Light flashed.
Lightning chakra gathered in Kakashi's hand.
Lightning Release - Chidori.
He had not yet refined it into Raikiri, and without a Sharingan's reading power, the thrust lacked top speed.
ZZZZT...
The chirping flare of chakra tangled and crackled.
Senya did not wait for Kakashi to charge. He flickered forward.
In the next heartbeat he skimmed past Obito and Rin and stepped into Kakashi's striking lane.
"So fast."
Kakashi's pupils tightened.
No time to think. He drove Chidori straight at where Senya stood.
Thunder screamed, a spear of momentum.
Every motion showed in Senya's Sharingan. At this pace Kakashi was simply too slow.
Today, Senya would show him Chidori's greatest flaw.
He dipped and met the thrust.
If you are fast, I am faster.
Before Kakashi could react, Senya's right hand clamped his charging wrist, firm and precise.
He twisted.
Chidori veered in a blink, the point surging toward Kakashi's own brow.
"No..."
"Big Brother Senya..."
Obito and Rin cried out.
They thought the two had lost control.
Under that howl of lightning, Kakashi might die on the spot.
But this was guidance. Senya would never harm them.
If a man at the peak of super kage could not control a spar, and killed Kakashi by accident, the village would laugh him out of town.
At the final instant the raging glow halted one centimeter before Kakashi's brow.
Senya exhaled chakra and drank in the violent lightning until it vanished.
Chidori's greatest weakness: when the foe is faster, the thrust does not land - it betrays you. Full speed means no brakes. If the vector is turned, you cannot call it back.
The Third Raikage was lauded as the strongest spear and shield, a master of his own speed. When his line was bent, even he left a scar across his chest.
Speed is power and risk both.
Alive by a hair, Kakashi stared at his sparking hand and toppled, gasping for breath.
He was still alive.
That headlong needle of lightning had felt like death.
"Your speed needs work. Against a true speed specialist, this will fail."
"Try marrying the jutsu to your bladework. Train the speed as well."
"At the extreme lies true power."
Senya's smile was mild as Kakashi stilled his breath.
Even rattled, the boy forced himself calm. Strong talent, steady heart.
Senya knew from the chronicles that Sharingan did not suit Kakashi. Obito's gift had warped his growth.
But his father's sword had once ruled the world. The White Fang was terrifyingly fast.
To neglect that blade for a copycat path was putting the cart before the horse.
To study too many things and master none is taboo.
"Thank you for the guidance, senpai."
Kakashi bowed from the waist. The title shifted without thought.
He had heard the subtext - do not abandon the sword.
At the extreme - his father's teaching - lay the lethal trinity of blade, speed, and kill-power.
Measured against that, his current sword was far behind.
Resolve hardened.
Seeing the boy's focus, Senya smiled.
He had nudged the future.
"Word is the Land of Iron still has true warriors. After the war, go and see."
"Thank you, senpai."
Kakashi bowed again.
Obito and Rin hurried over, the fright just ebbing.
Obito wrapped Kakashi in a bear hug.
"Thank goodness, you stone-faced creep, I thought..."
Their roughhousing drew a low chuckle from Senya.
Youth was a fine thing.
He turned, tipping his chin toward the rock at the edge of the clearing.
A special tri-pronged kunai jutted from its face.
Just before Chidori would have met Kakashi's brow, Senya had felt a dense ripple of space - the same signature as his Summon Flash.
Ordinary shinobi cannot feel that wave.
Someone had been racing near.
Had Senya not halted, that someone would have appeared in the last blink and blocked the strike.
Only one shinobi owned such perfect spatial art and cared for these three this much.
As Senya finished speaking, silver light flared above the kunai.
SWISH!
In the next instant, golden brilliance arrived.
White cloak rippled, blond hair bright, the man flipped his special kunai in his fingers and smiled at them all.
Warmth at once.
Senya thought: curse that friendly aura.
"Looks like everyone is training well."
"My students are in your debt."