Chapter 143: Obito vs. Kakashi

"Next, you need to engage in more battles to better comprehend the Breathing Method."

"Fighting, huh. Damn, do I have to go look for that guy Kakashi?" Recalling Muyue's words, he couldn't help but sigh.

Although Might Guy was close to him in strength, and Shisui could easily suppress him, both of them were still training in the Breathing Method recently and had no time to fight him, the one making the fastest progress.

Obito could only think of Kakashi. He couldn't go to Asuma, could he? With his current strength, unless he didn't use the Breathing Method, fighting Asuma would be too easy. But how could he improve the Breathing Method by fighting without using it? That was the problem.

In the end, Obito really found that it had to be Kakashi.

Kakashi's strength was decent enough to be worth using the Breathing Method against him, and Kakashi didn't seem too busy either.

The most important thing was that Obito felt he could now take on Kakashi; at least he could already achieve concentration upon concentration of his breathing.

If not for still feeling a bit unsteady, Obito would have called Rin Nohara along to let her admire his heroic feat of defeating Kakashi and know who was the true genius of Konoha.

Thinking of this, Obito couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"Why are you standing alone at my door laughing so creepily?" Kakashi, hearing the sound, came over and saw Obito grinning foolishly by himself, so he asked.

"It's not creepy at all! This is a hearty laugh celebrating victory in advance!" Obito then realized he had unconsciously walked to Kakashi's door.

"So you came here to challenge me?" Kakashi asked.

"That's right." Obito nodded and said, "Kakashi, get ready to lose. Just a few days ago, I got first place in my year at the Ninja Academy!"

"Is that something worth bragging about? I got tired of that kind of thing three years ago." Kakashi said with a calm expression.

"By the way, Obito, how many times have you gotten first place? Don't tell me it's only once. I was always first in my year until graduation."

"Uh, it doesn't matter how many times. Anyway, I'm a first-place student just like you now." Obito gave up competing with Kakashi over grades.

"Seeing you so full of confidence, I thought you'd already graduated and become a ninja. After all, even though I'm the same age as you, I've been a chunin for several years." Kakashi continued his verbal assault.

Obito:...

It's just graduating at five and becoming chunin at six, what's there to brag about? What use was graduating a few years earlier? If he had graduated that early, he wouldn't have met Teacher Muyue. Obito used the mental victory method.

"Kakashi, less talk, let's start the fight." Feeling that letting Kakashi continue would affect his performance later, Obito stopped him.

"Then let's go. It won't take me long to deal with you anyway." Kakashi led Obito to his usual training spot.

"Damn it. You'll pay for underestimating me." Obito's anger instantly maxed out, determined to teach Kakashi a lesson.

Even though only a little over three months had passed, he was no longer the Uchiha Obito who could be instantly taken out by a Shunshin kick three months ago.

Now he had mastered Soru, learned the Flame Breathing, and learned Hosenka and Hosenka Tsubami. His strength was on a completely different level from before.

"Let's begin." Kakashi said calmly.

He really didn't take Obito's challenge seriously. If it were Guy, he would have been a bit interested, since their previous encounter had shown him that Might Guy had made tremendous progress.

As for Obito, Kakashi's impression was still from the time a few months ago when Obito asked him for dodge training.

Obito immediately entered the Breathing Method state, inhaling a large amount of oxygen to strengthen his body.

Swish!

Obito's body instantly vanished from its spot, and he threw a fierce punch at Kakashi's abdomen.

Kakashi's pupils sharply contracted. He hadn't expected Obito to be so fast. Caught off guard, Kakashi couldn't dodge in time and had to quickly raise his arm to block, instantly being knocked back more than two meters.

"Such power and speed." Kakashi's look toward Obito changed.

If it weren't for his rich combat experience, he might have actually been hit by Obito just now.

Kakashi no longer underestimated Obito. He quickly pulled a handful of shuriken from his ninja tool pouch and threw them at Obito.

Obito directly used Soru to dodge the shuriken and charged at Kakashi again.

This time, Kakashi was already on guard. The moment Obito rushed over, he nearly got a punch right in the face from Kakashi.

Kakashi's excellent offensive rhythm instantly turned the tide, beating Obito back step by step, covering him in quite a bit of dust.

"Damn it, is Kakashi's taijutsu even stronger than Guy's?" Obito was very frustrated from the beating.

Before, with his Breathing Method activated, he could go head-to-head with Might Guy. He didn't expect to be suppressed by Kakashi, feeling like he couldn't use his full strength.

Boom!

Obito was caught by Kakashi's opening and was knocked to the ground with a punch and a kick.

Obito quickly distanced himself, no longer engaging Kakashi in taijutsu, and formed hand seals to use a fire release ninjutsu.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Obito burst out chakra and spat out a four-meter-tall huge fireball flying toward Kakashi.

"Earth Release: Mud Wall!" Kakashi calmly formed hand seals and summoned a giant earth wall to block in front of him.

Boom, rumble!

The fireball slammed heavily into the thick earth wall but failed to completely destroy it. Seeing the broken dog head on the wall, Obito was very annoyed.

He had originally intended to force Kakashi to dodge and then take the opportunity to rush in with Total Concentration Breathing for a surprise attack, but Kakashi directly used a defensive ninjutsu to block.

"Flame Breathing, Total Concentration Breathing!" Obito decided to give Kakashi another dose of breathing technique shock—the speed and power just now were not yet his limit.

Obito leaped directly onto the earth wall and found Kakashi standing right by the wall. Relying on the boost from the breathing technique, Obito charged at Kakashi while performing a nature transformation, flames bursting from his palm and burning toward Kakashi.

Seeing Obito's fierce approach, Kakashi instantly sidestepped, putting a short distance between them and causing Obito's flames to miss.

Seeing that Kakashi was so cautious, a flash of inspiration struck Obito's mind, and he decided to try a one-handed seal ninjutsu, which he had not yet successfully performed.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Crimson Claw!"

Obito quickly pulled out three kunai, hid his left hand behind his back to secretly form seals, and then swiftly threw the three kunai at Kakashi. Although only two kunai ended up coated in flames, it was still a success.

At the same time Obito threw the kunai, Kakashi also shot two kunai at Obito.

Sidestepping to dodge the kunai thrown by Kakashi, Obito laughed heartily. His were not ordinary kunai—they would explode. He watched to see how Kakashi would dodge them.

Boom, rumble!

The distance was too close; although Kakashi successfully dodged the kunai, the kunai exploded right beside him.

"I win!" Obito thought happily in his heart.

With this level of power, it wouldn't severely injure Kakashi, but the upcoming fight would definitely be unpleasant.