At first, Kakashi had no intention of picking up his father's sword style again. He was focused solely on mastering the Sharingan.
But soon, through repeated sparring with Uchiha Yuan, he discovered that Yuan's combat style, when paired with the Sharingan, primarily relied on taijutsu—or rather, a strange sword technique.
After being knocked back who knows how many times by Yuan, Kakashi couldn't help but ask, "Yuan, why don't you use the other abilities of the Sharingan and only rely on dynamic vision?"
"Because I believe the core of the Sharingan's power lies in its dynamic vision. With each evolution—from single tomoe to three tomoe—its motion-tracking capability increases. When it reaches three tomoe, the visual acuity becomes almost unbelievable.
Such powerful dynamic vision offers massive advantages in taijutsu—it allows you to easily see through your opponent's moves and counterattack.
Kakashi, your taijutsu foundation is solid, and I remember you have a family-inherited sword style, right? You should try learning my combat style—use your family sword style combined with the Sharingan's dynamic vision. That's how you can unleash the full potential of your Sharingan."
After hearing Yuan's words, Kakashi fell into deep thought.
After a moment, he said, "Thanks, Yuan. I'll seriously consider your suggestion."
Yuan nodded and didn't push the matter further. Some things just need a little nudge—too much is counterproductive.
The next day, when Yuan saw Kakashi again, the latter was already carrying a chakra-conductive short blade.
That day, Yuan spent the entire time sparring purely with taijutsu.
Through this "exchange," Yuan basically figured out the underlying principles of the Hatake clan's sword style.
In essence, the Hatake sword style isn't just simple swordplay—it's a form of nin-taijutsu.
Their style uses Lightning Release to stimulate cellular activity, greatly increasing speed, and coats the chakra-conductive short blade in lightning chakra, fusing blade and body as one.
This kind of nin-taijutsu bears resemblance to the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
However, it lacks the defensive enhancements of that mode and doesn't quite match its speed—but in terms of offensive power (without using Hell Stab), it actually surpasses it.
"You're right, Yuan. Using the Sharingan's dynamic vision with my family sword style is amazing—it really reminds me of when I developed the Chidori," Kakashi said.
"Chidori? What's that?" Yuan asked, feigning ignorance.
"Chidori is a jutsu I created myself. I'll show you."
With that, Kakashi formed a series of hand seals. Yuan immediately activated his Sharingan to observe.
Under the Sharingan, Yuan saw lightning-style chakra begin to concentrate on Kakashi's palm. As the hand seals completed, the chakra stabilized, and the moment the jutsu formed, the sound of a thousand birds chirping erupted, startling nearby birds into flight.
As Kakashi's only original jutsu in the source material, Chidori was the early-to-mid game counterpart to Rasengan.
After Sasuke learned it, he developed numerous variations through Lightning Release shape manipulation—like Chidori Sharp Spear, Chidori Stream, and Chidori Blade.
One thing Yuan could never quite wrap his head around, though, was how Chidori—clearly described in the original story as an assassination jutsu—could work with such a loud, flashy activation. Was it meant to kill everyone who saw it as part of the "assassination"?
As Yuan mused on this, Kakashi activated his Sharingan and dashed toward a stone target at high speed.
Crack! A crisp sound echoed as the stone was effortlessly shattered.
Yuan observed and thought, "This technique's main flaw is effectively mitigated by the Sharingan."
"What do you think of my jutsu, Yuan?" Kakashi asked.
"It's great in every aspect. If I'm not mistaken, this technique involves both chakra nature transformation and shape transformation.
You're gathering highly concentrated lightning chakra into your hand and combining it with thrusting speed to pierce targets. That's a very clever concept."
Kakashi scratched his head shyly, a little embarrassed by the praise.
"Kakashi, since your jutsu already incorporates both nature and shape transformation, I think it's got a lot of development potential. For example—"
Yuan then began to talk about all the Chidori derivatives Sasuke developed in the original story. As he explained, Kakashi's eyes lit up.
"Yuan, your ideas are incredible! If we can realize these, Chidori could be used in so many different battle scenarios."
"Then you should focus on two things next—combining your sword style with the Sharingan and developing Chidori's derivative jutsu."
"Yuan, you came up with all these ideas—I can't take full credit. How about this—I'll teach you Chidori, and once you master it, we can develop the new versions together."
Yuan smirked—his goal had been fully achieved.
Over the next half month, Yuan focused on mastering Rasengan and Chidori.
With Kakashi as a sparring partner, Yuan progressed rapidly—within two weeks, he had already grasped the basic forms of both Rasengan and Chidori.
And Kakashi truly lived up to his genius reputation. In that same short span, he completed the first Chidori derivative: Chidori Blade.
Chidori Blade involves channeling lightning chakra into the blade to increase its killing power. Anyone struck would become paralyzed and unable to move. Because it inherited the Chidori's properties, it was named "Chidori Blade."
When using it, Kakashi's blade glowed blue—just like when Sasuke first used it.
But when Yuan used it, the blade's glow leaned toward purple, something that puzzled him a bit.
Still, he didn't pay it much mind—it was just a color difference, not a big deal.
That afternoon, as Yuan and Kakashi were working on new Chidori derivatives, Minato suddenly appeared before them.
His expression was serious—clearly something had happened.
"Minato-senpai, what's wrong? Has the war situation changed?" Yuan asked.
"Yes. The Hokage just received word—Sand shinobi are gathering near Kikyo Mountain. A major battle between the two villages is about to break out."
(To Be Continued...)