Training Ground Three echoed with impact and heat.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu."
Kakashi twisted mid-step, hands flashing through seals. Chakra surged up from his core, gathered behind his throat, and burst outward. A massive fireball roared across the field, its heat warping the air ahead of it.
Simple on paper. Anything but in practice.
The flames moved faster than most shinobi could manage. Hotter. Denser. The chakra packed inside it was heavy, compressed, refined. Even without direct contact, the space it consumed would drain moisture from the body in seconds.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
He didn't retreat.
Chakra snapped into his legs. The ground cracked as he launched forward, cutting straight into the firestorm. Air shrieked around him as his speed spiked.
It was Shisui's Body Flicker. The foundational form. No tricks yet. Just pure acceleration, honed for efficiency.
Five meters out, Sasuke drew.
Steel sang.
A crimson arc flared from his blade, igniting into a blazing edge. The slash split the fireball cleanly in two. The divided flames tore past him as the strike continued forward, aimed straight at Kakashi.
"Well executed," Kakashi said lightly.
He vanished from the strike's path and reappeared several steps away, already drawing a short white blade from his waist. Pale chakra flowed along its edge, humming softly.
The White Fang.
Sasuke didn't pause.
He stamped down, leaving only afterimages behind. In the next breath, he was already in front of Kakashi, his red blade thrusting forward with a piercing howl.
Fast.
Kakashi's visible eye widened just slightly. Sasuke was faster than before. Noticeably so.
But Kakashi remained calm. He angled his wrist and caught the strike.
Metal screamed.
The impact numbed his fingers. Kakashi felt it immediately. The weight behind that blow wasn't normal.
"When I was your age," Kakashi said, blades locked, "I wasn't this strong."
Sasuke didn't answer.
He pushed.
Pressure surged through the clash. Kakashi's boots slid back half a step before he disengaged, hopping away as white chakra flared along his blade.
Light exploded outward.
For an instant, Sasuke's vision was swallowed by brilliance.
He reacted without hesitation.
Blindness slowed most shinobi to a crawl. Sasuke had trained for it. He twisted, slashed on instinct, forcing Kakashi back, then flipped away to create distance.
Ten meters.
Three seals.
"Body Flicker."
The air shattered.
Eight Sasukes appeared at once, scattered across the field in a loose arc.
Shisui's second technique.
Not speed alone, but deception. Some figures were hollow, fading trails. Others had weight. Presence. Killing intent.
They moved together, overlapping, crossing, vanishing and reappearing. Any one of them could strike. Or none.
Kakashi stilled.
"Shisui's Body Flicker…" he murmured.
He remembered the man well. The speed. The pressure. The feeling that death could arrive from any angle in a blink.
Back then, Kakashi had judged his odds carefully.
At best, even.
The eight figures closed in.
The real fight had just begun.