Fierce Battle

Minato stood on the platform with a cheerful smile.

"...Ahaha." Minato realized he could not get a word in at all.

"Minato, take my advice." Uchiha Chen stood across from Minato and spoke again.

"In terms of strength, you're no match for me right now. If you don't want to get hurt and want to conserve your strength for the next opponent, you'd be better off admitting defeat early."

"Thanks for the warning, but I still want to fight you." Minato refused to give up.

Knowing his friend Minato's personality, Uchiha Chen said nothing more.

After shaking his head to refuse Uchiha Chen's suggestion and signaling that he intended to keep fighting, Minato pulled two balls of cotton from his pocket.

"I've watched several of your fights, Chen, and I noticed that your current fighting style mainly uses sound and vision to cast Genjutsu. Genjutsu transmitted through sound and vision may be hard to guard against, but as long as I do this..."

Minato stuffed the cotton into his ears. Then he lowered his head, shifting his gaze away from Uchiha Chen's hands and toward Uchiha Chen's legs.

"As long as my eyes aren't looking at your hands and my ears can't hear what you say... Chen, let's begin."

Uchiha Chen, standing across from Minato, nodded.

There were indeed many ways to break Genjutsu. Uchiha Chen did not have the Sharingan yet, so he could only use sound and vision to place others under Genjutsu.

If Minato possessed Taijutsu as superb as Might Guy's, Genjutsu truly would not be able to catch him.

However, Minato was not yet the Yellow Flash of the future. The Ninja Academy would not teach students how to break Genjutsu either.

So this was the only method he could think of to deal with Uchiha Chen.

Uchiha Chen raised his hand and fired several Shuriken at Minato.

Meanwhile, the students gathered around Dodai below were drawn in by this somewhat unusual battle.

After all, eyes and ears were among the things ninjas needed most.

The Shuriken flew at tremendous speed. Before Minato could react, they grazed his cheeks, leaving two shallow cuts as blood slowly seeped from the wounds.

Uchiha Chen had deliberately aimed the Shuriken wide, yet Minato showed no surprise when his face was cut, as though he had long known that Uchiha Chen's Shuriken would not truly strike him.

"I put a lot of effort into dealing with your Genjutsu. Don't bother with such little tricks."

Minato raised a hand and knocked away the Shuriken that had bounced back behind him after colliding, then spoke to Uchiha Chen across from him.

"All right." Uchiha Chen nodded and began forming Hand Seals.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!

Uchiha Chen opened his mouth and exhaled a massive fireball. This was the Uchiha Clan's signature Great Fireball Jutsu, though under Uchiha Chen's Chakra control, it was only slightly larger than an ordinary Great Fireball.

It was merely a probe.

Facing the oncoming heat, Minato formed the Hand Seals for the Substitution Jutsu.

The huge fireball crashed into the log that appeared in Minato's place, while Minato, having escaped to the side, was completely unharmed.

Minato swiftly threw several Shuriken, which shot toward Uchiha Chen as he attempted to restrict Uchiha Chen's movements.

"Minato, it seems you've mistaken me for a purely Genjutsu-focused ninja?"

Uchiha Chen knew that Minato could not hear him now, but he said it anyway—for the countless students watching below.

Uchiha Chen also swiftly threw several Kunai, accurately knocking down every one of Minato's Kunai.

After all, Uchiha Chen's Kunai were Level Four.

At that moment, Uchiha Chen saw Minato finish the Hand Seals for a Wind Release technique.

Wind Release: Wind Cutter!

This was a technique Uchiha Chen had taught Minato.

Minato possessed Wind Release. As his friend, Uchiha Chen had given him several C-rank Wind Release Ninjutsu.

Uchiha Chen evaded with a Substitution Jutsu. Then he sidestepped and closed in on Minato.

Reaching Minato in an instant, Uchiha Chen thrust the Kunai clenched in his hand at Minato's arm, only for Minato to block it with his own Kunai.

The two immediately clashed!

Uchiha Chen landed a spinning kick on Minato. Grimacing in pain, Minato threw a punch. Facing the fierce blow, Uchiha Chen's expression did not change. He caught Minato's fist, shifted his body to the side, and raised his right leg at the same time, driving his knee into Minato's stomach!

Without pausing, Uchiha Chen straightened his right leg and followed with a sweeping kick, sending Minato flying hard.

This showed the gap in Taijutsu between Minato and Uchiha Chen. The moment they exchanged blows, Minato fell into a disadvantage.

Uchiha Chen did not continue entangling him in Taijutsu. He still needed to preserve his trump cards.

Uchiha Chen drew several Kunai, and they immediately left his hands.

The Kunai shot straight toward Minato's legs.

Did he miss?

The students below wondered.

But the Kunai collided in midair, changed direction, and shot upward toward Minato's slightly lowered face.

"What exquisite Kunai throwing." Jiraiya's eyes widened. After all, he was not the sort of ninja skilled in using Shuriken.

Minato watched the Kunai tearing through the air toward him. He no longer had time to form Hand Seals and use the Substitution Jutsu to evade, so he could only instinctively raise his head.

At the instant Minato looked up, his widened eyes saw Uchiha Chen's hand!

"...Sleep."

The academy did not teach courses on how to dispel Genjutsu. Students learned that only after graduation, when they followed Jonin instructors.

No matter how monstrously talented Minato would become in the future, he was currently only a second-year student at the Ninja Academy.

Without any resistance, after falling under Uchiha Chen's Genjutsu, Minato staggered a few steps before toppling face-first onto the ground and immediately falling into a deep sleep.

"For a Genjutsu expert, even the smallest movement of a finger is enough to pull an opponent into Genjutsu."

Uchiha Chen shook out his Windbreaker and softly left behind those deeply meaningful words. Then he bent down, hoisted the sleeping Minato onto his shoulder, and carried him off the field.

"Wow! So cool!"

"Chen! Chen! Chen!"

Huge cheers instantly erupted from below.

Jiraiya stared blankly at Uchiha Chen's figure.

"Is this the gap between me and the truly outstanding?"

"Chen, are you all right?!"

The moment Uchiha Chen stepped off the field, he received Mikoto's full attention. The girl stared almost without blinking at her beloved's arm, where a thin cut from a Kunai was still slowly bleeding.

"It's just a small wound. It's nothing." Uchiha Chen waved a hand to indicate that he was fine.

But Mikoto, who cared about Uchiha Chen, would not accept that answer. Half dragging and half pulling, she took him to the area on the other side, where Princess Tsunade was.

Poor Minato was still lying on the ground.