Hoshigaki Kisame gave a cold snort.
"You want to save someone, yet you still need to drag others along?"
"Sarutobi Asuma, is this the resolve you possess as the Hokage's son? You don't resemble a shinobi in the slightest!"
But even if he faced three people at once, Hoshigaki Kisame did not fear them.
"Come at me together!"
Hoshigaki Kisame activated the Infinite-Hole Armor.
With a ninja blade in each hand, he aimed directly at Asuma and charged.
Asuma's heart tightened.
"He's targeting only me?"
Facing Hoshigaki Kisame, Asuma truly had no confidence at all.
The combination of chakra absorption techniques and chakra absorption ninja tools was a natural counter to ninjutsu-type shinobi. And Asuma was a pure ninjutsu-type shinobi—one whose strength was not yet high enough.
"Asuma, be careful!"
Fortunately, Kakashi's support arrived quickly enough.
On the other side, Kurenai once again used genjutsu.
Seeing that Hoshigaki Kisame had fallen into a disadvantage due to being outnumbered, a young Sunagakure shinobi stepped forward.
"What kind of skill is bullying someone with numbers?"
"Who dares fight me?"
"Ox-Ox Fruit, Great-Horned Bull Form!"
The next moment, this Sunagakure chunin's body not only expanded rapidly, but two enormous and incomparably sharp horns also appeared on top of his head, carrying an oppressive presence at a glance.
The great-horned bull Suna shinobi grinned and charged straight toward Kakashi.
He used no ninjutsu.
No ninja tools.
He simply used the horns on his head as weapons.
Kakashi dodged in time.
The great-horned bull Suna shinobi rammed his head into a tree trunk.
"Crack!"
At the point of impact, the tree trunk snapped cleanly.
The upper half of the tree happened to fall in Asuma's direction.
Asuma hurriedly dodged.
The great-horned bull Suna shinobi noticed this and chose to give up on Kakashi. This time, he charged toward Asuma.
Asuma's pupils shrank.
"Damn it!"
The clash between the young shinobi of the two villages could not explain the entire battlefield.
But it could explain some things.
Konoha did indeed have more geniuses.
But after Sunagakure obtained something like Devil Fruits, they could forcibly raise the strength of a young shinobi by one level, granting them the ability to contend against Konoha's geniuses.
"What exactly are Devil Fruits?"
"They're too abnormal!"
"He's clearly just an ordinary chunin, but after using the power of a Devil Fruit, he can contend against a genius like Kakashi. It's simply unbelievable."
"How many Devil Fruits does Sunagakure have? Where did they obtain them from?"
"Why doesn't Konoha have any?"
"If I had a Devil Fruit, I could be that impressive too!"
One Konoha jonin shook his head.
"Devil Fruits are not omnipotent. After using the power of a Devil Fruit, there must be a price. There is no such thing as free power. Just like in the novel, Devil Fruit users fear water."
At that moment—
A Konoha shinobi used Water Release against the silverback gorilla Suna shinobi.
But it did not create a restraining effect, nor did it cause the silverback gorilla Suna shinobi to fall into a weakened state.
Instead, it earned the mockery of the silverback gorilla Suna shinobi.
"Idiot!"
The Konoha jonin: "…"
After that, the Konoha jonin said again,
"The strength Devil Fruits can improve is limited. They can provide a relatively large boost to chunin-level strength, but for jonin, the effect is not as obvious."
"And for elite jonin and above, the effect of Devil Fruits is extremely limited."
"They are completely different from the Devil Fruits in the One Piece novel."
"Moreover, they only have Zoan-types. They don't have those abnormal Logia-types."
Someone opposite him raised a question.
"Could it be that Sunagakure has only revealed Zoan-types for now?"
"That's unlikely. Considering how abnormal Logia-types are, if Sunagakure had them, they would have brought them out long ago. The ability to become elemental and avoid physical damage is far too abnormal."
Hoshigaki Kisame alone resisted Asuma and Kurenai, suppressing both of them.
The great-horned bull Suna shinobi faced Kakashi alone.
Kakashi found his own point of advantage.
Flexibility.
If he compared strength, he was not the opponent's match. But in speed, he was clearly stronger—especially short-range directional changes. If he used this point well, he could pose a threat to the great-horned bull Suna shinobi.
A flash of lightning passed over Kakashi's legs.
This was Kakashi's application of Lightning Release.
By using Lightning Release chakra to stimulate the muscles in his legs, he made himself faster.
The great-horned bull Suna shinobi's expression turned ugly.
The surrounding Konoha shinobi showed excited expressions.
"As expected of Konoha's genius!"
"So what if it's a Devil Fruit? He still isn't Kakashi's opponent."
"Kakashi is about to win!"
But at that moment—
A Konoha shinobi arrived. When he looked toward Kakashi, his expression immediately became complicated.
The shinobi beside him noticed something was wrong and asked,
"What happened?"
That Konoha shinobi shook his head and said nothing. But when he looked toward Kakashi, a trace of worry inevitably appeared in his eyes. Afterward, he looked toward the Sunagakure shinobi.
"I hope they haven't heard that rumor."
"Otherwise, they'll definitely shout it out directly."
"That would be too great a blow to Kakashi."
"Even if its truth has yet to be confirmed."
But the more this Konoha shinobi did not want something to happen, the more it would happen.
A Sunagakure shinobi approached this area at extreme speed.
The moment he came close, he shouted loudly.
"Hatake Kakashi, do you know how your father died back then?"
"Suicide was only the surface."
"Being forced by rumors was also only the surface."
"The one who truly caused Konoha's White Fang to die is the Third Hokage you are now fighting for—Hiruzen Sarutobi!"
"Back then, your father's achievements were too great. They had already begun threatening his position."
"Just like Minato Namikaze now."
"Hiruzen Sarutobi feared Minato Namikaze, so he used the Nine-Tails incident as an opportunity to let Minato Namikaze die!"
"Back then, Hiruzen Sarutobi feared Konoha's White Fang, so he deliberately designed that mission. Konoha's White Fang was forced to choose between his comrades and the mission. No matter which choice he made, his hope of succeeding as Hokage would be severed."
"Now, the entire shinobi world already knows about this matter."
"Kakashi, are you still going to fight for Konoha?"
"Are you going to continue being loyal to the man who killed your father?"
Kakashi's expression changed dramatically. He stared fixedly at the Sunagakure shinobi who had appeared.
He saw that the Sunagakure shinobi was looking at him with pity.
That string of words plunged Kakashi into chaos.
The death of Konoha's White Fang was the shadow that had haunted Kakashi his entire life.
For Kakashi, this immediately created a problem.
It directly threw his mind into disorder.
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free. Paid members can read more advanced chapters.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_