"Who... exactly are you?"
Kakashi Hatake's voice was hoarse and dry. In his scarlet Sharingan, the three tomoe trembled violently with shock, as though they might shatter the next second. The motion perception he took such pride in, the copying ability that had made his name, had become a complete and utter joke in less than a thousandth of a second.
Shengu Xuan did not answer his philosophical question. He simply set the copy of Icha Icha Paradise, with its rather indecent cover, gently in front of Kakashi. The smile on his face remained as harmless as ever.
"Kakashi-sensei, you dropped your book."
Those plain words struck Kakashi across the face like the loudest of slaps.
He had not even felt when the book fell!
That meant that, faced with the other's inconceivable speed, he had not only lost the bells, but had failed to notice even the loss of his own belongings! This was no longer an overwhelming defeat in combat. This was an attack from an entirely higher dimension of perception!
"Impossible... absolutely impossible!" Kakashi jerked his head up, his Sharingan locked firmly on Shengu Xuan as he tried to find even the slightest trace of chakra fluctuations on him.
Nothing!
There was nothing at all!
He was like an ordinary boy next door, with not even the slightest energy response to detect. Yet this very "ordinary person" had just displayed pure physical movement speed that not even the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique could rival!
"Don't believe it?" Shengu Xuan saw through Kakashi's thoughts, a hint of playfulness entering his smile. "The Sharingan is a fine thing, but it has its limits. Its motion perception captures the 'process.' But if I'm so fast that there's no 'process,' only a 'beginning' and a 'result,' what can it see?"
Before he had finished speaking, Shengu Xuan's figure once again vanished-from Kakashi's sight!
This time, Kakashi's eyes widened as he pushed his Sharingan's perception to its utmost limit! He swore he had seen it! He had seen an extremely faint, momentary distortion in the space around Shengu Xuan, like ripples on water. Then he was gone!
Thump!
A soft sound came from behind him.
Kakashi's body suddenly stiffened. He felt a palm pat him lightly on the back.
A chill strong enough to freeze his very soul shot up his spine to the crown of his head!
He had lost.
If the other wanted to kill him, the back of his heart would already have been pierced no fewer than ten times.
"Do you believe it now?" Shengu Xuan's voice drifted over. He withdrew his hand, as though he had merely done something utterly trivial.
Slowly, with immense difficulty, Kakashi turned around and looked at the boy who had reappeared before him. Beneath his mask, he had bitten his lip until it bled. The rusty taste spread through his mouth, yet it was nothing compared to the bitterness and shock in his heart.
He, the Copy Ninja Kakashi Hatake, an elite jonin renowned for years, had today been taught the meaning of "despair" by a twelve-year-old genin wielding two kinds of power he could not understand at all.
"Gulp..."
Buried in the ground with only his head exposed, Sasuke Uchiha swallowed with difficulty.
Today, Shengu Xuan had smashed his entire worldview to pieces in the most brutal way possible.
A genius?
Before that undying, indestructible army, before that speed that even the Sharingan could not capture, what did his little bit of talent amount to? It was nothing but a joke!
The power to take revenge on that man, which he had always pursued, was as insignificant as dust compared with the power Shengu Xuan had displayed.
So monsters this... unreasonable really did exist in the world.
"Hey! What the heck happened?!" Naruto Uzumaki had just climbed out of the river and was dripping wet. Looking at the bizarre scene before him, his brain could not process it at all. "Kakashi-sensei, what's wrong with you? Sasuke, why are you planted in the ground? And Sakura... why did she pass out? What about the bells? Who got the bells?"
His rapid-fire questions broke the deathly silence.
Shengu Xuan glanced at the noisy blond boy and ignored him. He walked over to Sasuke, who had become completely petrified, and tossed one of the bells beside his head with a clang.
"Yours."
Then he walked over to the unconscious Sakura and gently tucked the other bell into her hand.
"Hers."
Having done all this, Shengu Xuan dusted off his hands and turned to Kakashi, who still could not pull himself out of his profound shock.
"Kakashi-sensei, the test should be over now, right?" Shengu Xuan's tone was as calm as still water. "Those two got the bells. That idiot and I are eliminated. It fits your original script perfectly, doesn't it?"
Kakashi shuddered and snapped out of his daze.
He looked at the bell beside Sasuke's head, then at the bell in Sakura's hand. Finally, his gaze settled on Shengu Xuan's terrifyingly calm eyes.
He... gave the bells to his teammates?
He clearly had the overwhelming strength to crush everyone and take both bells for himself, but he gave that up?
Why?
"You..." Kakashi's voice was raspy. "What's the point of doing this?"
"The point?" Shengu Xuan smiled, with a hint of the teasing amusement of an adult looking at a child. "Kakashi-sensei, you got one thing wrong from the very beginning. For me, this test was never about taking the bells."
He extended a finger and pointed at Sasuke planted in the ground, at the unconscious Sakura, and then at the utterly bewildered Naruto.
"This test was prepared for you, and for them."
"It was to make you understand how pale and powerless your so-called preaching about 'teamwork' is in the face of absolute power."
"And to make them understand how stupid and ridiculous it is to fight separately, fight among themselves, and think only of themselves in the face of a real crisis."
Shengu Xuan lowered his hand, slipped both hands back into his trouser pockets, and turned toward the Memorial Stone covered in names. The lingering light of the setting sun stretched his shadow long.
"You were right. Those who don't know how to cherish their comrades are worse than trash."
"But those who only shout empty slogans without the strength to protect their comrades, and even treat their comrades as rivals and burdens, are worse still."
Shengu Xuan's words struck the hearts of Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto like a heavy hammer.
Kakashi's body began to tremble violently.
He remembered Obito, remembered Rin, remembered his own words that had come far too late: "I will absolutely protect my comrades."
Sasuke stared fixedly at Shengu Xuan's back, the words "treat their comrades as rivals" echoing in his mind. Just now, he really had been thinking only of taking a bell for himself. He had never considered working with Naruto or Sakura.
Although Naruto still did not quite understand, he vaguely felt that Shengu Xuan seemed to have a point.
"So, Kakashi-sensei." Shengu Xuan turned his head, a meaningful smile curling his lips. "Are you still going to announce that those two passed, and Naruto and I are eliminated?"
"Or have you finally understood the true purpose of this test, and are you ready to announce a result... that will satisfy everyone?"
Before you continue