It was the fourth day after graduation.
The morning sun hung high above Training Ground Three, spilling pale gold through the trees and casting long shadows across the packed dirt. The air was cool, but tension already simmered on the field.
Ren stood opposite Kakashi.
At first glance, the two of them looked strangely alike.
Both were white-haired boys. Both held short swords. Both had the calm, focused look of people who were already thinking three moves ahead. Standing across from one another in the clearing, they looked almost like reflections separated by a sheet of glass.
Only their eyes were different.
Kakashi's gaze was cold, precise, detached.
Ren's was alive with calculation.
The next instant, both of them moved at the same time.
Their hands blurred.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Water Release: Rampaging Water Waves!"
A massive fireball roared out from Ren's mouth just as a surging torrent burst from Kakashi. Fire and water collided in the middle of the field with a violent hiss, exploding into a thick wall of white steam.
Under normal circumstances, Kakashi's Water Release should have smothered Ren's flames instantly.
But it didn't.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed.
Instead of disappearing, Ren's fireball only shrank. The blazing sphere, which had started at nearly five meters across, compressed into a furious core of burning orange and red, still pushing forward through the water with terrifying stubbornness.
Kakashi reacted immediately.
He formed another sequence of seals.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
A slab of earth rose in front of him just as the reduced but still dangerous fireball slammed into it. Flames burst apart against the wall, scattering sparks and steam in every direction. The clearing filled with a hot mist, droplets glowing red for an instant like molten rain.
Kakashi stared through the steam at Ren.
"Your Fire Release…"
He paused, not bothering to hide his surprise.
"How did it get this strong?"
Ren smiled faintly, wooden sword loose in one hand.
"I had a few insights recently. Just a small breakthrough."
That was putting it mildly.
The boost from his improved Fire Release had already started to show real results. It was nowhere near the monstrous level of someone like Madara, where one fire technique demanded an entire squad of water users to counter it, but against a genin—or even an ordinary chunin—it was already more than enough to tilt the balance.
And Kakashi had noticed.
That alone made Ren feel satisfied.
Still, Fire Release wasn't the real reason he had asked for this spar.
Today, he wanted something else.
Something far more valuable.
Hatake Sword Style.
The mist had not even fully settled before Kakashi moved.
"Coming."
His voice arrived a fraction of a second after his body.
He shot through the steam like a blade loosed from its sheath, crossing the distance between them in an instant. His wooden sword cut downward in a clean, merciless arc.
Ren raised his own weapon to block.
Clack!
The impact jarred his entire arm.
A powerful force ran from the sword into his wrist and shoulder, making his fingers go slightly numb. Before he could fully absorb the first blow, Kakashi had already twisted his waist and drawn the blade back.
Swoosh!
The second strike came at an angle, faster and sharper than the first. The wooden sword carved a pale arc through the mist, trailing a faint afterimage as it swept toward a point Ren had no choice but to defend.
This was it.
Hatake Sword Style.
It was not flashy. It was not theatrical.
It was precise, severe, and relentless.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
Wooden swords collided again and again, fast enough to sound like metal. Kakashi's offense came in waves, each strike linked to the next with frightening smoothness. There were no wasted movements. No unnecessary flourishes. Every slash pushed forward with the sole purpose of forcing an opening, then expanding it into victory.
Compared to their earlier exchange, this was on another level.
Last time, Kakashi had been testing him.
This time, Kakashi was fighting seriously.
Ren gritted his teeth and held his ground.
His feet dug into the dirt. His shoulders tightened. Sweat slid down the side of his face, but his attention remained razor sharp.
He had already activated Partial Transformation: Might Guy's Body, reinforcing his speed and strength, and on top of that he had quietly opened the First Gate—the Gate of Opening.
The result was immediate.
His physical ability surged high enough to brush the upper limits of chunin-level taijutsu, at least for a short time. It was still not enough to overpower Kakashi, but it gave him just enough room to survive this storm of sword strikes without collapsing immediately.
Barely.
That was the key word.
Barely.
Because Ren knew one thing very clearly: if he lost too quickly, Kakashi would stop.
And if Kakashi stopped, then the encounter he had been waiting for might end before it properly began.
He could not allow that.
Not yet.
He needed to hold on a little longer.
As if responding to that desperate determination, the familiar voice of the system rang out in his mind.
[Ding! High-quality potential target detected: "Hatake Sword Style"! Timed Encounter mission triggered!]
Ren's heartbeat jumped.
There it is.
Even while blocking Kakashi's unbroken offense, he split off a sliver of concentration and turned it toward the system panel.
Words appeared before his eyes.
---
[Under the introduction of that servant, you once again see the white-haired girl of the Hatake family. She kneels beneath an ancient pine tree, a sheathed short sword resting across her lap. Her entire presence resembles an unsheathed blade—cold, sharp, and condensed. A fierce aura surrounds her, as though it could cut through anything in the world. That danger, and that beauty, draw you closer without realizing it.]
[A: Woman, you've caught my attention! I'll allow you to become my sword style!]
[B: Wow, so white, so straight. Can I touch your sword?]
[C: I am Ren. I came to Konoha's peak today for one purpose—to challenge the Hatake Sword Style. Please grant me your guidance!]
---
Even in the middle of a brutal spar, Ren nearly twitched.
A wuxia beauty this time? Really?
This system had a talent for presenting ridiculous things with absolute seriousness.
Still, the right answer was obvious.
C.
At once, new text appeared.
---
[Hatake Sword Style: (Without lifting her eyes, the aura around her suddenly sharpens.) Guidance? Hah. Another ignorant fool who does not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth.]
[Hatake Sword Style: Still… since you took the trouble to find this place, I suppose I can play with you for a while.]
---
The moment the dialogue advanced, the pressure in the real world seemed to rise as well.
Kakashi's gaze sharpened.
His sword strokes grew even fiercer.
Ren's face changed.
The burden on his arms nearly doubled. Kakashi's attacks no longer felt like mere sparring; they came like a pounding tide, one wave crashing over another with no chance to breathe in between. Ren's entire body tensed. Sweat rolled down his temple and into his jawline, but he forced himself to keep going.
In his mind, the system continued.
---
[Hatake Sword Style: Among the mediocrities of the Ninja World, many are inferior to me, but few are better. When the White Fang of Konoha was alive, only he was worth fighting. As for you, little white-haired one… you are barely enough to loosen my limbs. Again.]
---
Ren almost wanted to curse.
What do you mean, little white-haired one? We're the same age!
But he had no room to complain.
Kakashi pressed in without mercy.
Every time Ren blocked one strike, the next was already there. Every defense barely held. The force in Kakashi's swings traveled straight through the wooden blade into his bones, making his muscles ache and his grip tremble. He felt like a tiny boat trapped in a violent sea, thrown up and down by waves high enough to swallow him whole.
At this level, skill alone was no longer enough.
Instinct took over.
Survive.
Defend.
Don't fall.
Then, all at once, Kakashi's rhythm changed.
Ren's pupils shrank.
Until now, Kakashi's offense had been continuous pressure—a linked chain of sword strikes designed to crush his guard through relentless momentum.
But this next move was different.
Kakashi's wrist flicked.
The pressure condensed.
His entire sword intent narrowed into a single point of icy light, like lightning compressed into the edge of a blade. It shot toward Ren's midsection at exactly the worst possible moment—when his old strength had just run out, and his new strength had not yet risen to replace it.
A perfect gap.
A perfect kill.
Not good!
Ren reacted on pure instinct. He forced his broken rhythm back into motion and raised his wooden sword across his body to block.
Crack—!
A sharp, ugly snapping sound echoed across the clearing.
Ren's expression froze.
The standard wooden sword from the ninja tool shop had failed.
It had endured repeated impacts up to now, but it could not withstand the explosive force packed into that one terrifying strike. The blade split in half, fragments spinning through the air.
At the same moment, in the system's inner world, the white-clad girl of Hatake Sword Style had also moved.
The sheathed sword was no longer across her lap.
Now, a shining blade rested against the throat of Ren's consciousness, stopping just a hair's breadth from piercing skin. The cold radiating from the edge was so sharp it seemed to freeze time itself.
For one suspended instant, everything became still.
Then the text shifted again.
---
[Hatake Sword Style: A broken blade may mean a poor weapon… or an unsteady heart.]
[Hatake Sword Style: Your talent is far inferior to the White Fang of Konoha. Yet… there are still traces of an old friend in you.]
[Hatake Sword Style: Very well. I have sat here for years, and even now I have not fully grasped the path of the sword. Perhaps the time has not yet come. I will go with you, little white-haired one, and see how far you can walk down this road.]
[Ding! "Hatake Sword Style" has been added to the capture list! Current favorability: 1/10 (Stranger)]
---
In reality, Ren forced himself backward at the last possible moment, the broken remains of his wooden sword barely redirecting Kakashi's strike enough to keep it from landing cleanly. He immediately used the Substitution Jutsu and reappeared several meters away, breathing hard.
The clearing finally fell quiet.
Ren lowered his shoulders and let out a long breath.
It worked.
He had lost the spar.
Badly, if he was being honest.
But the encounter itself had succeeded.
That was what mattered.
He glanced at the capture list in his mind and felt a wave of relief. The Hatake Sword Style had acknowledged him—barely, grudgingly, arrogantly—but it had acknowledged him.
From here on, the process should be familiar.
Dialogue.
Practice.
More dialogue.
Slowly build favorability.
Step by step, he would make the technique his.
Still, he couldn't help swallowing.
This particular encounter had been far more dangerous than usual.
Yes, both he and Kakashi had used wooden swords.
Yes, this was supposed to be training.
But if a wooden blade could be shattered like that with raw technique and force, then if that strike had landed on his body, the result would not have been mild bruising. At best, he would have spent days in bed nursing torn muscles and damaged bones. At worst…
He decided not to finish that thought.
Several moments passed before the silence broke.
"…Wow."
The voice came from the side of the field.
Obito and Rin, who had been watching the entire fight from the edge of the training ground, finally seemed to remember how to breathe. Both of them stared wide-eyed at the battlefield, still visibly stunned by what they had just seen.
Obito pointed shakily toward the broken wooden sword on the ground.
"That was just… training?"
Rin, who had unconsciously clasped her hands together at some point, exhaled slowly.
"For a second, I thought someone was actually going to get seriously hurt…"
Kakashi stood where he was, wooden sword still in hand, his expression unreadable as always. But there was a faint shift in his eyes when he looked at Ren.
A hint of surprise.
A hint of approval.
"You held on longer than before," he said.
That was high praise coming from him.
Ren flexed his numb fingers and gave a dry laugh.
"And you almost killed me faster than before."
"Hn."
Kakashi lowered the wooden sword slightly.
"You asked to see Hatake Sword Style clearly."
He paused, then added in the same flat tone:
"Now you've seen it."
Ren looked at the broken sword in his hand, then back at Kakashi.
No.
Not enough.
He had only seen the edge of it.
But that edge alone was enough to make his blood stir.
For a sword style to be acknowledged by the White Fang…
For Kakashi to wield it with this kind of precision…
For even the system to personify it as some aloof sword fairy beneath an old pine tree…
There was no question anymore.
This would become one of his core targets.
Ren straightened, forced the ache from his arms, and smiled.
"Then next time," he said, "I'll last even longer."
Kakashi looked at him for a second, then turned away with his usual indifferent face.
"Try not to break another sword."
Obito immediately burst out laughing. Rin covered her mouth, smiling in relief as the tension finally faded from the field.
But deep inside, Ren's mood remained sharp and focused.
Today, Hatake Sword Style had only given him a single step onto the path.
Just one.
Even so—
That was enough.
Because once he had found the road, he had no intention of stopping halfway.
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