The sky was heavy, charged with electricity. Distant lightning tore through the clouds like omens of a clash that would mark the war's fate.
Kakashi Hatake stood on the field, alone by choice. The silence before the storm was filled only by the wind cutting through the scorched leaves of what remained of the forest.
In front of him, two experienced and dangerous opponents emerged.
Cee, the Cloud sensor, specialized in genjutsu, already had his eyes half - closed, his chakra flow perfectly balanced to trigger illusions at any opening.
Beside him, Darui, right hand of the Raikage, a master of Black Lightning. His gaze was calm but focused. He knew exactly who stood before him — the Copy Ninja, a man who had faced many deaths since childhood, but also someone who bled like any other.
"Kakashi Hatake," Darui said, unsheathing his sword drenched in black electricity.
"We don't have time for courtesies. We're at war."
Kakashi raised his forehead protector, revealing the Sharingan.
"Agreed."
Cee moved first, his hands forming seals in quick succession. At the same time, Kakashi shifted his leg and leapt to the side — pure instinct. He already knew what was coming.
"Genjutsu: Sensory Prism."
A technique that distorted perception of space and time by aligning chakra frequencies.
For a second, everything went white.
The sound vanished. The light flickered. Kakashi saw duplicates of himself in disjointed positions, voices from the past and present mixed together. But unlike Gai, he was a shinobi used to dealing with illusions. His red eyes spun, absorbing the illusionary chakra pattern. He bit his finger, blood dripping.
"Kai!" he broke the genjutsu with effort, his chakra trembling. But Cee was already moving, trying to trap him in a sensory field.
Before he could react, Darui joined the fray.
"Black Lightning Style: Vibrating Blade!"
Darui's sword slashed in a horizontal arc, shrouded in night-dark electricity. Kakashi barely had time to draw a kunai to block, and even so, was thrown backward by the tremendous impact.
The ground cracked where he landed.
He rolled, dropped to his knees, and smiled under the mask.
"Two at once, huh?"
Kakashi knew he couldn't drag the fight out. The Sharingan was already draining his chakra rapidly. He needed to split his opponents. He immediately created a shadow clone.
The clone lunged toward Cee, who tried another sensory technique but was caught off-guard by the speed of the attack.
Meanwhile, the real Kakashi charged at Darui.
Blade against blade.
Chidori against Black Lightning.
The battlefield trembled with the clash. Kakashi was faster, more technical, but Darui compensated with raw power and precision.
They traded sword blows, free hands throwing shuriken and lightning projectiles between moves.
"You copy jutsu..." Darui growled, aiming a vertical slash. "But can you copy this?"
"I've seen enough lightning to know how to dodge," Kakashi replied, ducking and countering with a sweep followed by Chidori Senbon.
Darui spun his sword midair, slicing the projectiles. They were evenly matched.
Meanwhile, Kakashi's clone was dispelled—Cee had surprised it with a sound-warping illusion that shattered the clone's perception.
Now both turned back to the real Kakashi.
Two versus one.
Time passed quickly — but to Kakashi, every second felt like hours of energy drained.
The veins around his Sharingan throbbed. He felt his limits.
"I can't afford to hold back."
And then...
The Sharingan spun again.
Mangekyō Sharingan.
The air grew heavy.
"Kamui..."
In milliseconds, he aimed at Darui's feet, attempting to distort space and suck part of the terrain, creating instability. Darui sensed the vortex forming beneath him and leapt with superhuman speed — still, his left arm was grazed, part of the sleeve ripped away by the dimensional vacuum.
"That almost got me," he hissed, panting.
Cee didn't understand what happened but stepped back.
Kakashi dropped to his knees, a drop of blood trickling from his left eye. His breathing grew heavier. The Mangekyō exacted a steep price.
Still, he stood up.
"You think... just because you're together... I'll fall?" he said, staggering.
Darui exchanged a glance with Cee.
"He's near the edge."
Cee nodded.
"But still dangerous."
Then Kakashi started attacking completely erratically.
He appeared behind Cee with a charged Raikiri.
Cee barely dodged. The strike carved the ground like a spear.
But that... wasn't a real attack.
Kakashi knew they were watching his movements. It was acting. Shinobi theater. Strategy.
In the next second, a new clone emerged from Cee's back and stabbed a poisoned kunai into his shoulder.
Cee dropped to his knees, his chakra destabilized.
Only Darui remained.
He charged, furious, electricity pulsing like thunder in a storm.
"Black Lightning: Cutting Waves!"
Chakra in blade form launched like scythes of electricity. Kakashi jumped, grazed. His ANBU armor melted at the shoulder.
But he endured.
Advanced.
Fists and feet clashed.
Darui tried a rising slash.
Kakashi dodged and used Kamui on the sword arm.
Darui felt the world twist for an instant — the entire blade vanished in the space vortex.
"What the...?"
"This fight..." Kakashi murmured, staggering, "...is over."
With his last chakra, he drove a Chidori into Darui's abdomen, not lethal, but enough to knock him out.
Darui collapsed. Unconscious.
Kakashi looked around, breathing like a wounded beast. Both opponents were down. The fight was over.
His left eye burned like fire.
Thunder roared. His body trembled.
He dropped to his knees.
The field fell silent.
The Copy Ninja... had won. But at the cost of everything.
The battlefield roared around him, but at that moment, everything seemed silent around Hatake Kakashi.
His breathing was irregular. The Mangekyō Sharingan had drained nearly everything. His body, covered in cuts and dust, no longer responded. Every muscle cried for rest, but he kept his eyes open, fixed on the horizon, refusing to fall.
His vision shook. His knees sank into the earth.
"Not now... I can't stop yet..."
"Kakashi-senpai!" someone shouted in the distance.
From a nearby ridge, Kankurō came running, chakra threads ready. Behind him, two Sand med-nins followed, dodging debris and explosions as they crossed the wrecked terrain.
Kankurō arrived first, kneeling beside the Leaf ninja.
"Hey, breathe, you're still with us!" he said, grabbing Kakashi by the shoulders.
Kakashi's gaze slowly shifted to Kankurō. He had no strength for words, but there was understanding in his look — and a faint smile behind his torn mask.
"He's suffering from chakra exhaustion and ocular overload!" one of the med-nins shouted, already forming seals. "We need to stabilize now or he could collapse completely!"
Healing seals glowed on the medics' hands. A blue chakra field enveloped Kakashi, trying to halt internal bleeding and cellular wear from the Mangekyō.
The ground rumbled again. Far off, jutsu and thunder still echoed. But there, for a moment, time seemed to stop.