technique toward Sasori's approximate location.

Deep-purple lightning crackled violently as it struck toward Sasori.

The moment he heard the current, Sasori felt his right leg go numb. He had been hit!

"How was he so fast?!"

It was not as though he had never seen Jonin or stronger ninja use ninjutsu.

Although Lightning Release was renowned for its speed among the various elemental techniques, Sasori had never expected Kakashi's attack to land so quickly after being launched.

Unsure whether the smoke was poisonous, Kakashi cautiously chose not to pursue through it.

That gave Sasori a brief chance to catch his breath. His two puppets had already moved in close to protect him.

"You know? Back then, my father only needed two moves to kill your useless parents... Oh, these two right here."

Before he finished speaking, Kakashi had already circled around the smoke from above and slashed at the male puppet.

"Just like this!"

"Shut up!" Sasori, clearly angered, roared furiously.

A dazzling white flash streaked out, its edge tinged with dark-blue light.

The male puppet raised its right arm in an attempt to block the slash, while the female puppet covered it by firing numerous poisoned senbon from her mouth.

Prepared in advance, Kakashi used the iron bracer around his empty left forearm to block every senbon, whose firing speed was not particularly fast.

Screech...

Amid a crisp cutting sound, Kakashi's short blade split the male puppet in two from its right shoulder to its left hip.

"Your dad's gone." Without forgetting to taunt him, Kakashi struck successfully and pressed his advantage, refusing to give Sasori a chance to regroup.

He ignored the female puppet rapidly trying to track his movements behind him.

Kakashi positioned himself between Sasori and the two puppets, increasing the flow of Senjutsu energy into the nerves of his eyes.

"I see them!"

In midair, ignoring the intense discomfort caused by his nerves enduring an excessive amount of Senjutsu energy, blue-white blade light flared in Kakashi's hand once more.

He slashed toward several blurry blue threads he could vaguely see through his perception.

"What?!"

Feeling the sudden lightness in his hand and realizing Kakashi had severed his chakra control threads, Sasori was so shocked that his thoughts blanked out for an instant.

Never mind how Kakashi had discovered his control threads—how had he managed to cut them?

The chakra control threads upon which puppeteers depended for survival had never been known to be detectable, aside from special dojutsu bloodlines such as the Byakugan.

More often, a loss of control occurred when the source or the endpoint was severed.

The caster's chakra output would be interrupted, or the receiving points inside the puppet would be blocked. But Kakashi's brutal method was utterly unheard of...

Thanks to the high-grade corrosive properties of Senjutsu energy, Kakashi's blade light directly "devoured" Sasori's puppet control threads.

Sasori stood stunned, but Kakashi did not care about that.

"Chidori Sharp Spear!"

Over the past half year, while developing ninjutsu, Kakashi had recreated the Chidori from the original work. He had even gone a step further and mastered the more advanced transformation, Chidori Sharp Spear.

To be safe, unsure whether Sasori at this point might be insane enough to turn himself into a Human Puppet, Kakashi chose a semi-ranged attack.

Purple Chidori formed in Kakashi's hand, swiftly skipping past the stage of Chidori's chirping and extending into the second-stage Chidori Sharp Spear.

In the blink of an eye, by the time Sasori snapped out of his daze, it was already too late.

He only felt something strike his chest. Then piercing pain surged into his brain.

His originally handsome, delicate boyish face twisted, his brows drawn tight and his eyes bulging while his mouth hung wide open, making him look especially agonized and grotesque.

"Wind Release: Sickle Weasel!" A voice came from the distance.

"Watch out, Kakashi!" Aburame Haru cried out from behind him.

Kakashi did not need Haru's warning. His increasingly sharp perception had long detected the Sand Village ninja rushing over from the other side of the suspension bridge.

Before the Wind Release attack could hit him, Kakashi flashed back to Inuzuka Kawa and the others.

"Are you all right, Kakashi?" Kawa asked guiltily after coming back to his senses.

"I'm fine. It's just a pity I didn't finish him off. Sand Village reinforcements are here, so this will be troublesome."

"I'm sorry. It was all my fault. Otherwise, we should have captured him long ago..."

Kakashi had already nearly defeated the opponent in a short time while fighting alone. If things had gone according to plan, with Haru assisting him, the battle might have ended long ago.

But at this point, there was no meaning in saying more.

Sasori, badly injured by Chidori Sharp Spear, was fortunately rescued by his Sand Village companions. The Sand Village ninja who arrived quickly took Sasori and retreated.

If even Sasori, the village's foremost genius, could not defeat the enemy, the Sand Village Genin had no confidence in facing them.

As for Konoha's side, with Yoshiu Kawama severely injured, Kakashi and the others did not choose to pursue.

Carefully carrying Yoshiu Kawama, they found the Jonin examiner at Fifth Peak and requested outside medical personnel to enter, taking the severely wounded and unconscious Yoshiu Kawama out of Cloud Thunder Gorge.

As for whether he could be saved, Kakashi honestly felt there was little hope. Still, it was better than waiting here to die.

After dealing with Yoshiu Kawama's situation, the three members of Team 7 hastily finished dinner and found a shallow, sheltered cave to spend the night.

At night, they lit a bonfire inside the cave.

The three sat around the fire, and after a long silence—

"Today... I'm sorry. Kakashi, Haru! I let you down."

"From now on, I absolutely won't hold the team back again! I swear!"

With an expression full of remorse, Inuzuka Kawa solemnly made this promise to his two teammates.

"Actually... you don't need to be so serious, Kawa." Aburame Haru was at a loss for how to handle the situation.

"As ninja, we'll inevitably experience more partings and deaths in the future. So learning to calmly assess the current situation is an extremely important ability."

Kakashi poked at the bonfire, trying to make the flames burn brighter.

Cloud Thunder Gorge was at a high altitude, and the temperature difference between day and night was great.

The days were scorching, but the nights felt quite chilly.

"Kawa, you don't need to blame yourself over this either. It's your weakness, but it's also one of your human virtues. I mean that sincerely."

Inuzuka Kawa froze, not expecting his teammate to say that. Then his face reddened, and he stammered, unable to find the words.

Seeing this, Haru beside him laughed, a rare sound.

It made Inuzuka Kawa reveal his true nature somewhat as he began loudly protesting.

Gradually, the temperature inside the cave slowly rose again.