Chapter 471: Sharingan That Dyes the Transparent World Crimson

"Captain of the Anbu, Sarutobi Masanari, huh..." Mu Yue, having received the memories of his shadow clone, wore a thoughtful expression.

"Mu Yue-sensei, we've rested enough, we can start now." Kakashi stood up and walked over to Mu Yue.

Now that they were getting stronger, to prevent accidents from losing control during combat, they had specifically explained the situation to Mu Yue and asked him to act as referee.

With Mu Yue nearby, they could fight with peace of mind; even if injured, they would receive treatment immediately.

Although Nohara Rin's healing was good, at the level of a medical jonin, Mu Yue's healing ability was even stronger, second only to Tsunade.

"Then let's draw lots." Mu Yue nodded and took out a wooden box from a scroll to use for the draw.

Kakashi wasted no time, quickly reaching into the box and pulling out a paper ball at random.

As the first person to draw a number, no matter what number he got, he wouldn't know who his opponent would be.

"Number one." Kakashi opened the paper ball and read the number written on it.

"I'll go second!" Obito volunteered to be the second to draw.

He figured that since Kakashi drew number one first, if he drew second, there was a high probability he'd get number two, allowing him to go head-to-head with Kakashi in a match among the disciples.

Obito lifted his head, slowly reached his hand into the opening of the wooden box, and carefully selected a paper ball inside with a grim expression.

"Please let it be Kakashi, please don't let it be Guy." Obito silently prayed.

In this internal match, encountering Might Guy would be an early loss, no question about it.

Then Obito suddenly thought of recent events and recalled that he seemed to have caught Kakashi's "crow's mouth" curse.

"Please let it be Might Guy, not Kakashi!" The clever Obito quickly added two counter-prayers in his mind.

Feeling he had done all the preparations, Obito grabbed one of the paper balls and pulled it out.

"How could it be number three!" Obito stared at the big 'three' in his hand, his eyes wide with anger.

Kakashi was number one, so his first-round opponent could only be Might Guy or Shisui.

Against Shisui, Obito could still put up a fight, but if he ran into Might Guy, he could only think about how to lose stylishly, since Nohara Rin was still training nearby.

"Haha, I can't wait to have a great battle with my rival!" Might Guy laughed loudly as he stepped forward, thrust his hand into the wooden box without any hesitation.

Of course, the opponent Might Guy most wanted to face was Kakashi—after all, he was his lifelong rival.

"I believe you feel the same way, my rival." Might Guy grabbed a paper ball, turned back to look at Kakashi, and flashed a grin with bright white teeth.

"No, not really." Kakashi replied mercilessly.

Before mastering the Mindless Slash, he had no such thoughts at all.

Obito stared intently at the paper ball in Might Guy's hand. If the Sharingan had no x-ray vision, he'd have activated it to see through it.

"Please don't let it be number four." Obito prayed in his heart.

The reverse prayer earlier hadn't worked, so this time he switched back to a normal prayer.

Shisui also looked at the paper ball in Might Guy's hand. As the last person to draw, he was just going through the motions—the actual order would be clear once Guy finished drawing.

"What a pity, it's number four." Might Guy opened the paper ball and said regretfully.

Obito's face froze. Truly, what he feared came—he really had drawn Might Guy.

"My rival, it looks like we'll have to meet in the second round." Might Guy gave Kakashi a thumbs-up in encouragement.

"Let's fight our best." Kakashi said, inwardly relieved. Although Shisui was a bit more troublesome than Obito, he still had a decent chance of winning if he gave it his all.

Shisui walked up to the wooden box and pulled out the number two paper ball that Obito had been yearning for.

"Rin, you don't need to train for now. Come sit for a while." Mu Yue called Nohara Rin, who was in the middle of training, to stop.

This move by Mu Yue added another layer of gloom to Obito's already heavy mood.

He had originally thought that Rin's important jonin training might mean she wouldn't watch, but what was meant to come still came.

Nohara Rin took a few light breaths, walked over, and sat down beside Obito, focusing her attention on Shisui and Kakashi, who were already in their ready stances.

"Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, Armament Haki technique, Three-Tomoe Sharingan, plus a good tactical mind—the only obvious weakness is his age." Kakashi couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Kakashi was a genius who grew up praised since childhood, but every time he thought about Shisui's details, he felt that even among geniuses, there was a gap.

Although there was the matter of meeting Mu Yue sooner or later, Shisui himself was indeed talented enough.

"As long as I control my Chakra well and be a bit more cautious, the probability of winning is very high." Shisui quickly constructed a battle plan targeting Kakashi in his mind.

Although Kakashi's Lightning Release Sword Technique had extremely high burst damage, Shisui's Three-Tomoe Sharingan could see through his movements; as long as the distance wasn't too close, he could dodge with his Body Flicker Technique.

Kakashi could also use Lightning Release burst to evade Shisui's attacks, but Kakashi's total Chakra was inferior to Shisui's, and reinforcing the body with Lightning Nature Transformation consumed extra Chakra; under the tug-of-war of offense and defense, Kakashi would be the first to give out.

"Begin the battle!" Mu Yue announced after seeing that both were ready.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Kakashi and Shisui both flickered at the same time; Kakashi pressed forward while Shisui retreated backward.

Shisui was in no hurry to clash with Kakashi; having just come off the battlefield, they knew each other's strength very well, so there was no need for probing.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Shisui focused his breath, and while retreating rapidly, he formed hand seals and spat out numerous small fireballs toward Kakashi.

Normally in battle, Shisui would first use the Great Fireball, but the Great Fireball was too slow; even without reinforcing his body, Kakashi could easily dodge it.

"Earth Release: Mud Wall!"

Kakashi chose not to dodge, instead forming hand seals to raise an earth wall with a dog head in the middle to block the incoming high-temperature fireballs.

Bang, bang, bang!!

The fireballs exploded upon hitting the earth wall, fierce flames enveloping the wall as broken mud and stone splattered in all directions.

Kakashi's Mud Wall was very tenacious; even after Shisui spat out the last fireball, the wall only had some cracks and was not broken through.

"Is he trying to burrow underground and use Shadow Clone tactics again?" Shisui guessed in his mind.

Although Kakashi gave more of an impression with his Lightning Release Sword Technique now, those familiar with Kakashi knew that his Earth Release was not much worse than Lightning Release, and he was extremely skilled at using Earth Release to conceal his form.

"Can't Kakashi change his tactics? He always does this." Obito, who had suffered from it, couldn't help complaining.

"After all, it's a battle; tactics that can win are not divided by old or new." Rin Nohara said with a gentle smile.

Obito fell silent and did not speak, but inside he had already begun to cheer for Shisui.

"Go Shisui, give Kakashi a good beating." Obito already wanted to fast-forward to Kakashi losing the battle.

Worried that Kakashi might burrow underground and launch a surprise attack, Shisui gathered Chakra in his eyes and activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Although the Sharingan could not see through things, its insight was very sharp; even if underground, as long as Kakashi approached, he could detect Kakashi's movements and thus dodge his attacks.

"One Flash!"

Just as Shisui was cautiously observing the ground, a Kakashi jumped down from the Mud Wall, lightning shining on his body as he charged toward Shisui.

Shisui's Sharingan immediately noticed the movement of this first apparent Kakashi and instantly dodged to the left.

At that very moment, Shisui noticed a subtle disturbance on the ground.

Without any hesitation, Shisui burst out with maximum Body Flicker Technique, using the Shunpo overlapping burst technique to instantly pull away by several more body lengths.

The next moment, Kakashi, holding a lightning blade, burst forth.

"This speed... something's off." Shisui, who could clearly see Kakashi's movements, immediately noticed something wrong.

If Kakashi had unleashed all his power at maximum, Shisui's Sharingan could still track it, but it wouldn't be this easy.

"Lightning Blade: Scatter!"

Kakashi swung the lightning blade in his hand, and a crackling sound of lightning exploded; a web-like spread of lightning extended toward Shisui.

This was inspiration Kakashi had drawn from Purple Lightning—gathering Chakra into a single point to either deliver a slash or disperse the power for area attacks—a technique he specifically developed for internal battles after returning to Konoha.

Kakashi's sudden change of tactics caught Shisui off guard.

If Kakashi had simply charged out holding Purple Lightning, Shisui would have been on guard, but Shisui had not expected Kakashi to develop a Lightning Release slash variant similar to Purple Lightning, a technique he had never shown on the battlefield.

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

Judging by his Sharingan observation that he could not avoid it, Shisui decisively focused his breath to the extreme, entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, then gathered a large amount of Chakra and instantly converted it into Fire Nature Chakra, finally spitting out a wide swath of high-temperature flames.

Actually, Shisui had two options: one was to use the Armament Haki Secret Technique, and the other was to use Flame Breathing Chakra Mode; both could defend against this surprise attack.

The principle of the Armament Haki Secret Art is very simple: directly withstand the attack.

The Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, on the other hand, can instantly complete nature transformation and use Fire Release without hand signs, greatly improving Shisui's ninjutsu efficiency, allowing him to use Fire Release before the lightning strikes.

The difference between these two choices is that using the Armament Haki Secret Art allows him to continue blocking Kakashi's subsequent moves, while using the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode is an attempt to regain initiative and counterattack Kakashi.

Boom!!

Lightning and flame violently collided, a huge explosion sounded, thunder rumbled continuously, and flames roared like a raging dragon.

Due to the close distance, Shisui was caught in the blast and looked a bit disheveled.

But Shisui didn't mind; under the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, his body was stronger and wouldn't have his combat power affected by the residual effects.

Large swaths of flame spewed from Shisui's mouth, and the roaring fire dragon gradually swallowed the lightning, as the terrifying fire began to spread.

"So you want to compete in pure peak power? I might not necessarily lose in that."

Kakashi took a few steps forward, gripping the White Fang Short Blade tightly, and a large amount of chakra inside his body was activated, continuously converting into Lightning Nature chakra to energize his body.

Although he hadn't learned Mushin Slash, the process of learning had brought Kakashi many gains, and he had improved in various aspects.

Explosive power was his specialty. If he couldn't even surpass Shisui in that, there was no need to fight. If his strongest point was inferior to others, how could he win?

Ssssss!!

An extremely dazzling lightning enveloped Kakashi's body. Kakashi pushed his breathing to the limit, entering the Transparent World state, mobilizing all the power of his energized body and concentrating it into the next slash as he advanced toward Shisui.

Shisui seemed determined to go head-to-head with Kakashi in the Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, showing no sign of backing down as Kakashi approached.

Kakashi didn't know if Shisui was being stubborn today or what, to actually want to clash head-on like this.

He instinctively felt something was wrong, because the person standing before him was the cautious Shisui, not the impulsive Obito.

But Kakashi did not retreat, because as long as he advanced another meter, he would enter an absolute kill range.

Within that range, unless it was Might Guy with the Six Gates Stacked Rock Breathing Chakra Mode, no disciple of Muyue could dodge Kakashi's full-power slash.

Kakashi believed Shisui had a plan, but he also trusted his own abilities.

If he could successfully swing that slash, then this battle would end, and he wouldn't have to endure the punishment for failure.

For a full-power Kakashi, one meter was too short. Almost instantly, he reached the distance sufficient to instantly kill Shisui.

The disciples who had not yet fought watched the battlefield with full concentration.

"Why would he think of competing in explosive power with Kakashi? The advantage of Fire Release is its range." Obito said with a look of frustration, feeling that Shisui was definitely going to lose this way.

It would be better to exploit Kakashi's weakness of insufficient chakra and fight a war of attrition, which would be much more stable.

The next moment, Shisui suddenly stopped outputting Fire Release, pouring most of his chakra into the Curved Spoon, his blood-red eyes fixed on the approaching Kakashi.

An endless blood-red gradually filled Kakashi's vision, causing his slashing motion to pause.

"Impossible! How could I, in the Transparent World state, be caught in a genjutsu!" Kakashi was shocked inwardly.

Ever since truly mastering the Transparent World, Kakashi had never been troubled by genjutsu again.

Because the essence of genjutsu is only to manipulate the opponent's chakra to interfere with the five senses, but Kakashi in the Transparent World state had absolute control over his body and could instantly detect and dispel it, effectively making him immune.

But in that instant, Kakashi's chakra in the Transparent World state was disturbed, and he didn't dispel it immediately.

By the time Kakashi dispelled the genjutsu, Shisui had just reached his side and aimed a kunai at his heart.

Kakashi finally understood why Shisui had let him get close. Shisui was also waiting for the right distance.

If the distance between Kakashi and Shisui had been even 0.5 meters greater, Kakashi would not have lost the match outright and could still have barely fought another round.

"Shisui wins!" Muyue announced the result of the battle.

(Ai Fuzhu ifzzw)(:)