“What’s going on?”
Obito Uchiha sat up belatedly, looking thoroughly confused as he asked the question.
“Get ready…” Kakashi said, his expression grave.
“Get ready for what?”
“To run!”
Yakumo immediately spun around and sprinted in the direction they had come from.
At a time like this, trusting Kakashi without question was the right choice.
Rin Nohara and Mori Yasuko started running within a second as well.
Only Obito remained frozen in confusion for a few moments.
Those few seconds were enough.
The terrifying vibrations drew closer and closer.
Saplings two meters tall were smashed aside by brute force, and when Yakumo glanced back, he saw an enormous black-and-white bear forcing its way out of the forest.
The beast was roughly five meters long.
Its body was entirely black, except for its four limbs and the left half of its head, which were white.
A scar approximately twenty centimeters long ran across its white eye socket.
The wound had come dangerously close to leaving it half-blind.
“It’s no use…” Kakashi said.
At some point, he had appeared beside Yakumo, his gaze extraordinarily sharp.
“If the two of us release our chakra, we might be able to outrun it.
But Rin, Yasuko, and Obito would all die.”
The giant bear quickly proved that Kakashi wasn’t exaggerating.
As soon as it dropped onto all fours, its speed increased dramatically, and the distance between it and the fleeing children began shrinking at an alarming rate.
Thirty meters…
Twenty meters…
Ten meters…
“When I trained in the Forest of Death years ago, it nearly killed me.
Father saved my life.” Kakashi’s voice remained steady.
“It seems to have held a grudge against me ever since because of that scar.
Now you’ve all been dragged into this because of me.”
He paused briefly before continuing.
“I’ll try to lure it away.
Don’t worry.
I’m confident I can shake it off.”
“Why don’t we try fighting it together?” Yakumo suggested, turning around.
But Kakashi was already gone.
He had turned and thrown a kunai at the giant bear.
He hadn’t merely been talking about luring it away.
By the time he announced his plan, he had already begun carrying it out.
Kakashi sprinted away from the others in a different direction.
The giant bear raised its left paw and swatted the kunai out of the air.
BOOM!
The kunai exploded.
An explosive tag!
“ROOOAAAR!”
The giant bear let out a furious roar.
It sounded as though a bomb had detonated right beside their ears.
Compared to that terrifying bellow, the roar of a tiger in the mountains was practically child’s play.
As the smoke cleared, the enormous beast continued charging toward them.
Its eyes were filled with cruelty…
And rage.
Although the fur on its left paw had been scorched by the explosive tag, its running speed remained unaffected.
It had intelligence!
It had even seen through Kakashi’s plan.
Rather than pursuing Kakashi, it had chosen to continue chasing Yakumo and the others!
“Looks like we’ll have to fight,” Yakumo sighed.
As they ran, the children slowly drew their weapons.
When their lives were on the line, nobody was going to sit back and wait to die.
Yakumo opened his status panel.
At this point, there was no longer any reason to keep his abilities hidden.
His 2,100 gold coins began disappearing at an astonishing rate.
Hatake Secret Art — Beginner, 278/400.
[Acceleration]!
Yakumo gritted his teeth, enduring the flood of memories and techniques that seemed to materialize inside his mind.
He tightened his grip on his ninja blade and continued running.
Meanwhile, Kakashi realized that the bear hadn’t followed him and immediately doubled back to rejoin the battle.
A flash of lightning—
Kakashi was back.
“Let’s go!”
Kakashi charged ahead, closing the distance to the giant bear.
The black blade in his hand shimmered with dazzling chakra.
A weapon forged from chakra-conducting metal…
At that moment, Yakumo admitted that he was jealous.
Kakashi formed hand seals while running.
Suddenly, there were two Kakashis on the battlefield.
The giant bear committed to its attack and swiped at one of them.
The other Kakashi moved at incredible speed, slashing a bloody gash into the beast’s forepaw.
The Clone Technique.
Unfortunately for the bear, it had guessed wrong.
After landing his attack, Kakashi quickly withdrew, tossing several kunai to cover Yakumo’s advance.
Compared with the cutting power of Kakashi’s chakra-conducting blade, Yakumo’s own ninja sword could barely pierce the bear’s skin.
It was like scratching an itch.
That was all his attacks amounted to.
“Exhale…”
Yakumo breathed out slowly and began applying the techniques recorded in the Hatake Secret Art.
Chopping strikes, horizontal cuts, thrusts…
By coordinating his movements with the proper footwork and breathing, he transformed ordinary attacks into precise, cleverly angled strikes.
“ROOOAAAR!”
The giant bear howled in pain, its foul breath spreading through the air.
It endured several slashes from Kakashi before abruptly turning its attention toward Yakumo.
Then it attacked.
The moment the bear rose onto its hind legs, it seemed as though an entire mountain were crashing down on him.
A massive paw descended from above.
For an instant, Yakumo felt the unmistakable threat of death.
At the critical moment, a series of explosions erupted as Mori Yasuko’s thrown kunai detonated against the bear.
The pain disrupted its attack, giving Yakumo just enough time to raise his blade and block.
A terrifying force surged through the weapon and into his body.
Although he managed to catch the blow, the sheer strength behind it sent him flying into a nearby tree.
“Cough, cough…
Not bad.
I’m not injured.”
Yakumo looked at the several new cracks running through his ninja blade.
His mood instantly darkened.
Damn it!
I’m already poor, and now I’m going to have to spend money replacing my weapon!
The others launched another wave of attacks, one after another.
Mori Yasuko was especially generous with her explosive tags, throwing them as though they cost nothing.
“BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!”
The giant bear opened its enormous mouth and began gathering power.
“Watch out!” Kakashi warned.
“The chakra around us is gathering!”
BOOM!
Accompanied by a furious roar, an enormous ocher-colored sphere exploded outward.
Everyone retreated at once, but they were still struck by flying fragments of stone, which left scratches across their bodies.
It could manipulate chakra and launch attacks resembling ninjutsu.
At this point, the giant bear qualified as a combat-capable summon-like beast—a formidable creature that could fight using chakra.
The battlefield fell quiet for a moment.
The four children and the giant bear faced one another.
Finally, the bear leaped toward Kakashi.
Just as the rushing wind of its attack reached him, Kakashi formed hand seals and transformed into a wooden log.
His real body had already disappeared into hiding.
Whoosh!
Yakumo swung his badly damaged ninja blade at the giant bear.
The beast didn’t even bother dodging.
It simply grabbed the blade in one paw and squeezed.
CRACK!
The weapon snapped.
The giant bear grinned.
Yakumo’s heart bled.
At that moment, several kunai thrown by Mori Yasuko arrived.
The bear immediately raised its paw to block them.
This time, however, the kunai didn’t explode.
The bear tossed the weapons aside and stared at them in confusion, its enormous head tilted slightly.
Yakumo seized the opportunity.
He hurled a small white pouch toward the beast, then quickly retreated several steps.
The pouch burst apart under the force of the bear’s movement, scattering a large quantity of lime across its body.
Even more powder drifted into the air, obscuring the creature’s vision.
Whoosh!
A flash of electricity cut through the haze.
Kakashi emerged with his blade aimed directly at the bear’s injured eye socket.
Squish!
Hot blood sprayed through the air.
The giant bear let out a howl of agony.
Kakashi retreated, but his face had lost all color.
He looked almost deathly pale.
As the smoke cleared, the bear’s left paw was dripping with blood.
Kakashi had pierced it straight through.
Yet its left eye remained unharmed.
In that instant, Kakashi had unleashed everything he had ever been capable of.
It had been a lethal strike, executed with flawless precision.
But the giant bear had anticipated the trajectory of his attack and intercepted the blade with its left paw, sacrificing it to protect its injured eye.
Now, Kakashi’s chakra was nearly exhausted.
The giant bear looked rather pleased with itself.
“What happens when quicklime meets water?” Yakumo suddenly asked.
He tossed another two white pouches toward the beast.
The giant bear easily swatted them apart.
By now, its entire body had turned white, covered in layers of powder.
The wounds across its body burned with searing heat, inflicting intense pain.
At the same time, Yakumo formed hand seals repeatedly and began bombarding the bear with his Water Bullet Technique.
Every time a water bullet struck the beast, Yakumo felt a little more satisfied.
That one’s for ruining my barbecue!
Another water bullet slammed into the bear.
And that one’s for destroying my weapon!
The giant bear howled in agony.
Even its imposing aura seemed to weaken.