June 3, 1 bNb
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BOOM—!
The gale-fed inferno slammed into Izuma's wall with terrifying might. Heat rolled outward in suffocating waves, and even from where Kakashi lay half-crumpled, it seemingly felt as though his skin was slowly being seared. The moisture in the air vanished in an instant, stolen by the blaze, and his lips cracked painfully as his breath turned dry and raw in his throat.
Yet, despite even Kakashi feeling the effects of the heat from a dozen meters away, the wall held.
The surface blackened from the heat; the wall was teeming with cracks, and slowly pieces of baked earth flaked away from the force of the blast. Even so, the wall failed to crumble, holding strong in its duty to protect Izuma.
It was a far cry from what Kakashi himself had managed. His own had been pitiful in comparison.
Once the firestorm had died out, Izuma stepped out from behind it as the structure finally collapsed inward under its own weight, crumbling into a heap of smoking rubble.
The Uchiha rolled his shoulder once, seemingly completely at ease, as though he hadn't just pumped a wall full of enough chakra to hold up against an inferno that would have claimed lesser jōnin. He yet had the gall to give Kakashi a mocking wave.
The bells at his waist chimed softly.
All three of them.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed as exhaustion began to truly creep up on him. He had lost track of time, but he felt like he'd been put through the blender. And all that effort, and what to show for it? Nothing. His hand hadn't even done so much as graze the bells.
And after exhaustion came frustration. Heaps of it. In the mission, they wouldn't have to deal with Izuma—Kakashi was bitterly aware of how far his own self-image had fallen. From wanting to prove he was on the same level as Izuma, to protesting that he'd never fight someone like him—so what was the point of this? For the Uchiha to gloat over his superiority?
Izuma's gaze swept across all three of them. Himself, who was forced to lean against a tree, Obito panting from overexertion, and Rin, whose hands were still trembling faintly.
For a moment, the Uchiha only watched.
Then he smiled, a gibe-like expression that only furthered Kakashi's irritation.
"You know," Izuma said, "there's a line from some old movie I enjoyed. 'All that… for a drop of blood.'"
He lifted his hands, showing his palms out in an exaggerated manner, the motion causing the bells at his waist to chime softly. The three neat notes that made Kakashi's teeth grind.
"And you didn't even get that."
Obito's face flushed. "Oh, come on—!"
Rin glanced between them, worry tightening her features. "Izuma-san, we're—"
"You're trying," Izuma cut in, sounding thoroughly amused. "Don't worry, I can tell."
Kakashi's fingers clenched beneath his glove. Heat still clung to the air, drying his throat with every breath. He tasted ash and a bitter, metallic edge that he refused to acknowledge as blood.
He had wanted this; rather, he had been itching for it. The chance to finally shut down the whispers that pervaded his every action. To prove—prove to everyone, and to himself—that he wasn't a footnote attached to Sakumo Hatake's name. That he wasn't second fiddle to the Uchiha, who had been given his father's title.
And yet, when push came to shove, he'd done nothing. Or more aptly, he could do nothing.
He pushed off the tree with a glower.
"Izuma," he said, "Stop talking."
Izuma's brows lifted. "Oh?"
Kakashi's body was thoroughly beaten down, and he didn't want to think anymore.
He wanted to end it.
Kakashi turned his head slightly, his eyes quickly meeting his teammates' own.
"Obito," he said, clipped. "Fireball on the right side. Now."
Obito blinked. "What? Why the right—"
"Do it."
Something in his tone snapped the argument short. Obito's jaw clenched, but, thankfully, he chose not to argue and settled for a nod. The next moment, his hands were already flying through seals.
Rin shot him a questioning look. "Kakashi, what are you—"
"Rin," Kakashi said, not looking at her. His focus had already turned back to Izuma. "Raise a wall on his left flank. Box him in with Obito."
He could feel Rin's apprehensive gaze on him for a beat longer before she relented.
Izuma watched all of this with open curiosity and a twinkle of mirth, not unlike a child who had just received a present, but knew not what it was.
Kakashi ignored him all the same, opting to wait for his two compatriots to finish their tasks.
Obito's chakra surged first. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A sphere of flame burst from Obito's mouth and roared across the clearing, arcing toward Izuma's right. Soon, heat washed over the field again.
At the same time, Rin slammed her palms to the earth.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
The ground erupted on Izuma's left, promptly rising up and forming a barrier that forced the battlefield to narrow. The fireball pressed in from one side, the wall from the other, and for the first time, Izuma's room to maneuver shrank.
Izuma glanced left, then right. Surprisingly, the bit of mirth shining in his eyes dimmed considerably.
Kakashi ignored it; soon, he'd snuff out every expression but agony.
"Interesting."
Chakra surged violently through his arm, and it was soon followed by a dense concentration of lightning chakra gathered in his palm, unstable and wild, crackling violently as blue-white arcs leapt from his hand.
The sound followed a split second later: sharp, piercing chirping, like a thousand birds crying out at once.
The jutsu was fighting him, lightning crawling up his forearm, biting at his nerves, as his muscles screamed in protest as he forced the jutsu to take shape.
Kakashi grit his teeth, but pushed through. "This is it," he muttered.
Chidori.
His father's voice played in the recesses of his mind: Don't ever let emotion drive your blade. His own training agreed with the notion, yet Kakashi, for the first time, chose to ignore it all.
At his current level, the Chidori necessitated a straight line and forced him into tunnel vision. It was a reckless jutsu that, at the moment, should have had no practical application.
But frustration bubbled endlessly inside of him. His training hadn't done him any good during this fight, so damn it.
A second later, he moved.
He launched forward like a kunai in motion, lightning screaming in his hand as he tore across the scorched earth. In his periphery, the right was painted a pulsing orange, and the left a deep, endless brown.
This was it.
Izuma was boxed in with him.
Yet, the Uchiha didn't seem worried in the slightest. As he watched Kakashi approach, he began to laugh.
"To think you would try that," he shook his head.
Kakashi ignored the manic shinobi in front of him and continued pressing forward even quicker.
The Chidori demanded forward, and Kakashi was all too happy to oblige.
His vision tunneled even more, the crackling light swallowing everything that wasn't Izuma.
Izuma's laughter died abruptly. His own arm snapped out, and, soon, his own lightning flared.
The sound came first. The same high-pitched, violent chirping burst into existence, akin to a thousand birds screaming at once.
But it didn't bloom into the same compact, close-range spear Kakashi held.
The chirping rose as the chakra stretched, never losing its frantic cadence. Sparks leapt wildly along its length, white-blue lightning snapping and tearing at the air as the Chidori extended outward.
A thin, brutal line of chakra that shot forward:
"Chidori: Sharp Spear."
The lightning spear struck his leg.
Pain lanced through him immediately. His limb had been pierced straight through. His foot buckled mid-stride, and all his forward momentum betrayed him. He hit the ground hard, shoulder-first, the Chidori in his hand sputtering out as he rolled.
Dirt filled his mouth as his ribs screamed. His leg remained unresponsive.
Kakashi's brain registered the words, the sight, and the pain, yet it failed to make sense of any of it.
He tried to push up, and his body refused.
Fittingly, Obito's wall of flames had somehow been dispersed. Kakashi felt that the now-gone embers represented his own state well. Whatever fire had been ignited within him at the possibility of fighting Izuma had been thoroughly extinguished.
"Kakashi," Izuma said calmly, hands in his pockets as he strolled forward.
"Did you forget who I am?"
Izuma stopped his advance a few steps away.
Up close, the devastation felt even more lopsided. Kakashi lay half-twisted in the dirt, lightning still crackling weakly along his fingers before finally dissipating into nothing. His leg burned with a sharp, electric agony that refused to dull, every attempt to move it sending a spike of pain straight up his spine.
Kakashi knew Izuma had canceled the technique mid-contact, and yet the damage was unbelievable.
"You telegraphed it," Izuma said conversationally. "We worked on the technique together. Did you really think I wouldn't realize why you tried to box me in?"
Kakashi's fingers curled into the earth.
He wanted to stand up so desperately and wipe the smug smirk off Izuma's face. He tried to as well, but his leg twitched, dead weight, and surging rage snuffed out the pain.
"Surely you see why it's called tunnel vision?" Izuma added unhelpfully.
Kakashi swallowed and then sighed.
"I give up."
Before Izuma could say anything, Obito's astounded gaze rounded on him.
"What?!"
Kakashi glanced over, feigning indifference. "We're not getting them."
"Are you serious? You're just—what, giving up because you got hit once?"
"It wasn't once," Kakashi snapped, his irritation with Izuma bleeding over to the other Uchiha. "Look around, Obito. We threw everything we had, and he's still standing there with all three bells. This is pointless."
"Pointless?" Obito's voice rose, incredulous. "That's—that's the dumbest thing you've said all day!"
His eyes narrowed. "I'm the dumb one?"
"Yes!" Obito barked back. "You just—you just ran in! You didn't even tell us what you were doing! Rin raised a wall for nothing!"
Rin flinched slightly at the mention of her name, not expecting to be caught between the crossfire. "Guys—"
"You think you're helping by yelling? In a real fight, you'd be dead before you finished the sentence."
"And in a real fight," Obito shot back, fists clenched, "we don't win by sulking and giving up! That's not how Minato-sensei taught us! That's not—"
"Sensei isn't here," he hissed. "Izuma is."
Rin stepped forward, voice strained. "Please, stop this, both of you—"
Obito's face was flushed in anger. "So what, we just stop? We just let him—let him decide we're not ready? What was the point of us even graduating then? What was the point of training just to be sidelined?!"
Kakashi's vision flickered to the three bells again. The distance between Izuma and him was negligible; if he stretched out, he might've been able to nab them. But appearances were deceptive.
Kakashi knew the little distance between them, in reality, was a chasm he could not cross.
"It doesn't matter. We can stay here all day, and nothing will change. We're not ready," he finished.
Despite the logic in his words, he still felt resentment deep inside. He tried to quash it. Izuma had proved his point; they would only serve as a liability even if they were chosen.
The best course of action for the village was to sit the mission out.
So, why did he still feel so angry?
Obito stared at him as if he didn't recognize him.
Then he scoffed. "Wow. You really aren't your father's son."
Kakashi went still.
Rin sucked in a breath. "Obito, don't, not now—"
The words should have been a compliment, so why did he still feel angry? None of this made any sense.
"You're right. Unlike him, I'm a true shinobi," he bit back, his tone frosty, even though it should have been filled with relief. To be dissociated from that failure should have been a good thing.
It is a good thing, he thought, forcing a feeling he didn't quite feel.
"Don't we know it?" Obito returned the serve just as quickly, his own tone equally cold.
"Kakashi, Obito," Rin tried again, pleading now.
Whoosh
Without warning, Izuma moved, his body flickering several meters away.
The next second, Rin's breath caught.
A kunai was at her throat.
Izuma's hand was steady, his expression no longer amused. If anything, his eyes were flat.
The clearing went silent in an instant.
Obito froze, horrified. "R-Rin—!"
Kakashi's blood ran cold.
His body tried to move, and his ruined leg promptly reminded him what helplessness meant.
Izuma's voice was quiet.
And angry.
"You're done."
Obito swallowed hard. "Izuma, I—"
"Shut up."
The words were decreed, and even loud, and stubborn Obito went quiet.
Izuma's gaze cut to Kakashi first.
"You," Izuma said. "You decided the fight was over and stopped seeing the field. If this were war, you'd be dead, and you would have dragged them to the gates of hell with you."
Then his gaze slid to Obito.
"And you." Izuma's lip curled. "You just proved something I've been trying to beat out of you for years."
Obito's throat bobbed. "I was just—"
"You were just running your mouth." Izuma's grip inched forward by the slightest margins.
Rin forced herself to be calm.
"You can't afford disagreement on a battlefield. But clearly, you don't give a fuck," he sneered.
"You don't have the luxury of 'winning' an argument mid-fight," Izuma continued. "If you can't get your teammate to your side in seconds, you follow. Even if you disagree with all your being. You follow because the alternative is… this."
The tip of Izuma's kunai pricked Rin's throat, drawing a thin line of blood.
Obito's face went pale as Rin swallowed in terror, her eyes darting toward Minato for help.
Their sensei closed his eyes.
Kakashi's hands shook with anger as he tried to claw himself up, just to be brought down miserably by his limp leg.
"Do you know what the highest chance of survival is on a mission like the one we're about to do?"
None of them answered.
"Staying together. Once you're involved in this mission, even running away is suicide. Either you return home a hero, or you get buried there, and we light a candle for your funeral."
"You should be ashamed," he said, turning to look at them all, but his eyes remained fixated on Obito for a moment longer than the rest. "Especially you."
Obito lowered his gaze.
Izuma finally eased the kunai away and stepped back, letting Rin breathe again. She staggered a half-step, then steadied, swallowing hard.
There was an awkward silence that followed his actions, which was only broken when Izuma sighed.
"And, by the way. If you had all agreed to concede or run together, you would have passed."
Kakashi blinked; he was thrown for a loop.
Even Obito and Rin's heads snapped up at Izuma with confusion.
"If you run away together, Obito can light the trees behind you ablaze, making it hard for you to be followed. Kakashi can take out any tails that do manage to slip through, and Rin, you can heal any damage sustained. It's the best way for you lot to survive. Sometimes you retreat because you must. You can always circle back when the enemy least expects it."
"At other times, however, the mission is lost. At that point, when you know nothing will change, Kakashi think the feeling you had after I used my own Chidori, if you feel like that during a mission. Then save your comrades and leave. In that regard, Sakumo Hatake was absolutely correct."
Kakashi's breath hitched despite his best efforts.
Those words, how easy were they for everyone to say? That's what they used to console him. But he knew they were all lies.
None of them had to live with the consequences of those actions. It was he and his father who bore that responsibility.
"I know you don't believe me, that's fine. One day, I hope sooner than later, for your sake, you'll understand," he finished.
Kakashi scoffed, but he felt his vision blurring. For his own sake, he deemed it exhaustion.
Izuma's gaze remained locked on him. "You have talent in heaps, Kakashi. You even made jōnin a year younger than me, but quite frankly, your judgment is atrocious."
He didn't bother responding. Or to be more correct, he saw no point in it. Izuma had trounced them all with frightening ease, and at this point, whatever flaw Izuma believed Kakashi to have, he would treat like gospel.
Izuma looked at all three of them again with disappointment.
"The verdict of this test is a fail," he began, holding up all three bells. "Your showing was pitiful, individually and collectively. I suppose you should take some joy, however. You all failed so bad, you can only go up from here," he finished with a wry grin.
Obito swallowed hard, his eyes darting everywhere but at Izuma's own. "So, uh… what now?"
Izuma glanced toward Minato's position. Their sensei had been watching quietly through all of this, expression unreadable.
Then Izuma looked back at them.
"Now," he said, rolling the bells in his hand, "it's time for Minato to decide whether you're a no-go or not for the mission."
Minato's gaze flicked over each one of them briefly before sighing and stepping forward.
The ash crunched beneath his sandals as he crossed the clearing, stopping just in front of them. He didn't look disappointed. If anything, he looked… tired.
We failed sensei today, Kakashi thought, trace amounts of shame flooding his gut.
Minato rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes examining the ruined clearing, from the scorched ground, to the fallen trees to the wall of earth that remained standing.
It all served as lingering proof of how badly things had gone.
"So," he said at last. "What do you guys think?"
Kakashi felt surprised that Minato-sensei still bothered to ask for their opinion. And surprisingly, for once, he didn't have an answer.
Obito shifted uncomfortably, fists clenching at his sides. He looked like he wanted to argue out of reflex, but the words died out. A second later, his shoulders slumped.
"…I don't think we're ready," Rin was the first to break the silence, her admission coming out as a whisper yet still carrying over the clearing.
Obito nodded; his hands were clenched. "I…yeah, I think it's best we sit this out."
Minato's gaze finally settled on Kakashi.
He swallowed. His leg throbbed dully, but the ache in his chest was worse.
"…We failed," he said.
Minato studied him for a long moment before nodding, accepting his reasoning.
"I agree."
Kakashi was surprised that his sensei's candid words did not sting.
Minato straightened and gave them an apologetic smile.
"This failure," he continued, "is even more mine than it is yours."
Kakashi frowned and found his action mirrored by his squad.
Minato held up a placating hand. "Don't try to defend it," he shook his head.
"As your sensei, it's my responsibility to prepare you for all possible situations you may encounter," he said plainly. "In that regard, I failed."
Obito cut in. "Sensei—"
"No," Minato said gently. "Izuma rooted out our failure before it could flourish into something worse. It was my fault for letting you think that, since you've all been promoted at least once, that you were ready for whatever mission may come your way.
"You're not. At least, not at the moment."
Minato crouched slightly so he was closer to their eye level. "Everyone is correct, it is best to pull you from this mission. But that just means we'll have to, as Izuma puts it, show out on the next one."
All three mirrored one another's actions again, in the form of a nod.
"I'll work harder with all of you. Starting now," Minato continued. "I'll correct my own mistakes the same way I expect you to correct yours."
Minato stepped back and looked to Izuma. "They'll sit this mission out," he said calmly. "And when they go out again, they'll go out as one."
Izuma studied him for a long moment.
Then, slowly, he nodded, and Kakashi could see him fighting back a grin.
What a bastard.
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A/N:
Changes to canon are starting to be made! A non-Izuma POV chapter, and hopefully, Kakashi's internal struggle was done well. Also, do note, Kakashi is twelve here, so that's why Izuma is able to trounce him like he's a bum.
Why Izuma was so adamant about Kakashi and Co not being sent out for the mission will be revealed in the next chapter, but truthfully, it should be super obvious.
Finally, I believe this was mentioned in the last chapter, but the reason, mainly Obito, but both Rin and he are stronger than in canon, is that Izuma would help with their training when possible.
By the way, who do you guys want to see as the female lead for this story? Please comment on it, and I'll consider it, because I still haven't decided, LOL. Also, this story won't be a harem.
Finally, for real this time, thanks so much for reading. Join the Discord from the link below, and powerstones and comments are greatly appreciated.
Have a great rest of your day!
Discord link: https://discord.gg/s2DVMbqSf4