Naruto opened his mouth and spat out a fire dragon roughly the same size as the water dragon.
The two dragons roared as they collided, exploding with a thunderous blast.
A large amount of steam spread in all directions, temporarily obscuring both of their vision.
“Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire!”
Naruto first spat out several small fireballs, then continued forming hand seals.
“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!”
A powerful wind, like a typhoon, rose up and instantly blew the small fireballs apart.
However, the fireballs did not go out after being scattered.
Instead, they connected together in the wind, forming a sea of flames that swept toward Kakashi in an instant.
Kakashi’s expression changed slightly.
He did not dare to be careless and hurriedly formed hand seals.
“Water Release: Water Encampment Wall!”
The water beneath Kakashi’s feet surged upward and formed a wall, blocking the sea of flames.
Naruto, however, smiled knowingly when he saw this.
He placed a shuriken in his palm, and the previously motionless shuriken suddenly began spinning rapidly.
Its speed increased faster and faster, and wind blades began forming around it.
As the shuriken’s rotation increased, the wind blades gradually grew larger as well.
“Go! Rasenshuriken!”
Naruto threw the shuriken toward Kakashi.
The Water Encampment Wall, which the sea of flames had been unable to do anything against, was cut open like tofu by the shuriken.
Screech—Screech…
Kakashi held his sword horizontally in front of him and was pushed backward by the shuriken, out of the range of the Water Encampment Wall.
It looked as though simply blocking it was already extremely difficult.
Naturally, Naruto would not miss this opportunity.
The chakra around his body surged as he continued forming hand seals.
“Fire Release: Dragon Flame Roar!”
Naruto took a deep breath and spat out a massive fire dragon head over twenty meters long.
Carrying a terrifying heat that seemed capable of burning everything, it flew toward Kakashi.
Everywhere it passed, the lake water instantly boiled and evaporated.
This was the strongest Fire Release Naruto had mastered so far.
Even now, he needed to rely on the Nine-Tails’ chakra to use it.
Otherwise, even draining all the chakra from his body would not be enough.
“Big Brother Kakashi! Don’t die on me!”
As the fire dragon drew closer and closer to Kakashi, Naruto felt that victory was already within his grasp.
However, the next moment, the lightning around Kakashi’s sword suddenly surged.
With nothing more than an upward swing of his blade, a massive slash flew out from the sword.
The seemingly unstoppable fire dragon was split in half just like that.
“Damn!”
Naruto could not help but curse.
He had expected that this move might not be enough to defeat Kakashi, but he had never imagined that it would be neutralized with just a single slash.
The lightning from Kakashi’s sword spread over his entire body.
The next moment, he transformed into a flash of lightning and charged toward Naruto at a speed almost impossible to catch with the naked eye.
Naruto felt his heart skip a beat as an immense sense of danger enveloped his entire body.
He instinctively leaned backward, and the next moment, Kakashi’s sword swept horizontally above him, the blade passing less than ten centimeters away from Naruto.
A massive slash flew from the blade and entered the forest not far from the lake.
Every tree in its path was cut down, the cross-sections smooth and scorched black.
Crackle!
Naruto had just tried to stand up when he heard a burst of thunder.
A Chidori had already formed in Kakashi’s other hand, and he mercilessly smashed it toward Naruto.
Naruto gritted his teeth.
A vortex appeared in his hand, then gradually grew larger and more solid until it finally formed a blue sphere the size of a human head.
“Rasengan!”
Boom!
The Rasengan and Chidori collided.
Naruto used the impact to retreat and widen the distance between himself and Kakashi.
He was still somewhat shaken, so much so that his body had not yet stopped warning him of danger.
“Rasengan? I don’t remember teaching you that technique!”
Kakashi’s expression became serious.
Naruto sneered as the Nine-Tails’ chakra spread throughout his body.
“There are plenty of techniques you never taught me! Shadow Clone!”
Naruto formed a hand seal and created a shadow clone.
Then, both the original and the shadow clone began forming hand seals at the same time.
“Not good!”
Kakashi immediately realized something and his expression changed drastically.
He did not dare to delay in the slightest and quickly began forming hand seals with both hands.
However, Naruto had started first, so his technique was completed first.
“Combination Ninjutsu: Flame Dragon Gale Song!”
Naruto and his shadow clone released fire and wind respectively.
The wind fueled the fire, while the fire enhanced the wind’s power.
The flames transformed into a fire dragon.
This fire dragon had originally been only a little over twenty meters long, but with the enhancement of the wind, it expanded like an inflated balloon until it reached one hundred meters.
It coiled through the air, radiating terrifying heat as though the sun itself had fallen.
The trees were burned into dead branches, the grassland turned to ash, and the lake water was scorched dry.
Even with the fox demon cloak protecting him, Naruto could barely endure such intense heat.
Roar!
The fire dragon let out a heaven-shaking roar and dove downward.
Kakashi’s expression became more serious than ever before.
“Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!”
In an instant, as though the heavens themselves had burst open, a massive waterfall poured down and stood in front of the fire dragon.
Boom!
Water and fire collided once again.
The water from the Great Waterfall Technique was enough to fill the entire lake, yet it still could not stop the fire dragon.
Flames continued to roll within the exploding clouds of steam.
“That’s enough.”
Before the steam could disperse, Kakashi’s voice suddenly sounded behind Naruto.
At the same time, Naruto felt a chill on his neck.
Somehow, Kakashi had appeared behind him and placed his sword against Naruto’s neck.
Naruto jumped in fright and turned back to look at Kakashi in disbelief.
“When did you—… Pfft!”
Naruto’s shock was immediately replaced by the urge to laugh.
Although Kakashi had blocked the fire dragon and won, his current appearance was extremely miserable.
Many parts of kakashi’s clothes had been burned full of holes, and quite a bit of his silver hair, which normally stuck straight up, had been singed.
Kakashi rolled his eyes, sheathed his sword, looked around, and could not help letting out a long sigh.
“I never expected us to cause such a huge commotion. This will be difficult to explain. Naruto, hurry back. The ANBU will be here soon.”
“Ah? Oh, right!”
Naruto was somewhat confused, but he did not dare to waste any time.
He immediately sprinted back toward his home, while Kakashi remained where he was and waited for the ANBU to arrive.
As soon as Naruto returned home and closed the door, he immediately crouched down while clutching his stomach in pain.
Fine sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face became somewhat pale.
At that moment, the Nine-Tails’ voice rang out again.
“Kid, your body is still too immature. My chakra isn’t that easy to use.”
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Damn it, this hurts like hell.”
“Hmph! Who knew you would use so much of it? But that guy named Kakashi is really terrifying. If I remember correctly, isn’t his specialty swordsmanship? When he was fighting you just now, he barely even used his swordsmanship.”
Even the Nine-Tails’ voice carried a rare hint of wariness.
Naruto simply sat down on the floor, nodded, and wore a very complicated expression.
“Yeah. I really don’t know what’s going on with that guy Kakashi. He’s obviously way too strong.”