Chapter 41: Kamui!

Chapter 41: Kamui!

Hanare was gone, passing away peacefully with a smile on her face.

Kakashi held her lifeless body, frozen in place like a statue, as if time itself had stopped.

He thought back on all the tragedy in his life: his father's suicide, Rin's death at his own hands, the loss of his teacher and his teacher's wife, and now, the death of the one he'd just begun to care about. Even his best friend, Obito, had fallen into darkness because of him.

"Am I really so cursed?" Kakashi thought bitterly.

Time and again, he'd failed to protect those he loved. He was convinced that everyone he cared for would meet a terrible fate, all because of him. The pain of losing someone close overwhelmed him once again, plunging him into a spiral of self-doubt.

In his mind, it was all his fault. For years, Kakashi had closed himself off, shutting out everyone, fearing that his curse would bring misfortune upon anyone he got close to.

While Kakashi was drowning in his anguish, he failed to notice that the intense surge of emotion was triggering a change within him. His Sharingan eye spun faster and faster until, at last, it transformed into the shape of a large, shuriken-like Mangekyo Sharingan.

"What…?" Kakashi was startled by the sudden change in his left eye. Looking down into the water's reflection, he memorized the new design of his Sharingan.

Slowly, memories of old Uchiha clan lore came to him. The Sharingan's ultimate form, beyond the three-tomoe, was the Mangekyo Sharingan—a power said to grant the abilities of gods.

"I'm not even an Uchiha… yet I awakened the Mangekyo?"

His confusion would remain unanswered. After all, the Uchiha clan had dwindled to three: one was a young child still in the academy, one had defected, and the third was Obito, who was still missing. As for Uchiha Yi, Kakashi was not yet aware of his existence.

Along with the Mangekyo's awakening, Kakashi instinctively understood its power: a jutsu of spatial distortion, Kamui.

The description etched itself into his mind: a visual jutsu of another dimension, able to distort and warp space.

Through his left eye, he could freely adjust his focus, causing anything within his gaze to be twisted and sucked into a separate dimension. Kakashi realized he'd need time to fully grasp this power, but he had a clear idea of its devastating potential.

"How touching!"

Kisame's mocking voice cut into his thoughts. "Reminds me of a woman I killed once. She told me some nonsense right before she died, but I never did understand her."

Kisame's words, as he gazed at Hanare's body, bought Kakashi a moment of reprieve.

"You'll get your answers soon enough," Kakashi replied coldly.

The awakening of his Mangekyo Sharingan steadied him, temporarily dulling his grief. After sealing Hanare's body into a scroll, he turned to Kisame, his eyes blazing with fury.

"Seems this woman made you weak," Kisame said dismissively, unaware of how deeply he had enraged Kakashi.

"Bastard!" Kakashi's voice shook with fury. "What do you take her for?"

Kamui!

With a roar, Kakashi fixed his Mangekyo Sharingan on Kisame's heart, the shuriken-like pattern of his eye contracting as he activated Kamui.

In an instant, an invisible force warped the space around Kisame's chest, targeting his heart.

Caught off guard, Kisame hadn't anticipated that Kakashi would have such a powerful ace up his sleeve. The spatial distortion tore through his heart, his face frozen in a shark-like grin.

"It's over!" Kakashi declared, fully aware of how devastating space-time jutsu could be after witnessing his mentor Minato's power. He was confident that Kisame couldn't survive.

But his triumph was short-lived. In the next instant, the "Kisame" he had hit dissolved into a puddle, merging with the water—a mere water clone.

"Too impulsive…" Kakashi chided himself. "I didn't expect him to be this cautious."

With his initial strike wasted, Kakashi knew his chances of landing another would be slim. Kisame could easily retreat into hiding and continue chipping away at his stamina from a distance. Though Kamui was an incredibly powerful one-hit kill technique, Kakashi couldn't afford to use it repeatedly.

His energy was already strained, as his Sharingan drained chakra even when he wasn't using it, leaving him perpetually low on reserves. He was in no condition for an extended battle.

"Close one… that could've killed me!" Kisame muttered to himself, visibly shaken. Despite his confidence, he'd learned through countless battles not to take his enemies lightly.

He remembered how Konoha's Tsunade had once lost her brother due to a careless mistake, face-to-face with a corpse.

Years of experience had made Kisame cautious and prevented him from taking unnecessary risks, which had saved him more times than he could count.

After witnessing Kakashi's sudden surge in power, Kisame was now even more cautious, whittling down Kakashi's stamina little by little.

In the end, Kakashi's limited chakra reserves couldn't hold out. Despite his newfound power, he was captured once again.

Kisame's title as the "Tailed Beast without a Tail" was well earned.

As the fight drew to a close, everyone's attention turned to Uchiha Yi, who still remained something of an enigma.

"Noted," Yi thought to himself, having observed the entire battle. From start to finish, Kisame had overpowered Kakashi and even managed to eliminate his emotional anchor, Hanare.

Yet, Kakashi had managed an astonishing comeback, awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan and nearly killing Kisame with Kamui—a development that had happened years earlier than in the original timeline.

But he'd miscalculated; the real Kisame hadn't been there.

The twists kept coming, proving that nothing was certain until the very end.
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