Chapter 520

In the early morning, after getting up and eating breakfast, Kakashi invited Rin Nohara to go train at the place where they had previously tested Milotic's abilities.

Kakashi felt that both he and his Rockruff needed a period of relatively hard special training to improve their strength.

Kakashi was currently in a middling position — he was stronger than Obito and Shisui, but there was still a considerable gap between him and Might Guy.

The amount of chakra wasn't a problem that could be solved in a short time, but he could improve his techniques, practice conservation, and make each expenditure of chakra more valuable.

As for Rockruff, Kakashi felt that with a bit more training, it might be able to evolve.

After all, Feebas and Charmander, which had hatched later, had already evolved; it should be his Rockruff's turn soon.

"I'm coming too," Obito said immediately after hearing this.

How could he rest easy knowing Kakashi and Rin Nohara were training alone together?

What if Kakashi took advantage of his absence to show off in front of Rin Nohara and win her favor?

"Are you sure? You have a match tomorrow. Aren't you afraid it'll affect your performance?" Kakashi reminded him.

Obito wasn't stuck on some bottleneck — it was simply a matter of being behind in strength. Let alone training for one more day, even training for a whole week wouldn't help.

"You're not thinking of having an excuse like 'bad condition' if you lose, are you?" Kakashi looked at Obito suspiciously.

"Kakashi, your thoughts are too dark!" Obito scolded loudly. "The match doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon. Even if I train until tonight, I'll still have half a day to rest. How could it have any effect?"

"I was just saying it offhand," Kakashi replied calmly, his composed expression seeming to say, "Why are you getting so worked up?"

Obito was furious, cursing wildly in his heart but powerless to do anything.

After all, if they actually fought, he most likely couldn't beat Kakashi.

"I'm going to Guy's place," Shisui said to the others after finishing his meal.

Although Might Guy's injury this time wasn't as severe as last time when he forcibly opened the Six Gates, he still needed to lie down for over a week to recover.

Since this wasn't Konoha's territory, they decided that someone would have to go take care of Might Guy every day. Shisui drew the number one in the lottery, so he would be the one to take care of him on the first day.

Kakashi and the others waved in response, tidied up, and then walked out of town together.

After arriving at the destination, all three used the Summoning Jutsu to summon their respective Pokémon.

"Rock!"

As soon as Rockruff was summoned, it ran around Kakashi making excited cries and nuzzled its head against Kakashi's body.

"Mmm..."

Milotic lowered its head, rubbed against Rin Nohara's cheek in a gentle nuzzle, and let out a soft cry.

Charmeleon, who hadn't even gotten up yet, was suddenly summoned. It was about to open its mouth and blast Obito with a morning flame, but then it caught sight of Milotic nearby. Instantly its morning crankiness vanished, and it scampered over to Milotic's side.

"Rwar!" Charmeleon happily said good morning to Milotic.

Obito: ...

"Can't you have some ambition? How about training properly first? Look at your size and look at Milotic's size," Obito couldn't help saying.

Obito had recently measured Charmeleon's height; he remembered clearly that Charmeleon was only 1.2 meters tall.

As for Milotic, even without measuring, a rough estimate put it at five or six meters.

Even when Milotic coiled on the ground, it was still much taller than Charmeleon. Obito had no idea where Charmeleon got the courage to try to curry favor with Milotic — there was no way Milotic would be interested.

Obito shook his head inwardly. Although he had raised Charmeleon with his own hands, it really didn't take after him at all.

Charmeleon was furious — wasn't this blatantly calling it a small dragon?

The enraged Charmeleon immediately burst out chakra and charged straight at Obito.

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

Obito understood Charmeleon so well that he could even tell from a different way Charmeleon opened its mouth whether it was about to breathe fire at him.

So the moment Charmeleon took its first step, Obito instantly gathered chakra in his leg and kicked out a whirlwind kick, knocking down the charging Charmeleon.

"Flamethrower!"

Furious, Charmeleon quickly scrambled up, gathered a large amount of chakra in its throat, and spat out a pillar of fire thicker than its own head.

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

Obito highly concentrated the Flame Breathing to enhance its nature transformation ability, then retreated while forming hand seals, spewing out a vast sea of flames.

The surging sea of fire canceled out Charmeleon's Flamethrower and then surged relentlessly toward Charmeleon.

Just as the flames were about to scorch Charmeleon, Obito canceled his chakra output and used the Body Flicker Technique to kick Charmeleon flying.

"You're still too green to compete with me in fire," Obito said, shaking his head.

"Roar!"

Charmeleon stood up defiantly, shouting that fortunes change over thirty years—don't bully a young dragon when it's down—then continued attacking Obito, only stopping to rest when completely exhausted.

"This training method isn't bad either," Obito realized a blind spot.

Whenever Charmeleon got angry, it would fight him until exhaustion. So if he deliberately provoked Charmeleon a few words after it rested, couldn't he make Charmeleon keep training?

Rounding up, that would be equivalent to Charmeleon training to exhaustion every day under his encouragement.

Obito thought this was even more effective than Genjutsu, though Charmeleon might not understand his good intentions.

"Let Charmeleon suffer a bit; I'll take the blame," Obito resolved in his heart. Even if Charmeleon didn't understand him, he would still help it become stronger.

After resting for a while, the anger in Charmeleon's heart gradually subsided.

Although it sometimes felt the inexplicable urge to spew fire at Obito when annoyed, Charmeleon also remembered Obito's kindness—for instance, when it had just hatched, Obito had cared for it deeply and raised it well.

It was just that later, during training, Obito was a bit inhuman, using Genjutsu to hypnotize it into more training.

However, Charmeleon could somewhat understand its contractor Obito. From its observations, Obito's strength was at the bottom among all the disciples.

If it grew stronger, Obito's overall combat power would also rise a notch.

Putting itself in his shoes—if one day Charmeleon couldn't defeat a translator, it would be anxious too.

"Charmeleon, are you pathetic? Resting this long and still not recovered your stamina—you'll never get a female ninja beast to like you like that!" Seeing that Charmeleon had rested enough, Obito taunted.

Charmeleon froze, staring at Obito in disbelief. This person had said something absolutely unforgivable.

"Roar!"

Charmeleon howled at the sky, its nose puffing white steam in anger. To hell with putting itself in his shoes—it needed to teach this inherently wicked Obito a severe lesson.

Enraged, Charmeleon attacked Obito recklessly, only stopping to rest when it couldn't lift its arms.

Kakashi, training nearby, twitched his mouth. This pair was abstract in every sense.

The three people and three beasts trained until dusk before preparing to return.

"What a fulfilling day," Rin Nohara said, stretching her waist and touching Milotic's cool body with a smile.

Obito nodded—indeed fulfilling. He had spent the whole day trying to provoke Charmeleon, nearly exhausting his vocabulary.

Obito planned to compile a "Kakashi's Bastard Quotes" and use Kakashi's words to rile up Charmeleon.

But just as Rin Nohara and the others were about to head back, a sudden change occurred.

A wooden cylinder suddenly appeared in front of Kakashi and the others.

Swish, swish, swish!!

From the holes in the wooden cylinder, a volley of poison needles glinting with purple light shot out rapidly. Since it was cylindrical, needles flew in almost every direction.

"Watch out for poison needles!" Kakashi, the quickest to react, shouted immediately. He covered his body with Busoshoku chakra and hugged Rockruff.

The attack came too suddenly; techniques that could be performed without hand seals couldn't perfectly block the poison needles, so they had to use Busoshoku to protect themselves.

Obito also used Busoshoku to shield Charmeleon, blocking the incoming poison needles for it.

Charmeleon looked stunned, not expecting that the inhuman Obito had become humane again.

Milotic shielded Rin Nohara, who hadn't mastered Busoshoku, and spat a water jet that knocked down most of the poison needles, but a few still grazed its body.

"This technique can actually cover the body from all angles," Sakura, hiding in the shadows, was somewhat surprised.

It wasn't the first time Kakashi and the others had used Busoshoku, but it was the first time they had covered their entire bodies.

"This technique is very effective against puppeteers," Sakura said warily, glad for her caution.

He had actually followed them from the very beginning, but had been waiting nearby for the perfect opportunity.

Now that Might Guy and Shisui were not around, not only were Kakashi and the other two in poor condition, but their summoning beasts had also expended a lot of stamina. This was the perfect opportunity for him to take revenge.

Kakashi immediately changed his breathing rhythm, concentrated his Lightning Breathing to the extreme, and entered the Transparent World state. He saw Hiruko hidden behind the tree, and also saw Sasori hidden inside Hiruko.

"This guy was disguised during the match." Kakashi frowned.

Although Sasori at this moment, because he was not disguised, looked different from the Stone Crab who participated in the match, Kakashi could determine from Sasori's chakra and Sasori's puppet that the one who had just ambushed them was that same puppeteer Stone Crab from the previous match.

"I was lulled by the peaceful scene in the town. When training in a place outside Konoha, I should always keep my chakra above two-thirds." Sensing the chakra in his body was less than half, Kakashi inwardly thought it was bad.

Although he didn't know why Sasori was attacking them, since Sasori had already made a move, the reason no longer mattered. The first thing to consider was how to get through the current crisis.

"Extraction of Minor Malady Technique!"

Rin Nohara immediately used a medical ninjutsu to remove the poison from Minus.

Even without an antidote, the Extraction of Minor Malady Technique could alleviate the poisoning to some extent.

"Everyone be careful, this poison is no ordinary thing." Rin Nohara, who had been taught by Tsunade, immediately realized that the poison on Sasori's needles was extremely potent.

Sasori threw out a scroll, and the Third Kazekage wearing a gray robe appeared on the field.

Connecting ten chakra threads to the puppet, Sasori stepped out from hiding and manipulated the Third Kazekage to attack the three of them.

Although Sasori could control ten puppets at once, the Third Kazekage was different from ordinary puppets. In order to perfectly display the Third Kazekage's power, Sasori did not bring out any other puppets.

Shush!!

Kakashi immediately threw two kunai infused with Lightning Nature Transformation chakra at Sasori's real body.

"Rock!"

The angry Rockruff controlled the rock around its neck to fly out and smash toward Sasori.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Obito, having activated his Sharingan, also spotted Sasori and rapidly formed hand signs, spitting out a huge fireball at Sasori.

'Flamethrower!'

Charmander, with an angry expression, shot a column of flame at Sasori.

At this moment, Sasori temporarily replaced Obito as the person Charmander hated the most.

"Magnet Style: Iron Sand Wall!"

Sasori controlled the Third Kazekage to create a thick black iron sand wall in front of him, firmly blocking all attacks.

"A puppet can actually use Magnet Style." Kakashi was inwardly amazed, and his expression became even more serious.

He had thought that even against a puppeteer who could control ten puppets, the three of them plus their summoning beasts would be enough to handle it, but now it seemed uncertain.

During the match, Sasori had not used his full strength; he had hidden a powerful puppet capable of using the Kekkei Genkai Magnet Style.

Honestly, this somewhat overturned Kakashi's understanding—a puppet could actually use a Kekkei Genkai.

"Magnet Style: Iron Sand Drizzle!"

Sasori danced his fingers, manipulating the Third Kazekage to form hand signs, summoning more iron sand, and then turning the gathered iron sand into iron needles that shot toward Kakashi and the others.

"Earth Style: Multiple Mud Wall!"

Kakashi quickly formed hand signs and used Earth Style to create two earthen walls in front of them.

Shushushu!!

Bang bang bang!!

Countless fine needles made of iron sand struck the mud walls, splashing mud and stone and kicking up a large amount of dust.

The iron sand needles seemed endless, shooting continuously for several seconds without stopping. The mud walls were soon riddled and shattered by the iron sand needles.

"So strong." Kakashi, hiding behind the mud wall, his mind began to race.

The Third Kazekage's Iron Sand ninjutsu had strong offensive power; relying on Mud Walls definitely wouldn't hold for long. He had to find a way to break Sasori's attack rhythm.

Kakashi glanced at Rockruff, and an idea formed in his mind.

Kakashi quickly whispered an order to Rock Dog, then gave Obito and Rin a look.

Boom!

Under the continuous bombardment of Iron Sand, the Earth-Style Wall could no longer hold and collapsed with a roar.

At that moment, Kakashi, who had entered Lightning Breathing Chakra Mode, gathered chakra in both hands, and a dazzling purple lightning burst forth!

"Lightning Release: Double Lightning Shock!"

Thanks to the convenience of Lightning Breathing Chakra Mode, Kakashi swiftly used both hands to unleash purple lightning, forming a dense net of purple electricity that blocked the incoming Iron Sand needles.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

At the same time, Obito also entered Flame Breathing Chakra Mode, clapped his hands together, and spat out a high-temperature fire dragon heading toward the Third Kazekage.

'Water Ring!'

'Water Gun!'

Milotic first healed itself, then opened its mouth and shot a water jet at the Third Kazekage.

"Water Release: Torrential Jet!"

Rin formed hand seals, gathered chakra, and released a sharp water spear at the Third Kazekage.

Seeing this, Sasori wiggled his fingers again, manipulating the Third Kazekage to change tactics, controlling the Iron Sand to form an arc-shaped iron wall to block the incoming attacks.

Whoosh whoosh!

Rock Dog, who had used Earth Release to get behind Sasori, unceremoniously knocked him away, then controlled the stone block around its neck to smash into Sasori's head.

Sasori frowned slightly; at the moment the wall broke, he clearly saw Rock Dog next to Kakashi, but it turned out to be a fake.

However, Sasori was not panicked; with Hiruko blocking it, attacks of this level couldn't defeat him.

The injured Sasori immediately manipulated the Third Kazekage to come to his side, swung a wave of Iron Sand to drive back Rock Dog, and then continued controlling the Third Kazekage to extend an arm toward Kakashi and the others.

"So close," Kakashi thought regretfully.

If Sasori hadn't been hiding inside the puppet, there's no way his body could have withstood Rock Dog's attack just now.

If a ninja doesn't use chakra to protect themselves and doesn't have special jutsu enhancements, they can't withstand ninjutsu attacks.

But Kakashi had no choice; only Rock Dog could sneak over to attack just now.

He couldn't use the Shadow Clone Technique to send a clone to attack, because entering Lightning Breathing Chakra Mode and releasing Double Lightning Shock required a large amount of chakra.

If he distributed chakra to create combat-effective shadow clones, he wouldn't have enough chakra to release ninjutsu to block the Iron Sand.

Obito's Fire Release wasn't suitable for blocking Iron Sand, and Rin's Water Release wasn't strong enough; that was already the limit of what they could do.

"Thousand-Hand Manipulation!"

The mechanical arms kept extending, and new arms kept appearing from the extended arms; in the blink of an eye, hundreds of arms shot toward Kakashi and the others.

"Flash!"

Kakashi's Transparent World saw the poisoned kunai inside the arms, so he immediately burst his chakra, injecting it into the White Fang Short Blade, causing the White Fang to extend a blade of lightning.

The lightning flashed; before Sasori could release the kunai in the arms, hundreds of arms all snapped off at once, the cut ends charred black.

"Huff." After releasing the slash, Kakashi panted slightly.

Among his many Lightning Release sword techniques, Flash's consumption wasn't actually that high, but he really didn't have the stamina or chakra left to perform a stronger slash.

Sasori moved his fingers expressionlessly; many broken arms on the left side of the Third Kazekage's body fell to the ground, while on the right side a giant blade suddenly appeared.

Under Sasori's control, the Third Kazekage raised the giant blade and swiftly charged at Kakashi.

At the same time, Hiruko, which housed Sasori's main body, opened its large mouth toward Rin, who was forming hand seals.

Whoosh whoosh!!

A large number of poison needles and darts shot toward Rin.

Rin was the only medical ninja on the field; if he had the chance, Sasori wouldn't mind killing her first.

Seeing the large number of poison needles coming, Rin hurriedly maintained her chakra output, pushed Water Breathing to its limit to enhance her chakra shape control, and transformed the water jet into a flowing water wall in front of her, barely blocking the incoming poison needles.

Obito originally wanted to attack Sasori's main body, but seeing the Third Kazekage going straight for Kakashi, he instead used Fire Release to help Kakashi deal with the Third Kazekage.

Whether the enemy dies or not doesn't matter; what matters is protecting your teammates.

Clang! Clang!

The blades on the Third Kazekage's body clashed repeatedly with the White Fang short blade in Kakashi's hand.

Obito took the opportunity to use Fire Fist and strike at the Third Kazekage's side, but it was blocked by the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand.

Charizard and Rockruff tried to move forward and attack Sasori's main body, but were almost hit by poison needles.

"Magnetic Release: Sand Iron Tri-Prism!"

Sasori knew that Kakashi and the others had deep feelings for their summoning beasts, so he turned around and had the Third Kazekage throw a prism-shaped piece of Sand Iron in Rockruff's direction.

Rockruff dodged to the side, thinking it had evaded, but the tri-prism-shaped Sand Iron actually turned and continued stabbing toward Rockruff.

"Flash!"

Seeing this, Kakashi unhesitatingly burst out his remaining chakra, turning it into lightning to cut the Sand Iron apart.

Sasori had been waiting for this moment.

Having approached silently, Sasori unhesitatingly stabbed toward Kakashi with Hiruko's tail spike.

At this moment, Sasori, who had long worn a detached expression, burst into wild laughter.

Because he was finally about to avenge his deceased parents.

He had thought that with White Fang's suicide there was no revenge to be had, but unexpectedly, when all hope seemed lost, fortune smiled—White Fang actually had a child who resembled him, and he happened to run into him at this tournament.

By now, Kakashi, lacking chakra, had exited the Lightning Breathing Chakra Mode, but he still maintained the state of the Transparent World. In an instant, he raised the White Fang short blade to block the stab.

Sasori showed a hint of regret; Hiruko's poison needles had been used up in the previous battle, or else at this distance Kakashi would surely have died.

Regretful inside, Sasori's movements did not slow in the slightest; he swung one of Hiruko's puppet arms, heavily striking Kakashi's body.

Kakashi's body blasted backward, breaking two large trees before he was caught by the hastily arriving Rin Nohara.

Enraged, Rockruff created a massive boulder above Sasori's head.

Boom!!

The boulder crashed to the ground. Such a technique, unless supported by teammates or used as a surprise attack, is too difficult to land.

"Heh heh, angry, are you? But my pain is greater than yours." Sasori flashed backward, recalling the warmth his parents gave him before their deaths, his face turning cold.

Originally, his life had been so happy. If he showed even a hint of being hungry, even if it wasn't mealtime, his mother would personally cook something for him.

At night, he would always be the first to fall asleep, because his parents would tell him bedtime stories until he dozed off.

After he grew a bit older and slept alone, his parents would still come in the middle of the night to tuck him in.

Sasori had once thought he simply had good sleeping posture and didn't kick off his covers. Only after his parents passed away did he realize that the blanket on him when he woke up was because his parents had covered him again during the night.

The beauty in his memories continuously transformed into murderous intent in Sasori's heart.

He swung his gleaming tail spike and attacked Rockruff. Rockruff dodged with a flash of lightning and tried to hit Sasori with Thunder Fang, but Sasori saw through it. Fortunately, Rin Nohara supported in time, or else Rockruff would have been grazed by the poisoned tail spike.

At this moment, Milotic finished treating Kakashi and sprayed a Water Gun at Sasori.

Seeing this, Sasori immediately retreated. A puppeteer cannot risk their main body, unless the puppeteer's main body is also a puppet.

"Let's see how long you can hold out," Sasori sneered inwardly.

If not for the fact that his main body had been focusing on attacking Kakashi and couldn't spare much attention for Obito's side, Obito and Charizard would have died at the hands of the Third Kazekage.

Now Kakashi had basically lost his combat ability, Obito and Charizard were steadily retreating under the Third Kazekage's assault, and Milotic had been hit by his deadly poison.

The advantage was his!

"Rock!"

Rockruff looked at the injured Kakashi, then at Sasori who showed it contempt. Its desire for power reached its peak.

It was dusk, and the blazing sun in the sky had only the last traces of its glow left.

Even though they were in the middle of a battle, Rockruff was inexplicably drawn to that dusk glow.

The setting sun shines on Rockruff, and the twilight energy continuously gathers on Rockruff.

"Awoo!"

Rockruff can't help but let out a howl, and then its entire body bursts with dazzling light.

I recommend brothers to watch it tomorrow; it's better not to stay up late if you can avoid it.