Countering Kotoamatsukami?

"Hey, Cao Ya." Might Guy greeted him enthusiastically, flashing his trademark smile. His pearly white teeth reflected the sunlight, almost dazzling.

Beside him, Kakashi rolled his eyes.

"Guy, Kakashi." Cao Ya smiled in greeting. His name in this world was Udagawa Cao Ya.

Cao Ya served in the Anbu and counted as one of its members. He had also been in the same year as Kakashi and Guy, so naturally, they knew one another.

But he had stopped attending the Ninja Academy afterward, and they had gradually drifted apart.

Only after Root was disbanded on the surface and he joined the Anbu, able to walk in the sunlight, had he rebuilt his friendship with Kakashi and Guy.

"Kakashi, are these your students?" Cao Ya sat down and looked at Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

"Yes." Kakashi nodded.

Naruto eyed Cao Ya suspiciously. "Old man, who are you?"

"Naruto, be polite," Sakura admonished him, flashing a sweet smile that instantly captivated Naruto and Rock Lee.

But Sasuke, the one Sakura cared about, paid no attention at all.

Sakura lowered her head dejectedly.

"Starting romances this young isn't good for your health," Cao Ya teased.

Sakura immediately blushed, steam practically rising from her head.

Naruto and Rock Lee exchanged looks, each eyeing the other as a romantic rival, then snorted.

"Pointless," Sasuke said coldly.

Guy, however, was so excited that tears welled in his eyes. "Oh, this is the hot blood of youth! Kakashi!"

Kakashi's face darkened.

Damn it, these kids are precocious, getting caught up in all this lovey-dovey stuff. Guy, why are you butting in? And why drag my name into it?!

He couldn't help shooting Cao Ya a glance.

Cao Ya teased, "Kakashi, so many women are chasing you. Why aren't you married yet? You clutch a copy of Icha Icha Paradise every single day. You should know that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth! Or could it be..."

He grinned wickedly. "You're not interested in women?"

"Get lost!" Kakashi snapped.

I'm not interested in women?

Then why would I read Icha Icha Paradise?

"Cao Ya, you seem to have changed," Guy said out of the blue.

Cao Ya froze.

Guy scratched his head. "You seem more cheerful. You used to smile a lot, but you were actually a little worried."

"Maybe I've made some progress." Cao Ya raised his eyebrows. Guy's perception was so sharp!

After entering System Space, his strength had skyrocketed, and System Space had even directly washed away his Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal. Indeed, his mood was very different now.

Even if he took ten thousand steps back and assumed he couldn't kill Danzo, he could simply defect. With his foreknowledge of the Shinobi World, he generally wouldn't face too much danger as long as he stayed cautious.

Guy's eyes lit up. "Progress in taijutsu? Cao Ya, I challenge you!"

Beside him, Sasuke couldn't help looking at Cao Ya, his gaze holding both scrutiny and anticipation.

At this point, he yearned for revenge and desperately needed power!

Cao Ya naturally refused. He still had to make his move against Danzo later and couldn't expose his strength now.

Who knew whether someone with an ulterior motive might see him sparring with Guy?

Although Cao Ya was a member of Root, he actually wasn't familiar with Root himself.

Apart from Danzo, only a handful of people, such as Torune Aburame and Yamanaka Fū, knew all of Root's members.

Cao Ya noticed Sasuke's gaze but pretended he hadn't.

Too many people were watching the Uchiha orphan. Given his current circumstances, he still needed to stay away from that vortex.

Besides, with Itachi watching over him, Sasuke was destined to possess the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

Those eyes were the true foundation of Sasuke's power.

Cao Ya's strength, however, lay mainly in taijutsu.

The systems of [The Masters of This World] and [Global Martial Arts] had nothing whatsoever to do with the ninja chakra of [Naruto]. For ninjutsu and illusion techniques, he still relied entirely on his original jonin knowledge.

Unfortunately, the original Cao Ya

had been someone with a lopsided skill set. He was better than Guy in that respect, but only by a very limited margin.

His mastery of taijutsu was also eight broad avenues behind Guy's.

Basically, in fights between jonin, Cao Ya used no ninjutsu or illusion techniques beyond the Three Basic Techniques.

Taijutsu is still easier to use. Cao Ya shed tears inwardly.

Back then, he had held sky-high hopes for ninjutsu, and especially illusion techniques.

Fortunately, he now had the support of his counterparts from seven worlds, including [The Masters of This World] and [Global Martial Arts]. His taijutsu was incredibly powerful, and apart from Guy, he could truly say he feared no one.

Team 7 and Team Guy left first. The Chunin Ninja Exams were coming up, and they needed to give their students special training.

Cao Ya ate his tonkotsu ramen, paid the bill, and left.

Because he only belonged to the Anbu on paper and actually took orders from Danzo,

very few Anbu missions were assigned to him.

Over the next few days, Cao Ya stayed home and seldom went out, focusing entirely on researching how to counter Kotoamatsukami.

The final result was... he couldn't!

He could only dodge it in advance!

To forcibly break Kotoamatsukami head-on, he would at least need the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Someone like Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, probably wouldn't fear Kotoamatsukami.

After all, Kotoamatsukami was also cast through ocular power.

And the ocular power of the Rinnegan and the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan definitely exceeded that of a single Mangekyo Sharingan eye.

Danzo only had one of Shisui's eyes. The other was in Itachi's possession.

There was even less need to mention the Six Paths Level, which was practically immune to all ninjutsu.

Even Kotoamatsukami cast with both eyes would be useless against the Six Paths Level!

"Casting Kotoamatsukami requires concentrating chakra in the eye, and there's also a brief pause when it's cast."

Cao Ya pondered, his brow gradually relaxing. As long as there was a window of time, however short, it was an opening.

"Besides, Danzo doesn't know I have information on him. He still thinks all his information is well hidden!"

"Hmm, that way of thinking isn't wrong either."

Cao Ya tapped his fingers on the table, producing clear, ringing sounds.

He nodded almost imperceptibly and murmured to himself, "No technique is invincible! As long as you have the information, you can always come up with a way to deal with it."

"That holds true even for Kotoamatsukami, the strongest illusion technique, a technique that seems impossible to counter!"

At this point, Cao Ya had lifted a weight from his mind and ate three large bowls of rice at dinner.

The participating teams from the various ninja villages arrived, and the Chunin Ninja Exams soon began.

Cao Ya paid no attention whatsoever to the written exam or the round in the Forest of Death.

He patiently waited for the final elimination rounds.

"Hmm, Orochimaru should have already killed the Fourth Kazekage by now."

Honestly, Cao Ya couldn't understand this decision of the Fourth Kazekage's.

Joining forces with Orochimaru to attack Konoha?

What was he after?

Relieving the pressure on Sunagakure? What a joke. Konoha had suffered a devastating blow. If the Third Hokage hadn't died and the Fifth Hokage couldn't be chosen in the short term, Sunagakure would definitely have faced a lethal retaliatory strike from Konoha!

Could Sunagakure's measly handful of resources withstand Konoha going all out?

If they really could kill the Third Hokage as planned, creating a power vacuum in Konoha, there was indeed a slight possibility that Sunagakure could seize the opportunity to reap benefits.

The problem was that the Fourth Kazekage had died even earlier than the Third Hokage!

All he could say was that Fourth Kazekage Rasa was utterly useless!

And the things he had done to Gaara really weren't things a human being should do.

If even someone with water in his brain like that could become Kazekage, all he could say was that Sunagakure truly had no one left!