Naruto: This Uchiha is too innocent.

A week has passed since I last visited Rin's house, and it has long been the 50th year of Konoha.

This week, something happened that wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't a small deal either: Kakashi was promoted to Jonin, becoming the first young ninja to achieve this rank.

Obito said Kakashi planned to be promoted to Jonin within a month, but in reality, it was much shorter than a month—only a week.

Because of this, many young people on the street are discussing it. Some say Kakashi is the future pillar of Konoha, some say Kakashi will be the Hokage's right-hand man, and some say Kakashi is a powerful weapon on the battlefield.

In short, Kakashi's promotion to Jonin caused quite a stir in Konoha.

Naturally, the focus of the discussion shifted unintentionally from Kakashi to Uchiha Sora, since in everyone's mind, Uchiha Sora was the most talented person of the younger generation.

Uchiha Sora was the most talented boy people had ever heard of, while Hatake Kakashi was the most remarkable genius they had ever seen.

Many villagers who were hostile to the Uchiha clan were watching the Uchiha make a fool of themselves, while the Konoha high-ranking officials remained silent. Most of them knew about Uchiha Sora because they knew that Uchiha Sora could use "ninjutsu" and summoning without hand seals. It was because they knew this that they understood the extent of Uchiha Sora's genius.

"Kakashi and Uchiha Sora...?" Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the Hokage's office, his eyes gleaming.

"What an interesting contrast."

"Lord Hokage, who do you think is stronger between these two geniuses?" the assistant asked curiously.

"Naturally, it's that little Uchiha." Hiruzen Sarutobi gave the answer without hesitation.

"The Hokage is surprisingly decisive."

Hiruzen Sarutobi lowered his eyes and said softly, "Do you know that the principle for the Uchiha clan leader election is that strength is paramount? After the current clan leader dies, the strongest member of the clan will immediately become the new clan leader. Uchiha Sora is the only one who was designated as the young clan leader before the current clan leader died."

"What does this prove?"

"This shows that... Fugaku Uchiha is 100% certain that there is no genius in the clan who can surpass Uchiha Sora, and even... he is certain that Uchiha Sora will be able to surpass the previous clan heads."

The assistant thought for a moment, then hesitated and said, "Uchiha Sora's performance in the Anbu was indeed outstanding, but it seems he can't surpass the entire first generation, can he?"

"Heh, is it that he can't do it, or that he doesn't want to?" Hiruzen Sarutobi said languidly. "Since that old fox Fugaku can acknowledge Uchiha Sora, then this young man must have something extraordinary about him."

The world believes that the current Uchiha clan leader has a very low profile, but in fact, Uchiha Fugaku was a person with great strategic vision and a dangerous person with courage far beyond ordinary people.

Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi had been observing Sora Uchiha. He had always been convinced that this Uchiha genius must have some unknown side. He once thought that Sora Uchiha had awakened the three tomoe at a young age... and it was even possible that he had the Mangekyou Sharingan.

It wasn't until the Saltwater Jonin told him that Uchiha Sora had only just awakened his Sharingan during the Battle of Kikyo Mountain that he was truly shocked.

Is Uchiha Sora really that bad?

On the contrary, this shows that before the Battle of Kikyo Mountain, Uchiha Sora had not even awakened his Sharingan, but he was a figure recognized by the entire Uchiha clan. Therefore, he felt that Uchiha Sora was even more monstrous than he had imagined.

"How long will it take before you show your true colors...?"

……

Meanwhile, the two people in the village who were embroiled in controversy were eating ramen at Ichiraku Ramen.

"You've improved so much in the last two years, it's terrifying." Kakashi looked helplessly at Uchiha Sora, who was eating noodles with gusto.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that the two people's clothes are not neat, but rather quite messy, and there is even a deep scratch on the right side of Kakashi's clothes.

"It was just luck. Your Chidori attack almost killed me just now." Uchiha Sora didn't even look up, engrossed in his ramen.

Yes, just now, the two of them had a sparring match, which was proposed by Kakashi, and the result was... Uchiha Sora won against Kakashi by a narrow margin.

"Haha, you think it's funny."

Kakashi's eyelids twitched; he almost killed Uchiha Sora?

Before fighting Uchiha Sora, he might have thought it was possible, but after the fight, he realized he was overthinking it. Uchiha Sora's combat experience far surpassed his own, and he was certain that Uchiha Sora had held back.

As for the Chidori that "almost killed Uchiha Sora," he even thought that Uchiha Sora deliberately took the hit head-on.

Kakashi passed the Jonin Exams and has some Jonin-level strength on the surface, but in terms of combat experience, he is quite different from those Jonin. Therefore, his current strength is actually between Chunin and Jonin.

Closing this gap is quite simple; all you need to do is spend some time training specifically.

"Your problem right now is that you think too much and have too many concerns during battle," Uchiha Sora pointed out after a moment's thought.

"Are you overthinking it?"

"Kakashi, you're smart, but I can tell you're always thinking about your next move when you're sparring."

"...Isn't this a good thing?"

During a fight, he plans his next move as soon as he makes a strike, and he doesn't think that's a bad thing.

Uchiha Sora put down his chopsticks and fell into thought. "Hmm... how should I put it? It's indeed a good thing that you're thinking about your next move, but there will be a slight pause at the moment you make your move. For most people, they won't be able to feel that pause."

"However, perhaps because I've always been dancing on the edge of a knife, I'm very sensitive to subtle reactions in combat, and I was able to detect that one pause in your frame."

Kakashi was silent for a while, then seemed to understand what he meant. "You mean, before I make a move, there is a process of information transmission between my thoughts and my body."

Uchiha Sora's eyes lit up. "Ah, cultured people really know how to summarize."

That's right. There's a process of information transmission between your thoughts and body. For you, you think before you make a move, considering the direction of the move, how much force to use, and so on. So you think first, then you make a move.

But for me, I think before I act, or even act first and think later. My body's instincts are one step ahead of my brain in making the next move, and perhaps that's why I'm a little better than you.

"How should I change?" Kakashi asked.

"Well... well, to unleash your physical potential, to put it simply, it means to engage in life-or-death battles with powerful enemies. Your strength is much greater than Obito's and Rin's, so the missions of Team 7 are actually not very efficient for your growth."

"I'm different; I have to fight life-or-death battles with enemy ninjas from time to time."

After Uchiha Sora left Ichiraku Ramen, Kakashi was still deep in thought...