Tsunade had already heard from Shizune that she was learning chakra control from Kazama.
She hadn’t thought much of it and had simply let the girl do as she pleased.
What Tsunade hadn’t expected was that there would be quite a few other girls around Kazama as well.
“That little brat seems to be a pretty rare genius.” Orochimaru stared at Kazama through the crystal ball.
Clearly, he had already heard about Kazama’s accomplishments.
“He certainly is.” The Third Hokage held a pipe in one hand as he watched Kazama and Kakashi through the crystal ball.
“Keep watching.” “If any of you are interested, you can take him as a student.” “I seem to remember Shinku mentioning that he wanted to do exactly that…” Jiraiya looked at Hiruzen in surprise.
Shinku Yūhi was a veteran jōnin and an expert in genjutsu.
Although genjutsu was his specialty, his abilities in other areas certainly weren’t weak.
So why had the Third Hokage refused to let him reserve Kazama as a student?
“That matter…” Hiruzen paused.
“We’ll discuss it later.” “For now, watch these two little fellows fight.” “You might see something unexpected.” The Third Hokage turned his attention back to the crystal ball.
Neither Tsunade, Orochimaru, nor Jiraiya asked any further questions.
All three shifted their attention toward the scene being displayed.
…
It was already close to the end of the year.
Winter had arrived.
Kazama still wasn’t dressed particularly heavily.
He wore a T-shirt and black pants, with a long black outer coat thrown over them like a windbreaker.
Combined with his short black hair, the outfit made him look neat and striking.
He would probably have looked even better without the oversized sunglasses covering nearly half his face.
Very few people had actually seen Kazama’s uncovered face.
Kurenai, Shizune, and Rin had.
Guy had probably seen it as well from the time they used to train together.
Other than them, almost no one knew why Kazama insisted on wearing such enormous sunglasses all the time.
At this moment, Kazama stood opposite Kakashi.
Behind the dark lenses, his crimson eyes remained completely hidden.
No one could see the pair of Sharingan slowly rotating beneath them.
And they were not ordinary Sharingan— they were two-tomoe Sharingan.
Kazama was only five years old.
If members of the Uchiha clan discovered that a five-year-old outsider already possessed a two-tomoe Sharingan, some of them might feel like dying from sheer frustration.
Over the past eight or nine months, Kazama had pushed the two-tomoe Sharingan almost as far as he possibly could.
Yet it still hadn’t evolved into the three-tomoe stage.
That was one of the few things Kazama was dissatisfied with.
Still, he could sense that he was only missing an opportunity.
One suitable trigger— and his two-tomoe Sharingan should evolve into the three-tomoe Sharingan.
“Kakashi.” Kazama looked at the boy standing across from him.
“We’ve already fought thirty-nine times.” “This is the fortieth.” “Don’t you ever get bored?” “Damn it!
Stop acting so smug!” Kakashi glared at him.
This guy was infuriating.
If they were going to fight, then just fight!
Did he really have to emphasize that this was their fortieth match?
He was obviously doing it on purpose!
“Let’s begin.” Chakra immediately covered Kakashi’s body.
With the Body Flicker Technique, he shot toward Kazama.
“Too slow.” Kazama watched Kakashi rush toward him and shook his head.
To an ordinary genin, Kakashi’s speed was already extremely fast.
But in Kazama’s eyes— it was still too slow.
That wasn’t merely because Kazama himself had grown stronger than Kakashi.
Behind his sunglasses, the Sharingan was also tracking and analyzing Kakashi’s movements, making his speed seem even less threatening.
Kazama slowly raised his right hand.
“Genjutsu: Kami-e Shadow Technique!” His right arm emerged from his sleeve, palm extending toward Kakashi.
Meanwhile, hidden inside his other sleeve— his left hand completed the necessary hand seals.
The two-tomoe Sharingan rotated.
Backed by Kazama’s powerful spiritual strength— the genjutsu activated instantly.
When Kakashi saw Kazama raise his hand, he instinctively expected a kunai or some other attack to come flying toward him.
But nothing happened.
At least— nothing he could see.
The moment Kakashi focused on Kazama’s raised hand, he had already fallen under the genjutsu.
This technique was something Kazama had created by combining the concept behind Itachi’s Genjutsu: Ephemeral with his own understanding of Kami-e.
Kami-e possessed exceptional evasive capabilities.
Kazama had designed this genjutsu specifically to deal with taijutsu specialists.
Once the opponent was trapped inside the illusion, the genjutsu would create an illusory “shadow” modeled after the enemy.
That shadow would then fight them.
However, this was a single-target genjutsu.
It could only affect one person at a time.
So from everyone else’s perspective— Kakashi suddenly looked as though he were fighting an invisible opponent.
He attacked empty air again and again, completely engrossed in the battle.
“That’s… genjutsu!” Kurenai sensed it the moment Kazama activated the technique.
“What a powerful genjutsu!” The others quickly realized what had happened as well.
Kakashi had fallen into an illusion without noticing anything was wrong.
And he was now fighting the opponent inside that illusion with complete seriousness.
That alone demonstrated how powerful the technique was.
Normally, once someone fell into a genjutsu, they would eventually notice something strange and begin trying to break free.
But Kazama’s technique had trapped Kakashi without him realizing it.
That proved not only the strength of the genjutsu— but also just how formidable Kazama’s spiritual strength had become.
Kakashi’s primary focus was currently swordsmanship, but his spiritual strength was certainly not weak.
If Obito tried using genjutsu on Kakashi at his current level, he probably wouldn’t even succeed.
Even Kurenai, whose spiritual strength was far beyond that of ordinary children her age, would likely be detected by Kakashi before she could keep him trapped for long.
“Genjutsu: Release!” Sweat poured from Kakashi’s body.
He finally realized that something was wrong.
He had been fighting the “Kazama” in front of him for far too long.
Normally, if this were a real battle between the two of them, Kazama would already have found an opening and knocked him down.
That was the weakness of this particular genjutsu.
The illusory opponent it created could not become stronger than the target.
The “shadow” was essentially using principles derived from Kami-e to evade Kakashi’s attacks while reflecting his own movements and techniques back at him.
Because of that— the illusion could match Kakashi, but not truly overpower him.
“Whew… Whew…” Kakashi finally broke free.
He stared at Kazama while breathing heavily.
Only then did he realize— Kazama hadn’t moved from his original position at all.
A single genjutsu had already consumed more than half of Kakashi’s stamina.