Practical Combat: This Kid Is So Fast

"Chiyue, what are you doing?"

Minato clutched his head and practically jumped into the air.

Chiyue laughed.

"Wasn't I just afraid you'd feel bad, so I tried to comfort you?"

"Come to think of it, you should be thanking me. Look, aren't you all better now?"

"..."

Was that how anyone comforted people?

Minato's face darkened.

He swore that if he could beat Chiyue, he would definitely give him a beating.

The practical combat assessment was simple: a one-on-one fight against one of the village's examiners.

As long as they held out against the opponent for a set amount of time, they passed.

If they were strong enough to defeat the examiner outright, that worked too.

The three went to draw lots for their order.

Minato drew an early number and was third.

Uchiha Mikoto was fifteenth, while Chiyue was twenty-eighth.

"Candidate number three, proceed to Examination Ground Six!"

The loudspeaker announced the match order and examination grounds.

"Good luck."

Chiyue gave Minato a shove, and he and Uchiha Mikoto cheered him on.

"I'll be back soon."

Minato flashed a confident smile.

Having watched the first two assessments, Minato was confident in himself.

At Examination Ground Six, the examining chunin said to Minato, "Come on, kid. Let me see what you've got. Taking the assessment at such a young age, you must be pretty strong."

"You're very strong too, mister."

Minato looked like a well-behaved child, wearing his signature sunny smile.

He raised a hand to scratch his head, looking every bit like an innocent, harmless little boy.

This guy was in for it. He actually wanted to use words to throw Minato off.

Didn't he know who Minato was? This was the Little Sun.

"Mister..."

The examining chunin froze on the spot.

He might have looked older than his age, but he was only eighteen!

What the hell was with being called "mister"?

Seeing the examining chunin blank out, the referee shook his head speechlessly and announced the start of the assessment.

The instant the referee declared the assessment underway, Minato charged forward.

"Not good!"

What a crafty little brat. He had actually been thrown off by him.

Damn it.

Seeing how young Minato was, the examining chunin had intended to unsettle him with a few words.

Instead, Minato was completely unaffected, while he himself had been rattled.

That one "mister" had dealt devastating damage.

Minato threw several kunai at his opponent and rushed in right behind them.

This kid is so fast.

Cries of surprise rose from the crowd. Quite a few people felt their old faces heat up.

They were already grown men, yet they could not even keep up with a kid's speed. They might as well have lived their lives for nothing.

What they did not know was that Minato's most terrifying trait was not his speed, but his neural reaction speed.

There were countless ninja faster than Minato, but when it came to reaction speed, even Chiyue had to admit defeat.

In that regard, it was hard to find anyone who could compare to Minato.

In other words, Minato was exceptionally gifted. He was born to practice the Flying Thunder God Technique.

"Kid, don't look down on me!"

The examining chunin shouted and used the Body Flicker Technique to evade Minato's kunai. Gripping his own kunai tightly, he slashed at Minato's arm, intending to force him to change moves.

But what the examining chunin never expected was that Minato still wore a confident smile. His unparalleled reaction speed allowed him to easily evade the counterattack.

Then he struck the examining chunin on the back of the head.

Thud!!

It was over. The examining chunin's pupils shrank as sharp pain exploded at the back of his head, and he collapsed face-first onto the ground.

With a dull impact, the examining chunin who had been shouting so loudly moments ago was sprawled on the ground. Minato won with ease.

He had barely needed to exert himself.

The ninja taking the assessment all looked at Minato as if they were looking at a monster.

How had that kid dodged it?

That made no sense.

How could anyone's reaction speed be that fast?

"Candidate number three is victorious!"

Even the referee had not expected the fight to end this way, or to end so quickly.

From the moment he announced the start to the finish, had even twenty seconds passed?

Having passed the assessment, Minato ran back out happily and wanted to high-five Chiyue.

But when he ran over with his hand raised, he realized Chiyue had no intention of high-fiving him.

"Pfft~~"

Seeing Minato awkwardly holding up his hand, unsure where to put it, Uchiha Mikoto burst out laughing.

Chiyue crossed his arms in disdain, glanced at him, and shook his head.

"You're such a grown man, and you still want to high-five?"

"..."

I really want to beat you up!!

"Hahaha, all right, I'll stop teasing you."

Chiyue laughed as well, then raised his hand and high-fived Minato.

"Candidate number fifteen."

Other than Minato, the following assessments did not have many eye-catching battles. Every match was fairly ordinary.

The candidates were only so strong, and the examiners went a little easy on them too.

Soon, it was Uchiha Mikoto's turn.

"Good luck!"

Minato smiled and waved. Uchiha Mikoto gave him an assuring gesture and walked into Examination Ground Three.

"A little girl from the Uchiha Clan?"

When he saw the clan crest on Uchiha Mikoto's clothes, the examining chunin quietly became wary.

Ninja from prominent clans were usually not weak. If he underestimated Uchiha Mikoto, he might suffer a major loss.

"The assessment begins!"

The referee announced the start.

Uchiha Mikoto had no intention of hiding her strength. She activated her Sharingan and charged forward.

"..."

How the hell was he supposed to fight this?

He was just an ordinary chunin, temporarily dragged in as extra manpower. Did she have to be this serious and use the Sharingan?

This guy was panicking.

The moment Chiyue saw this, he knew the assessment was over.

Although Uchiha Mikoto's Sharingan had only one tomoe, the insight it granted, combined with her already considerable strength, was more than enough for her to easily defeat her opponent. She would not be much slower than Minato.

Running into candidates like them meant the examining chunin had truly drawn the short straw.

"I passed."

The battle ended easily. Uchiha Mikoto ran out happily and raised her hand. Minato instinctively wanted to high-five her.

But just as he lifted his hand, he saw Chiyue pick Uchiha Mikoto up and spin her around twice. She broke free with a flushed face and gave him two dissatisfied shoves.

"..."

Was I being ignored again?

Chiyue, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

The assessment continued.

Minato and Uchiha Mikoto's outstanding performances had many people whispering among themselves and glancing toward the trio from time to time.

"Candidate number twenty-eight, proceed to Examination Ground One for your assessment."

Soon, it was Chiyue's turn.

To his surprise, the chunin in charge of assessing him was a woman. She had a nice figure, though her looks were fairly ordinary.

"What a handsome little brother."

"You're very beautiful too, sister."

Chiyue politely returned the compliment.

"You really know how to talk, little brother."

The examining chunin looked pleasantly surprised, her eyes narrowing with a smile. Clearly, Chiyue's words had pleased her.

"..."

This was an assessment. What were the two of them doing?