Pressure

Unlike usual, today, Obito was not sticking to Rin like a love-struck puppy but was instead intensely focused on training in a corner of the rooftop. After rapidly forming hand signs, he suddenly spat out a fireball in front of him.

The fireball was huge, at least five or six meters in diameter.

It flew toward the edge of the rooftop and astonishingly passed through the railing before gradually disappearing into the air.

It turned out that Obito wasn't practising the Great Fireball Technique but rather a fireball projection technique.

Although it couldn't hit anyone yet.

This move was intended to complement the Great Fireball Technique, a strategy that used both real and fake fireballs.

This was one of the killer moves he planned to use against Kakashi, so he naturally put in extra effort to master it.

However, even though the fireball he just created was quite realistic, Obito didn't seem very satisfied. His brows furrowed with anxiety.

Without taking a break, Obito quickly began forming hand signs again, continuing his practice.

Not far away, Natsuhiko, who had been watching for a while, thought for a moment and decided not to disturb his training, continuing to walk forward.

That's when he saw an indescribable creature ahead.

It was indescribable because the figure was wrapped in a thick layer of mosaic, making it hard to distinguish any features.

Clearly, this was Ebisu's signature projection technique—the Mosaic Technique.

His current appearance was the first application method he had developed under Natsuhiko's guidance, called the "Mosaic Cloak."

The idea behind this move was to cover his entire body in mosaic projection, making his attacks more unpredictable and making it harder for enemies to hit his vital points accurately.

Although this Mosaic Technique was quite a creative application of projection techniques, Natsuhiko always had a strange expression whenever he saw Ebisu use it.

Ebisu always liked to dress in black, and under the thick mosaic filter, Natsuhiko couldn't help but feel like he was looking at a naked native from the Land of Lightning.

Oddly, it somehow suited him…

Besides the students, Kushina also practised projection techniques.

After all, she was an assistant instructor, and it would be highly embarrassing if students asked her questions about projection techniques later on and she couldn't answer.

So, she had actually started learning projection techniques quite some time ago.

However, she had been inconsistent, with periods of effort followed by times of neglect, resulting in slow progress.

Fortunately, after the recent kidnapping incident, she became determined not to be a burden on Natsuhiko anymore and devoted more energy to learning projection techniques.

Thanks to her solid foundation in sealing techniques, once she applied herself, her progress was swift.

Soon, she mastered the version of projection techniques that only required talismans, and now she was even learning a version that didn't need hand signs.

Compared to the other students, Kushina's signature projection technique was quite simple.

It mainly involved creating animated copies through the basic Clone Technique and performing various tactical manoeuvres.

Ideally, she can create about ten realistic projection clones.

While this might not seem impressive, one must not forget that Kushina had a trump card: the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique.

When she used her full strength to create hundreds of shadow clones, each one could also produce ten projection clones...

The sheer absurdity of this move even left Natsuhiko, the inventor of the projection technique, deeply impressed.

Lastly, the research group's unofficial member—Guy—was also present.

However, at that moment, he was running laps around the rooftop…

After walking around the rooftop and observing everyone's progress with projection techniques, Natsuhiko had a comprehensive understanding of their current levels.

As he answered their various questions, he also gained valuable data for future reference.

After all, correct answers are often the same, but wrong answers come in all sorts of variations.

As someone who had mastered projection techniques, Natsuhiko found it challenging to anticipate the issues students would face while learning this jutsu.

This was why Natsuhiko had his research group members study projection techniques ahead of time—to accumulate teaching experience for his future lessons.

Conveniently, this group included both male and female students, ninjas and civilians, high achievers and underachievers, providing a broad range of sample types.

Based on his observations and the students' feedback, Natsuhiko made several adjustments to his teaching plan and had almost completed his preparations.

So, next semester, Natsuhiko could finally fulfil the promise he made during the first lesson and teach projection techniques to the students in his sealing techniques class…

The winter sky darkened quickly, and before long, the sun was about to set.

After briefly evaluating everyone's performance in applying projection techniques, Natsuhiko announced the end of the day's research group activities.

However, he added one final note, asking Obito to stay behind.

After the curious others slowly left the rooftop, Natsuhiko spoke to Obito:

"Obito, the school has issued a notice—the graduation exam for this academic year will be held on the 10th of next month."

"That means you have less than half a month left to challenge Kakashi."

As he said this, Natsuhiko deliberately smiled with a hint of schadenfreude.

"So, do you have the confidence to defeat Kakashi?"

"Don't forget, the entire ninja academy—teachers and students alike—know about your declaration to defeat Kakashi."

Obito's already anxious expression darkened further, and he barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

Wasn't it you, Natsuhiko-sensei, who instructed Guy to expose this in the first place?

Obito grumbled in his heart, looking at Natsuhiko with a bit of resentment in his eyes.

He increasingly felt that perhaps Natsuhiko-sensei had planned this all along, waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

After all…

"Natsuhiko-sensei, didn't you just tell me a few days ago about the gap between me and Kakashi? You said my chances of defeating him were almost zero…"

Obito finally replied in a helpless tone.

In truth, he hadn't expected the gap between him and Kakashi to still be so wide after nearly a semester of hard work.

It wasn't because Natsuhiko-sensei's guidance wasn't good—it was because Kakashi was just too abnormal.

After all, at the beginning of this semester, the teachers had already recognised Kakashi as possessing the strength necessary for graduation.

It should be noted that, for academy students at their age, physical growth significantly impacted their abilities.

So even though geniuses like Hyuga could defeat second—or third-year students, they would struggle against older students due to differences in body size and strength.

Kakashi, on the verge of graduation, meant that he at least had the strength of a Genin.

Moreover, students aiming to graduate early often need to exceed the average level of ordinary graduates to pass.

This meant Kakashi's strength was on a completely different level from theirs.

As the saying goes, the more you know, the more you realise how little you know.

The more Obito had grown more robust, the more he realised how terrifying Kakashi's power indeed was.

In the past, he had naively believed that he could easily surpass Kakashi if he just put in more effort.

However, in reality, Kakashi could easily defeat Souto, while Obito could only fight Souto to a standstill. The gap between him and Kakashi was evident.

Even more worrying was that no one knew how much of his strength Kakashi was still hiding!

To be honest, Obito now felt like he was stuck in a difficult situation.

After all, even the academy janitor, Uncle Qin, knew about his challenge to the genius Kakashi.

Not to mention the classmates who constantly asked him when he planned to follow through.

Even within the Uchiha clan, many people had heard about this challenge.

If it had been in the past, they might have just scoffed, thinking it was another one of Obito's attention-seeking antics.

However, their opinions have changed significantly since Obito defeated Souto and achieved impressive results in the clan's training sessions.

Those who hadn't seen Kakashi's overwhelming strength naturally had confidence in Obito's chances of winning.

So, whenever they saw Obito, they encouraged him not to disgrace the Uchiha name.

However, these expectations had all transformed into immense pressure on the five-year-old Obito's shoulders.

Under this pressure, Obito had even stopped paying attention to Rin and instead buried himself in relentless training every day.

He was so consumed that he even dreamed of Kakashi while sleeping…

It was no wonder he always had an anxious expression on his face.

Seeing Obito's state, Natsuhiko had decided to keep him back for some counselling.

Although Natsuhiko personally felt that it wouldn't be a big deal even if Obito lost to Kakashi.

After all, Obito was clearly a late bloomer. It was perfectly normal for him to fall short of a genius like Kakashi at this stage.

But Natsuhiko had also been young once and knew that what seemed trivial to adults could feel like monumental challenges to kids.

Telling Obito not to obsess over winning or losing would probably backfire.

So, Natsuhiko gazed into the setting sun and spoke softly:

"Obito, do you remember why you wanted to challenge Kakashi in the first place?"

(End of Chapter)

P.S.: There is a promotion on my Patreon rn, The fanfic will only be available as a collection, not in any tiers(besides the Emperor one cuz all my subs are in it) just for 15$. Anyone who buys it till I reach chapter 236 of novel on Patreon will have free access to the Chapters and continuation of the fanfic I'll do myself in a few months, so don't miss out the opportunity guys! Thank you.

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