Round One—Begin!

  Link stomped the ground, and his body vanished in an instant. A split sed ter, the r saeared directly behind Kakashi Hatake.

  “Shrrkk!” The bde bit into flesh, spraying blood everywhere.

  His two teammates stared in shock— [Could it be?!]

  “Poof!”

  The bloodied body turned into a halved log.

  A basic Substitution Jutsu, perfect for tering inexperietacks.

  Link wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t expected to see Kakashi’s movements, let alone keep up with them.

  “Whoosh—Thunk!”

  A long leg swept in from his left side. Without an arm to block, the kided squarely on his ribs, sending his body flying sideways.

  [Impressive chakra trol.]

  Kakashi mused as he retracted his leg. The boy had moved behind him fluidly using a burst of chakra for speed, and the teique of turning body parts into ons was intriguing.

  But ultimately, losing an arm severely hindered bat ability.

  However, the body sent flying was missing something—its head.

  “Pop!”

  With a soft sound, Link’s body instantly reassembled starting from his head. He delivered a perfectly executed sidekibsp;

  “Thud!”

  His short leg struck Kakashi squarely on the shoulder, sending the jonin sliding back several meters before he came to a stop. Kakashi closed his book and allowed a hint of seriouso show.

  [This kid’s taijutsu is bizarre.]

  Link immediately performed e Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu again. As basic teiques, they didn’t e much chakra if not maintained for long.

  “Whoosh!”

  He unched atack. As the weaker oppo, he had to maintain his offensive rhythm; otherwise, a single terattack could leave him pletely defenseless.

  “g!”

  Two kunai collided. The differen strength was evident as Kakashi’s kunai pressed closer to Link.

  Uurbed, Link raised his free hand and flicked his fioward Kakashi’s fabsp;

  “Whoosh!”

  The four firansformed into glinting silver senbon mid-air, slig through the air with sharp precision.

  “k, k, k, k!”

  Kakashi reacted instantly. While one hand tio wield the kunai without pause, his other hand raised defensively. The reinforced iron pting on his glove easily deflected the senbon.

  With the kunai about to strike Link, his short stature left him uo terattack effectively against an adult oppo at such cle. One hand had already been forced aside, and the other was missing fingers.

  In such a situation, Link didn’t hesitate—he leaned babsp;

  Head detat initiated!

  His head fell backward as his body vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing a few timeters away, just far enough to evade the kunai’s edge.

  The battle tinued without pause as Link used Body Flicker to leave the spot immediately.

  But Kakashi was faster, shadowing Link’s movements and reappearing in front of him. Bending low, Kakashi unched a lightning-fast kibsp;

  “Bang!”

  Link was sent flying into the air. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he formed hand seals mid-flight and performed e Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu once more.

  Basic jutsu like these demonstrated their true value in moments like this: few hand seals, fast execution, and low chakra ption.

  Kakashi leaped after him, twisting in mid-air to deliver a spinning kibsp;

  “Wham!”

  At the st moment, Lied his earlier trick, letting his head detach while his body fell heavily to the ground, kig up a cloud of dust.

  All eyes—Kakashi’s and his teammates’—were drawn to the airborne head, which seemed to hover near Kakashi.

  “Whoosh!”

  Before the dust settled, a long sword emerged from the cloud, slig upward toward Kakashi in mid-air.

  Even though his body and head were separated, Link maintained plete trol over both.

  “Poof!”

  Kakashi’s body dispersed into a puff of smoke.

  [A Shadow e?! When did he...?]

  Link’s heart sank as the long sword reverted to a hand. He calmly reached out and caught his flying arm.

  [This kid!!!] X2

  The two teammates hiding in the forest stared in disbelief.

  Defeating a jonin’s Shadow e in direct taijutsu—what kind of monster was this?

  Even a mid-level in would struggle to pull that off.

  “Tap~”

  Link nded softly, sighing inwardly. He had exhausted all the teiques he’d devised and still failed to gain the upper hand. The situation was about to get much more difficult.

  Kakashi had celed his Shadow e and vanished from sight, leaving the training ground eerily silent.

  In the ninja world, stealth was the essence of taijutsu bat.

  Fnking and ambushing were fual strategies.

  This was because chakra refi, movement, and neural responses all relied on one critical element: sight.

  If a ninja couldn’t see their oppo, they couldn’t react or ter effectively, no matter how strong their abilities were.

  Even Jiraiya, a legendary sannin, had struggled with this during his fight against Pain. When his attacks failed, he questioned why he couldn’t successfully ambush them.

  His exact words:

  "Even if they’re sensory types, how could they predict my attacks uhey see them first?"

  In essence, seeing rerequisite for reag.

  Link’s initial sneak attack had failed, meaning Kakashi could see through all his moves. The jonin easily anticipated his iions and used Substitution Jutsu to evade while tering with precision.

  Link had expected this—uimating a jonin was never an option. That’s why he had yered his unventional teiques to try and gain an advantage.

  While he had mao briefly take the upper hand, the vast skill gap remained. Kakashi easily waited for the right moment to ter, regaining trol of the fight with minimal effort.

  The most frustrating part? Kakashi had willingly given him the first move.

  Despite giving his all, Link couldn’t force Kakashi to take the fight seriously. In this game of taijutsu, he wasn’t even a worthy oppo.