Chapter 188: The Test of Lightning
Konoha Village, Training Ground 7.
The air was still, thick with the smell of damp earth and old-growth trees. The only sound was the distant caw of a crow.
Uchiha Sasuke leaned against one of the three iconic wooden stakes, arms crossed, a cool, impatient expression on his face.
A hint of a scowl, so familiar to his father, was etched between his eyes.
He had been waiting here for almost an hour.
The sun had climbed higher, moving from a pleasant morning warmth to an annoying, direct heat.
The man named Kakashi Hatake still hadn't arrived.
[Late…]
[He's nearly an hour late. Is this some kind of joke? A test?]
[Is this what an "Elite Jōnin" is? He doesn't even have the most basic sense of time.]
Sasuke's already-low opinion of his new, temporary instructor dropped a few more points. He had things to do. He had Naruto to catch up to.
His father, Fugaku, had pulled strings, spoken directly to the Hokage, and arranged this special training. All for this. To be stood up.
Just as he was about to lose his patience and leave, a lazy, unconcerned voice came from the trees behind him.
"Yo. My apologies, my apologies."
Sasuke's head snapped around.
"I encountered a black cat crossing the road, so I had to take a detour. A long one."
Kakashi Hatake, with his messy silver hair and tilted headband covering one eye, walked leisurely over, hands stuffed in his pockets, without the slightest hint of actual apology on his face.
A vein popped on Sasuke's forehead.
[This kind of idiotic nonsense... is he trying to fool a three-year-old?]
"You're Uchiha Sasuke, right?" Kakashi walked up to Sasuke and looked him up and down. His single visible eye, lazy and bored, raked over the boy.
He possessed the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. (Sasuke had deactivated it, but Kakashi knew it was there). He had an arrogant, coiled-spring demeanor. And he was quite handsome.
[Hmm, as expected of an Uchiha child. This arrogance is practically carved from the same mold. He looks just like...]
Kakashi's mind flickered, then he refocused.
[However, his talent is indeed good. To have such a solid chakra foundation at this age, Fugaku must have put a lot of effort into him. Lord Akira was clear: 'Do not break him. But teach him.']
"I am." Sasuke replied coldly, his patience gone. "Can we start? My time is precious."
"Don't be in such a hurry." Kakashi bent down with a groan of false effort and picked up a single leaf from the ground.
"Before we start training that Ninjutsu, we need to do a small test. To see if you're actually ready."
He held out the leaf to Sasuke.
"A test?" Sasuke frowned, but still took the leaf. It was a simple, green, ordinary leaf.
"It's very simple," Kakashi said, his eye curving into a smile. "Infuse your chakra into this leaf."
[Infuse chakra? What kind of childish game is this? This is what they teach at the Academy on the first day.]
Sasuke, without hesitation, infused chakra into the leaf in his hand.
The next second, the edges of the leaf instantly became... moist, as if soaked in water.
Immediately after, a small, faint flame ignited in the center of the leaf, burning a tiny hole before extinguishing with a hiss on the damp parts.
Sasuke stared at the result. It was a chaotic mess.
"Oh?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, leaning in. "Fire and Water?"
He mused, "No... that's just poor control. You're leaking everything." He tapped the boy's forehead. "Focus. Lord Hokage told me your primary talent, the one we're here to train, is Lightning Release. Try again. Don't show me your Fire. Don't show me your Water. Show me only Lightning."
[Inorin's Note: Chakra Natures are the elemental affinities a shinobi possesses. The five basic natures are Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Earth. Most ninja have one or two, and controlling them is the first step to advanced jutsu.]
"It seems Lord Hokage was right; your Lightning Release talent is indeed good. But... it's just raw potential."
"What's the point of this test?" Sasuke asked coldly, frustrated by his sloppy first attempt.
"Of course, there's a point."
Kakashi put away his lazy demeanor. In an instant, the air around him changed. The lazy, late Jōnin was gone, replaced by the "Copy Ninja," a man of S-rank reputation.
His expression became serious.
"The Lightning Release Ninjutsu I'm going to teach you... the one I created... is an assassination-level jutsu."
[Inorin's Note: Kakashi is referring to the Chidori (千鳥, One Thousand Birds), an A-rank (later S-rank with the Raikiri) jutsu based on the Lightning Release nature transformation, combined with shape transformation.]
"Before learning it, you must have a sufficient, perfect understanding and control over the nature transformation of Lightning Release chakra."
"And your performance just now? It only shows that you possess Lightning Release chakra. You are still far, far from controlling it."
Kakashi picked up another intact leaf and held it in his palm.
He slowly infused chakra into it.
Zzz... Zzzzz...
A soft, crackling sound filled the air.
The leaf, at a speed visible to the naked eye, didn't burn. It didn't get wet. It began to wrinkle and curl, violently, as if a thousand tiny, invisible needles were puncturing it.
It crumpled in on itself, becoming a tight, disfigured ball of green.
"Do you see?" Kakashi showed the disfigured leaf to Sasuke.
"This is the ultimate manifestation of Lightning Release chakra nature transformation — wrinkling."
"Imagine your chakra as countless tiny electric currents, stimulating every cell of the leaf, vibrating it until it tears itself apart."
"When you can do that to this leaf, we will have completed the first step."
"Hmph." Sasuke let out a cold snort from his nose. He dropped the ruined leaf and picked a fresh one from a nearby tree.
"Isn't it just about wrinkling a leaf? Watch closely."
[If this lazy oaf can do it, a genius like me can do it in ten seconds.]
Sasuke imitated Kakashi. He closed his eyes, immersed his mind, and carefully tried to guide the lightning-attribute chakra within his body into the leaf.
He pictured electricity. He pictured sparks.
Fwoosh!
The leaf in his hand burst into flames.
He cursed and dropped it, smacking the embers from his hand.
"Damn it!"
"Too much force. That's your Fire nature. You're impatient," Kakashi's voice, leisurely once more, sounded from the side.
Sasuke growled, picked another leaf, and tried again.
This time, he tried to force the chakra into small needles.
Rip!
The leaf tore in half.
Half an hour passed.
A pile of burnt and broken leaves was stacked at Sasuke's feet. He was breathing heavily, not from physical exertion, but from pure, unadulterated frustration.
"Damn it! Why!"
Kakashi's voice, leisurely and infuriatingly analytical, sounded from the side. "You're too hasty."
"Your mind is full of wanting to surpass someone, to prove yourself. This impatient, angry mindset makes your chakra explode. It prevents you from achieving the precise, delicate control this requires."
[This guy... he actually saw through my thoughts?] Sasuke's head snapped up to glare at him.
"Don't look at me like that." Kakashi waved a hand dismissively, his eye closed in a lazy smile. "I've been a Jōnin for so many years, after all."
"Your little thoughts... 'I must beat Naruto'... 'I must prove I'm a genius'... they're written all over your face. You can't hide them from me at all."
Kakashi walked up to Sasuke, squatted down, and picked up a fresh leaf.
"Sasuke, I know you really want to become stronger. I know you want to catch up to Naruto's pace."
The casual mention of his rival's name made Sasuke's fists clench.
"But with training, haste makes waste. You can't force power. You have to cultivate it."
"Calm down. Forget your father. Forget Naruto. Forget me. Just... feel. Treat the chakra as a part of your body, not a weapon."
[Calm down...]
[Feel...]
Sasuke took a deep, shuddering breath and closed his eyes. He forced the image of Naruto's stupid, grinning face out of his mind.
He held the leaf. He channeled his chakra. He didn't push. He... released it.
He imagined it not as a spear, but as a current.
Zzz...
A barely perceptible soft sound.
The leaf in Sasuke's hand finally... twitched. A faint wrinkle, tiny and almost invisible, appeared near the stem.
It was... a success! A tiny one!
Sasuke suddenly opened his eyes, an unconcealable joy flashing on his face before he quickly suppressed it, returning to his cool facade.
Kakashi watched this scene, his visible eye smiling.
[As expected of an Uchiha genius. This level of comprehension... to find the 'feeling' in just an hour...]
[He truly is astonishing. It seems this mission will be much simpler than I imagined.]
...On the other side of the village.
Training Ground 17.
"MULTIPLE SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
Dozens of Narutos, each with an unstable, erratically swirling, half-formed ball of chakra in their hand, turned the entire training ground into a chaotic, muddy, and loud mess.
"Damn it! Why can't I maintain its shape! It keeps popping!"
"My hands are going numb! This is stupid!"
"AAARGH! It blew up in my face again!"
"Pervy Sage! What kind of crappy Jutsu is this! It's too difficult! Are you sure you're not teaching it wrong?!"
The Naruto army was full of complaints, yelling at each other and at their teacher.
Naruto's original body, sitting on a rock, also had a bitter, resentful expression.
He had been here for a whole day.
This last step of the Rasengan—maintaining the shape and power without a container—was more than ten times harder than he had imagined.
Jiraiya, sitting comfortably under a tree and well out of range, was already used to such scenes.
He even had the leisure to take out a small, worn-out notebook and a pen, and was scribbling furiously.
[Hmm, yes... "The sweat of a young man's struggle," check. "His unyielding, fiery eyes," check. "And... his pathetic appearance after failing repeatedly." Hmm, these are all excellent materials! This will be my most realistic book yet!]
"HEY! PERVY SAGE! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!" Naruto's original body finally roared, his voice hoarse.
"What are you shouting about!" Jiraiya replied without looking up from his "research."
"You're stupid, and you blame the Jutsu for being difficult?"
"I..." Naruto was choked by the insult and couldn't speak.
"The Rasengan is an A-rank Ninjutsu developed by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze," Jiraiya said, his voice suddenly serious.
[Inorin's Note: The Rasengan (螺旋丸, Spiralling Sphere) is an A-rank jutsu. It has three steps: 1) Rotation (the water balloon), 2) Power (the rubber ball), and 3) Shape (maintaining the vortex of chakra without a container).]
"If it were that easy to learn, wouldn't there be Rasengan users everywhere on the street?"
Jiraiya pouted, "Back in the day, it took me..."
Jiraiya thought about Naruto's abnormal training speed—mastering step 1 in an afternoon and step 2 in three days. He quickly swallowed his next words.
[It took me three years to perfect this. This brat... at this rate... he's a monster. Best not to tell him that, it'll go to his head.]
"...Never mind. Just get back to it! No more food until you get it right!"
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