Chapter 345: Sparring Partner Kakashi
During the second stage of the joint Chunin Exams, the candidates were required to survive in a wilderness area arranged by Iwagakure for three days. This left the jonin and chunin leaders from all the nations with nothing to do.
It was at this time that Ishiro personally sought out Kakashi, the leader of the Konoha delegation.
Ishiro glanced at the members of the Konoha party and asked, "Captain Kakashi, where is your deputy captain, Nara-senpai? Is there anything you need our help with?"
Kakashi thought to himself, As if you don't know. If you hadn't taken advantage of Shikaizumi Nara's suspicious nature, would he have been angered to the point of coughing up blood and being bedridden? But on the surface, he remained perfectly calm. "Thank you for your concern, Lord Tsuchikage. Shikaizumi Nara-senpai is just feeling a bit unwell. He'll be fine after a couple of days of rest. There's no need to trouble your village."
Ishiro nodded and muttered to himself, "That's true. The clever are often misled by their own cleverness. It's normal to suffer a setback."
Kakashi naturally overheard this, thinking, So it really was you Iwa ninja. He desperately wanted to ask about the current situation of the Monkey Clan, but considering his mission, he gave up the thought.
"Captain Kakashi, since everyone has the time and your disciples are all taking the exam, how about sparring with the younger generation of our Iwa-nin?" Ishiro said to Kakashi.
Then, without waiting for Kakashi's reply, he gestured to one of the Iwa ninja who had come with him.
The man immediately stepped out from the crowd and said, "Iwagakure chunin, Hirao. I ask for the guidance of the Konoha-senpai." With that, he took out a kunai and waited for a Konoha ninja.
This sudden move by Iwagakure caught the Konoha party off guard.
With Shikaizumi Nara absent, the only one with decision-making authority was Kakashi. The Konoha chunin looked toward him. One of them directly requested, "Captain Kakashi, shall I go for a match?"
Kakashi thought for a moment and did not object.
Seeing this, the chunin slowly walked out from the Konoha ranks.
In the first match, Konoha won easily. Hirao admitted defeat gracefully and didn't linger.
In the second match, Konoha again won with ease.
After a few matches, the Konoha side no longer felt there was anything wrong with this kind of sparring.
Then, Iwagakure began to send out some veteran or genius-level chunin. In these next few matches, both sides had wins and losses. Gradually, some Konoha ninja felt they had gained quite a lot from the experience, and the last shred of resistance in their hearts vanished.
This was normal. The sparring between the two sides was fair, purely for the sake of mutually increasing combat experience. Ishiro wasn't afraid of Konoha overthinking it; after all, his actions had always been open and aboveboard.
From morning until evening, the two sides fought hundreds of matches. No one paid attention to the number of wins or losses; everyone just felt that they had gained a great deal. When they parted, both sides agreed to continue tomorrow.
The next day, an Iwa ninja brought the Konoha party to an indoor training ground early in the morning. The reason given was: "It's quiet here and not easily disturbed."
Of course, no one from Konoha cared about such a small detail. A spar was a spar, no matter where it was held. What they didn't know was that just on the other side of a wall, a Byakugan was watching them. This training ground had been specially built to facilitate Byakugan spying; the previous matches with Suna had been held here.
That morning, they continued with one chunin-level match after another. But in the afternoon, Iwa jonin occasionally began to step forward to challenge Konoha jonin.
At first, Kakashi was a bit vigilant, but after one match, he relaxed. Iwagakure didn't pull any tricks. Ishiro, the Tsuchikage, even personally intervened to save a Konoha jonin when he was about to get injured. This made Kakashi temporarily let go of his suspicions.
Gradually, jonin-level spars also became the norm.
Then, under Ishiro's direction, some Iwa jonin began to challenge Kakashi. Kakashi refused at first, and the rejected Iwa ninja didn't pester him, turning to challenge other ninja instead. But after a while, Kakashi started to feel a bit embarrassed from refusing so many times, because whenever the Konoha side wanted to challenge any of the Iwa ninja, the other party never refused.
So, when another jonin challenged Kakashi, he hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing. This opened the floodgates, and more and more people began to challenge Kakashi.
How much power Kakashi could exert in a fight really seemed to depend on his opponent's strength. Regardless of whether his opponent was strong or weak, over a dozen battles, not a single one was a quick victory. Ishiro even sent two chunin into the ring, and Kakashi, perhaps out of politeness, also exchanged a few rounds with them.
In any case, the opponents sent by Iwagakure were all jonin-level. Kakashi was an elite jonin with almost no weaknesses, and none of the Iwa ninja could defeat him. No one could even force him to use his Sharingan.
Finally, seeing that it was getting late, Ishiro gave a signal to Seiji, an elite jonin who was previously a squad leader in the Anbu.
Seiji leaped into the arena and looked at Kakashi below. "Watching others fight has made my hands itch. Captain Kakashi, let's have a go."
Kakashi could sense that this person was quite strong. Without letting his guard down, he nodded, jumped into the arena, and launched a taijutsu attack.
This man, Seiji, was specially chosen by Ishiro to be Kakashi's sparring partner. Like Kakashi, he was skilled in both taijutsu and ninjutsu, and he was excellent at formulating tactics. Of course, Seiji was much older; he wasn't a genius like Kakashi but belonged to the type who accumulated strength over time, having spent decades to slowly reach his current level.
The two clashed again and again, from taijutsu to various elemental ninjutsu, but they were always unable to determine a winner. This made Kakashi decide to get serious.
However, just as Kakashi's interest was piqued, Ishiro said, "Alright, Captain Kakashi, it's getting late today. If you're still interested, you can come again tomorrow."
Kakashi was taken aback. He glanced at the sky outside and saw that it was indeed late. So, he first nodded to Ishiro, then looked at Seiji and said, "Seiji-senpai, let's continue tomorrow."
Seiji nodded calmly. "No problem."
After returning to his quarters, Kakashi went to visit Shikaizumi Nara as usual and told him about the day's events. Shikaizumi said, "So, compared to yesterday, Iwagakure raised the skill level of the spars today?"
Kakashi nodded. "The last match was between me and one of Iwagakure's mid-level elite jonin."
Shikaizumi thought for a moment and said, "I suspect Iwagakure truly wants to gain combat experience from us. I guess they did the same with Suna before, which is why some Suna and Iwa ninja developed a mutual appreciation."
"During tomorrow's spars, pay attention to your opponent's strength. If they seem to be on the verge of a promotion, don't go all out. It's better to lose the match than to let Iwa achieve their goal."
"Last time, the jonin leader Iwa sent to our joint Chunin Exams was Kawakita, the Fourth Tsuchikage's student. After he arrived in Konoha, he challenged people everywhere, hoping to reach Kage-level through constant battle. If you encounter him, you must not fight him."
"I understand," Kakashi said.
On the other side, after Kakashi and his group had left, Ishiro went to the room where Koku was. "How is it? Any gains?"
Koku shook his head. "The number of times is too few. I haven't obtained any complete ninjutsu. But that Kakashi is truly worthy of being the Fourth Hokage's disciple. He knows so many techniques. In so many matches this afternoon, besides the three basic jutsu, no two ninjutsu were the same."
Ishiro said, "Kakashi knows so many jutsu not because the Fourth Hokage taught him. I estimate that the Fourth Hokage himself didn't know as many ninjutsu as he does in his lifetime. He has a Sharingan, his own ninjutsu talent is extremely high, he has many elemental affinities, and he can use the Sharingan to copy others' jutsu."
"More than half of his many ninjutsu were copied from enemies during battle."
"Huh? In that case, is he like me? Also specializing in stealing others' jutsu? Will I be discovered?" Koku said.
"That shouldn't happen. The Sharingan has powerful dynamic vision, but it doesn't have x-ray capabilities. He shouldn't be able to see you. But you should still be careful. If he ever tries to break through this wall in front of you, hide quickly," Ishiro said.
Koku replied, "Understood!"
On the third day, Kakashi and his group arrived as scheduled. This time, Ishiro also brought his students from his earlier batches. Since both sides were now more familiar with each other, the sparring area was divided in two: one for chunin-level spars and the other for jonin-level spars, with occasional clashes between elite jonin.
With Kakashi as a sparring partner, Ishiro strongly encouraged his own students to challenge him.
Thus, among Ishiro's many students—except for the special members of Team One who weren't present, and Shinya Matsutani who was out of the village—all the others took turns fighting Kakashi. Even Himeki Suda and Katsumata, who had not yet officially become jonin, and Yuran Kawazoe, who specialized only in sealing jutsu, went up and had a good exchange with Kakashi.
As for Ogura Saki, Takumi, Yoshimura Kazumasa, Takuhiro Uchiyama, and Kanako, each of them took turns sparring with Kakashi several times. The reason was simple: I am not convinced. As a fellow Kage's disciple, I don't want to bring shame to my master.
And Kakashi, perhaps wanting to carefully probe the strength of Ishiro's students, or perhaps because he was gaining something from the continuous battles, would always fight for a few extra rounds when facing them.
Finally, perhaps having fought to his heart's content, or perhaps having gained some insight from the series of battles, Kakashi said to Ishiro, "Lord Tsuchikage, please allow me to challenge you."
Ishiro thought for a moment and said, "How about this: tomorrow, I'll have Ikura fight you. You've seen my abilities these past two days; I'm suited to intervene and save people at critical moments. If you and I fight and something happens, I won't be able to hold back, and no one will be able to stop us. But if Ikura fights you, I can still step in."
Kakashi considered it and felt that Ishiro's words were not a perfunctory excuse. So, he agreed, though he was still somewhat disappointed that he couldn't fight the Kage of a village.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 35 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you