"Watch out! He's behind you!!" the girl screamed hysterically.
Half-crouched among the dense leaves, the boy heard the faint sound behind him. A chill crept up his spine, stiffening his neck until he couldn't even turn around.
Beneath the shadows, a man's figure flickered in and out of sight, surrounded by insects that rustled with a sound that made his scalp prickle.
"Well, well, young man. You've got plenty of chakra, don't you?" Aburame Keiichi said playfully, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder and leaning down to whisper.
"Come on, there's no need to be so nervous. I'm not going to do anything to you. If you surrender, you can spare yourself a little pain."
As soon as he finished speaking, Uchiha Kai's body suddenly twitched, then began to tremble as if he couldn't hold back his laughter.
"?" Aburame Keiichi looked puzzled, unsure what the boy was up to.
"Sensei, have you already forgotten what you just said?" Uchiha Kai chuckled, his voice dripping with mockery.
The next moment, the boy spun around and grabbed Aburame Keiichi's arm, his eyes glinting with a hint of madness.
"As a ninja, you can never let your guard down, no matter when or where—and you must never underestimate your opponent."
The arrogant Uchiha burst into laughter. A brilliant light suddenly appeared in his chest as heat and radiance compressed within, then erupted in a dazzling blast.
"What!?"
In his haste, Aburame Keiichi tightened his grip—and watched Uchiha Kai vanish beneath him in a puff of white smoke.
"You little maniac!"
Dust billowed into the air, and the explosion drowned out Aburame Keiichi's curses.
"Now!"
After dispelling his Shadow Clone, Uchiha Kai shook his head, felt the chakra within him replenished, and called to Hyuga Rei.
"Okay!" the girl replied, springing into motion. Chakra enveloped both her palms as she rushed toward the Insect Clone.
At the center of the clearing, the Insect Clone's body twitched incessantly, barely able to hold its shape.
"Eight Trigrams Empty Strike!"
The girl thrust out her palm. Driven by her abundant chakra, the air became a terrifying shock wave that performed open-heart surgery on the Insect Clone, which had been frozen in place.
"Zzzzz..." Without its host's control, the Insect Clone let out a strange buzzing.
"Rustle, rustle~" The instant it was attacked, the Insect Clone launched a counterattack in a terrifying posture, its right arm bent backward a hundred and eighty degrees as it lunged at the girl.
"Fall back!" Uchiha Kai shouted.
"Wind Release: Wind Cutter!" "Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Claw Red!"
Uchiha Kai and his Shadow Clone formed Hand Seals together, releasing their jutsu one after the other.
"Whoosh!"
An invisible blade of wind swept past, tearing the Insect Clone violently in half.
The next second, flaming Shuriken shot toward it like meteors, striking the two halves with pinpoint accuracy.
"Zzz... crack—" Scorched by the intense heat, the Insect Clone finally crumbled into blackened chunks. They hit the ground with a clatter and continued to crackle.
"Ding, ding—"
The bright silver bells chimed in the air, then fell into Uchiha Kai's hand.
After playing with them for a moment, he tossed one to Hyuga Rei, who caught it neatly.
"Hey, Kai-kun, don't you think you went a bit too far? You even used an Explosive Tag..." The girl glanced at the smoke that still hadn't cleared, then at Uchiha Kai's expressionless face, and asked in a low voice, her neck stiff with unease.
"If we killed our Guidance Jonin on the very first day... we'd probably be spending the rest of our lives in jail..." Her voice wavered, as if she could already see the bleak future ahead.
"Ah, don't worry. Sensei Keiichi is ridiculously strong," Uchiha Kai said nonchalantly.
Remembering what his Shadow Clone had relayed, the boy recalled the terrifying presence and incredible strength of the not particularly large hand resting on his shoulder. It had genuinely startled him.
"Besides, it was just an ordinary Explosive Tag. With his Secret Insects protecting him, he might not even have lost any blood." The boy waved a hand, looking perfectly relaxed.
"Ugh... Blood or no blood, it's still terrifying..." The girl covered her face helplessly. Looking at the boy, whose personality changed so drastically that he'd risk anything as soon as a fight began, she could only sigh.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'just an ordinary Explosive Tag'...? Don't tell me you have special ones too?!" Hyuga Rei suddenly jolted, her voice rising to a startled rasp.
"Uh... well... probably not?" The boy scratched his head and tried to change the subject.
"So you do have them! What's with that answer? You might as well have admitted it! That was so unconvincing!" the girl exclaimed, stunned.
"Come on, don't worry about little things like that. Let's see how Sensei Keiichi is doing."
Before he'd even finished speaking, the thick smoke that had blanketed the trees in the distance had already dissipated.
"Cough, cough~"
Beneath the scattered remains of the trees, heaps of blackened debris lay piled up. In the middle of the clearing, Aburame Keiichi waved away the smoke in front of him and coughed.
"That kid's crazy... I guess that's what you'd expect from an Uchiha." The man offered sincere praise, though his gaze trembled. He looked at the boy's harmless face as if he were some nameless demon.
Blackened insect corpses fell from his cheeks, limbs, and torso, revealing reddened skin underneath. Aburame Keiichi looked like a shattered porcelain doll, with "body parts" constantly dropping off him. It was a horrifying sight.
"Sensei Keiichi, are you all right?" Hyuga Rei took a couple of steps forward and asked gently.
"Hmph... I'm fine," the man insisted, rubbing his chest.
As if... Thank goodness I reacted fast. I nearly gave that bastard Shibi a chance to collect my death benefits... the man raged inwardly, while keeping his expression unchanged.
"Hahaha... Not bad tactics. You decisively took advantage of your enemy underestimating children and turned the tables." Aburame Keiichi let out a dry laugh, then spoke in a serious tone.
"You did very well on that front. I was the one who came off looking bad. I kept preaching grand principles to you students, but didn't follow them myself..." Aburame Keiichi said gravely, his remorse sincere.
"Such arrogance was truly disgraceful."
"You're being too hard on yourself, Sensei Keiichi. You were just teaching us from a teacher's perspective. This wasn't a real fight between ninjas, so letting your guard down was inevitable." Uchiha Kai shook his head.
Only he knew that what Aburame Keiichi had shown was merely the tip of the iceberg. From their brief exchange just now, he could tell.
If it had been a real fight to the death, the odds of the three of them surviving Aburame Keiichi's attack would have been infinitesimally close to zero.
They might not even have lasted ten seconds.
"I only won by relying on outside help and a bit of luck," the boy said sincerely.
"Heh, you don't have to make excuses for me. A loss is a loss." Aburame Keiichi shook his head and quietly disagreed.
"In the ninja world, letting your guard down for even a moment means death. Anyone can pay the price for their arrogance. If this had been a real mission instead of a bell-catching exercise, I probably wouldn't have made it out alive."
"Besides, what do you mean by 'outside help'? Anything that gives you an advantage is an extension of a ninja's own limbs. If it can help you defeat the enemy and prove useful, then it's the best tool for the job."
Feeling the pain in his chest finally begin to ease, Aburame Keiichi exhaled, his expression full of relief.
"I got lectured by students who just graduated. If word gets out, my old subordinates will probably laugh at me for ten thousand years." The man scratched his head, feeling a sudden heat come over him.
"But for now, I hereby declare..."
Aburame Keiichi gave them an emphatic thumbs-up and praised them without reservation.
"You two pass with full marks!"
Before you continue