Severed

"Stop! Asuma!" Obito and Kurenai shouted at the same time, but their abilities were limited and they were too far away. They could only stand there and stare helplessly.

"Hm? Something doesn't seem right?" With his speed, Might Guy had a chance to rush in and stop him, but the strange wiring in his brain meant he still hadn't processed what was happening.

Feimu turned pale with shock and prepared to use the Body Flicker Technique to rush over, but in his panic, he formed the wrong hand signs and the technique failed. His heart skipped a beat. It's over, it's over...

He could already imagine that if a student accidentally injured someone in a class under his supervision, Konoha's higher-ups would surely tell him to pack his bags and get out. Feimu could only hope that Asuma would come to his senses at the critical moment.

Unfortunately, if a brat could come to his senses that easily, he wouldn't be a brat!

Asuma's mind was filled with anger toward Shunren. Perhaps he was only acting on a momentary impulse and bore no malice, but the action that impulse had triggered was an indisputable fact.

"Haha! Let's see where you can run now!" Just before Shunren landed, Asuma timed his move and rushed in, the sharp Flying Swallow gripped tightly in his right hand. With his blood rushing to his head, he no longer cared about anything. Seeing Shunren reach out a hand, he slashed at him without another word.

The five outstretched fingers clenched sharply.

"Yin Release: Projection!"

A flash of blue-green light streaked past.

A clear clang of colliding blades followed.

"Clang!"

A blade glinting with a metallic sheen was flung into the air, then slowly fell to the ground.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the broken blade embedded in the ground. Then they compared it with the remaining half in Asuma's hand and finally confirmed that Flying Swallow was what had broken in two.

"Huh? What happened? Why did my Flying Swallow fall on the ground? And... it broke?" Asuma stared blankly at the third of Flying Swallow still in his hand. Of its four finger rings, only those for his ring and little fingers remained.

"Hup!" Shunren had been falling headfirst, but when he was less than a meter from the ground, he turned a somersault and landed steadily.

There seemed to be something in Shunren's left hand.

Everyone had noticed it was the weapon that had severed Asuma's Flying Swallow!

But everything had happened in an instant, and no one had been able to see clearly what Shunren was holding. When they focused their gazes, they could only see the weapon in his hand rapidly fading away. They could barely make out from its shape that it was a sword. A very unusual sword, plainly different from the Ninja Blades and samurai swords of this world.

It vanished without a trace.

Shunren, however, looked delighted. He spread his fingers and murmured to himself, "Three seconds! This time it lasted more than three seconds."

Sure enough, actual combat is the best shortcut to growth!

Shunren was very satisfied with this unexpected gain. Then he turned his gaze to Asuma. "Sorry, I didn't manage to control my strength just now."

"What... are you talking about?" Asuma's eyes widened. He felt a slight chill at his neck and instinctively raised a hand to touch it.

It was wet. Water? No, this was... blood!

Asuma stared at the blood on his palm, dazed. "This is... my blood?!"

Born into a prestigious clan as the Hokage's son, Asuma had enjoyed a life of luxury since childhood. Coupled with his exceptional talent, he had never been made to bleed before.

Shunren's left hand was trembling slightly. He clenched it sharply, stopping the tremor. When he had used Yin Release just now, he had forcibly fixed a large amount of mental energy into the form of a "sword,"

and as a result, he hadn't been able to control it well for a moment. So when he severed Asuma's Flying Swallow, he hadn't quite managed to stop its momentum, and the blade had grazed the latter's neck. "That was dangerous. I almost caused a disaster." Shunren looked at Asuma's neck and saw a clearly visible streak of blood, still steadily seeping. If it had gone any deeper, he might have slit his throat. If he had killed Asuma of the Sarutobi Clan, the Hokage's son, right here, Shunren could imagine how much trouble that would have caused.

"Aaah! I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding!" Asuma clamped a hand over his neck, displaying a brat's panic in full.

The onlookers wore strange expressions. Obito often challenged Kakashi and had been soundly beaten plenty of times, so bleeding and injuries were unavoidable, and he had long since grown used to them. As for Guy, there was no need to mention him. How could a training fanatic like him not get his share of bumps and bruises?

"Hey, hey, it's just a little scratch. Is there any need to make such a fuss?"

Kurenai ignored Asuma's howls, her gaze fixed on Shunren. The others might not have understood that move, but coming from a Genjutsu family, she couldn't possibly have failed to recognize it. In an uncertain tone, she said softly, "That just now... could it have been Yin Release? But since when could something created with Yin Release be good enough to serve as a weapon? It even severed Flying Swallow!"

Ignoring everyone's astonished gazes, Shunren waved to Feimu and said calmly, "Teacher Feimu, I've used up all my Chakra. I request an end to the mock battle."

"Uh... all right." Feimu still hadn't recovered from his shock. One moment he had been worried that Asuma might lose his head and seriously hurt Shunren; the next, the outcome was something he had never expected!

"Then I'll go rest first..." Shunren nodded, then turned and left.

Everyone in the field focused on Shunren's retreating figure, the shock on their faces hard to conceal.

The mock battle between Shunren and Asuma ended in a draw.

But anyone with a discerning eye knew Shunren was the victor. In other words, Asuma, the number one in strength, had lost to Shunren, the dead last? This was big news!

Guy stared at Shunren's retreating figure with shining eyes, waving his fist in high spirits. "Youth! This is wonderful! I've got one more opponent to challenge!"

"Yeah, I didn't expect Shunren to be so strong either."

Obito also watched Shunren with a conflicted expression. Influenced by the Uchiha's deep-rooted belief in bloodline, he subconsciously considered himself a cut above Shunren. His earlier enthusiasm toward Shunren had also stemmed from the idea that "the strong should protect the weak." People's minds were always complicated: they wanted to see you do well, but once you did too well, they couldn't help feeling jealous.