Hanayo took a deep breath and quickly made a series of hand seals. Her pure white eyes suddenly shook.
"Byakugan!"
As soon as Byakugan was activated, Hanayo's sight was instantly enhanced drastically. At the same time, she could also see through the Chakra in Kabuto's body.
"This Chakra..." Hanayo was shocked. In just three months, Kabuto's Chakra had increased by a lot.
She was not the only one that worked hard. Although her strength far surpassed her peers, Kabuto was also working hard.
"Be careful, I'm coming!" Kabuto took a deep breath, inhaling a large amount of air into his body, which boosted his strength.
Whoosh!
Breathing Styles and Chakra erupted together, and in an instant, his speed skyrocketed that even the leaves falling next to them were lifted.
"So fast!" Hanayo struggled to block the attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
They kept exchanging blows, but Kabuto was too fast. Hanayo was eventually cornered and forced to be on defensive.
However, this was just the attack to gauge Hanayo's strength.
She had indeed improved a lot. She was probably on the same level as a fourth-grade Academy student and reached the standard of graduation.
However, that was nowhere close to his level.
Knowing Hanayo's personality, letting her win would be a humiliation to her.
He respected Hanayo and regarded her as a good friend, so he naturally would not do such a thing.
He wanted to use all of his strength to defeat Hanayo to show her the difference between them, and with that, she would work harder.
Kabuto suddenly increased his strength and pushed Hanayo back with a fierce strike before quickly making hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
After the hand seal was completed, a slim water dragon was quickly formed, and then rushed towards Hanayo.
Hanayo naturally would not just sit still and wait for the water dragon to hit her. When Kabuto make hand seals, she was already prepared to dodge.
Using the surrounding trees, Hanayo successfully dodged Water Dragon Bullet Technique while closing the distance with Kabuto.
Gentle Fist shone in close combat. No matter how strong Kabuto was, she would still have a chance to win if her Gentle Fist connected.
However, just as Hanayo was about to approach, she noticed that Kabuto took advantage of the time when she was concentrating on dodging to conjure a shadow clone.
However, Hanayo could distinguish the real Kabuto and the shadow clone at a glance.
Whoosh!
Hanayo quickly took out three Shuriken and threw them at the real Kabuto. She then released the maximum amount of chakra in her body and rushed towards Kabuto.
"Twin Release: Cold Wind Net!" Kabuto casually pulled out his sword and repelled the Shuriken. Then, he bit his sword and formed hand seals along with his shadow clone. He used Water Release, while the shadow clone used Wind Release.
When the two combined, they instantly formed a huge water vapor net that hit Hanayo.
When the cold water vapor hit her body, Hanayo instantly stopped moving and her attack rhythm broke.
Kabuto took this opportunity to directly rush toward Hanayo with his sword and Hanayo's neck was only a few milimeters away from his sword now.
In this battle, he had used his full strength just in case Hanayo still had another card up her sleeve. If he was hit by Hanayo's Gentle Fist, he would be unable to use his Chakra, which was exactly what Hanayo wanted.
Therefore, he chose a surefire method instead.
First, he deliberately released Water Dragon Bullet Technique to create some water nearby so that his next Ninjutsu could be used faster.
At the same time, he pretended to be unaware of Hanayo's intention and allowed Hanayo to get closer to catch her by surprise.
The Cold Wind Net then slowed down Hanayo's speed before he rushed forward with the blade in hand.
If Hanayo was a real enemy, he would have been dead by now.
In addition to Breathing Styles, he also used Ninjutsu combination and even came up with a tactic.
"I lost." Feeling the cold blade on her neck, Hanayo knew that she had lost again. Moreover, she had lost very miserably as she couldn't even hit Kabuto once.
Kabuto sheathed back his short sword, and then consoled Hanayo with a smile, "You are more than good enough. Your Taijutsu is stronger than most graduates. The problem you need to pay the most attention to now is not to get baited."
Kabuto pointed out Hanayo's problem. "If you don't attack rashly, you won't be defeated so quickly."
Perhaps it was partly because Byakugan provided Hanayo enhanced perception that Hanayo became less cautious in battle.
Kabuto felt that Hanayo's ability to adapt to the situation in battle was a bit lacking, and she was a bit too rash.
Kabuto could understand a little. After all, Byakugan was too convenient.
If the opponent weren't Hanayo, it would be trickier. For example, using water mist to confuse the opponent, and using that chance, Kabuto would switch place with his shadow clone and struck from the enemy's blind spot.
However, that tactic was completely useless against Byakugan as it could detect his Chakra even if the mist hindered one's vision under normal circumstances. On top of that, it could also distinguish a shadow clone from a real person.
Moreover, Byakugan had no blind spots, so Byakugan users were not afraid of sneak attacks.
"Is that so? I will make sure to fix it in the future." Hanayo revealed a thoughtful expression.
Indeed, she should've thought more when she was fighting.
"You should hurry home and change your clothes. Otherwise, you might catch a cold." Kabuto reminded him as the word "cold" in his Ninjutsu was no joke.
Hanayo shivered slightly and sneezed. She had been too absorbed in listening to Kabuto's explanation just now, so she didn't notice it. As soon as Kabuto reminded her, she instantly felt cold.
"See you in the afternoon. I'll go back first." Hanayo waved at Kabuto and then ran home.
...
At noon, after practicing, Itachi remembered about the party and planned to go to Izumi's house to inform her.
Luckily, Itachi happened to run into Izumi on his way to Izumi's house.
"Itachi, where are you going?" Izumi greeted Itachi enthusiastically.
"Looking for you."
Izumi's eyes lit up. Itachi took the initiative to look for her. This rarely happened. Was today her lucky day?
"Why are you looking for me? I'm free today. I can play with you for the whole day." Izumi said with a smile.
"Kabuto and I are having a part at three o'clock in the afternoon. Do you want to go?" Itachi asked.
"A party with Kabuto..." Izumi fell silent. She thought that today was her lucky day, but it turned to be just another day. However, having Itachi look for her was sort of a great improvement.
"Sure, where will we meet?" Izumi thought for a second and quickly agreed.
Although it was very likely that she would just be watching them chat, and there would be nearly no room for her to interrupt them, she would not even have the chance to interrupt them if she did not go!
"The place where we usually practice," Itachi replied.
After informing Izumi, Itachi went back. He was thinking about what kind of person Kabuto's friend, whether they were also thinking about war, and how strong they were.