Little Brat

"We... might be the same kind of person." Feeling that she might have found someone like her, Kurenai suddenly felt a weight lift from her heart. She was a child, after all. Everyone around her practiced either Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, and she was the only one training in Genjutsu. It was only natural that she felt lonely.

"But how are you going to deal with the trouble right in front of you?" Kurenai's eyes were full of worry. Then she pursed her lips and muttered, "That bastard Asuma, why does he have to be so competitive?"

On the field, Shunren and Asuma's fight had moved to the edge of the woods.

Moving the fight had been part of Shunren's plan. He had no choice: his opponent had the advantage of a weapon, and he couldn't possibly overpower him. Rather than fight him on open ground, choosing the woods, with their obstacles, was the wiser choice.

"All you do is jump around! Are you a monkey?!" Asuma's face flushed red with anger as he looked up at Shunren, who was hanging upside down from a branch. Shunren's calm, composed attitude drove him especially wild, yet there was nothing he could do about him!

Shunren ignored the provocation. Knowing full well that his opponent had an overwhelming advantage in combat power and still going at him head-on would have been the height of stupidity. Besides, a ninja battle wasn't decided by Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu alone; strategy mattered too! Shikamaru Nara from the original story was the best example. Whether in ability or combat power, there had been a huge gap between him and Hidan of the Akatsuki, yet Shikamaru had managed to kill Hidan.

"Bang, bang!" The furious Asuma swung Flying Swallow with all his might, hacking straight through a tree trunk.

Yet before the tree fell, Shunren jumped to another one. They were in the woods, and Shunren was making good use of the terrain.

"I see. Did Shunren deliberately lure Asuma here? Come to think of it, when did Shunren learn to move like that?" Obito mused.

Might Guy watched in boredom and couldn't help grumbling, "What gives? Hiding and scurrying around like that isn't youthful at all."

"Idiot, Might Guy!" Obito shot him a glare. "You're so inflexible. Your Taijutsu is clearly so good, yet you lost to Asuma."

When it came to Taijutsu, Might Guy was better than Asuma. But Might Guy's fighting style was always straightforward, without the slightest twist or turn, and Asuma had run him in circles by making clever use of the Three Basic Techniques.

"Bang, bang!" Another tree was chopped down. Shunren looked at the dozen or so fallen trees nearby and said helplessly, "Asuma, why don't we call it quits here?"

"No! We have to settle who wins and who loses today!" Asuma roared. What a joke! He was the school's number one, yet he'd fought the dead-last Shunren to a draw in a mock battle. How was he supposed to show his face?

"All right, I give up. You win," Shunren said, looking bored. As far as he was concerned, this was just an ordinary mock battle. What did it matter if he won or lost?

Asuma froze for a moment, but he still refused to back down. "No! Are you looking down on me?"

Shunren frowned. No matter how good his temper was, this little brat had worn it nearly all away. "You're so annoying... I'm not playing with you anymore!"

With that, Shunren couldn't be bothered to pay attention to his reaction. He simply raised his hand, ready to report to Feimu and ask him to stop the mock battle.

But just then, Shunren's keen spiritual power faintly detected a disturbance in the air currents, and his expression changed slightly.

Asuma stabbed Flying Swallow into the trunk of a nearby tree with a reverse grip, then formed Hand Seals.

Seeing Asuma form the seals, Obito, who was standing nearby, couldn't help crying out, "Those seals... it's Wind Release!"

Sure enough, after completing the seals, Asuma took a deep breath and blew it out!

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Whoosh!" A huge, raging current of wind

blasted toward Shunren! Shunren held both arms in front of him, but the sharp currents tore his sleeves and left small cuts on his arms.

"That's impossible! He shouldn't have enough Chakra!"

Feimu hadn't expected Asuma to use a C-rank Wind Release Ninjutsu either. It was a Ninjutsu ordinary Genin couldn't use, much less Asuma, who hadn't even graduated from the academy. In Ninjutsu battles at school, it was always the basic Ninjutsu of the Three Basic Techniques; few people could master an offensive Ninjutsu.

Precisely because he was so stunned, Feimu didn't react in time to step in and stop him.

"Pant, pant..." Using a C-rank Ninjutsu seemed to have taken quite a toll on Asuma. He was breathing hard, but he still had some fight left in him. He pulled Flying Swallow from the tree trunk with one hand, pinched the tip of its blade between his thumb and forefinger, and aimed at Shunren, who was clinging firmly to a branch with Chakra on the soles of his feet.

"Whoosh!" Asuma flung Flying Swallow like a Shuriken!

With his powerful spiritual power, Shunren carefully observed its trajectory and, using the flight mechanics formulas he had learned at the Ninja Academy, instantly predicted where the attack would land.

He instinctively raised his foot, then suddenly froze. At that position, had Asuma missed?

"Crack!" Flying Swallow sliced through the branch beneath Shunren's feet. As the branch broke and fell, Shunren lost his balance.

"Oh no!" Shunren's expression changed drastically.

On the ground, Asuma was holding another Flying Swallow, waiting for him to fall!

What a failure. Shunren felt ashamed of his mistake. For a ninja, a small mistake could very well turn the outcome around. He hadn't expected that to happen to him.

Shunren watched his opponent in silence. He could clearly see that Asuma's eyes had turned red, a sign that he was losing his reason. That was how little brats were: sometimes, if a child was too unruly and wasn't stopped, it could very well lead to disaster. Immature little brats didn't understand when to stop, yet they possessed a power that could hurt others-Chakra.

He believed that once he fell to the ground, Asuma would certainly rush at him without hesitation, swinging Flying Swallow at him.

Shunren turned his gaze to Feimu. Feimu seemed to have noticed how serious the situation was and was fumbling to form some kind of seal. But he probably wouldn't make it in time.

"Hah!" Asuma bared his teeth, gripped his sharp weapon, and started toward him.

"No choice..."

Shunren opened his palm toward him.