The Victor Emerges

Kakashi: "It's time to get serious."

Saying those words, Kakashi then simply body flickered away, his speed easily dwarfing that which he accomplished previously.

The playful grin which had decorated Mizuki's face until now vanished, a gaze containing his focus and will etched onto his face.

As Kakashi had body flickered away, Mizuki followed suite, his figure blurring before vanishing just as Kakashi had.

Not so much as a couple of seconds passed before a clash of blades could be heard.

However, when the audience of genin looked over to see their finalist counterparts, they were surprised to see that rather than a fight, it looked more like a stop motion animation.

With images of the two boys crossing blades in various positions sporadically appearing and disappearing, only being seen for a fraction of a second before vanishing.

Whilst the Genin were surprised at what was occuring, the Jonin overseeing them were no less shocked at the scene unfolding before them.

Whilst they could easily track the boys, unlike their genin counterparts, that does not change the fact that the boys were moving fast enough not only to be quicker than the human eye, but also to create afterimages as well.

However, as impressive as the clash between the two was, it was clear that Kakashi was slowly, but surely, gaining the upper hand.

After all, whilst one of Kakashi's specialties was his use of Kenjutsu, Mizuki had no such focus in this area, instead being a seals master.

Eventually, Mizuki was finally able to create some space for himself, by taking advantage of a space in Kakashi's guard created by a dodged swing, where he kicked Kakashi back.

Which caused the boy to fly backwards, who was then able to mitigate the damage by flipping and then skidding to a stop.

With the first confrontation over, it was becoming more clear that Kakashi was emerging the victor, as Mizuki had a couple of noticeable shallow wounds in comparison to Kakashi.

Mizuki muttered slightly before weaving a series of hand signs at an incredibly quick pace before exhaling an orb of flames, which quickly grew until it encapsulated Kakashi's view as it slowly advanced towards him.

Mizuki: "Katon: Fireball Jutsu!"

Kakashi quickly analyzed his escape routes, realizing that he was pinned between the wall behind him and the sphere of flames in front of him.

Kakashi weaved a series of hand signs before diving into the earth below, where he quickly popped up at where Mizuki was previously and delivered a swift uppercut.

However, as he emerged from the ground, Kakashi quickly realized that Mizuki was nowhere to be found.

Rather, his sense of danger spiked as he just narrowly was able to evade an attack that surely would have otherwise lost him the match.

A kunai with an explosive tag was thrown square at his chest, which Kakashi was able to narrowly evade.

Despite Kakashi's evasion however, he was still caught in the blast radius of the tag's explosion, which caused him to skid backwards, as he was launched by the force of the blast.

As he skidded backwards, Kakashi was seamlessly able weave together several hand signs in order to complete a string of jutsu.

Kakashi: {Shadow Clone Jutsu!}

Kakashi: {Suiton: Water Gun}

Kakashi Shadow Clone: {Futon: Breakthrough}

In a matter of seconds, Kakashi was able to launch a counter attack towards Mizuki in the form of a wind enhanced water blast which was heading straight towards him.

Rather than facing the attack head on, Mizuki decided it would be for the best to evade it, and so, he ran forwards before creating an earth wall underneath his feet to propel himself high into the sky, where it promptly collapsed in on itself after getting hit by Kakashi's attack.

Seeing the opportunity, Mizuki then simply used his chakra to stick to the roof of the arena where he bombarded Kakashi with long range ninjutsu from a safe distance.

Keeping the pressure on his opponent by firing off strategic blasts of flames of various sizes, and also using the fact that he was on a ceiling to his advantage, as he used earth style jutsu to collapse parts of the ceiling on top of Kakashi.

Kakashi was forced on the defensive, as he needed to dodge between the plumes of flames and pillars of earth alike that fell towards the earth, towards him in particular.

However, even with his natural advantage in his lightning jutsu being able to nullify Mizuki's earth, Kakashi began to realize how disadvantaged he was becoming here.

His already average chakra reserves were draining, as he was forced into a battle of attrition with Mizuki, who had higher reserves of chakra, and could even gain more by trying to swipe his.

In addition to this, Mizuki had the geographical advantage, as he could easily decide the pace and distance of the battle, and it was also easier for Mizuki to hit him than vice versa.

He was fighting an uphill battle.

Literally.

Kakashi pondered slightly before suddenly changing his stance, transitioning from obliterating the earth pillars and evading the flames, to evading both, as he kicked himself back and put some distance between the two of them.

Kakashi then created a clone and extended his right hand and breathed slightly as the clone began to almost shape something in the original Kakashi's palm.

He normally preferred not to use this technique, as it required immense amounts of chakra, chakra which he normally could not spare.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Soon enough, a sphere of chakra began to dance in Kakashi's palm as the boy narrowed his eyes upwards and set his sights on his opponent. [1]

Seeing this jutsu, The Third Hokage and the other jonin quickly recognized it as Minato's infamous rasengan, and praised the boy for being a genius, and his teacher for fostering such talent.

However, these praises were shut down by none other than Minato himself, who narrowed his eyes ahead at the fight, which was now unfolding it's final phases, his gaze not losing focus.

Minato: "I have also had some experience teaching the other finalist, Mizuki, he definitely has an ace up his sleeve.."

Hearing these words, the Jonin were silenced, and looked ahead, clearly interested in what Mizuki would do.

Seeing this jutsu, Mizuki's eyes narrowed in surprise, he did not expect to see anybody using it in the chunin exams, even if it did make sense that either Kakashi or Obito would know it.

Mizuki: {Maybe I accidently created a butterfly effect?}

Realizing that the battle was drawing to a close, Mizuki prepared a final attack of his own.

Similar to how Kakashi's original performing of the water dragon jutsu in his first fight with Zabuza required countless hand seals, so too did Mizuki's jutsu.

Although, this was mainly due to the jutsu still being in it's prototype stage, even after a month of studying and refining it.

Kakashi was ready first, as the fully formed Rasengan in his hand stabilized at the size of about a basketball. The clone beside him dispersed itself in a cloud of smoke as the original Kakashi began his approach.

Kakashi ran low to the ground as he gained speed, first rushing across the floor, then scaling the wall in a straight line, in a manner reminiscent of the reverse of what his student would do years later.

Finally, Kakashi arrived at the ceiling, appearing next to Mizuki and within striking range within a blink of an eye.

Had he arrived just a second earlier, this entire exam would have been his victory.

But he did not.

Just as Kakashi was able to emerge within striking range of Mizuki, the boy finished weaving his elaborate series of hand signs, indicating the completion of his jutsu.

Mizuki: "Shiroi Nensho" [2]

Upon uttering those words, a blanket of white flames shot out of Mizuki's body and towards Kakashi, just barely taking the shape of the head of a beast.

Mizuki: "Hellhound"

Soon, the two attacks clashed, causing dust to kick up as the two completed the final clash of the exam.

All of the genin, and even some of the jonin, all leaned into the railings, desperately trying to get a peek as to who won.

And soon enough, the victor was revealed.

Kakashi could be seen slung over Doto's shoulder, as the Akimichi used himself as a shield to block the white flames just after the initial clash ended.

Doto: {What..The Fuck....Was That?}

The Jonin thought to himself seeing the destructive capacity those flames wrought.

Doto: "I hereby declare Mizuki the winner of the final round of the chunin exams, genin are too now wait where you are for further instructions."

. . . . . .

[1] Aight this is gonna need some explanation. The butterfly effect indirectly caused Kakashi to be more powerful through increased motivation to be the best in his generation, as unlike canon where there were no real contenders, Mizuki posed an actual challenge. As a result, he learned the rasengan earlier. As he was unable to perform it with one hand over so short a period of time (I get he is a genius, but it took Minato 3 years to create and Naruto like 4 or 5 to go from being two handed with it to going one handed.) he needed to adapt. If Naruto could find out this cheat with the Rasengan, than Kakashi can too, because he is an absolute prodigy. Also, before you ask, he isn't using the chidori because he hasn't made it yet, it's still too early for that.

[2] I JUST WANTED TO SAY MY FIRST TRUE OG JUTSU IN JAPANESE BECAUSE IT SOUNDS COOL, OK? STOP JUDGING ME. Anyways, it means "White Combustion", as I am following the theme of the Black Lightning, which translates to "White Thunder."