"Fugaku, shouldn't you go out and talk some sense into the boys?"
Hearing the howls coming from outside, Mikoto glanced over at her husband with concern.
"No, no need."
"That brat Sasuke did something bad last night. He deserves to get beaten today."
Fugaku waved a hand and casually tossed out a bamboo rod called the Seven Wolves.
Then he shut the wooden door and put an arm around his wife to comfort her. "Don't worry. Jin doesn't say much, but he knows where to draw the line."
"But..."
"No buts. It's still early. Let's get some more sleep."
"Mmm... Mmmph..."
Inside, the battle raged.
The outcome was one-sided.
Outside, the beating showed no signs of stopping.
The outcome was one-sided there, too.
Watching Sasuke hanging from the courtyard wall, Jin picked his teeth and asked, "Admit you were wrong?"
"I wasn't wrong! Hmph! If you hadn't been born two years earlier and learned a few more jutsu than me, you'd be the one hanging here!"
What was Sasuke known for, above all?
That mouth and that personality, for starters.
Even hanging up there, he still tilted his chin up and shot Jin a sour look from the corner of his eye.
"Oh? So you're Pretentious Bro, huh?"
"Here, I'll give you a chance. I'll fight you without using any jutsu."
Jin grinned and waved a hand, releasing the rope above Sasuke.
Over the past six years, his ninjutsu had advanced steadily, but his physical abilities had improved by leaps and bounds!
He'd fused countless traits like "Strong Body" and "Agile."
The results were astonishing.
Even with nothing but his small eight-year-old body, his physical stats could rival a Chunin's!
And that was without a shred of ninjutsu boosting them. It was pure physical ability.
So he didn't mind giving Sasuke a taste of an all-around beatdown.
"All right, what do you want to compete in?"
"What do you mean, what? I'm challenging you to a duel! Just using our bodies!"
Sasuke yelled, and the moment his feet touched the ground, he charged forward.
His body, trained for years, showed its advantages.
He was nimble, and his steps were quick.
In the blink of an eye, he was bent low and had crossed more than ten meters.
"Hmph! As expected, you're an idiot. You really let me get close!"
"I'll send you flying! Uchiha Jin!"
A smug, proud expression spread across Sasuke's slightly flushed face.
He could already picture Jin knocked to the ground, begging for mercy!
The thought made his eyes tremble with excitement.
Even his cheeks flushed.
He felt like he was soaring into the clouds—wait? He was flying?
As he felt his feet leave the ground against his will, Sasuke's mind went hazy. Was he flying in the wrong direction?
Why was it him?
At the same time, pain shot through his abdomen.
His expression darkened. He quickly opened his eyes wide and looked down.
Across from him,
Jin saw Sasuke charging and suddenly bent forward.
Then he wrapped both arms around Sasuke's waist and flipped him hard over his shoulder!
Uchiha Body Slam!
Thud!
The ground shook.
Little Sasuke was utterly dumbfounded.
He lay on the grass by the wall, his eyes vacant.
It was as if all his intelligence had been stripped away, leaving nothing but emptiness.
He wasn't a match for this laid-back slacker in ninjutsu, taijutsu, or even genjutsu!
I'm tired. Just destroy the world!
Jin: ???
"Is the Uchiha Body Slam really that powerful?"
"Did I just turn Sasuke into a complete idiot?"
He clicked his tongue, but he was more worried than anything.
What if that slam had really hurt him? What would Naruto do?
But when he walked closer, he saw that Sasuke seemed to have gained a few trait orbs.
One had even landed right by Jin's feet.
"So, did he drop some loot?"
His mouth twitched as he looked at the prompt before him.
Just then, a new prompt appeared before his eyes.
[You have defeated Uchiha Sasuke. Attempting to copy a trait.] [Copyable Traits: Brother Complex (Black), Emotionally Stable (Black), Child of Destiny (Rainbow), Lightning Release Mastery (Purple), Great Fireball Technique (Green), Three Body Technique (White)...] [Copy successful. Congratulations, host! You have acquired the elite trait Great Fireball Technique (Green).]
Well, he'd gotten a useless trait.
But...
Jin's gaze settled on the newly appeared black trait.
"Emotionally Stable?"
"He only awakened one Tomoe on the Night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Looking at it that way, he really is emotionally stable..."
"But... could I have given him emotional issues with that body slam, making him emotionally stable?"
At the thought, Jin looked down again.
His eyes filled with sympathy and pity. "Don't turn into a dummy, Sasuke. If you want, I really can teach you Lightning Release!"
Sasuke: ???
What was that look in your eyes?!
His vacant eyes had just happened to catch the scene, and rage immediately flared inside him.
But just as he was about to leap up and attack, he heard the rest of Jin's words.
His furious heart suddenly rippled with excitement.
Lightning Release!
A lightning technique!
Ever since Jin had mentioned it, he'd kept thinking about it.
Especially after asking his teacher about the strength of Lightning Release in class yesterday, he'd become even more eager to learn it.
Iruka-sensei's words still rang in his ears. "Sasuke, Lightning Release is one of the most powerful offensive chakra natures in the Shinobi World. Its destructive power is astonishing."
So after hesitating for only a moment, he immediately got up and faced Jin.
Without the slightest hesitation, he said, "Come on, teach me!"
"Phew." Jin let out a breath. "Good. You can still talk."
Generally speaking, as long as someone could still talk normally, they weren't an idiot.
Even if they were, they weren't an idiot!
But soon, he found himself at a loss.
"I want to learn that lightning technique you used yesterday, the one where lightning wrapped around your hand!"
Sasuke's eyes shone. In that moment, his yearning for Lightning Release overcame his hatred for his big brother.
"Let's start by learning the hand seals!"
At those last words, the smile on Jin's face suddenly froze.
He reflexively held up two fingers. "Hand seals? Don't you just need hands to use a jutsu at this level?"
That was the truth.
Thanks to his traits, he really didn't know how to form hand seals.
Could he teach it the way Naruto taught Konohamaru to make a Rasengan, by saying, "First do this, then do that"?
As the Child of the Version, Sasuke's talent couldn't be worse than Konohamaru's, could it?
With that thought, Jin composed himself and said seriously, "Lightning Release is different from other techniques. You just need to focus and sense the power of lightning in nature, and you'll learn it!"
"That's how your big brother learned it, too—by lying on the courtyard wall, never budging, even when the rain poured down!"
As he spoke, the Lightning Release: Chidori trait glimmered faintly.
Bzzzzzt.
Lightning crackled around his fingers, turning them into a blade of lightning!
It was incredibly sharp!
Looking at the lightning blade formed by his middle and index fingers, Jin suddenly noticed another trait on his body shining brightly, too.
The special black trait: Thousand Years of Death!
The sight gave rise to an absurd idea in his mind:
"That guy Kakashi..."
"Could he have created Chidori back then to pair it with Thousand Years of Death?"
"Middle Finger Chidori: Thousand Years of Death?!"
Yikes!
The very thought made him feel uncomfortable all over.
What kind of cruel man had come up with a move like that?
Of course!
If Kakashi had gone to the Land of Abundance in the future...
With just that one technique, countless young women would have revered him as a god!
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