Strongest Challenger: Youth Itachi

"Prompt: Randomly generating Battle Map. Please wait."

"Prompt: Map generation complete. Enter immediately?"

"Countdown: 5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

When Kyosuke opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in the center of a massive arena, and standing across from him was none other than Itachi, his face expressionless.

Well, to be precise, it should have been Itachi who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy.

It wasn't that Kyosuke didn't want to challenge some other "weakling" Uchiha. It was just that there weren't many opponents he could choose from at his current rank.

Sasuke did have a youth version Instance Dungeon, but at that time, he already fully possessed Chunin-level strength, and he was also much older than the current Kyosuke. Choosing him was basically no different from courting death.

The same went for others like Shisui and Obito. None of them were opponents a five-year-old Kyosuke could defeat.

Only Itachi had an Instance Dungeon from when he had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, and the age gap between them was not that big.

The current Kyosuke was five years old, while Itachi, who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, was seven. With only a two-year difference between them, the gap in strength, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu should not have been too large.

So Kyosuke still had a chance of winning.

In truth, Itachi could already have graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of six, but due to all kinds of unavoidable factors, he had forcefully delayed it by a year before graduating. This was information Kyosuke knew from his own memories.

In other words, the current Itachi also possessed strength infinitely close to Chunin level. His situation was basically the same as Kyosuke's: both had their growth in strength limited because their physical age was too young.

Once they were no longer restricted by age... the fact that Itachi could awaken the Mangekyo at eleven and initially reach Kage-level strength was proof enough.

Kyosuke looked at the still slightly immature Itachi before him and had originally wanted to chat a little first, but he hadn't expected Itachi to attack without the slightest warning.

And the moment he made a move, it was a Great Fireball Technique more than a meter in diameter. Most importantly, Kyosuke, who had not activated his Sharingan, actually had no idea when Itachi had formed the hand seals.

The heat wave rushing at him baked Kyosuke's hair until it curled slightly.

With no time left to form seals, he could only hold his breath and throw himself hard to the side.

"Boom."

A violent explosion rang out behind Kyosuke, and before his petite body could even hit the ground, he was sent flying hard by the blast wave.

By the time he finally managed to adjust his posture, Itachi's second wave of attacks had already arrived. Moreover, this attack method was also something he excelled at.

Several Kunai flew almost simultaneously around Kyosuke, and before he could react, those Kunai suddenly changed their flight paths as they collided with one another.

Then they attacked Kyosuke from an extremely strange angle.

In his urgency, Kyosuke had no choice but to activate his Sharingan, attempting to avoid this crisis.

Fortunately, his mastery of Kunai throwing was not yet as monstrous as it would become later, which allowed Kyosuke to narrowly dodge the second round of attacks.

At this point, Kyosuke's temper was also starting to flare.

Speaking of which, this was the first time he had ever been suppressed to this extent when facing someone of the "same generation."

The battle had already gone on for almost two minutes, yet he hadn't had a single chance to attack. While secretly annoyed, he also couldn't help admiring Itachi's battlefield adaptability.

Little did he know, Itachi across from him was thinking the same thing.

This was Kyosuke's first time being suppressed by someone of the same generation, but wasn't it the same for Itachi?

Whether in the Ninja Academy or within the clan, among people around his age, almost no one could endure these two rounds of attacks from him.

But when he noticed Kyosuke's Sharingan, he understood the reason.

This boy, who looked even younger than him, had actually already awakened the Sharingan?

After clearly realizing this, Itachi couldn't help beginning to think of countermeasures in his heart.

And at this moment, Kyosuke was also ready to begin his own offensive.

Just like Itachi, he reached into his Ninja Tool Pouch and pulled out several Kunai.

With a light flick of his wrist, those Kunai let out a sharp whistling sound as they cut through the air, speeding toward Itachi's vital points.

"Not good." As a Master of Hidden Weapons, Itachi, even in his younger state, could still clearly tell that the enemy's technique was almost exactly the same as his own.

But because of the restriction of age, he had not yet awakened his own Sharingan, so he could only rely on experience and instinct to try to dodge.

After a simple series of evasive movements, Itachi still inevitably took a hit, and the injured part was his right leg.

This time, his mobility would be greatly reduced.

Seeing this, the corners of Kyosuke's mouth couldn't help lifting slightly, and then he closed in on Itachi even faster.

At the same time, his hands were not idle either.

Snake—Ram—Monkey—Boar—Horse—Tiger.

After forming the six seals, he puffed up his cheeks, preparing to release his Ninjutsu.

At this moment, Kyosuke seemed to be deliberately competing with Itachi, because the Ninjutsu he used was precisely the same one Itachi had used before.

As if he were proving that whatever you could do, I could do too.

And your attacks—I could dodge them. Mine, you couldn't.

Everything had originally been developing just as Kyosuke had envisioned, but right then, another accident happened.

Itachi, who should have been hit by Kunai in midair and sent crashing awkwardly to the ground, actually completed another set of hand seals for a Ninjutsu in that brief instant.

He released his own Ninjutsu at almost the exact same time as Kyosuke.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Two Ninjutsu of equal size and power collided violently in midair.

And because they were standing too close to each other, neither dared to cut off their Chakra output first. Otherwise, in the very next second, they would be swallowed up completely by the flames.

Kyosuke had originally been certain of victory because his opponent's leg was injured, but because of Itachi's sudden move, he was helplessly dragged into a tug-of-war.

As time passed, both their Chakra was being consumed at an alarming rate, and Kyosuke even shut off his Sharingan.

In the end, as the flames dissipated, both of their Chakra were exhausted almost simultaneously.

In this exchange, Itachi could be said to have gained a huge advantage.

Not only had he changed his own passive situation, he had also "sealed" the ocular technique in which he had originally been inferior to his opponent.

Now, the two of them could only engage in hand-to-hand combat.

"..." Kyosuke silently continued charging toward the young Itachi. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the original work, where Naruto and Sasuke had exhausted their Chakra and were forced to punch each other.

The two of them were in such a similar situation right now.

All kinds of messy thoughts spun through his head as he swung his fist at Itachi.

But now, without the support of Chakra, his five-year-old body's attack power was already far weaker than before.

Fortunately, Itachi's leg injury also made it hard for him to move, so the two of them barely managed to fight to a draw.

"Damn it, another stupid draw." Kyosuke cursed inwardly, then abruptly retreated two steps and stopped, looking from afar at Itachi's puzzled face.

"Look, both of our Chakra are exhausted, and close combat can't decide the winner either. In that case, why don't we call a temporary truce?" Kyosuke said to Itachi with a smile.

"A truce? You mean we stop fighting?" Itachi did not easily believe his words and still looked at him with full vigilance.

"No, no, no. How could we stop fighting when we've already come this far?" After Kyosuke finished speaking, he even took another two steps back, showing that he really did want a truce.

Still suspicious, Itachi could only silently watch for the time being while working hard to recover his Chakra.

Seeing how guarded he was, Kyosuke laughed inwardly. No matter how monstrous you are, when it comes to Spiritual Power, right now you're still no match for me.

After laughing, he even took the time to look at his Spiritual attribute, which had already reached as high as 9 points, and his Chakra, which had recovered to over 30 points.

Do not underestimate those 9 points of Spiritual Power. By comparison, it was probably already higher than that of many Chunin.

This was also one of the extra benefits that came with his transmigration.

After waiting a while longer, Kyosuke suddenly moved and charged toward Itachi again.

As he ran, he also activated his Sharingan.

He believed that 40 points of Chakra would be enough to support him in completely defeating his enemy.

The situation developed exactly as he had expected. With his leg inconvenient, Itachi was facing Kyosuke with his Sharingan activated, and in less than one exchange, he had completely fallen into disadvantage.

As the wounds on Itachi's body increased, the scales of victory once again tilted toward Kyosuke.

But as if the heavens were deliberately opposing Kyosuke, Itachi, who was already covered in wounds and at the end of his rope, actually began to counterattack again.

Kyosuke did not notice anything unusual about him for a moment, and the sudden counterattack sent him flying heavily.

In his panic, he looked up and saw that on Itachi's blood-covered face, a pair of scarlet Sharingan were slowly turning.

Itachi had actually managed to awaken his Sharingan at such a crucial moment.

"Fuck." Kyosuke cursed inwardly for who knew how many times today.

However, cursing was one thing. Right now, he was no longer worried that he would lose.

Because Chakra was not something that appeared out of thin air. The Sharingan Itachi had activated would only accelerate his defeat.

Sure enough, not long after, Itachi knelt on the ground, clutching his eyes with a pained expression.

The second exhaustion of his Chakra, combined with the pain of activating the Sharingan for the first time, caused him to completely lose his combat ability.

"It's finally over." Kyosuke looked at Itachi and sighed in relief.

After that, with a slight flick of his wrist, this "Strongest Challenger" Instance Dungeon came to a perfect end.