When the decapitated Itachi turned into cawing crows and dispersed into the air, Sasuke finally let out a long breath.
So it was just his brother's crow clone.
Seriously… using such terrifying tricks just to scare me.
As Itachi's "corpse" dissolved into crows, a shadow holding a kunai silently appeared behind Kimimaro.
Who else could it be but the real Itachi?
"You've lost," Itachi said calmly, pressing the kunai to Kimimaro's neck.
But Kimimaro suddenly did something shocking—
He completely ignored the kunai at his throat, letting it slice his skin as he twisted around and drove a bone knife straight into Itachi's chest.
Kimimaro had been prepared.
Thick bone had already formed under the skin of his neck, protecting his vital area.
The kunai only cut the surface—
But his counterattack pierced fully into Itachi.
Naruto and Sasuke were both stunned by the life-or-death intensity of the clash.
Even Ryūshin subconsciously frowned.
Rinne, standing beside Hoshiyomi, instinctively grabbed his arm—
The sudden strength of her grip made Hoshiyomi's facial muscles twitch.
Why is my precious daughter's grip strength increasing again?
Maybe I'm wasting her talent by not sending her to learn the Konoha Steel Fist style?
As Kimimaro stabbed Itachi, he suddenly felt something wrong.
His expression changed, and he leapt backward, rolling onto the ground.
The moment he moved away—
Boom!!!
Itachi's body exploded in a violent blast.
That Itachi had only been a shadow clone—
And the explosion was a new jutsu he'd developed recently: Clone Great Explosion.
Even with Kimimaro's incredible Shikotsumyaku defense, he wasn't made of steel.
The explosion left him dizzy and battered.
By the time he got back on his feet, the unharmed real Itachi had already finished forming hand seals and was pointing at him.
Kimimaro dropped his bone blade decisively and said:
"I concede. I truly lost."
Itachi relaxed his stance and smiled.
"I only won because you didn't know my techniques.
If this were a real fight to the death, I might not beat you."
Kimimaro didn't respond, but he knew Itachi was just being modest.
He was still behind.
In a true life-and-death battle, his only chance would be starting with Dance of the Clematis to destroy the terrain and keep Itachi from having any footing.
Otherwise, lasting this long against him would already be difficult.
Just as Kimimaro was sinking into frustration, Hoshiyomi appeared silently beside him and patted his shoulder.
"Don't be discouraged. You did very well. You're two years younger than him, after all.
Itachi is already one of the strongest of his entire generation.
Forcing him to use two life-saving techniques is impressive."
Sasuke suddenly joined in as well:
"Kimimaro-nii, you're amazing.
Among the younger generation in the clan, besides Shisui and Obito, no one else can fight my brother like that."
Coming from a world-class brother-con like Sasuke, this was the highest praise possible—
Kimimaro had clearly earned his respect.
Hoshiyomi glanced over Kimimaro's injuries and frowned slightly.
"Haku, come treat him."
Kimimaro waved his hand.
"No need, Lord Hoshiyomi. With that, I'll be healed in no time."
Kimimaro was referring, of course, to the Hashirama cells.
His illness—the Kaguya clan's bloodline disease—still existed in this world.
So the year Kimimaro graduated, Hoshiyomi took him to Orochimaru's laboratory and had him undergo a Hashirama cell transplant.
After receiving the transplant, the immense vitality of Hashirama's cells easily cured Kimimaro's illness and pushed his strength to a new level.
Don't be fooled by how he seemed on the back foot against Itachi—
That was only because Itachi, at this point, was already at elite jōnin level.
In the original timeline, he would have already exterminated the clan and awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan by now.
Although in this world he hadn't awakened the Mangekyō (thanks to avoiding the massacre), his overall strength was still extremely close to Kage-level.
For Kimimaro to fight him to this extent meant he was at least jōnin-level.
And Kimimaro was only 14 years old.
He also hadn't fully absorbed the benefits of the Hashirama cells yet.
Once he completely harmonized with them, Hoshiyomi believed he might very well reach Kage-level before turning 16.
Having talked about Kimimaro, it was naturally time to mention Haku.
Haku's personality was never suited for being a shinobi.
The child's heart was far too gentle—
He found it difficult to kill enemies without hesitation.
Hoshiyomi didn't mind.
He felt that as long as Haku could use Ice Release to protect himself, it was enough.
Haku's development of his Ice Release hadn't been very deep—
Only slightly stronger than in the original timeline.
But his growth in medical ninjutsu had skyrocketed.
Haku already had excellent chakra control and, with Tsunade personally instructing him whenever she was free, his medical skills naturally became extraordinary.
He had only graduated recently, yet he had already learned nearly all of Tsunade's medical ninjutsu techniques, and his skill level was comparable to Shizune, who was far older.
Now, he was already a well-known attending physician in the Konoha Hospital—a genius medical shinobi.
Besides Haku and Kimimaro, the two children who had been studying under Hoshiyomi all these years were Ryūshin and Rinne.
The two little ones were young, but their talent was immense.
Compared to pre–plot-power-up Sasuke and Naruto, they left them in the dust—by eight blocks at least.
Ryūshin, the little kenjutsu prodigy, had already reached Intermediate Swordsmanship, equivalent to a typical chūnin level.
And besides swordsmanship, he hadn't neglected chakra training either.
Unlike Hoshiyomi, he didn't have the cheat ability to alter his chakra nature.
Although he possessed all five chakra natures, he didn't train all of them.
Instead, he focused mainly on Wind, Fire, and Lightning Chakra sword techniques.
These three elemental sword techniques were Ryūshin's current trump cards.
With them, he could probably escape unscathed even if he faced a jōnin.
He simply disliked showing off.
If he truly displayed his full strength, the current Sasuke and Naruto would absolutely not be his match.
Rinne, also seven years old, continued diving deeper into the "full-time mage" path.
She could now proficiently use over 80% of Konoha's C-rank ninjutsu, and was beginning to resemble Sarutobi Hiruzen more and more.
But Hoshiyomi suspected her talent went far beyond this.
He planned to help her begin merging kekkei genkai once she was older.
At that point, they would develop everything—
Lava Release, Boil Release, Scorch Release…
And even later Dust Release, Explosion Release, Magnet Release would not be off the table.
Hoshiyomi even imagined letting Jiraiya write a book for his daughter someday—
Titled:
The Girl Who Possesses Monstrous Strength But Insists on Being the Full-Time Archmage.
...
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