"Are you... underestimating someone?"
Kakashi's offensive was completely exposed before Hyūga Shinichi's Byakugan. His attack was not sharp; in Shinichi's view, it was completely devoid of threat, seeming more like children's play.
Shinichi naturally knew this wasn't Kakashi's true level; the opponent was most likely treating him as an ordinary child.
Although Shinichi believed he had never been arrogant and always maintained a humble attitude toward his talent and abilities, having grown up in the Hyūga Main Family, accustomed to praise and flattery, meeting someone like Kakashi, who clearly didn't take him seriously, caused some internal turmoil.
Hyūga Shinichi frowned slightly, his feet moving quickly. Focusing on the trajectory of Kakashi's attack, he quickly blocked with his left hand.
Shinichi's defensive move resembled Tai Chi's "Cloud Hands," appearing soft and harmless. However, the counterattack after deflecting Kakashi's arm was fiercely powerful.
"Gentle Step: Twin Lion—Half-Step Crushing Fist!"
Deep blue lion-shaped chakra quickly enveloped Hyūga Shinichi's fist. His right foot lunged forward, and the fist slammed out assertively. Unlike his usual training, Shinichi was incredibly serious in this fight against Kakashi. The Twin Lion Fists were executed in the most perfect state he could currently achieve.
"BANG!!!!"
A muffled impact rang out in the open space.
Hyūga Shinichi's counterattack was swift and fierce, something Kakashi had completely failed to anticipate.
The moment Kakashi realized his opponent had lightly blocked his attack, he knew something was wrong. But before he could react, Hyūga Shinichi's fist had already struck his lower abdomen. Due to the massive difference in their body sizes, Shinichi's attack position was quite tricky.
At that moment, Kakashi felt like his body had slammed into a galloping wild horse. The immense force from his abdomen sent his body flying backward, soaring four or five meters before crashing to the ground amidst the spectators' astonished gazes.
The intense pain caused Kakashi, a battle-hardened young ninja, to experience a momentary mental blankness. Dust scattered everywhere as Kakashi's body rolled several times on the ground before barely stopping at the feet of the observing Asuma Sarutobi.
The young Asuma Sarutobi had not yet grown his beard and was only a few years older than Kakashi. Unlike Kakashi, who was already a Jōnin, Asuma was just an "uncommon" Chūnin, with the only uncommon thing about him being the aura brought by his Hokage father.
He was familiar with Kakashi and, seeing him seemingly struck heavily, couldn't help but exclaim in concern:
"Hey, Kakashi!! Are you alright?"
However, no sooner had Asuma spoken than Kakashi, lying in front of him, abruptly turned into a puff of white smoke and vanished without a trace. Only a half-meter-wide black hole remained on the ground where Kakashi's body had disappeared.
"?!"
"Shadow Clone?"
Asuma murmured, looking a little confused, unable to see when Kakashi had performed the hand seals for the technique.
Looking back at the center of the arena, he happened to see Hyūga Shinichi, who had just blasted Kakashi away, seemingly detecting something. Shinichi quickly jumped backward, rapidly vacating his position.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
In the very next instant after Hyūga Shinichi vacated the spot, a pair of arms suddenly shot out of the ground where he had just been, grabbing at empty air. Immediately following, Kakashi's figure popped out of the earth.
With his successive attacks missing, Kakashi looked solemnly at Hyūga Shinichi standing nearby. Internally, he was already muttering to himself:
"This guy...."
"Since when did Konoha gain a powerhouse like this..."
While contemplating, Kakashi reached into the ninja tool pouch behind his waist, swiftly pulled out several shuriken, and immediately hurled them toward Hyūga Shinichi. Two shuriken were aimed at Shinichi's eyes, one at his heart, and two more were aimed at his knees.
Kakashi himself did not immediately pursue after throwing the shuriken. Instead, he reached out and rubbed his lower abdomen, seemingly trying to alleviate the pain.
Simultaneously, his left hand pulled up the cloth covering his left eye, revealing a scarlet Sharingan. The three black tomoe swirled within his eye as he looked toward Hyūga Shinichi nearby.
At this moment, Kakashi was not as composed as he appeared. Hyūga Shinichi's attack had landed squarely on his lower abdomen.
However, after being blasted away, Kakashi endured the pain, quickly counter-attacked to compensate for his recent mistake.
While using a Shadow Clone to briefly deceive the enemy, his true body used Earth Release to quickly tunnel underground, planning to use his favored Earth Style Ninjutsu to trap the enemy.
However, the seemingly perfect plan was detected by the perceptive Hyūga Shinichi and easily evaded. At the same time, the pain Kakashi had been suppressing now washed over him like a tide, forcing him to pause for a brief rest.
Kakashi's action of throwing shuriken at his opponent was out of necessity because he had already felt an abnormal sensation in his body when attempting to use the jutsu—the extraction and manipulation of chakra had become difficult. After using two Ninjutsu consecutively, Kakashi needed a moment to rest and build up his reserves.
Naturally, knowing his opponent's background, Kakashi could roughly guess why his body was having difficulty manipulating chakra: it was likely due to being struck by the opponent's Gentle Fist...
"Hyūga...."
Even though they were both Konoha ninjas, this was Kakashi's first time personally experiencing the terror of the Gentle Fist.
The shuriken zipped toward Hyūga Shinichi. Facing the completely comprehensive and tricky angles of the shuriken attack, Shinichi's response further refreshed the spectators' understanding of him.
Shinichi casually raised his hand and immediately blasted out an Eight Trigrams: Air Palm. The high-density chakra shockwave instantly knocked away the shuriken, and the powerful force even continued to rush back toward Kakashi.
"!!!"
Kakashi clearly did not expect that Hyūga Shinichi had not only mastered the Gentle Fist at such a young age but also possessed such mid-to-long-range attack capability. In the vision of his Sharingan, the trajectory of the Air Palm was clearly revealed.
With an undignified roll, Kakashi quickly tumbled away from his position. The Eight Trigrams: Air Palm swept past, flying into the air.
Due to Shinichi's young age and short stature, the Air Palm was aimed at Kakashi's head, which contained the most chakra points. Now that Kakashi had dodged it, the Air Palm did not mistakenly hit any of the curious ninjas watching.
Although Kakashi's evasion was clumsy, Shinichi looked at Kakashi's current state, and a look of seriousness appeared on his small face.
The Gentle Fist strike just now was successful, but it only managed to seal about ten chakra points, including Zhongji, Guanyuan, Qihai, and Tianshu.
While it made it incredibly difficult for Kakashi to manipulate chakra, it was not enough to completely block his chakra flow. Since this was a spar, Shinichi couldn't use lethal force; otherwise, that strike would have done more than just seal Kakashi's points—it would have destroyed the related pathways in Kakashi's lower abdomen.
If this were a fight to the death, Kakashi's lack of information and blind confidence in his own strength would have been enough to cost him his life.
Even over a decade later, when Kakashi became a more mature ninja, this flaw persisted. His blind confidence in his own strength led to a crushing defeat against Uchiha Itachi; had Itachi not spared Kakashi's life, there would have been no chance of survival after being hit by the Tsukuyomi.
For Hyūga Shinichi, killing the opponent might be easier than forcing the opponent to concede...
That Air Palm was a demonstration of strength, a warning, and a show of force, yet it seemed that no one fully grasped this point. Since the Third and Fourth Hokage hadn't called a stop, Hyūga Shinichi naturally couldn't claim victory for himself. More importantly, Shinichi was very interested in fighting the focused Kakashi, who had now activated his Sharingan!
Slightly lowering his head to break eye contact with Kakashi, Hyūga Shinichi pushed off with his foot and quickly charged forward, closing the distance to Kakashi.
Facing the rapidly approaching Hyūga Shinichi, Kakashi dared not harbor any further contempt. His center of gravity lowered slightly as he prepared to meet the attack seriously.
The fight resumed.
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