Three months later, Training Ground.
"Great Fireball!"
Two fireballs collided in midair, and the resulting wave of heat made the onlookers around them deeply uncomfortable.
Even so, it couldn't hide the envy in many of the boys' eyes.
Today, Uchiha Sosuke had officially graduated from the academy. The test was simple: successfully perform a ninjutsu technique.
When Izuna heard the news, how could he pass up a chance to spar? That was how the two ended up facing off with their ninjutsu.
The result was easy to predict. Sosuke's superior control gave him the clear advantage, and he effortlessly suppressed Izuna's Fire Release.
If their instructor hadn't stepped in, Izuna might have suffered a humiliating defeat.
"Whew, you're pretty good." Izuna clapped him on the shoulder. He was still a little reluctant to admit it, but his attitude had changed considerably.
In any world, the strong earned people's respect.
"You're not bad yourself." Sosuke smiled at his words, fairly satisfied with his own progress.
With ninjutsu, quality mattered more than quantity. Its power depended entirely on how much chakra one had. At least for now, the Great Fireball was enough to handle long-range attacks.
As for a true finishing move, he had another idea in mind. He just needed some time to work on it.
Once he understood the hand-seal sequence for a technique, he could deduce how it worked. He planned to use that knowledge to develop a technique especially suited to the Uchiha Clan.
Over the past three months, he had tried all sorts of ways to earn Points whenever he had the chance.
He'd tried things like the legendary system missions, deliberately angering people, getting beaten up, and insulting others. Unfortunately, none of it had worked. At this point, his only remaining option was to kill someone.
Killing a chicken didn't count. He'd secretly tested that a few days earlier, when he slaughtered the neighbor's two-and-a-half-year-old rooster.
He'd even stirred the yolks of all the eggs in the nest, but still hadn't received a prompt saying he'd earned Points.
Looks like there's no hope for now.
[Name: Uchiha Sosuke] [Age: Six] [Physical Strength: Below Average] [Spiritual Strength: Genin] [Chakra: Genin] [Special Ability: Sharingan (One-Tomoe)] [Ninja Tools: Short Sword] [Summoning Beast: None] [Points: 0]
When he opened the system menu, the only change over the past three months was that his chakra had reached the Genin level.
He'd also received a short sword from his teacher—the very short kind, only a little longer than his forearm.
His teacher's explanation was simple: his body hadn't developed enough yet to match an adult's strength, so an agile, underhanded style would suit him better.
In short, it came down to one thing.
Don't match an enemy's strength head-on. Stick close, keep them tangled up, and stab them when they let their guard down. That was the best fighting style for him right now.
With his Sharingan, Sosuke's combat ability far surpassed that of an ordinary Genin. He could easily defeat opponents of the same level. Izuna was already one of the best among their peers, but he'd never once gained the upper hand in a spar.
"I'm still a ways off from Chunin, I think."
The Warring States Period didn't have such detailed rankings. Once children reached a certain age, they were sent to the battlefield. If they survived, they would naturally reach the Chunin level.
As for whether they could advance further and become a "Captain-level" fighter capable of leading a team, that depended on their talent and fortune.
The Captain-level fighters they talked about were roughly equivalent to Jonin in later generations. That was because even some ninjas with Elite Jonin strength held the rank of Captain.
The difference between them was something like the difference between Sarutobi Asuma and Kamui Kakashi.
If you let your guard down, you could easily pay a heavy price.
There was no helping it. The ranking system during the Warring States Period was simply that crude. Everyone belonged to the same clan, so there was often no need to make the distinctions explicit. They all knew roughly what level each person was at.
Ultimately, there just weren't enough people. In the later Five Great Hidden Villages, tens of thousands of ninjas could serve at once. Without detailed ranks and classifications, they'd be impossible to manage.
Above Captain-level came the true pillars of each clan, people with the power to dominate an entire region. They were known as "Clan Head-level" fighters.
As Sosuke understood it, they were probably Kage Level fighters who leaned toward Taijutsu specialization.
Their combat abilities were hard to compare, but one thing was certain: Clan Head-level fighters were incredibly difficult to kill.
The lessons at the academy covered some of the Ninja World's best-known fighters.
There was Uchiha Tajima, as well as his equal, "Senju Butsuma." Both were renowned throughout the Land of Fire as top-tier fighters.
There was also Hyuga Tenin, who had lived in seclusion for many years, and Fūma Eiichirō, who held sway in the western Land of Fire. Their strength and prestige were not to be underestimated.
The powerful members of the major secret-technique clans were numerous as well. They simply kept a low profile and rarely started conflicts. Only the Uchiha and the Senju were constantly at war.
They didn't just fight each other. They also turned their blades on the clans around them. Submit or die—there was no third option.
In that regard, the Uchiha and the Senju were no different at all.
Only after coming here had Sosuke understood that there was no such thing as a damn clan built on love. The Senju were often no better than the Uchiha.
If you crossed them, the best you could hope for was the destruction of your clan. If you crossed the Senju of the Forest, they might choose to keep the peace on the surface, but behind the scenes they'd squeeze you economically and undermine your livelihood.
They'd pressure the other clan into "voluntarily" yielding, until it willingly became a vassal of the Senju Clan.
Many Uchiha found that utterly contemptible, calling the Senju Clan a bunch of despicable hypocrites.
The two sides often traded insults, and sometimes, when tempers flared, they'd head to the battlefield and settle things with real weapons.
Of course, neither side was stupid enough to let another clan reap the benefits.
They could fight and feud all they wanted, but they still had to make time to deal with the other small and medium-sized clans.
They couldn't let another clan swoop in and take advantage of them.
If he wanted to try earning Points by "killing someone," the only way was to go to the battlefield. But Uchiha Sosuke's subconscious still resisted the idea a little.
As he saw it, he should keep his head down in the clan for a while, at least until he had a trump card.
Unfortunately, he wanted to keep a low profile, but there were always idiots who came looking for trouble.
Not long after he graduated from the academy, Uchiha Tetsuya, who hadn't shown his face in a long time, stepped forward.
He blamed his previous defeat on a careless mistake. If he hadn't been ambushed, he couldn't have lost to that guy.
So what if Sosuke had awakened the Sharingan? He was a full four years older. If he got serious, there was no chance he could lose.
"You really never learn, do you?" Sosuke didn't refuse his cousin's challenge. He was short on real combat experience, and he always held back a little when sparring with that kid Izuna.
Now a punching bag had come to him on its own. Naturally, he had no reason to refuse.
Besides, he could use this chance to try out the new technique he'd learned.
Before you continue