**Chapter 13: Help: What Have I Been Doing All These Years?**
On the other side, Hoshigaki Kisame also launched an attack on Sarutobi Asuma. They exchanged blows back and forth, and for a moment, he actually couldn't take Asuma down.
The honest-looking Hoshigaki Kisame immediately formed hand seals and shouted, "*Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu* (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu)!"
Two water dragons formed on the lake surface, devouring each other, and the powerful aftershocks of the Ninjutsu spread out.
Just in the nick of time, it was Hatake Kakashi who released the exact same Ninjutsu.
"Using the same Ninjutsu as me?" Hoshigaki Kisame seemed a bit surprised that Hatake Kakashi could use a Water Release Ninjutsu as powerful as his in such a critical moment. That wasn't easy.
"Why are you here?"
Sarutobi Asuma asked, somewhat surprised.
Hatake Kakashi replied, "Although I entrusted this matter to you earlier, I was still a bit worried."
In the field, another Hatake Kakashi appeared behind Uchiha Itachi, holding a kunai.
"Hatake Kakashi?"
Uchiha Itachi turned around and spoke indifferently.
"You, a rogue ninja, what are you doing returning to the village now?" Hatake Kakashi asked.
Hearing this, Uchiha Sasuke, who was outside the screen, instantly sat up straight.
The series of spectacular Jonin-level Ninjutsu exchanges just now had dazzled him, but the question Hatake Kakashi asked in the video was also what he desperately wanted to know. What exactly did Uchiha Itachi, a rogue ninja, want to do by returning to the village?
Hearing this, Uchiha Itachi in the video turned around and simply said calmly, "Hatake Kakashi."
"That pair of eyes, still the same as before. True, after all, you are the legitimate heir of the Sharingan. I have to prepare for the worst," Hatake Kakashi said, looking at Uchiha Itachi's eyes, a hint of anxiety in his gaze.
"Truly surprising. No wonder you could use the same Ninjutsu as me. I didn't expect that besides Itachi, there would actually be someone else possessing those eyes," Hoshigaki Kisame teased. "You must be Copy Ninja Kakashi."
"The one who should be surprised is me. I didn't expect that the suspicious persons found in the tea shop would be Uchiha Itachi and the Monster of the Hidden Mist, Hoshigaki Kisame," Hatake Kakashi retorted, not backing down.
"I didn't expect you to know me," Hoshigaki Kisame said with a smirk.
"So you are one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist," Hatake Kakashi said, his expression equally grave. "That great sword is obviously Samehada."
Although Hatake Kakashi hadn't met the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist personally, they were famous.
These seven were a group composed of the top experts of Kirigakure. Each person wielded a unique ninja sword with its own special uses.
And the owners of these seven swords were usually the elite of the elites in Kirigakure.
Each of them possessed at least the level of an Elite Jonin.
However, Hoshigaki Kisame's next words caught the attention of Hatake Kakashi outside the screen.
"I heard you fought that kid Momochi Zabuza?" Hoshigaki Kisame asked directly. "He's a character worth shaving."
"Me? And Zabuza?" Hatake Kakashi fell into deep thought. Judging from Uchiha Sasuke's appearance in the video, the time period in this clip didn't seem far from now—at most within half a year.
In other words, would he encounter two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in succession within half a year in the future?
Any one of these seven had the ability to pose a huge threat to him.
Although he was confident he could win, these people were no nobodies; every one of them was formidable.
However, before Hoshigaki Kisame could make a move, he was stopped by Uchiha Itachi.
"Kisame, don't be reckless."
"If you really fight him, I'm afraid you won't be able to retreat unscathed," Uchiha Itachi said. "Moreover, if it takes too long, other ninja will catch wind of it and move."
"But..." Hoshigaki Kisame wanted to retort but was interrupted by Uchiha Itachi, who said, "Don't forget our objective. You didn't come here to get hurt."
"Then I'd actually like to hear your objective," Hatake Kakashi said.
After speaking, his Shadow Clone turned into a puff of white smoke and disappeared.
"We are just here to find something," Uchiha Itachi replied.
Hatake Kakashi immediately threatened, "What are you looking for?"
"Unlike Kisame, I won't take too much time!" Uchiha Itachi didn't answer directly. He spoke calmly, but in a flash, he reached out a hand filled with shuriken.
At the same time, Hatake Kakashi, facing a formidable enemy, instantly performed a Ninjutsu.
"*Ninpo: Suiton: Suijinheki* (Ninja Art: Water Style: Water Wall)!"
Hatake Kakashi instantly formed a water wall around himself. Simultaneously, the surrounding waves turned into water spikes blasting toward Hatake Kakashi, but they were blocked just in the nick of time.
"What kind of casting speed is that?" Hatake Kakashi was shocked by the speed at which Uchiha Itachi performed Ninjutsu.
As a genius ninja, his own hand seal speed was already very fast, yet the hand seals were still visible. However, Uchiha Itachi completed the seals in the instant he extended his hand. If Kakashi didn't have the Sharingan to see the movement of his technique, he probably wouldn't even know how he died.
Outside the screen, Hatake Kakashi's expression became even more grave. Sure enough, Uchiha Itachi was stronger than back then—much stronger.
The most shocked person was still Uchiha Sasuke. He was astounded by Uchiha Itachi's casting speed.
Hatake Kakashi's casting speed was already incredibly fast; Sasuke couldn't keep up with it at all. But Uchiha Itachi's speed shocked him even more; he didn't even know *when* Uchiha Itachi had completed the technique.
"Damn it, is the gap between him and me this big?"
Uchiha Sasuke clenched his fists, finding it hard to believe.
If Uchiha Itachi had become this powerful, how could his future self compete with him, let alone take revenge?
Could it be that he would never catch up to him?
At this moment, he began to hate himself for being satisfied with the so-called honor of being first in his grade over these past few years. What had he actually learned in the Ninja Academy?
It looked like he had improved, but why was the gap between him and these top-tier experts so massive?
Hatake Kakashi was already an expert unheard of and unseen by him before. Whether it was aura, the power of techniques, or the speed of hand seals, he was an expert beyond Sasuke's previous cognition.
The Uchiha clan had perished too early. At that time, he had only just started training not long ago and hadn't truly seen what the experts of the Uchiha clan were like. But he assumed they were probably about the same as Hatake Kakashi.
This wasn't belittling the experts of the Uchiha clan; after all, Hatake Kakashi's reputation was also huge—Konoha's Number One Technician.