[Starting in Naruto with a Daily Login System] Chapter 61

Chapter 61

The mission scroll was sealed by the Hokage and was marked urgent.

Personal request.

No team. No backup.

Just me.

That alone should’ve been a red flag, but Hiruzen had that look again—the one that said don’t ask. So I didn’t. The orders were simple: intercept and retrieve a rogue informant operating near the border. Quiet, clean, efficient.

Too quiet. Too clean.

The moment my boots touched the ground at the outpost, I knew.

Dead silence. No birds, no chakra, no scent of movement. 

I moved anyway because hesitation gets you killed.

The trap sprang before I made it to the main hall.

A ripple in the air. Then a voice.

“Kakashi..”

Smooth. Confident. And…wrong.

I turned, slow and ready.

And there he was.

The Masked Man.

That spiral mask burned into my memory like a curse. That same chakra signature—coiled and sharp like barbed wire. 

“You,” I said, voice colder than steel. 

"We meet again." His voice muffled behind the mask.

Lightning crackled across my knuckles. My body moved on instinct.

Godspeed activated in a breath.

I struck.

He blocked.

Not dodged. Blocked.

Countered like he knew the angle of my attack before I even made it.

I spun, feinted low, then shot a finger-gun blast straight for his ribs. The compressed air whistled—then vanished into a ripple of space.

He tilted his head. “You always open with that.”

My heart skipped.

“Huh? What?”

Always?

I blurred behind him mid-step, chakra flaring. Wind chakra in my palm, twisted and violent—Lightning’s Fury sparking to life.

He moved before I struck.

Not away. Through.

His body flickered like mist, reappearing behind me.

I ducked. Barely.

The heel of his boot still caught my shoulder—bone cracked.

“Still too slow,” he muttered.

I threw myself back, breathing hard, blood humming. Chakra surged.

Flow State.

Everything sharpened.

I could see the movement of his chakra now—how it curled, bent around reality, slipped through space. My Six Eyes caught it. Traced it.

I launched upward, hands flashing through seals. Fire. Wind. Lightning. A barrage.

He danced through it.

No panic. No fear.

Like he’d seen the script before opening night.

I switched tactics—shrunk down, a blur of movement beneath the dust cloud. Got close. Aimed for the pressure point behind his knee. He was there to meet me, hand already moving, catching my blade mid-strike like it was rehearsed.

"You rely too much on instinct," he said, squeezing. “Even when it betrays you.”

My kunai shattered in his grip.

I launched a second Rasengan point-blank—only to hit air.

Not a substitution.

Just gone.

I spun. Too slow.

Pain cracked across my back. I hit the ground and skidded, armor scraping away on stone. My head rang. Blood in my mouth.

“You’re hesitating,” he said, walking toward me, slow and steady. “Still wondering how I know.”

I forced myself up, muscles screaming.

I surged forward—full speed, no hesitation.

We clashed again, harder this time. I pushed into Seamless Sublimity, every motion honed to perfection. Fists, blades, chakra, feints.

He matched me.

Every block, every pivot.

It was like I was fighting a mirror that already knew my worst habits—and used them against me.

"Why are you doing this?" I demanded, creating three Shadow Clones that circled him.

"You wouldn't understand," he replied simply. "Not yet."

My clones attacked simultaneously. He dispatched them without even looking at them, his moves precise and economical.

My last move was desperate. Channeling all my remaining chakra into Lightning Fury, I forced it into a compressed spear—unstable, crackling, too much voltage to hold for long. The air around me ionized, hair standing on end as electricity arced wildly.

"This ends now!" I shouted.

My last move was desperate. Channeling all my remaining chakra into Lightning Fury, I forced it into a compressed spear—unstable, crackling, too much voltage to hold for long.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t need to.

The moment I struck—

—he phased through it.

I felt the jutsu tear the earth apart behind him. Stone exploded in blue light.

Then he caught me by the collar mid-spin.

One strike.

Just one.

I don’t even know what it was—chakra-infused, maybe. Maybe not. But it hit like fate itself.

Black.

For a second.

Maybe longer.

When I came to, I was flat on my back, sky spinning above.

He crouched next to me. Calm. Still.

“You’ll understand someday,” he said. “But not today.”

I reached for a kunai. He pushed my hand down gently.

“No,” he said. “Not yet.”

Then he vanished.

Not flickered.

Not ran.

Just…gone.

I lay there, blood in my mouth, lungs burning. The sky above felt too far. The earth too heavy.

And still, something twisted in my gut.

Something wrong.

He knew everything.

My attacks. My jutsu. My words before I said them.

Not like a spy.

Not like an enemy.

I don’t know how long I stayed there before I stood.

But I did.

Because I’m not dead yet.