The floodwaters caused by the Exploding Water Colliding Wave were slowly receding. The geography of the Land of Fire wasn't made up of uneven basins, so the water flowed away in all directions. Soon, the flood subsided, but the surrounding forest that had been washed away would not grow back. The scene had been transformed into a flat plain, with water still reaching past their knees.
But the Anbu squads had been annihilated. A team of nearly twenty people had been all but wiped out in a single move. Two or three of them, likely jonin or just lucky, were still alive.
Kurenai Yuhi and Anko Mitarashi were also alive. Uchiha Nagi, remembering the tenderness of that kiss, had shown them mercy. Asuma had not been so fortunate.
With great difficulty, Asuma pushed aside a large rock and rose from the muddy water, his entire body covered in blood. The fact that he had survived two of Uchiha Nagi's map-wiping attacks wasn't due to Nagi holding back, but to his own incredible luck. Even so, he was severely injured.
"Satisfying," Uchiha Nagi sighed. He felt much better now, having collected a hefty sum of interest from the Third Hokage. Much of the resentment from being hunted and oppressed in the past had been vented.
"Still not dead, Asuma? Don't worry, you can rest in peace. I'll take good care of Kurenai for you..." Uchiha Nagi let out a savage grin and threw a kunai toward the heavily injured Asuma. Just as Anko cried out in alarm and Asuma was about to die with regret, two figures appeared.
Swoosh—
"Ah, sorry we're late. Are you all alright?"
"Haha! Kakashi, I win this time!"
Two figures stood before Uchiha Nagi, one in front of the other. Gai had knocked away Nagi's kunai, saving Asuma.
The other, with white hair, a half-mask, a lazy disposition, and his trademark dead-fish eyes, was of course Kakashi Hatake—the man who could fight anyone to a standstill, from a genin to a god.
"Hmm? You are... I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. Kakashi, is he your brother?" Gai looked from Uchiha Nagi to Kakashi. They looked identical, except one wasn't wearing a Konoha forehead protector.
"I don't have any brothers. Who are you?" Kakashi first answered Gai, then turned to Uchiha Nagi and asked.
Uchiha Nagi's eyes narrowed and a smile played on his lips. Anyone who knew him would know that he was up to no good.
"Ah, Kakashi. I am your half-brother, Hatake Fifty-Fifty."
Kakashi's dead-fish eyes rolled so hard they nearly fell out of his head. "......"
But Gai actually believed him. "So that's it! No wonder you felt so familiar! You're Kakashi's brother!"
Kurenai opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but then the conversation she'd had with Nagi flashed through her mind. The Third Hokage was the one who destroyed the Uchiha clan... he was just a victim who was persecuted and forced to flee the village...
"Don't take him seriously. He has a Sharingan. Right now, there are only three people with the Sharingan..." Kakashi was an intelligence expert. Before Kurenai could even decide whether to speak, he had already stated his analysis.
"It doesn't matter, Kakashi! After we take him down, we can just interrogate him! It doesn't matter if he's your brother or not, he's still going to lose to us!" Gai said, flashing a confident grin with eight perfectly white teeth.
"I'm afraid taking him down won't be so easy..." Kakashi glanced at the bodies scattered around them. A dozen or so Anbu. While not all of them would have been jonin, one had to be at least chunin-level to join...
"I'll take the lead, you provide support! I'm going in!" Gai took out his nunchaku, and with an explosive burst of sound, he shot toward Uchiha Nagi.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, planning something.
"Gai, is it?" Uchiha Nagi smiled. He hadn't expected his first real opponent here to be Gai.
That's right. Before this, the Root squad, Shukaku, Tsunade, Orochimaru—none of them had given him a truly satisfying fight. Ultimately, it was because none of them were pure taijutsu duels.
Only Gai, who had chakra but was so heavily specialized that he couldn't use ninjutsu, could be considered a true warrior.
When fighting Gai, you didn't have to worry that the ultimate move you unleashed would hit a shadow clone or an earth clone, because he couldn't use them.
Gai charged forward, leading with a Leaf Whirlwind kick.
"Leaf Whirlwind!"
Uchiha Nagi met him with his Nichirin Blade. "First Form: Water Surface Slice!"
Clang! The sound of metal on metal rang out.
Hm?! His blade hadn't cut Gai's leg in two?
Uchiha Nagi focused his gaze. The outer pants had been torn, and he could faintly see iron weights strapped underneath.
No wonder. This guy was using weighted iron blocks, sealed with fuinjutsu. They probably weighed several hundred kilograms. Besides being used for training, these heavy weights could also serve as defense.
But the force of Gai's kick was so great that Nagi couldn't control his own momentum and was sent flying backward. This guy's strength was immense.
"Hahahaha! Interesting! Your strength is still far less than the Monstrous Strength Fist, but for someone without a kekkei genkai to reach this level through hard work is truly impressive!" Uchiha Nagi laughed wildly, licking the blood from the web of his hand.
He had just taken one of Gai's whip kicks, and the force had sent a jarring pain up his arm, nearly making him drop his sword. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger was bleeding.
Against this savage blue beast of taijutsu, he absolutely could not take his attacks head-on. If he opened the Seventh Gate, he could probably even kill the Fourth Raikage.
"You flatter me. I am Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey, Might Gai!" Gai flashed his brilliantly white teeth, knowing that their first exchange had just been a test of each other's strength.
The highest good is like water. Water is yielding, yet it can overcome the hard and strong.
Without a second thought, the best course of action was to use the all-purpose Water Breathing. As for Kakashi on the sidelines, he seemed to have completely ignored him.
Boom!
Gai charged forward again. This time, Uchiha Nagi didn't hold back either. Water Breathing First Form, Second Form, Third Form.
The two were locked in a fierce battle. Every one of Gai's strikes was deflected by Nagi's Water Breathing, which redirected the force and used it to counterattack. This frustrated Gai; he had never met anyone who could counter his taijutsu with swordsmanship.
After the death of Konoha's White Fang, Kakashi's father, the only other person in the village who could be called a taijutsu master was Tsunade. But Tsunade's strength lay in the terrifying power of her Monstrous Strength Fist; in terms of taijutsu technique, Gai was far superior.
As Uchiha Nagi executed the Tenth Form of Water Breathing, Constant Flux, his three-tomoe Sharingan quickly glanced at Gai. At that moment, the three tomoe silently merged, forming his Mangekyo. Perhaps it was unintentional, or perhaps it was deliberate, but Nagi intentionally left an opening, letting Gai meet his gaze for just a moment...
Gai's body faltered, and his mind was pulled into the world of genjutsu. Uchiha Nagi showed no mercy just because he admired this supporting character in his past life. His blade slashed directly toward Gai's neck.
Just as Gai was about to be decapitated, a white-haired man appeared between them, blocking the blade with a ninjutsu.
Zzzzzzzzt—
Uchiha Nagi's sword collided with a hand crackling with lightning.
"Gai! Wake up!" Kakashi shouted, blocking Nagi's fatal blow with a Chidori.
With his other hand, he grabbed Gai, injecting his own chakra into him, and quickly pulled away from Nagi. His opponent's genjutsu was too powerful.
"Yo! Thanks, my eternal rival! I almost died there. His eyes are even stronger than your Sharingan. Don't look at them!"
Now fully awake, Gai broke out in a cold sweat. He didn't yet have the skills he would later use against Itachi. Though he had consciously tried to avoid looking at the Sharingan, he had accidentally glanced at it for just a moment, and it had nearly cost him his life.
"Gai, when you fight him, don't look at his eyes," Kakashi said, having already closed his own left eye and activated the three-tomoe Sharingan in his right.
When fighting a master swordsman, even a single second of being caught in a genjutsu could be fatal.
"Don't worry, my eternal rival! As long as the chakra in my body is not stable, genjutsu has no effect on me! Leave it to me!" Gai gave Kakashi a thumbs-up. At some point, he had already removed his leg weights.
"Are you going to—"
"That's right! First Gate, Gate of Opening... open!"
The veins on Gai's face bulged.
"Second Gate, Gate of Healing... open!"
A violent surge of chakra began to increase unreasonably.
"Third Gate, Gate of Life... open!"
"Fourth Gate, Gate of Pain... open!"
"Fifth Gate, Gate of Limit... open!"
After opening the Fifth Gate, the aura around Gai rose to an indescribable level. A ferocious torrent of chakra erupted from him, enough to rival several Kakashis.
Uchiha Nagi watched with excitement, his Sharingan spinning wildly. He knew that even if he copied the Eight Gates, he wouldn't be able to win by using it himself. But what he wanted to copy wasn't the Eight Gates technique itself, but Gai's combat skills.
Just like how Sasuke had copied Rock Lee's taijutsu to create his Lion Combo...
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