“Sensei, why aren’t they setting more traps?”
Mayumi asked, puzzled.
“Neji, what do you think?”
Guy looked to Neji.
He’d paid a real cost getting here today, mostly for Neji’s sake, so he wanted to hear Neji’s read on it first.
“There’s no hiding it from him.” Neji said flatly.
“As a jōnin, his ability to read the situation is far above ours.”
Lee nodded quietly beside him, radiating a distinct me too energy.
Guy smiled.
“Exactly right.
Reading both sides of the field and building the best plan around it—that’s a fundamental skill any shinobi needs.
But Neji, you’ve only named one factor.
There’s another: they can’t afford to burn stamina on anything nonessential.”
“Stamina?”
Neji’s brow furrowed slightly.
He genuinely hadn’t considered that angle.
Under normal circumstances, though, conserving stamina wouldn’t cost them this much time, would it?
“They skipped breakfast.
By now their energy’s already run down considerably—maybe half of what they’d normally have.
Which means they have to prioritize.
The traps they’ve set are focused almost entirely on covering a retreat.
Highly targeted, very deliberate.”
“…”
Neji activated the Byakugan and studied the field more closely.
It was true.
Row after row of wooden spikes lined up almost exclusively along likely retreat paths.
By comparison, back when he and his own team had faced off against Guy, none of them had thought that far ahead.
On tactical thinking alone, he’d already lost a round.
This guy—
He kept his attention fixed on the battlefield in silence.
At that moment, Kakashi had already begun drifting through the trees, his posture almost lazy, as if entirely unconcerned about any ambush Chiba’s team might spring.
“Yo, patient bunch, aren’t you?
Though you might want to watch the clock—run out of time without a bell and it’s still a loss.
I’m not the one in a hurry here.”
Kakashi said, offhand.
Tenten’s heart was pounding, but Chiba hadn’t given the signal yet, so she forced herself to hold back.
Chiba stayed calm.
Right now, Kakashi wasn’t letting his guard down for a second.
The instant they made a move, he’d counter instantly, and they’d lose whatever slim opening they had.
So they had to wait.
Icha Icha Paradise.
Loves reading that much, does he?
The corner of Chiba’s mouth lifted slightly.
Wait until the story pulls him in a little deeper—his focus would slip from where it stood now, no matter how good he was at guarding against most attacks.
Better odds than trying now.
Both sides settled in to wait.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes slightly.
He’d already pinpointed one person’s location, but the other two remained undetected.
The one he’d found—
Tenten, probably.
The Tsukihikari clan’s concealment technique wasn’t bad, and as for Chiba, that boy couldn’t really be measured by ordinary genin standards—otherwise Kakashi wouldn’t have tried recruiting him into ANBU before stepping down.
Setting chakra reserves aside, Chiba had already reached jōnin-level ability in several respects.
Honestly, calling him a tokubetsu jōnin outright wouldn’t be much of a stretch.
Which meant the real threats here were Chiba and Wasa.
Tenten was bait.
He kept reading quietly, working out likely hiding spots for Chiba and Wasa as he went.
The three of them wouldn’t stray too far from each other.
Which meant—
Whoever he caught first, the others would almost certainly move to respond.
Kakashi closed the book.
If he kept reading, he’d hit the good part of the story soon, and whatever happened, he needed to stop before then.
This wasn’t an opponent he could afford distraction against.
But.
The instant the book snapped shut—
Fwip, fwip, fwip!
Kunai shot out from the shadows on all sides, dozens of them, controlled by taut wire, closing around Kakashi in an instant.
Reckless!
Kakashi’s eyes widened.
This girl, Tenten, wasn’t the ordinary genin she’d first appeared to be.
Still.
Kunai alone should be manageable enough—
He moved to dodge, quick and clean, but a moment later he realized this wasn’t as simple as it looked.
Chakra threads?
Double-layered control over the kunai!
Dozens of blades seemed to come alive at once, colliding, repositioning, steadily boxing him in.
Kakashi’s expression hardened, and he snapped through a set of hand seals fast.
“Ninjutsu: Wind Release, Great Breakthrough!”
A violent gale erupted outward.
Dust, leaves, and kunai alike were swept up in the roaring wind, sand and debris blotting out visibility entirely—for a moment, Kakashi’s own silhouette vanished completely from view.
“Reposition!”
Chiba sensed the danger immediately and began drawing chakra in secret.
The next instant—
Whump!
A figure burst up out of the ground and closed the distance in an instant.
Fast!
Chiba barely had time to register it before the man was already right in front of him.
This is what a jōnin looks like?
Kakashi’s eyes were flat and cold, a kunai already in hand.
“Taijutsu: Dancing Leaf Shadow.”
Instantly, a figure appeared behind him.
But.
The next moment—
Whump!
“Fast!”
Neji couldn’t hide his surprise.
It wasn’t just Kakashi’s speed that impressed him.
Chiba had moved just as quickly, that strange chakra-sphere technique activating in an instant, and he’d turned it around to strike down the enemy’s shadow clone without hesitation.
If it had been him in that spot—
Even with Kaiten fully mastered, he doubted he could have blocked a technique conjured that fast.
Formidable.
“That boy’s Rasengan is already moving as fast as the Fourth Hokage’s own version.”
Guy’s expression turned serious.
“That’s the Fourth Hokage’s technique?”
Mayumi turned, asking.
“No, it isn’t.
The result looks the same, but that technique’s something Chiba worked out entirely on his own.”
Lee spoke up at once, setting the record straight for Chiba’s sake.
He invented it himself?
Something in Neji’s chest tightened further at that.
That guy—
“Move up a bit.
This next part’s the turning point!”
Guy leapt up onto a nearer branch.
At that moment, the real Kakashi had just burst up from the ground, bearing down on Tenten as she leapt from one branch to another—no way to dodge in time.
In an instant, threads shot out and fastened onto her, guiding her out of Kakashi’s direct strike like a puppet on strings.
But.
Tenten froze in place, completely still.
“Genjutsu: Demonic Illusion — Descent to Hell.”
Kakashi announced the technique’s name deliberately.
“Still not moving?
You’ve got a kekkei genkai, don’t you—you’re probably close by right now.
Keep waiting for the perfect opening if you want, but do you really not care if she dies while you’re waiting for it?”
Kakashi appeared beside Tenten in a Body Flicker, slashing through most of the chakra threads binding her with a kunai.
Wasa hadn’t found her ideal opening—exactly as Kakashi had calculated, she had no choice but to break cover to save Tenten, or watch her die.
Just as the kunai plunged toward Tenten—
A blade, silent as a phantom, swept in toward his throat.
This was—
Body Flicker turned intangible?
A chill ran across Kakashi’s skin, but he understood a moment later—this wasn’t a complete pass-through technique.
She’d only mastered the ability to erase her presence entirely.
She must have used a Transformation to blend into the trees a moment ago.
Setting Tenten aside for the moment, he pivoted and drove a kick backward straight into Wasa’s blade-hand.
Wasa held on tight, but the force behind the kick was enormous, and even with a trained grip, the blade was knocked off course.
That was the moment Chiba arrived.
And more than that—
Ting, ting, ting.
Hm?
Damn it!
The genjutsu had just been broken.
By Chiba.
Kakashi heard the bells and understood the danger at once, slashing his hand down to knock Tenten’s grip loose and reclaiming the bells in the same motion, before immediately switching out with a Substitution to reposition.
Vanishing into the shadows, Kakashi felt a bead of cold sweat form on his brow.
These three weren’t anyone to underestimate.
Holding back this much clearly wasn’t going to be enough.