Chapter 63: The Third Hokage
This guy… is strong! He has zero chakra fluctuation, yet he caught my kunai effortlessly—and looked completely unbothered doing it. Not a shred of tension.
Kakashi's expression froze into something hard and serious. He released the kunai without hesitation.
He leapt backward several times, opening distance between himself and Ryū.
His hands blurred through a sequence of seals.
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!!
Before Ryū's eyes, Kakashi sank into the ground and vanished completely—as if he'd ceased to exist.
Ryū didn't sense much hostile intent. It felt more like Kakashi was… testing him?
Then again, fair enough. He'd been acting pretty conspicuously today.
If he hadn't learned Observation Haki, he genuinely wouldn't have known where Kakashi went.
Faintly sensing the subtle movement beneath his feet, Ryū casually lifted one foot and, using the Six Powers technique Soru, stomped the ground dozens of times in an instant. The earth beneath him fractured in layers with a deep, muffled boom.
He vanished in the same heartbeat. When he reappeared—
He was standing beside Guy, calmly watching the ground ahead.
A ninja-clad figure clambered out of the earth, looking decidedly worse for wear.
The black mask that normally covered one eye had been pulled aside.
A single crimson pupil was exposed.
The three-tomoe Sharingan!!
* * *
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, hold on! Ryū-san, Kakashi—you two were just testing each other! There's no need to escalate like this!"
Sensing the atmosphere growing heavier by the second, Guy hurriedly called out.
He was just as stunned by Ryū's strength, of course.
But the last thing he wanted was for these two to actually fight.
One was the big brother who'd always looked out for him.
The other was his closest friend from the Ninja Academy.
Even years after graduation, his bond with Kakashi remained as strong as ever.
So he rushed to defuse a battle that was on the verge of igniting.
Kakashi said in a low voice, "Guy—your 'big brother' is strange. He has absolutely zero chakra fluctuation, but his strength, speed, reflexes, perception… all of it puts me in a very difficult position. This guy is strong!"
"This level of ability can't be achieved overnight, yet he's never even attended the Ninja Academy. Unless he's been hiding his strength all along—even when the war came, he never once revealed it. What's his reason for hiding? I know it's rude to say, but he's genuinely suspicious!"
Kakashi didn't use the Voice Transmission Technique this time. He said it all out in the open.
Which meant Ryū, standing right next to Guy, heard every word.
* * *
"Your instincts are pretty sharp, I'll give you that."
Ryū couldn't help but let out a small sigh of appreciation. There was no panic on his face—just a mild sense of this is going to be a hassle.
At the same time, his feelings were… a touch complicated.
Kakashi had already been a jōnin at twelve.
He was about fourteen now.
His strength should be considerably greater than it was at twelve.
And yet, after that brief exchange—
Ryū felt that Kakashi's abilities weren't all that overwhelming.
Neither Kakashi's speed nor his strength fell outside the range Ryū could handle.
Maybe it wasn't that the opponent was weak.
Maybe it was that he himself had grown too fast?
That possibility wasn't out of the question.
The Points Ryū had invested in himself totaled over twenty thousand. Twenty thousand Points was an enormous sum—even with the 50 Points from Daily Sign-In, you'd need over a year of consecutive logins to accumulate that much.
And if your luck ran cold for a few months, it could easily take two or three years.
Just to gather enough Points to reach his current level.
Could he actually beat a jōnin right now?!
It felt almost unreal…
It had only been a month or two since he'd gotten the Dimensional Chat Group, hadn't it?
Of course, he wasn't the only one with a cheat code.
Every single member in the group was basically running hacks.
Take Kaguya Shinomiya, for example. If she'd poured all her Points into combat upgrades, she could have the Six Powers at Mastery tier by now, with Points to spare for Physical Enhancement and more.
* * *
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Ryū fixed his gaze on Kakashi.
Both of them could feel that the other harbored no real hostility.
That was why Ryū hadn't counterattacked.
And why Kakashi hadn't pressed the assault.
Glancing up at the sun hanging high overhead, Ryū said with a somewhat wry expression, "Kakashi, you're a jōnin, right? If you want to keep testing me, how about we find somewhere more open—somewhere without an audience."
He flicked the kunai back. It spun through the air and landed in Kakashi's palm.
Kakashi blinked, pocketed the kunai, and muttered, "…Fine."
What Kakashi didn't realize was that Ryū had already mentally designated him as a punching bag.
Ryū had been wanting to test just how far his own strength had come.
His original plan had been to maybe provoke some random Konoha jōnin into a scrap.
Or just leave the village and find a ninja from another hidden village to spar with.
But now a Hatake Kakashi had conveniently fallen into his lap.
Sure, this Kakashi was only fourteen.
But his combat ability was absolutely jōnin-tier.
And a strong one among jōnin, at that.
Wasn't this the perfect punching bag?!
* * *
Just then, Ryū added: "Oh, one more thing—once this little test is over, Kakashi-kun, do me a favor and don't go telling anyone about it. You can manage that small promise, right?"
Kakashi paused, then asked, "Why can't I tell anyone?"
Ryū's answer came without a beat of hesitation: "Because of love."
Kakashi: "???"
Might Guy: "!!!"
Ryū paid no mind to whatever epic, gut-wrenching, melodramatic love story these two pubescent kids were now constructing in their heads.
* * *
As for exposing his strength—he'd stopped worrying about that too.
Probably a side effect of his shifted mindset.
But there was another reason. Ryū refused to believe that the Third Hokage—that old man—wasn't using his signature peeping-on-girls jutsu to keep tabs on Kakashi and Guy, two of Konohagakure's most promising young talents.
Which meant the Third had likely already noticed Ryū meeting them today.
Rather than skulking around and making the old man even more suspicious—inviting a whole cascade of headaches—
It was better to just show a few cards now.
Package himself as a…
Hmm… reclusive master?
Okay, that sounded a bit chūnibyō.
"The early game 'play it safe and farm quietly' phase is over, I guess. If this were League… we'd be hitting mid-game right about now, huh? Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen…"
Ryū muttered to himself, then swept the lingering worries from his mind.
Compared to a certain Konoha Pot-Stirrer-in-Chief, the Third was at least easier to deal with.
At the very least, the old man wouldn't be sneaking up behind you to hit you with a Thousand Years of Death.
☆☆☆
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