Escaping the Mist Ninja starts with backstabbing your teacher.

Chapter 155 The Power Flowing Within the Body!

Kakashi looked up and saw Guy pointing at him, his index finger straight, his thick eyebrows raised, and his face full of righteous indignation, as if Kakashi had just said something outrageous.

"You're nothing? Then who was it back in the Ninja Academy who always beat me in taijutsu exams?"

"Who learned Chidori without the Sharingan? Who achieved a 100% mission completion rate for three consecutive years in the Anbu?"

Kai's speech quickened, his voice rising: "You've just gotten used to one eye, you haven't lost yourself!"

Kakashi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found himself unable to find any rebuttal.

"That Sharingan was originally a gift to you." Kai lowered his hand, his tone softening. "Now that it's been taken away, you feel sorry for the person who gave it to you."

"But Kakashi, you need to understand, what you owe that person isn't just an eye."

What you owe him is to continue living with your own eyes.

The wind blew across the grass, rustling the elm branches and leaves. Kakashi's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped the stick, his knuckles turning white.

"You make it sound so easy," he said, lowering his head, his voice a little hoarse.

"Of course it's easy." Kay resumed his starting stance, a wide grin revealing his signature row of white teeth. "Because I've never relied on anyone else's eyes."

Kakashi looked up at Guy's confident face.

"Again," he said.

"That's more like it!" Kai laughed, took a step forward, and charged forward again.

This time, Kakashi didn't passively defend; he charged forward to meet Guy's fist head-on.

He sidestepped the first punch, then raised the wooden stick from below, aiming straight for Kai's chin.

Kai dodged by tilting his head back, and then slammed his left fist into Kakashi's ribs from the side.

Kakashi didn't back down, but instead took another step forward, pressing himself into Guy's arms and bumping his shoulder into Guy's chest.

Kai was knocked back a step by the impact, but Kakashi also lost his balance and stumbled forward.

Just as he was about to fall to the ground, he slammed the wooden stick in his hand into the ground to support his body, while at the same time sweeping his right leg backward to kick Kai's shin.

Kai leaped up, did a half-turn in the air, and landed with his right fist fully charged, smashing it toward Kakashi's back.

Kakashi didn't turn around. He thrust the wooden stick backward from under his armpit, the tip of the stick precisely hitting Gai's fist and deflecting his fist.

The two of them took a few steps back at the same time, creating some distance between them.

"Those few moves just now, they were pretty good." Kai moved his fist that had been hit, a red mark on his knuckles, but his expression was as if he was enjoying something delicious.

Kakashi was panting, and beads of sweat were already forming on his forehead.

His body was trembling slightly, not from exhaustion, but from the long-lost excitement of facing his opponent head-on being awakened from somewhere within him.

"Your swordsmanship has deteriorated quite a bit," Kai said.

"I'm using a stick," Kakashi said.

"I know, but your root is a knife." Kai's gaze fell on the short knife that Kakashi had stuck in the grass.

"When you're using a stick, your hand hesitates; when you're holding a knife, that's when you truly are yourself."

Kakashi followed Guy's gaze and saw the short sword lying quietly on the grass, the leather on its scabbard gleaming a dark red in the sunlight.

That was the scabbard left by his father. He had changed several knives, but he had never changed this scabbard.

He released the stick, which fell to the ground, rolled twice, and came to rest in the grass.

Then he bent down and pulled out the dagger.

The sound of the knife being drawn was very soft, like a sigh.

The blade flashed a cold light in the sunlight, illuminating half of Kakashi's face, which was covered by his headband.

He gripped the hilt of the knife, held the blade horizontally in front of him, supported the back of the blade with his left hand, and pointed the tip of the knife at Kai.

It was no longer the tentative stance of a wooden stick, but a true posture belonging to a swordsmanship practitioner.

Kai's eyes lit up.

"That's the look in your eyes," he said, clenching his fists, the bandages leaving white marks on his knuckles. "Come on."

Kakashi didn't say anything more. He pushed off the ground with his foot, and like a black lightning bolt, he rushed straight towards Guy.

A flash of light appeared.

Kai dodged to the side, the blade grazing his clothes and severing several loose threads of the bandage.

Instead of backing away, he threw a punch at Kakashi's wrist.

Kakashi flipped his wrist, turning the blade horizontally to block the punch with the back of the sword.

The fist clashed with the knife, producing a crisp metallic clang.

Blood seeped from Kai's fist, not from a cut by the blade, but from the skin being torn when his fist struck the back of the blade.

He glanced down at the bloodstains on his hands, then looked up, his grin widening.

"This is the Kakashi I know."

Kakashi didn't speak; his eyes reflected Guy's face, which was covered in sweat and a smile.

Something that had been suppressed in my heart was slowly beginning to loosen.

In the distance, under the shade of the trees, Parker peeked out from the bushes again, watching the two figures wrestling on the grass.

One was dressed in green, the other in black, and they were having a great time fighting.

"This is going to be interesting." Parker yawned, licked his paws, and slowly lay down.

Resting his chin on his two front paws, he squinted his eyes and began to enjoy the "friendly match" like a retired old man.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, bathing the entire third training ground in a warm, orange-yellow glow.

The elm branches swayed gently in the wind, making a rustling sound, as if applauding the two fighting figures.

Kakashi swung his sword, and Guy threw a punch. The flashes of sword and the shadows of fist intertwined, carving messy marks into the grass.

No one used ninjutsu, no one used any advanced techniques, it was just the purest taijutsu, the most primitive form of attack.

Sweat dripped onto the grass and evaporated into invisible water vapor under the sun.

After the game ended, both players collapsed onto the grass, panting heavily.

Kakashi's hair was soaked and stuck to his forehead, his headband askew to one side.

Kai's bandages had loosened considerably, revealing the abrasions on his arms and the back of his hands.

"Three minutes—that's long gone," Kakashi said breathlessly, his voice broken.

"Who cares about that?" Kai lay on his back on the grass, his chest heaving, a satisfied smile on his face. "Youth can't be measured in minutes."

Kakashi turned his head and glanced at him, his lips twitching slightly, but he ultimately didn't laugh, though the gloom in his eyes lessened a bit.

He got up from the grass, picked up the scattered scabbard, and put it back on his waist.

Then he bent down, picked up the scroll that Kai had dropped on the ground, and threw it at him.

"Take it, I admit defeat."

Kai caught the reel, sat up, looked down at the reel in his hand, and raised his thick eyebrows.

"This was prepared by me in the first place. You took my things, so you lose?"

"Then consider it my treat." Kakashi draped his jacket over his shoulder, turned, and walked out of the training field. "Anyway, you don't have any money."

Kai froze for a moment, then suddenly stood up and shouted at Kakashi's retreating figure, "Hey! Kakashi! What do you mean by this! I may not earn much, but I'm definitely not poor!"

Kakashi didn't turn his head, but simply raised his hand and waved it gently.

Kai stood there, watching Kakashi's retreating figure, the smile on his lips finally fading slightly.

"This guy—" he said in a low voice, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness and a hint of relief.

Under the shade of the tree, Puck stood up, shook his fur, looked in the direction Kakashi had left, and let out a low sigh.

Then he turned around and silently disappeared into the bushes, stepping on his paw pads.

The afterglow of the setting sun bathed the third training field, turning the grass into a warm orange-red hue.

The shadow of the elm tree was stretched long, as if drawing a period to the end of the day.

And the sun will rise as usual tomorrow.

Late at night, in Konoha, at the Hatake residence.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, casting a silvery-white glow across the courtyard.

Kakashi stood in the center of the courtyard, dressed in a dark training robe and wooden clogs, without a headband.

The left eye, which had been stuffed into its socket, was exposed to the moonlight and looked no different from the right eye, showing no abnormalities.

His hands hung naturally at his sides, slightly clenched into fists, then relaxed, then clenched again.

After the day's training ended, he didn't go home immediately, but instead found a place.

He practiced the basic swordsmanship his father had left him repeatedly with that short knife, chopping, slashing, stabbing, and thrusting, one move after another.

Sweat soaked through my clothes, and my arms ached so much I could barely lift them, but the inexplicable anxiety in my heart never subsided.

He didn't return until dusk, dragging his weary body back here.

The moonlight shone on my face, and the wind blew through the courtyard, carrying the sweet scent of night-blooming jasmine.

He closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind of distractions, but those thoughts were like duckweed on the water, floating up one side when pressed down, and then floating up the other.

So he stood up.

In the courtyard, Kakashi slowly closed his eyes, adjusting his breathing, his chest rising and falling less and less.

It was as if he was being pulled away from the outside world and sinking into some kind of inner space that belonged only to him.

Inside the body, chakra flows slowly through the meridians.

During that time, in the lowest level of the abandoned base in the Land of Rivers, while fighting that one-tailed puppet, he had a certain feeling.

It's not thinking, not judging, but a bodily reaction that's faster than consciousness.

Under Kai's stimulation, that feeling seemed to awaken within him.

Now, the flow and changes of chakra are clearer than before.

That exhilarating battle with Kai, though purely a physical exchange, was like a key that activated something.

Kakashi clenched his fist slightly, chakra gathering in his palm, a flash of lightning passing between his fingers, and blue-white electricity leaping a few times.

It emitted a faint hissing sound, not that of the Thousand Birds, whose hiss is much louder and more violent.

It was just a faint, gentle ball of lightning chakra, dancing quietly in his palm like a firefly flashing across the night sky.

But his brow furrowed slightly.

Because the "touch" of this ball of lightning-attribute chakra was different from before.

In the past, when he used Chidori, his chakra was like an untamed wild horse, requiring all his strength to control it, and it would go out of control if he relaxed even slightly.

But now, this ball of chakra was as quiet as a domesticated cat, curled up in his palm, neither struggling nor resisting.

This was a method left behind by that person, something he had always wanted to avoid facing, and he didn't know whether he should use it.

Even without using it, that power continued to circulate within him, making him increasingly familiar with it.

But—if we use it, what will be the result?