Kakashi Hatake lay sprawled across the training ground.
For several long seconds, he simply stared at the sky.
Confused.
Disoriented.
Questioning reality itself.
What just happened?
He replayed the exchange in his mind.
Ren threw a punch.
Then—
He flew thirty meters.
That was it.
No feint.
No trap.
No hidden technique.
No elaborate setup.
Just a simple, straightforward punch.
And somehow…
He hadn’t avoided it.
Kakashi slowly pushed himself upright.
The moment he did, he regretted it.
“Urgh—”
His stomach lurched violently.
A wave of nausea surged through him.
He bent forward, coughing as bile rose in his throat.
After a few moments, he finally steadied himself.
“That explains it…”
Wiping the corner of his mouth, he looked back toward the center of the training ground.
Toward Ren.
A dangerous gleam appeared in his visible eye.
“So that’s why you were confident enough to hit me.”
His lips curled beneath his mask.
“Looks like the Academy produced an interesting rookie while I was gone.”
Unfortunately for Ren—
Kakashi Hatake wasn’t the type to accept defeat quietly.
He was the greatest prodigy the Academy had ever produced.
A Chunin.
A veteran of real combat.
Someone who had already walked battlefields soaked in blood.
There was no way he was losing to an Academy student.
“The first hit doesn’t count.”
Kakashi rose to his feet.
“I wasn’t taking you seriously.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Ren reached behind his back.
And pulled out a kitchen knife.
The training ground fell silent.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Obito blinked.
“…Why does he even carry that thing?”
Nobody had an answer.
At this point, everyone was too afraid to ask.
Ren lowered his stance.
His knees bent.
Muscles tightened.
The earth beneath his feet groaned.
Then—
BOOM!
The ground exploded.
Ren shot into the sky like a cannonball.
Ten meters.
Fifteen.
Nearly twenty.
Kitchen knife raised high overhead.
Kakashi stared upward.
“What kind of attack is that?”
The wind screamed around Ren’s descending figure.
The attack was obvious.
The preparation was obvious.
The trajectory was obvious.
Once airborne, changing direction would be nearly impossible.
The technique was filled with openings.
Who would invent something so ridiculous—
“Mountain Crusher Strike!”
The world exploded.
Ren crashed into the earth.
The impact shattered the training ground.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the soil.
Stone fragments erupted in every direction.
A violent shockwave swept outward like a tidal wave.
Students staggered backward.
Several lost their footing completely.
The Academy building trembled.
Windows rattled.
Dust engulfed everything within dozens of meters.
And Kakashi—
Was sent flying.
“Not good!”
Shisui vanished.
His body flickered across the field.
He appeared just in time to catch Kakashi before the latter could crash through another tree.
Landing smoothly, Shisui glanced down.
Kakashi looked miserable.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Dust coated his clothes.
Countless shallow cuts lined his arms and face.
Yet Kakashi wasn’t paying attention to any of that.
His eyes remained locked on the center of the dust cloud.
“I dodged…”
His voice sounded distant.
“I definitely dodged.”
And he had.
Perfectly.
The kitchen knife had never touched him.
The problem was—
Dodging the blade didn’t mean dodging the attack.
Not when the attack came with a localized explosion.
Shisui’s expression darkened.
Kakashi wasn’t weak.
Far from it.
Officially, he was only a Chunin due to his age and lack of accumulated service.
In terms of actual combat ability, he already surpassed many ordinary Jonin.
Yet Ren had still blown him away.
Then the dust cloud exploded.
A figure burst from its center.
A human-shaped missile.
“Here he comes!”
Ren charged directly at them.
No tricks.
No deception.
No hesitation.
Like a charging beast descending a mountainside.
Shisui stepped forward.
Scarlet light flashed in his eyes.
The Sharingan spun to life.
If Kakashi couldn’t stop him—
Then he would.
Ren didn’t care who stood in front of him.
As long as someone wanted to fight, that was enough.
The distance vanished.
Their clash began instantly.
BANG!
A punch met a block.
WHAM!
A kick tore through the air.
CRACK!
The ground split beneath their feet.
The surrounding students watched with wide eyes.
Every exchange sounded like colliding steel.
Shisui’s expression grew steadily more serious.
He’s ridiculous.
Not merely strong.
Ridiculous.
Shisui wasn’t yet the legendary Shisui of the Body Flicker who would one day terrify battlefields across the shinobi world.
But he was already acknowledged as one of the Uchiha Clan’s greatest young talents.
And his Sharingan was active.
Yet Ren continued driving him backward.
The reason was painfully simple.
Ren’s fighting style was brutally efficient. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
No unnecessary movements.
No wasted energy.
Every strike existed for one purpose.
To hit.
And hit hard.
More importantly—
His physical strength was monstrous.
Shisui had never encountered anyone who could suppress him this thoroughly through raw physical ability alone.
The only comparable stories he’d heard came from Kumogakure.
The Raikage’s bloodline.
The terrifying monsters of the Yotsuki Clan.
But those shinobi relied on Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Ren wasn’t using anything.
No chakra cloak.
No secret technique.
No bloodline.
Just muscles.
Pure.
Terrifying.
Muscles.
Still—
Shisui remained calm.
Strength wasn’t everything.
Speed wasn’t everything.
His greatest weapon had always been his eyes.
The Sharingan spun faster.
A genjutsu began to form.
“Demonic Illusion: Narak—”
“ROOOOOOOAAARRR!!!”
The world shook.
A deafening roar erupted from Ren’s lungs.
Silver-Rank Skill: War Cry.
The sound wave exploded across the training grounds.
Visible distortions rippled through the air.
Far away, Academy windows shattered instantly.
Glass rained from the buildings.
Students clutched their ears.
Several nearly collapsed.
For a brief moment, Shisui felt as though a gigantic predator had appeared directly behind him.
His concentration shattered.
The forming genjutsu collapsed.
His body froze.
Only for an instant.
But in battle—
An instant was enough.
Shisui’s eyes widened.
A fist filled his vision.
Getting larger.
Larger.
Larger.
BAM!
The impact echoed across the training grounds.
Silence followed.
The students stared.
Obito stared.
Rin stared.
Kurenai stared.
Everyone stared.
Kakashi Hatake.
The greatest Academy genius in Konoha’s history.
Shisui Uchiha.
The pride of the Uchiha Clan.
The prodigies every teacher used as examples.
The legends students dreamed of becoming.
And now—
Ren Akihara was beating both of them into the dirt.
The entire Academy collectively stopped functioning.
Obito looked at Ren.
Then at Kakashi and Shisui.
Then back at Ren.
A long pause followed.
Finally, he voiced the only thought anyone could manage.
“…What the hell is that monster?”